Britain is in "the last-chance saloon" to solve the social problems behind the riots, Iain Duncan Smith has said.

The Government is to establish an independent panel to give victims of the riots a chance to "have their voice heard", Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said today.

Cook, actor and Earth Mother Gwyneth Paltrow has graced Elle Décor magazine with her list of the "things she can't live without". Cannot. Live. Without. Given that this is an interior design publication, you might imagine Ms Paltrow's selection would be superficial, not spiritual. But you'd be wrong. Granted, it's true that she "can't live without" her De Gournay hand-painted wallpaper, her Charles Edwards star lanterns and the Antonio Lupi Baia bathtub in her bedroom (yes, bedroom). But among her favourite things is also her Juxtaposition Religion Shelf, a shelf with slots of varying depths to hold the Koran, Bible, Tao Te Ching et al, "all at the same level", she explains, "which is how I like to think about religion."

Babies born today could eventually spend half of their lives in retirement, ministers are expected to claim this week, as they set out the need for reform of the pension system.

This time last week we reported that, nine months after becoming leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband had so dismally failed to make his mark that Iain Duncan Smith's leadership of the Conservative Party was looking good by comparison. What a difference seven days make.

Boris Johnson is the favourite among Conservative grassroots activists to succeed David Cameron as party leader, a survey has found.

This newspaper's poll of polls today provides uncomfortable reading for Ed Miliband – he is in danger of making Iain Duncan Smith look good by comparison.

Labour has demanded an explanation from ministers as to why they hid official advice that planned welfare reforms could make 40,000 families homeless, while costing the taxpayer more than they save.

Plans to impose an annual limit on benefit payments could be ambushed in the House of Lords following a warning from within Whitehall that the move risked making 40,000 families homeless.

Increasingly, it seems, ministers are using speeches abroad to air views that might prove controversial, or harmful to Coalition unity, at home.

Iain Duncan Smith came under fire from business leaders and lawyers yesterday for urging employers to give jobs to young Britons in preference to migrant workers.