Anne Longfield

Chief Executive of 4Children

According to new research published today by Asda (in the 'Mumdex'), mums reported that the rising cost of living is now three times as pressing an issue as youth unemployment and four times as pressing as violent crime.

Dr Prateek Buch

Director, Social Liberal Forum

Vince Cable is making the weightiest contribution on economic policy and theory by any serving government minister in years if not decades.

Rob Atkinson

Actor, writer and carer

Liam Fox might of course be entirely serious about making an early move to be seen as prospective leader material - if the reaction of the Tories, post coalition break-up, were to be a lurch to the Right. But it's also tiresomely probable that he's simply providing the necessary scare story, which can then be shot down by the incumbent PM, so that Cameron's rigid position on his chosen course of austerity might be seen as more palatable relative to What Might Have Been.

Peter Luff

Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire

I hope I may be excused feeling a little smug today - the chickens are coming home to roost in precisely the way I hoped they would. Two successive reports from the government's financial watchdog, the NAO, have effectively endorsed the very difficult decisions we took while I was at MoD.

Alan Wager

Political anorak of uncertain colours

The collapse of the ministerial careers of Davis and Fox show the stark influence Cameron's reshuffle will have. Lyndon Johnson once said of J. Edgar Hoover that 'it's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in'. Giving an increased number of new MPs a stake in the coalition government's future looks set to be the wisest feature of this upcoming reshuffle.

David Skelton

Deputy Director and Head of Research at Policy Exchange

According to opponents of gay marriage, it is a measure that only attracts support amongst the "metropolitan elite" - according to their analysis once you step outside of Hampstead or Soho , support for equal marriage simply withers away. Former Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox was the latest political figure to use this argument, suggested that the Government's proposals for gay marriage represented "social engineering" on the part of a "metropolitan elite." The only trouble is that, in the case of gay marriage, it simply isn't true.

Alex Andreou

Greek-born, Alex Andreou is a lawyer-turned-economist-turned-actor-turned-political blogger and consequently disoriented

I was as bemused as any man when I heard of Antony Worrall Thompson's arrest... But my very next thought was of Nicolas Robinson. He is the 23-year-old who was arrested for stealing water worth £3.50 from Lidl during the London Riots.

Ben Goddard

Founding Partner and CEO of Goddard Gunster

Anyone need to meet some politicians and influence government policy? If you and your company do, there are thousands of public affairs or lobbying companies in Britain touting their wares to business and interest groups, as being capable of arranging a quiet coffee with a minister, a meeting with a civil servant, or organising an invite-only dinner with MPs.

Suswati Basu

Suswati Basu is a writer, journalist and feminist activist from London.

It has only been a few days since Liam Fox announced his resignation as defence secretary, but no doubt there have already been questions over the gov...

Joe Dyke

British journalist based in Beirut

Colonel Gaddafi has been killed in Libya after 42 years of a brutal dictatorship. The Libyan people will be celebrating tonight but if, as appears likely, he was killed after suffering wounds from a NATO aircraft it raises questions about the legality of the bombing campaign in Libya.

Henneke Sharif

Independent Public Affairs Adviser

We shouldn't worry about lobbyists because the industry is actually in its death throes. It is poised to disappear with the power shift from politics to wider society which will take secret decision making, unofficial advisers, and funny handshakes with it.

Stuart Bonar

When the new e-petitions system went live all the talk was of the return of the death penalty. Those of us of a more liberal mindset braced ourselves for an outpouring of the most reactionary, kneejerk populism imaginable.

Gill Morris

Chief Executive of Connect Communications and Lobbyist

The Fox affair yet again demonstrates the media's inability to ascertain what is, and what is not, a 'lobbying scandal'. It also demonstrates a peculiar and irritating habit of putting the lobbying industry in the frame rather than seeing when it is the lobbied - not the lobbyists - that need to pull their socks up.

Oscar Holland

Freelance Journalist

It is difficult to think of any situation where upon being fired, an employee then considers themselves in line for a promotion. But just days after Liam Fox's forced resignation, Ladbrokes was already offering odds of 25-1 for him to be next Conservative leader.

Iain Anderson

Director, Cicero

Tomorrow we will get the Cabinet Office report on the Adam Werritty affair and one thing is clear - Werritty was not part of the current self-regulatory process, not a member of CIPR Public Affairs, the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC), or the PRCA.

James Moran

Satirist

Over the weekend, friendship died. Liam Fox resigned, and I guess afterwards Adam Werritty had to hold a pretend press conference where he announced that he was resigning as fake special advisor to Fox. The make-believe event was attended mostly by pixies, elves and The Independent.