In the German rental model there are considerable advantages for those renting, primarily security of tenure and protection against arbitrary increases. There are long-term advantages for landlords too. But principally housing is regarded as a social asset, which ensures citizens are housed.

I was like ‘rules matter, clarity matters’ and this like 70-year-old professor of linguistics was like ‘keep your hair on, you’re so uptight, it’s about expressing yourself”. Jeez!

The former German chancellor, who died today, was one of the major figures of the European centre left in the twentieth century. Though this centre-leftism was a different thing from Blairism, Schmidt was a tough and practical man. People who have visions should see the doctor, he thought.

According to some British commentators, it doesn’t hugely matter whether Britain is formally in or out of Europe. In reality it will always be half-in, and that suits it, and its financial sector in particular, just fine.

Many Irish over the centuries sought refuge in Liverpool, and once they arrived there didn’t go far, settling in Vauxhall near the docks or on Scotland Road. The local MP, TP O’Connor, represented Liverpool Scotland as an Irish nationalist from 1885 until his death in 1929.

In 1983 the British Labour Party campaigned on a radical left-wing manifesto that delivered it its worst general election result since 1918. Now, it seems, it wants to do it all over again.

Does democracy mean that everyone has the right to have their will implemented? What if it clashes with everyone else’s will?

If the UK votes to leave the European Union could Scotland be dragged out against its will? And in those circumstances could another independence referendum be resisted?

Ingeborg Rapoport was a recent medical graduate when she finished her doctoral thesis on diphtheria in Hamburg in 1938. But she was not allowed to submit it as her mother was of Jewish origin.

A new group, Historians for Britain, argues that Britain’s ‘special’ historical path means it should tell the EU to bog off. A rival group, Historians for History, argues that there is no such special path. There will be blood.