.... The calm answer has to be to deny this as a national crisis. Individuals and institutions should be able to make their own decisions ad hoc.
Some authorities, possibly schools and colleges in populated Muslim areas and certainly the justice system, clearly regard obscured faces as a practical problem. They should make their own decisions, consulting and defending them in their local circumstances.
The state, and the law, must stand behind such decisions and, where appropriate, support them. But a national debate, a national decision, another France? The game is not worth the candle. [guardian.co.uk, 16 September] Read more
