From the editor's desktop

Pete Clifton, editor of the BBC News website, is on holiday. But before he left he challenged readers to take over his weekly column for a fortnight. The winner was another ed - Ed Moran, a researcher, from Oxford. Here, he looks at how the site covered the momentous events of recent days, confuses Disraeli with Mark Twain and asks for your one-sentence reviews of the new Harry Potter book.

Click here to read a selection of your comments

WE'RE NOT AFRAID

I feel very inadequate. When Pete asked on Wednesday of last week whether I was interested in writing a few words for this column, the prospect of producing a few hundred words of drivel seemed fun. Today however I wonder how I, a non-writer, can find the words to capture the profound events of the last nine days or so.

But then I suspect that even the most weathered journalist has been struggling to find words sufficient for such a challenge. Perhaps those most worth reading have been coming from individuals who were directly affected, either by loss or through being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rachel was in the bombed carriage of the Tube train travelling from King's Cross to Russell Square - her weblog records the events of the 7th and her struggles over the following days leading to her eventual return to work... and to the Tube.

Her determination to confront and overcome fear is widely echoed - Alfie Dennan's "We're Not Afraid" website received over four million hits on Monday alone. A web designer, his intention was "to give people a voice online, to show their distaste for this tragedy". In the midst of disaster it has been heartening to see and hear of people truly rising to their best - from the emergency services, to the help people gave each other, to the resolve not to give in. As one of the more recent additions to the Royal Family said: "It makes you proud to be British."

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NORMAL GUYS

The revelation that the four bombers were British nationals provoked much sober reflection, proving as big a shock to their families as to the nation at large. They were not extremist recluses; they were normal guys with mates. Perhaps like me you find it difficult to conceive of what could turn a mind and an individual to perceive such actions as right, just and in the service of God. Ayatollah Mohammed Emami-Kashani, an Iranian cleric, whilst condemning the act, would claim Britain brought the disaster upon itself.

A look across the North Sea exposes the deficiencies in that notion. Holland, hardly a country renowned for contemporary imperialism, is trying Mohammed Bouyeri for the murder of the maker of a film critical of the status of women in Islamic society. "I acted purely in the name of my religion," he said, going on to claim he would do "exactly the same" were he to be set free. A more authoritative and reasoned voice was to be found in the form of Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Great Britain: "Nothing in Islam can ever justify the evil actions of the bombers... it's not that Islam is the problem, it is those individuals...".

I have to admit my ignorance regarding anything other than the most superficial basics of Islam. As I perused the BBC World Service website's Introduction to World Religions it struck me that in all beliefs there is potential for disparity between the doctrine of the "academics" and the faith of the ordinary punter. I imagine that the average Anglican Christian probably looked on in bemusement as the Church of England synod debated the introduction of women bishops this week and tragically there are more extreme examples in all faiths, atheism included (witness the French Revolution).

Dominic Casciani's report from Leeds highlights the divide between Islamic youth and their elders. Islamic leaders are perceived as not listening to the young. One youth worker identified a growing "victim culture" and a crisis among young Muslim men, going on to say "We're all shocked by what's happened - but a lot of us are perhaps, on balance, not surprised."

CAUSE FOR APPLAUSE

The world kept turning, and rightly events in London were not allowed to hinder positive developments elsewhere. The G8 continued and even Bono found some cause for applause; "I wouldn't say this is the end of extreme poverty, but it is the beginning of the end". What do Africans think of all that rich Western leaders are attempting on their behalf? John Kamau's (a Kenyan journalist) day by day account of the summit makes interesting reading, as do the responses readers have posted. Some influential African voices are wary, seeing increased aid as largely a salve for the conscience of the West rather than a means of achieving a developmental revolution.

According to Andrew Mwenda (a Ugandan broadcaster) "taxpayers in the west should not be asked to pay to keep corrupt and incompetent governments in power." Moeletsi Mbeki (brother of the South African president and head of the South African Institute of International Affairs emphasised that more than aid, "strengthening the people of Africa to be able to put pressure on the governments" is the root of equity and a lasting end to poverty.

CLIMATE CONVERSION?

Another largely overlooked event at the G8 was when the Americans admitted humans had contributed "in large part" to the accumulation of the gasses responsible for global warming. The commentators seem suspicious, fearing - I imagine - a kind of political homeopathy: the diluting down of substance until nothing remains of the original intention. Are you, like Bush, a climate change agnostic? Check out the climate change guide but warn your loved ones - it could well have you on your way to repentance and conversion. Believers can read Richard Black's analysis of the environmental impact of G8 here.

A TASTE THAT IS WORTH PRESERVING

As the meeting concluded Jacques Chirac who, let's face it, had a fairly rollercoaster fortnight (Blair's assault on the EU and agricultural subsidies, the commemoration of French defeat at Trafalgar, the failure of Paris to win the Olympics) showed good grace following his infamous comment on British food ("One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad"), seeking out the Gleneagles chef to congratulate him on the menu. Haggis was not served - much, I imagine, to his relief. Regarding the Common Agricultural Policy a colleague of mine was of the opinion that since French food was the best in the world it was completely legitimate that it be subsidised. Which leads to an interesting question: what in Britain is worthy of EU subsidies for the purpose of its preservation for the benefit of the world? Marmite? Ryvita? The Queen?

THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF ALL THINGS

It didn't quite have the prominence of G8 but the Afghan Prime Minister was in Oxford attending the improbably named TED Technology, Entertainment, Design conference. He commented that the "events of 7/7 and 9/11 remind us that we do not live in three different worlds; we live in one world" - Douglas Adams would have termed it the "interconnectedness of all things".

Richard Dawkins, Britain's most famous living atheist and a Professor at Oxford University, opened the meeting with a lecture suggesting that the universe may be "too queer" for us to grasp. A sentiment reinforced when I stumbled across the review of Freakonomics - a book published this week with the intention of making statistics sexy. Its author claims to (boldly) go only where the numbers take him - be it ever so politically incorrect - his most outrageous destination being the association of the rising abortion rate with the falling US crime rate. I suspect it is unlikely that all things are interconnected quite so directly. What was it Disraeli (or was it Twain?) said? "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." Still true today and in Disraeli's (Twain's?) time statisticians didn't even have computers to help them lie.

ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

But of course, for most people in the country (world?) only one book published this week is worth mentioning - the sixth Harry Potter. Will you (unlike me) be up at midnight queuing for your copy? Have you "pre-ordered" yours? Will you have read it by Saturday breakfast? Despite my cynicism I would have to admit to having read them all - but only so I had something to talk about with my friends at playtime. A challenge for those who manage to read it by next week: send us a one sentence book review expressing what you thought (politely) using the form below.

ENCYLOPETEIC

You have one more week of my prattling to endure before Pete returns to put me out of your misery. To my shame it was only yesterday I realised what a great man Pete [pictured right, on holiday, in turn-ups!] was - I stumbled across his Wikipedia entry. OK, so I know he probably wrote and submitted it himself but still, the man is in an encyclopaedia! He is a giant. He would not have been floored by the question Prof Dawkins posed this week: "Are there things about the Universe that will be forever beyond our grasp, in principle, ungraspable in any mind, however superior?" Hmm. Given the events of the week you do not need to be a professor to answer that.

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