Mandy Saligari

Executive Director, Founder and Clinical Director, Charter Day Care, Charter Residential and Charter Adolescents

Please do not be so naive as to believe that in decriminalising certain drugs you will be able to regulate them. All it will do is endorse the market place and generate growth in the drug industry, creating opportunity for low cost and black market goods, synthetic evolutions and copies.

Mehdi Hasan

Political director of The Huffington Post UK

With the Conservative Party unveiling a new ad campaign in marginal seats, which basically divides voters into hard-working 'strivers' and stay-at-home 'shirkers', and with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg launching on attack on universal benefits, it seems the perfect time to debunk ten key myths about the UK's welfare budget and, specifically, 'out of work benefits'.

Ivan Lewis MP

Shadow Secretary of State for International Development

In rejecting Leveson's minimalist but essential proposal on statute David Cameron has divided his coalition and party while letting down the victims of press misconduct who genuinely believed he would do the right thing. Worse still, he has put his perception of the political interests of the Tory party ahead of the national interest.

Chris Leslie

Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Yesterday was a chance for George Osborne to signal he would act to get the economy moving again in order to get the deficit down and begin to turn around his failing ship. Instead he stuck dogmatically to the course which led Britain to the longest double-dip recession since the war and the slowest recovery of any in the last century.

Justin Forsyth

Chief Executive, Save the Children

No one is expecting today's Autumn Statement to bring much in the way of Christmas cheer. However, one good story is the remarkable progress of British aid and what it is achieving for the world's poorest children. A story that is seldom told. A story that the British public should be proud of.

Bobby Duffy

MD of Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute

A recent Ipsos MORI poll for the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce) found that 61% of Britons are concerned about the effects of cuts on them and their family over the next year. However, the Ipsos MORI Economic Optimism Index (EOI) shows that the public are beginning to feel slightly more positive about the direction of the economy compared to earlier in the year.

Nicky Clark

Freelance writer and carer

The key in all this is to remember that it's not so called "challenging behaviour" it's actual challenging behaviour. My coccyx and fingers have been broken not "so called broken" but actually broken. Because that's what caring for someone with challenging behaviours is like. Not "so called" like, actually like.

Katie Ghose

Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society

It is now clear that the PCC elections are on track for the lowest turnout in British history. Yesterday many polling stations stood empty. And when we say, 'stood empty' that is - in few cases - the literal truth.

Mark Serwotka

General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union

While these low turnouts will be debated and analysed, one thing is clear: they should sound the death knell for the ludicrously shrill cries from some quarters of the Tory party and their supporters for greater restrictions on trade union ballots.

Bettina Gronblom

Philanthropy Adviser, Writer

We will never find true happiness through GDP growth alone. To love and be loved - is what ultimately sustains us; all spiritual traditions tell us so and humanists would agree.

Neil Wallis

Media commentator, former tabloid editor - was under arrest as part of Operation Weeting but now cleared

Britain has enjoyed Press Freedom for 317 years. It was finally wrestled from the grasp of the State, after centuries of campaigning, in 1695. Many have - literally - died to protect it ever since. So why do so many people want to give it away now?

Tony Cunningham

Shadow International Development Minister, MP for Workington

The recent floods in Manila reminded me that we are at the whim of natural disasters and our changing climate

Junaid Alvi

Journalist & student

The Committee for Standards in Public Life, it sounds so stimulating and enthralling does it not?

Richard Grayson

Professor of Twentieth Century History at Goldsmiths, University of London

When Liberal Democrat MPs decide this week how to vote on the Health and Social Care Bill most will have to decide how much they are willing to compromise on fundamental values.

James Dwyer

Journalist at PoliticsHome.com

David Cameron is a lucky man. Just when things seemed to be getting messy in Libya, when the word 'stalemate' was being heard more and more often and when there was seemingly a collective slumping of the international shoulders and an acceptance that we were in it for the long run, the rebels toppled Gaddafi. With Gaddafi gone, Cameron may think he can breath a sigh of relief. Whilst he can certainly be pleased with the fact an undeniably evil dictator is gone, there are a whole host of problems - at home and abroad - that now need to be addressed.

Jennette Arnold

Assembly Member, City Hall, London. UK

Yet another tragedy exposed by the recent London riots is the story of the 11yr old who stole a waste paper bin. And who according to Scotland Yard is the youngest rioter in London to face prosecution.