Hugh Salmon

Surprising human insights from the big, wide world

For how long will we say that our educational system is our country's greatest failing? It won't surprise you when I say for as long as our inadequate career politicians are in charge

Huw L. Hopkins

Master of journalism, Bachelor of the written word

He leans too far to the right to be Labour, and annoys his own backbenchers for implementing policy that aren't traditionally held party beliefs. His record abroad is impressive, but at home, much of the country has taken a dislike to Tony Blair... what you thought I was talking about David Cameron?

Tom Harris

Labour MP for Glasgow South and Shadow Environment Minister

I'm sorry Sam Parker feels that Tony Blair robbed a generation of their faith in politics. But he seems to be confused about the reasons why the disillusionment set in.

Alex Dyer

Director of Tutor House, a private tutoring company in Fulham, London, where he works full time. He is still tutoring and gives university and gap year advice

Many of the new education policies seem to focus on the short-term rather than long-term. Of course a rational person wouldn't want to defend Gove, but he's right about one thing. Change is needed.

David Clark

Editor of shiftinggrounds.org and served as Robin Cook's Special Adviser at the Foreign Office 1997-2001

Ed Miliband deserves much more credit for the progress he has made so far in putting Labour back in contention.

Ali Latif

Founder and current chair of the Iraqi Prospects Organisation (IPO)

Academics, journalists and policy makers may continue to debate the war but it is ultimately a question for Iraqis to answer and time and again surveys show the vast majority happy to be rid of that regime. What's more we have moved on as despite the difficult years, we are now in a position to confront our challenges and decide our own future.

Haifa Zangana

Iraqi political activist, artist and novelist

The shock and awe that the US and UK subjected Iraqis to was not just the bombardment and destruction of their infrastructure but the abuses and torture. The occupiers paved the way for their continuity. HRW 2012 report noted that the human rights of Iraqis "are violated with impunity".

Sam Parker

Culture Editor of Huffington Post UK

Like hundreds of teenagers who didn't make the real thing, students at my school hastily arranged their own small protest, marching through our small rural town chanting and playing anti-war music. We must have looked pathetic, but we didn't care. We were adding a cry to a national roar that made the hairs on the back of our necks stand up.

Des Freedman

Reader in Communications in the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London

Ten years on, we meet to ask 'was it worth it?' Presumably not for the many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed in the conflict. The figures may vary (Iraq Body Count put the number at around 120,000 while the Lancet counted upwards of 600,000) but the story is one of devastation nonetheless.

Cherie Blair

Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

Back in the 70s, when I was looking for my first job in the law, it was hard to be taken seriously as a woman lawyer. It was commonplace for women candidates to be told, "we don't take women" or "we've already got a woman", comments that would be unthinkable - and unlawful - today.

Emily Stacey

History graduate and freelance writer

Both have been Prime Minister, both know how hard the job can be. Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show this morning, Tony Blair highlighted why he and David Cameron aren't so different after all.

Henriette Kolb

CEO, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

There are obvious benefits of connecting women and girls to the Internet, with sufficient training and guidance. We simultaneously need to consider the challenges that the Internet can pose to women and girl's learning and personal safety.

Gary Kent

Administrator of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and Westminster Correspondent of the Rudaw newspaper

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. This often astonishes people because it remains very vivid and even vicious in British politics. The usual historical perspective about past events hasn't yet overcome often hysterical arguments about this intervention.

Sophie Turton

Blogger and freelance feature writer, worked for several years as an editor and international journalist in the Czech Republic and China

Desmond Tutu is not just great because of what he says and does; he is great because he demands a realisation of our individual greatness. He helps us believe that greatness exists.

Cherie Blair and Maura O'Neill

Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, in partnership with leading mobile operator Millicom (Tigo), have joined forces on an innovative project to correct this trend and maximise mobile financial service opportunities for women entrepreneurs and their communities throughout Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana. This public-private partnership will showcase a sustainable and scalable approach to increasing the number of women entrepreneurs working as mobile money agents in the retail networks of mobile operators.

Tony Koutsoumbos

Chairman of the European Movement in London

When did it become such a shameful thing to be pro-European and proud in this country? Why do politicians who sing the praises of Britain's membership of the EU in private, retreat in to the shadows in public? Why do the most vocal defenders of Europe's greatest ever achievement warn only of the dangers of withdrawal rather than share their vision of a united and prosperous union with Britain at its heart?