How strange, given that the one crime we all disapprove of utterly and completely is paedophilia. Even convicted gangsters, rapists, burglars and muggers look down on the paedophiles in their midst (they have another word for them, as they cannot spell or pronounce the official term). Those who engage in paedophilia are often also accused of ‘grooming’, preparing their victims for violation and abuse.

Yet here we have a policy that directly condones and encourages the sexualisation of children, and is at the very least comparable to the ‘grooming’ we are all so shocked by. What child, equipped with this rather revolting chemical lump or dose, would not grasp that she was expected by the authorities to act accordingly? I would be very interested to know exactly what the victims of this scheme are told, and how they are chosen.

This thing is done by doctors and nurses, supposedly symbols of rectitude and mercy. It often takes place in schools, where our children are meant to be safe from molesters. It is protected by law. It is paid for by your taxes and mine, extracted under the threat of prison. Perhaps most sinister of all, it is – like all child-molesting – ‘our little secret’. The girls’ parents are not asked their permission beforehand for their daughters to be corrupted by our sick state.

Nor are they told afterwards. This is both totalitarian and evil. The judges are always ready to confirm that this is no longer a Christian country in anything but name, and did so again on Friday – though I do wonder where they think our laws and their powers come from. But it is much worse than that. We are turning into a sort of Babylon, only with drizzle and sleet. Almost every sexual practice and habit – with the single exception of faithful marriage – is now encouraged by the state.

First, the state poisons young minds with so-called sex-education, which is now unleashed in primary schools. Then, when the poor things act on what they have been told, doctors push chemical anti-baby capsules under their skin. I believe this sort of thing is known as ‘harm reduction’. It all depends what you mean by harm. Having privatised the telephones, electricity and the railways, we have nationalised paedophilia.

The tradition appeared to be under threat following a landmark High Court judgment that outlawed formal acts of prayer at council meetings. The National Secular Society brought the case against Bideford Town Council in Devon after atheist ex-councillor Clive Bone said he was ‘embarrassed and disadvantaged’ when prayers were said during meetings.

The court ruled on Friday that councils did not have the power to put acts of worship on the formal agenda. The NSS has indicated that it could attempt to outlaw prayer sessions at Parliament, with spokesman Keith Porteous Wood saying: ‘We will not give up on this.’

Nevertheless, Mr Bercow declared that the High Court ruling would not affect Westminster. A spokesman for the Speaker said: ‘Under the Bill of Rights 1689, the Commons has the right to decide on its own processes and procedures.

‘It says, “The freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.” That means it will be decided here.’ Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said Christians were being ‘silenced’, while Communities Secretary Eric Pickles called the ruling ‘illiberal and intolerant’ and pledged to overturn it with legislation by the end of the month.

The broadcaster has now said it will change its system after showing documentaries made by FBC Media (UK) whose PR client list included foreign governments and multinational companies. The company made eight documentaries for the BBC about Malaysia, but failed to declare it was paid £17 million by the Malaysian government for 'global strategic communications'. The programmes included positive coverage of Malaysia's controversial palm oil industry.

London-based FBC also made a documentary about the spring uprising in Egypt for the BBC without declaring that they were paid to do PR work for former dictator Hosni Mubarak's regime. In November, the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee identified 15 breaches of editorial guidelines. FBC closed its London offices and went into administration in October. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom is investigating FBC.

A BBC spokesman said: 'We have accepted the BBC Trust's findings and [have] also apologised to viewers. We are committed to the highest standards of broadcasting. Since these issues were raised, we've brought forward a series of changes to tighten our systems and strengthen the protection of our editorial independence.'

It already seems an age since we were told, last June, that David Cameron had “won his fight” to prevent the EU extracting a loan of billions of pounds from Britain to help Greece pay off some of the colossal debt it has run up since it was so foolishly allowed to join the euro. The next move, we learned, was that we would have to lend the money anyway, not through the EU but through the IMF. George Osborne still cannot promise that he will be able to resist this demand, even though he knows we are having to borrow an additional £2.5 billion every week just to pay for the ever-rising deficit on our own Government’s spending.

