Once you hit mythology, however, the whole moral edifice starts to shake. Con cannot, for the life of him, see why Perseus should be constantly dumped on, and the compromised virtues and casual vice of the Greek gods leave him red-faced and shaking with indignation like a small James Robertson Justice. “It’s just not fair,” he says, stoutly.”Well,” I tell him, “the Greeks believed in Fate, and Fate isn’t supposed to be fair. It’s how each person deals with his fate that matters.”"Like Oedipus,” says Clara, with the airy superiority of an older sister.

“Fate made him fall in love with his mother.”"What’s wrong with that?” Con asks.Clara rolls her eyes “You can’t marry your own mother, you idiot. Or you’d have to poke your eyes out.”"Mum!” he roars, “Clara called me an idiot and said she’ll poke my eyes out.”"Did not,” says Clara, mouthing “idiot” again, until Conor barrels into her and the two of them fight like Furies. Wading in to separate them, I curse Oedipus and find myself longing for the certain morals of the Moomintrolls.Three days later, Con comes to me for advice. “The thing is, Mum, we’ve been making Valentines in school, and I was going to give mine to you. But maybe boys aren’t supposed to give cards to their mums.”"Why not? I think it’s a lovely idea.”"Well,” says Con, darkly, “you know what happened to Weedy-puss.”"Never you mind about Weedy-puss.” I say.

“and give your old mum a hug.”"But why did he poke his eyes out?”"I really don’t know,” I tell my boy “It’s complex.”. Karl Popper’s Great Vienna was a highly cosmopolitan city where different communities lived together in a culturally fruitful way. [which gave rise to] a linguistic, ethnic and cultural mosaic: a chaotic jumble, which cannot possibly be disentangled.” But not only did Popper recognise value-pluralism, he appreciated and advocated it.For value-pluralists such as Popper, value-conflict is a basic and undeniable feature of our moral world. Given this fact, the question they ask is: how can we construct a society which respects individual freedom as much as possible without leading to its own destruction?Popper’s answer to this is: through the method of dialogue, a specification of which is the method of falsification, or trial and error, as practised in scientific research.

Popper’s principle of commitment to dialogue meets the concern of minority groups and their desire for recognition; it raises immigrants to the status of full citizens; it allows for positive actions such as offering school curricula based on features of different cultural traditions; it may even provide funds for minority religious institutions.There are constraints, of course. Those fanatic, fundamentalist and aggressive individuals or groups who oppose a pluralism of traditions and values are to be controlled. But thesemoves are vindicated by the anti-dogmatism of the open society to the advantage of one and all.. The polls show the Government’s up again even though trust in the Government is down. The more they are seen as incompetent twisters the more popular they become. And what thanks do I get?Michael Howard’s delivery was unusually quiet, yesterday. It’s unlikely he was following Tessa Jowell’s riding instructions for less testosterone in politics.No, what he was doing, I think, was varying his performance to throw Tony Blair off his tail.