The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY

AT this moment armed conflicts are taking place on all continents apart from North America and Antarctica. We live in a world in which war has become an accepted fact of life.
Homo sapiens is the only species on the planet that deliberately kills its own in huge numbers —and with the grisliest cruelty. All other animals may battle over territory or to obtain a mate, but they rarely kill; their battles are more ritualistic, simply driving the vanquished away.
They are satisfied with the territory or the mate they have or the food they have gathered, they are not driven to want excess. On the other hand, humans are driven invariably by greed and go to war for more land, food, and wealth than they need. Why?

JOHN GREEN has doubts about the efficacy of the Freedom of Information Act, once trumpeted by Tony Blair

JOHN GREEN is enchanted by the story of women’s farm work, both now and the the 1940s, that brims with political and social insight

JOHN GREEN welcomes a remarkable study of Mozambique’s most renowned contemporary artist

Despite the primitive means the director was forced to use, this is an incredibly moving film from Gaza and you should see it, urges JOHN GREEN