“This is not Vietnam, but there is no military prospect of a victory,” the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said on Monday. Mr. Kouchner, who worked in Afghanistan for many years, argued that the only path for the allies was to “win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people” and not wait for the emergence of a “noncorrupted Western-style democracy.”

No other apt means had this Cicely, to work her hoddy-peak husband a proportionable plague to his jealousy, but to give his head a full lodging of infamy: she thought she would make him complain for something, that now was so hard bound with an heretical opinion.

In some cases, teachers reported being aware of pupils living in Victorian conditions, of youngsters coming to school with no socks or coat and of more families depending on food banks.

Who goes to dine must take his feast / Or find the banquet mean; / The table is not laid without / Till it is laid within.