People are going to be asked to elect Police Commissioners in England and Wales for the first time in November this year. This is a remarkable change in how the Police are run in this country and we are told it is to make the Police more accountable to the people they serve.
By emphasising their established long-term commitment to a better world for future generations and widening their sphere of interest, the Greens may have a brighter future than they think.
This year voter turnout was disappointingly low. Some blamed it on the rain but we need to look deeper for explanations about why so many people have lost faith in politics.
Over the past four years, our system of capitalism has come in for merciless berating from politicians, opinion formers and most tellingly, the general public. Whether it is bankers' bonuses, business practices, or concerns about rising levels of inequality, it has been 'open season' on the 'greedy capitalists' looking to dominate the 99% in the interests of the 1%.
Traditionally, apprenticeships were the main route into business. Some of the country's best-known entrepreneurs mastered their skills this way: Michel Roux, restaurateur and Masterchef judge, British fashion designer Karen Millen, and hair-product entrepreneur John Frieda all learned their crafts via apprenticeship schemes.
Anti-terror laws, government-sponsored arms-dealers and testing the limits of free speech and protest: Mark Thomas has tackled them all.
I am a Christian and will remain so. This means that there are certain beliefs I hold dear. But I can, without reducing my Christian commitment, surely accept that someone else, brought up in a different tradition, holds a different set of beliefs, holds them as strongly as I hold mine, and I can respect that person and his/her right to believe as he/she does. In an era of globalisation, in which we are far more likely to share society together because society is becoming more diverse and the internet is creating a more global sense of community, the existence of such respect and mutual understanding becomes essential.
I fully endorse what the U.S. has done and is doing in the two cases in China and Myanmar. Governments that oppress their own citizens don't deserve our support. But a group wrongly labeled as terrorist, and using every legal means to overturn that label, does deserve much greater consideration than it is getting.
The gay-rights brigade have allowed their quest for gay marriage to tip over into active hetero-phobia. If they don't snap out of it, they'll even lose the support of gay people like me.
Excuse after excuse, blunder after blunder from this irresponsible and incompetent Tory-led government. We have a part-time prime minister with a part-time Parliament who gives tax cuts to millionaires whist the millions pay more.
We must unearth the potential in our young people today by nurturing their talent and giving them opportunities. They are, after all, the talent of tomorrow.
The fight to achieve real democracy in Egypt will undoubtedly be protracted and is certain to last for at least another generation. Holding elections is merely the first step in a long process that requires nothing less than a cultural revolution within Egyptian society, because at the end of the day, there can be no democracy without democrats.
We are very concerned about plans for the new police and crime commissioners to organise and fund virtually all help for victims and witnesses. This would mean patchy local services rather than the current national backbone of support and the potential waste of £21million of tax payers' money on red tape and form filling.
Laurie Penny fails to present a nuanced article on why same-sex marriage should be legalised. She derides and underestimates her opponents on an issue with which deserves a mature discussion, wielding the sword of class and culture warfare.
We know that running away or going missing is a key indicator that a child might be at risk or in need. Children in care are three times more likely to run away than children living at home. When they go missing, they place themselves in great danger of being sexual exploited or physically abused. Far too many children who run away or go missing from care become victims of sexual and physical abuse and exploitation. One child in this situation is one child too many. Every child who has to appear in court as a victim of sexual exploitation is a failure of the system to prevent harm.
No one will be surprised that the Queen's Speech did not contain a commitment to equal marriage... What is more significant about this episode though is that it does give some indication of what grassroots Tories really think.
If you fell asleep during the 22 words he used before he got to the point, in a nutshell, it was "Whatever dude, they're in love, stop harshing their buzz". All of which is entirely awesome and momentous to anyone with a brain, obviously.
My day started at 6.30am as I got up to go to the gym, which I do regularly in a normal week, but this was the first time I'd been since I started living on £1 a day.
Asia and the world is growing tired of eurozone instability which is why it is time for some bolder action and for some realpolitik about just what is sustainable.
The Cambridge Union Society, 16.05.2012