So a penal justice system that subjected a small number of criminals to the full rigour of retribution would actually be much more humane for the vast majority of offenders.Thus the moral case for retribution is reinforced by practicality. That said, as the problems of Northern Ireland and the jury system remain, it is still unlikely to happen. Though I find myself persuaded by the moral arguments in favour of a retributive death penalty, the practical objections remain even more persuasive
More from Bruce Anderson. So, my old college is in the news for the first time in 500 years. You may not know that Brasenose has always had an eccentric admissions policy. As soon as the pig’s head appeared on the mantelpiece in my room they were pretty sure they’d made a mistake. But that’s the glory of the interview system.
Instinctively, I come to the side of the underdog.

There she was, Anastasia Fedotova, a heroic figure, a recently arrived Russian student, soaring above a serious disability to achieve six of the best grades you can get in our degraded exam system, albeit after she had been turned down by the college with the silliest name in Oxford.Remind me what the fuss was about? My brilliant son was turned down by Somerville. He got four A grades; would he have been turned down with six? Very possibly. The thing about Oxford is that the admissions policy is not standardised It’s not predictable. Accumulating A grades isn’t enough to get you in.But where is it enough? Exam success doesn’t qualify you for any of the great positions. If you’re very clever, the Treasury isn’t obliged to take you on, whatever Gordon Brown has said about Magdalen and Laura Spence. No, if you’ve got six A levels, you don’t automatically get offered a job producing Big Brother.

You aren’t guaranteed a place on the back page of The Independent every Monday So it is at Oxford There I was with no As at A- level. Some are turned down for having too many As and others were taken for having none I had S levels; you can’t have S levels these days. This was years ago, of course.The dons in the interviews knew everything there was to know. “Everything” doesn’t convey the completeness of their knowledge. My friend Peter was asked what he was interested in apart from English literature. He’d said he’d done a project on the evolution of the railways in the north-east of England between 1850 and 1870. The don asked him an indignant question along the lines of: “Really! Tell me.