Thus, in order to lend £17 billion through the IMF to Greece, which it will never be able to repay, we would have to borrow even more money than we are doing already. The latest contribution to this tragi-farce, it seems, is Sir Mervyn King’s decision to roll the printing presses and conjure a further £50 billion of imaginary money out of thin air. As Fraser Nelson explained in Friday’s Daily Telegraph, this will keep interest rates on annuities at rock-bottom, and thus rob Britain’s pensioners of an estimated £74 billion.

So our pensioners’ money will be disappearing into a bottomless pit of debt, not least to help save the euro, which the EU cannot allow Greece to leave, because this might set off a domino effect, bringing down in turn all those other eurozone countries that have run up debts they cannot repay, and plunging Europe’s and the world’s economy into unimaginable chaos. There were those of us who long ago came to see that the dream of building a politically united Europe had all the makings of a tragedy doomed eventually to end very badly, and to carry what remained of European democracy with it. But I confess that not even in our worst nightmares did we foresee that it would end quite like this. And even now the end game has hardly begun.

Iran has made a series of threats in recent weeks to disrupt shipping in the Gulf or strike US forces in retaliation if its oil trade is shut down by sanctions, or if its disputed nuclear program comes under attack. "They have increased the number of submarines ... they increased the number of fast attack craft," Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters. "Some of the small boats have been outfitted with a large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device. The Iranians have a large mine inventory."

"We have watched with interest their development of long range rockets and short, medium and long range ballistic missiles and of course ... the development of their nuclear program," Fox, who heads the US Fifth Fleet, said at a briefing on the fleet's base in the Gulf state of Bahrain. Iran now has 10 small submarines, he said.

Military experts say the US Navy's Fifth Fleet patrolling the Gulf - which always has at least one giant supercarrier accompanied by scores of jets and a fleet of frigates and destroyers - is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's navy. But ever since al Qaeda suicide bombers in a small boat killed 17 sailors on board the destroyer USS Cole in a port in Yemen in 1996, Washington has been wary of the vulnerability of its huge battleships to bomb attacks by small enemy craft.

Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens and black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament before lawmakers voted on the package that demands deep pay, pension and job cuts - the price of a 130 billion euro ($172 billion) bailout needed to keep the country afloat.

State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Police said 150 shops were looted in the capital and 34 buildings set ablaze. Altogether 199 of the 300 lawmakers backed the bill, but 43 deputies from the two parties in the government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, the socialists and conservatives, rebelled by voting against It. They were immediately expelled by their parties.

Greece needs the international funds before March 20 to meet debt repayments of 14.5 billion euros, or suffer a chaotic default which could shake the entire euro zone. Outside parliament chaos reigned. A Reuters photographer saw buildings in Athens engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky. "We are facing destruction. Our country, our home, has become ripe for burning, the center of Athens is in flames. We cannot allow populism to burn our country down," conservative lawmaker Costis Hatzidakis told parliament.

Many Greeks believe their living standards are collapsing already and the new measures will deepen their misery. "Enough is enough!" said 89-year-old Manolis Glezos, one of Greece's most famous leftists and a national hero. "They have no idea what an uprising by the Greek people means. And the Greek people, regardless of ideology, have risen."

Defence analysts said that proposals for the number of full-time troops to fall below 100,000 would mean our brave fighting men and women could not technically be classed as an army. Prime Minister David Cameron was last night urged to rethink the current planned cuts, which would slash troops from 101,300 to just 82,000 by 2020. The UK National Defence Association said Britain’s proud 370-year-old Army would fall below the internationally recognised indicator that separates an army from a militia or other type of defence force.

Commander John Muxworthy, founder and director of the defence association, said: “According to all international military definitions, and the generals I have spoken with, it will be too small to technically be called an army if all the proposed cuts go through – it should be a home defence force instead.”

