The Mayor of London’s ping-pong prowess provides a useful metaphor for the insular nature of our party conference system

Paul Haslam comments on the advance of racism in everyday situations.

Universities are selling drug patents which last for 20 years, allowing companies to charge extortionate prices for vital medicines.

Three years of predictable drivel

people walked out of Curry’s with their looted TVs, stopping and waiting for a green man before crossing the road

Lucy Hall “What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the cold war, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the endpoint of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” […]

Joe Sandler Clarke As of 26th February 2011, thousands of people were outside the State Capitol in Wisconsin fighting to prevent Republican Governor Scott Walker taking away the collective bargaining rights of trade unions in that state. Despite Walker’s claims that the apparent assault on trade union rights has been made necessary by Wisconsin’s sizeable […]

Tom Hoctor The result of the Oldham East and Saddleworth (OES) by-election was not quite, but almost, a foregone conclusion. For reasons best known to themselves a large portion of the electorate voted for the Liberal Democrats at the general election last May. Many of these were what are technically known as protest voters (although […]

“A few collected generalisations demarcate the arrival of conversation, a ‘have you seen the news?’ or ‘isn’t it awful about…?’ emerge, as ripe and provocative as the after effects of yet another episode of green cannon-ball warfare.”

Martin Scott The recent guidelines proposed by the Health Secretary undoubtedly mark a major shake up of the function and future of the National Health Service. On the surface, the plans seem rather democratic. Foundation Trusts are the embodiment of the Government’s commitment to devolution and decentralisation in the public services, and are at the […]

Tom Hoctor An early action of the coalition government was to commission a report into the merits of health and safety legislation. This was much trumpeted by the media, and was seen as a victory for the papers that had campaigned tirelessly for common sense against the incursions of the nanny state telling people how […]

“The Students’ Union elections may represent a hypothetical bridge between personal belief and national participation, it is student responsibility to cross that gulf and embrace union politics”

Joe Sandler Clarke Today in America, approximately 50.7 million people cannot afford health insurance. Further, an estimated 10 per cent of the population are unemployed; there are 5 applicants for every job going in the country; the percentage of Americans in poverty has been climbing gradually to 20 per cent for more than a year, […]

Alastair Campbell opens up about phone hacking, the coalition government and, inevitably, Iraq

“This latest mutation of ‘trendy teaching’ is hugely detrimental to helping a child recognise and fulfil their true potential and thus to social mobility, which has stagnated over recent decades.”

Gerald Brent muses on whether or not the closure of public libraries marks a wider trend towards the marketization of education.

With divorce rates rising and marriage no longer being the the ‘Happy Ever After’ it once was,

This week, Comment Editor Yasna Hawksley, is in conversation with Sarah (S), Emma (E), Abu (A), Greta (G), Andrew (AS), Elly (ES) and Dani (D) discussing LGBT week:

Alex Lynham discusses the importance and relevance of the letters page.

Was Martin Amis worth the money? As a marketing strategy, yes.