The creep of the market into almost all areas of public life has brought with it a steady and damaging growth in corruption. Both the media and the political class insist the UK is largely free of corruption, a claim that no longer stands up.
The government is both squeezing real NHS funding, something it has been reprimanded for repeatedly denying, and it has also increased the limit on private patient income to 49% of hospital income. Despite its rhetoric, the Coalition's plan for the NHS is quite clear.
Despite shameless media fawning the streets were in fact eerily quiet; the biggest crowd out was the police. But signs of her legacy are still pervasive.
Aside from whether patients welcome the cash payments there are wider issues that need addressing, namely whether the scheme strips cash from the NHS and so weakens the service for others; will it be a subsidy for private care; and who steps in if the money is spent before the year is up?
Chart the actual probable outcomes of independence, and there is little to recommend it to the Scots, if slightly more to the English. Yet the results would be devastating.
Controversial competition regulations should be withdrawn and replaced, says BMA ahead of crucial House of Lords debate
A new book on immigration and inclusion by the former Prospect Editor lays out a vision of a shared future Britain. Sunder Katwala, director of think-tank British Future, reviews the book, and the author David Goodhart responds.
Forget “Home, Sweet Home”. The British government’s bedroom tax humbles families in social housing, depriving them of the dignity to call their home their own, forcing many of them to move and driving some into homelessness.
News is the most vulnerable area for the BBC. Some advice to James Harding as he starts his job: decentralise, but don’t encourage silos. Here’s how. The first of the 'Lis Howell on Broadcasting' columns.
How is the new Director General of the BBC faring? Can he guide the institution out of crisis? A good first bold step would be to put the 'single voice' on trial, and go instead for plurality and flexibility.
By discarding the social and cultural ties of the Empire, Margaret Thatcher did away with old ideas of Britishness based on allegiance, desire, history and character. Blood was what mattered. As today's questionably 'multicultural' Britain marks her death, a look back on this journey.
In Britain and the world, this is a day of remembrance - in grief or in anger. But what should we remember - and who?