In the first tranche of redundancies last September, the Army lost 920 posts. Commander Muxworthy said: “The tragic thing is that these cuts will not actually save money. The MoD axed a virtually new Nimrod aircraft at the cost to the taxpayer of £4 billion – that’s not a saving.” Patrick Mercer MP said: “The fact the cuts are causing analysts to consider the prospect of our Army being called a Home Defence Force, even if it is a matter of semantics, should give the Government pause for thought.”

Just off the side of a motorway on the fringes of the picturesque town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a mismatched collection of 30 tents tucked in the woods has become home - home to those who are either unemployed, or whose wages are so low that they can no longer afford to pay rent. Conditions are unhygienic. There are no toilets and electricity is only available in the one communal tent where the campers huddle around a wood stove for warmth in the heart of winter.

Ice weighs down the roofs of tents, and rain regularly drips onto the sleeping campers' faces as they sleep. Tent cities have sprung up in and around at least 55 American cities - they represent the bleak reality of America's poverty crisis. According to census data, 47 million Americans now live below the poverty line - the most in half a century - fuelled by several years of high unemployment. One of the largest tented camps is in Florida and is now home to around 300 people. Others have sprung up in New Jersey and Portland.

These tent cities - and this level of poverty - are images that many Americans associate with the Great Depression. Unemployment in America today has not reached the astronomical levels of the 1930s, but barring a short spike in 1982, it has not been this high since the Depression era. There are now 13 million unemployed Americans, which is three million more than when President Barack Obama was first elected.

The Temple Mount remained open for Arabs Sunday. Mosques on the Temple Mount frequently are used by Muslim clerics to call for the removal of all Jews from the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall. The posters were posted throughout the city and called for the "cleansing of the Temple Mount of the enemies of Israel." Feiglin, who last week won 25 percent of the Likud party's support in a challenge to the leadership of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, routinely ascends to the Temple Mount around the 19th day of every Jewish month, which this month begins Sunday evening.

"The Temple Mount and the Western Wall Plaza are holy prayer sites, and the police will not allow them to be used for politics or for incitement," Jerusalem police officials stated Sunday. Spokesmen for Feiglin vehemently denied allegations they are involved in the posters and called on the police to investigate who is behind the incitement.

Feiglin last week accused backers of Prime Minister Netanyahu of "dirty tricks" during the voting for the chairman of the party. Many polling sites, especially in Feiglin strongholds in Judea and Samaria, did not open on time.

According to the foundation, the 3,700-square-meter structure will be built near the Mughrabi Gate. It will consist of five floors, two of which will be underground. The building will reportedly be designed to include a Jewish museum, lecture halls, exhibition halls, a library and archives center, and a center for information. Ma’an quoted a statement by the Al-Aqsa Foundation, which claimed the structure would be built on Islamic and Arab ruins.

“The building will serve settlers and foreign tourists who visit the square,” the foundation said. “The Israeli archeology department has been digging and excavating for about five years demolishing structures that date back to different Arab and Islamic eras.” Israel has not officially responded to the claims, a report on Israel’s Channel 2 News on Saturday said. Last week, the Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation’s website featured photos of IDF soldiers touring the Temple Mount.

Eurozone authorities have staged four “last-ditch” summits over the last year, each of them producing a “rescue package” which the markets have promptly rejected. So “something big” now needs to happen, if we’re to see a lasting shift in investor sentiment. As this Greek drama unfolds, let us not ignore the significant news from the Bank of England last week. Members of the Monetary Policy Committee agreed to expand the UK’s “quantitative easing” program by another £50 billion, taking the cumulative total to £325 billion.

Back in March 2009, when QE began, the UK’s base money supply was equal to 7 percent of annual national income. The increase since then has been absolutely enormous - an additional 15 percent of yearly GDP. British monetary policy, to say the least, is in uncharted waters. And yet there are many who advocate that the Bank should do at least £500 billion of QE.

