by Laura Dodsworth, Daily Sceptic:

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever,” said O’Brien, the grand inquisitor of the totalitarian regime in Orwell’s futuristic novel 1984.

Alternatively, you could imagine a sandal.

Last month I visited Sutton Hoo, the famous Anglo-Saxon burial site of a king and his ship in Suffolk. A gold coin pendant in the museum caught my eye. It depicted a triumphant Roman standing over a conquered barbarian, his sandalled foot placed firmly on the supine opponent’s chest.