There is all the difference in the world between teaching children about religion and handing them over to be taught by the religious.

Being insecure - I'm a master a virtuoso - they can be handing me the keys to the kingdom and all I can think is I hope I don't drop the key.

All too often government's response to social breakdown has been a classic case of 'patching' - a case of handing money out containing problems and limiting the damage but in doing so supporting - even reinforcing - dysfunctional behaviour.

But instead of standing up for reason our government is handing education over to the world of faith.

Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.

But picketing - picketing for or against something and handing out literature - these are conspicuously formal actions. They have to be understood as indirect communication.

When I was little I used to work with my dad on the engine of his car. Mostly this was a matter of me handing him wrenches.

Some people work hard in this business and become really popular really big stars but they never receive an award from within the business. Somehow when your colleagues and friends believe in you to the point of handing you an award it means so much more.

Credit or debit cards for starters are nothing short of shoppers' Novocain. Even in the age of digital purchases and virtual money we still attach a special value to dirty paper with pictures of presidents on it. Handing some of that to a cashier simply hurts more than handing over a little sliver of plastic.