Today the issue of economic justice is among the most polarizing and provocative we have. Watching the arguments for and against is often like bloodsport. Is the level of inequality an accurate measure of a country's success? Are bankers or socialists the enemy?

Any priest or politician or member of the public who criticises or votes against same-sex marriage can expect to be instantly branded a bigot, an unevolved Neanderthal, possibly even abnormal, and can also expect to be cast out of polite society.

Whatever your view of Margaret Thatcher and her legacy, she was a sure friend of gold. Long before she abolished exchange controls in 1979, she had barked against the Gold Coins Order of 1966 in Parliament, calling it "the final indignity" of the then-Labour government's economic mismanagement.

The reactions and tributes to Margaret Thatcher's death have illustrated the way in which modern conservatives have emptied the words 'freedom' and 'liberty' of all meaning and import. If (wo)man is judged by the company (s)he keeps, then Thatcher must be judged a champion of despotism and dictatorship, not of freedom or liberty.

People should be able to live how they want, not how some illiberal nanny state that thinks it knows best and forces laws onto its unwilling subjects wants them to.

Do us all a favor and leave the gun at the shooting range and hunting grounds. Keep our homes safe. Keep our children safe. It's a worthwhile sacrifice.

Sexual orientation is, I think, a complex thing and not reducible to the facile and outdated categories of nature or nurture. Likewise, rights can be complex. But the case here is simple, whether that way by chance or choice, gays and lesbians deserve the right to marry. Granting that right in the UK is a good choice, let's make it now.

Sitting, lounging, reading books - as I am now - by a swimming pool overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, it is natural to absorb more sunshine than news. But the full horror of the Denver Dark Knight killings has penetrated this tranquil state and destroyed the lives of hundreds of innocent people oceans away from here.

Leyla Zana is a Kurdish politician and member of Peace and Democracy party in Turkey. She has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Diyarbakir's High Court for nine speeches she has made between 2007 and 2008.