Are you religious? It’s a question the pollsters Gallup have been asking Americans since 1999 – and charting a slow decline in the percentage of the population saying yes. It appears in polls and surveys this side of the Atlantic too, including one I filled in the other day. The pollsters clearly feel the question is uncontroversial and unbiased, a helpful tool to winkle out the desired information. The same question crops up in online dating encounters. From experience, it t

‘This above all: to thine own self be true.’ One of many lines from Shakespeare’s Hamlet that have become everyday English phrases. They are the words of Polonius, chief minister to the King, to his son Laertes before he heads off to university. Here, says Polonius, is the grandest truth a young person should carry with them through life: be true to yourself. Today Polonius’ words resonate like never before. In an age without absolutes, the one absolute is to be true to myse