We Brits may now be sitting and gloating at the eurozone. But when it comes to QE, our actions have been more extreme, and potentially more dangerous, than any other large economy on earth. This is a policy that will come back to bite us. Which is why, in the face of some of the most powerful vested interests on earth, the growing band of those who oppose it, must make their voices heard.

Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America". "In the coming days the world will witness Iran's announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements," Mr Ahmadinejad told a crowd at Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square in a speech relayed live on state television. Tension with the West over Iran's disputed nuclear work has risen in recent weeks. The United States and its European allies have imposed new sanctions to try to force Tehran back to talks before it produces enough nuclear material for an atom bomb.

Iran says its nuclear programme has only peaceful purposes. Mr Ahmadinejad told the cheering crowd that Iran has broken the "idol" of the Holocaust, which underpins the creation of the Israeli state and US hegemony. "The Iranian nation has smashed a new and modern idol. The world arrogance (the United States) and colonialists (the West), in order to dominate the world, created an idol called the Zionist regime (Israel)," he said. "The spirit of this idol was a story called the Holocaust. The Iranian nation with courage and wisdom smashed this idol to free the people of the West (of its hold)," he said.

A group of UK-listed companies is involved in exploring four major prospects this year, with the largest, Loligo, potentially holding more than 4.7 billion barrels of oil. By comparison Catcher, the biggest discovery in the North Sea of the past 11 years, is believed to hold only 300 million barrels. The report by oil and gas analysts at Edison Investment Research predicts that if all four prospects were drilled, the potential tax riches are likely to reach just shy of $180 billion.

At present, the Falklands’ main industry is fishing, which generates just $23 million a year. Beyond that, the territory receives only $16 million in tax receipts a year from other business sectors. The most developed prospect, Sea Lion, already appraised by Salisbury-based Rockhopper Exploration, is forecast to produce 448 million barrels over the next 20 years.

But he cautioned that the recent political posturing by Argentina could prove a major barrier to securing the vital investment needed to get the prospects to where they are actually producing oil. “The proverbial spanner in the works that remains is the ongoing political dispute between Britain and Argentina regarding sovereignty of the Falklands,” he said.

Amid scenes of continued mounting social unrest, politicians must today decide whether to sign off fresh austerity measures demanded by the country’s international lenders in order to release a second aid package to Athens. The rescue must be secured by March 20 in order to stave off bankruptcy. It is on that date that the Greek government has to pay back €14.5 billion of its debt to holders of its bonds.

On Saturday night, Lucas Papademos, the Greek prime minister, told the nation in a televised address that a rejection of the deal would lead to “uncontrollable economic chaos and social explosion. This agreement will decide the country’s future,” he said. “We are just a breath away from ground zero.”

Leaders from across the political spectrum urged their followers to stomach their anger and back the plans, designed to save around 7 percent of Greece’s gross domestic product over three years. “We have to sacrifice a lot so as not to sacrifice everything,” said George Papandreou, the former prime minister and current leader of the socialist Pasok party. “We must speak honestly and tell Greeks what bankruptcy really means. It means chaos.”

Riots raged through the capital while mass demonstrations gripped Greece’s next biggest city, Thessaloniki. Some 20,000 protesters gathered in Syntagma Square, outside the parliament in Athens, during a general strike. Hooded youths hurled firebombs and stones at police, who responded with tear gas.

The turmoil hit global markets with the FTSE 100 in London down 43.08 points at 5852.39. Greece now has less than a week to meet three conditions in return for £107 billion in aid to stave off bankruptcy. Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos told parliament yesterday: “We are experiencing tragic moments.”

The other eurozone countries have demanded Greece finds another £300 million in savings, passes its cuts package in parliament and secures written guarantees the plans will be implemented even after a new government is elected in April. The Greek people were already furious over existing austerity measures, which cut the minimum wage and jobs. The deputy labour minister resigned in protest after Greece agreed to the deal. Four more ministers quit yesterday.