Good to see a vote of confidence in Michael Gove from historian Simon Schama, in Today's Telegraph. Schama is aghast at the way the teaching of history has been allowed to fade away in Britain's state schools.

So now Syria has banned the Niqab. What will Western leftists and liberals make of that? An officially secular but largely Muslim country has decided on the ban - like Turkey before it - in order to protect that secularity and discourage a growing Islamic conservatism. I was in Syria quite recently and was told there that the government was seriously concerned by the growth in this grassroots movement. Sure enough, veiled women could be seen everywhere.

Most of you, I'm sure, have a Saturday night full of interesting plans and entertainments. But for those of you with nothing better to do, you might like to tune in to Sky News tonight at 11.30pm where I will be looking at the big stories in tomorrow's papers.  

The Royal Society of Arts has just published a report, covered in the national press, which concludes that Britain is becoming the 'walk on by' nation of Europe, that is to say, fewer and fewer of us intervene if and when we come across anti-social behaviour.