To defeat the coalition of privilege and achieve real liberty, including freedom from poverty and want, we must commit to challenging the wealth of the few at the top who exploit the many below.

The ten things you need to know on Monday 20 May 2013... 1) PUTTING A SMILE ON NIGEL'S FACE The 'loongate' controversy is really starting to hur...

George Osborne has insisted his plan is working, telling business leaders "now is not the time to lose our nerve". Spending more to rejuvenate the ...

Four million children could be living in poverty in the UK by the end of the decade, new research has predicted. The assessment by the Institute fo...

The ten things you need to know on Wednesday 8 May 2013... 1) A MODEST SPEECH FROM HER MAJESTY From the Times: "The Queen will open a new ses...

The former chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Adair Turner, has called on the government to be "more cautious" about austerity and expre...

Most families will gain nothing from the government's new Universal Credit , with ministers overstating the generosity of the benefit, a new report cl...

Each successive government of course blames the last for the financial mess it inherited but the truth is that the blame game pales in respect to apportioning blame for the 2008 global financial disaster.

The majority of voters believe the government's austerity plan has failed, according to a new poll. According to the ComRes Survey for The Independ...

The ten things you need to know on 30 April 2013... 1) COME 2015, IT'LL BE 'TIME FOR A CHANGE' The right-wing media echo chamber keeps telling u...

Fifteen years ago Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and other statesmen mediated the un-mediatable and created the Northern Ireland that we know today. Some see the bargain as a grand failure. The creation of a parochial sectarian state suspended in a form of purgatory with a bloody history and no future.

I would respectfully submit that there is no such thing as a triple-dip recession. It is not as if the periods of expansion separating the dips were characterised by Chinese (or even German) growth. We have instead been in a six-year economic stall where growth has barely fluctuated by more than a few tenths of a per cent either side of zero. Growth, or lack of it, has largely become a rounding error.

The fact is, as you know, tourists don't flock to this great country to watch the footie, or eat in the restaurants. They come to visit the stately homes, for example. How much are all the volunteers who work in these places worth? Culture, one industry that is actually growing , has always punched above its weight. It is one of the key factors in making the UK the Number One nation in the world for the arts.

We need to realise that it's culture --again, habits, values and behaviors -- that ultimately drives economic prosperity. And culture starts at the grassroots. He was dour and dull, but maybe it's time to see Calvin Coolidge as cool.

The importance of these figures isn't whether or not we have entered a triple dip, but that the UK economy is stuck in a rut. Real GDP remains 2.6 per cent below its peak level five years ago and has increased by just 0.4 per cent over the last two and a half years. After five years, this is disappointing news not only for the government but for businesses and consumers, who are experiencing a continued squeeze on their living standards.

The ten things you need to know on Thursday 25 April 2013... 1) TO DIP OR NOT TO DIP? It's a big day for the Treasury and chancellor George Osbo...

It almost goes without saying that the arts have an intrinsic value - the 'arts for arts sake' argument has been made countlessly and convincingly. But, clearly we are living in tough times - and we therefore need to make sure that the incredible instrumental potential of culture is both appreciated and maximised.