Record numbers of people are renting in the private sector as the younger generation fails to get on the property ladder

The startling revelation that some of the highest-paid civil servants have turned themselves into private limited companies to avoid income tax is the latest manifestation of something that began many years ago.

After the triumph that The King's Speech enjoyed last year, the Baftas 2012 were a disappointment for the Brits. The hopes that Gary Oldman or Michael Fassbender might pip The Artist's Jean Dujardin to the Best Actor award were dashed. Many had thought that Kenneth Branagh would win a Supporting Actor award for his perfectly-measured portrayal of Laurence Olivier in My Night With Marilyn. In the event, Branagh lost out to Christopher Plummer for Beginners.

A controversy is about to break out in Oxford. The hushed lives of dons are unsettled and cloisters begin to reverberate. Once more the cause is Margaret Thatcher, its infamous old girl, or according to some, "its most illustrious alumna". In 1985, at an emotive meeting of its governing body, Congregation, 738 academics voted to refuse her an honorary degree, the first time an Oxford-educated Prime Minister had been denied the award. They were cross, not about the miners, but the cuts she had made to higher education budgets.

Sir Tom Cowie spent 45 years building up the business which became, to his disgust, "Arriva" buses, and after parting with it in 1993, set out to conquer the world again with a metal-importation warehousing enterprise set in his native Sunderland's old shipyards that now encompasses China and Singapore. Leadership fascinated him, and his judgment proved wrong only in an affair close to his heart, the fortunes of Sunderland football club, to which, while chairman from 1980-86 he disastrously appointed Lawrie McMenemy as manager. McMenemy left in 1987 and the Black Cats were relegated for the first time to the Third Division.

The Government is – almost – going full-speed ahead with the introduction of mayors to run our cities. Excuse the qualification, but the Liberal Democrats are still wary, the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has his doubts and he is by no means alone in the Conservative Party. Voters are not always thrilled and referendums on the principle of mayors must be won. Almost full speed does not mean the destination will be reached.

Narrow nationalism is not what Scotland - nor the United Kingdom - needs in the debate about independence

Silent film The Artist swept the board tonight when it won three awards at the London Film Critics' Circle awards.

The actresses behind portrayals of Margaret Thatcher and Marilyn Monroe are set to face off at next month's glitzy Bafta ceremony; and so too will their characters' iconic hairdos.

IMHO... We'll miss bookshops when they're gone, if only for the weird things customers say in them

She was divisive in Downing Street, divisive at the polling booth and now, somewhat inevitably, she's proving divisive at the UK box office.

New film on Margaret Thatcher has pulled in the viewers – and divided the country

Opposition is never easy. It’s frustrating when you see people experiencing tough times up and down the country.

Meryl Streep is superb, but the story is of one woman fulfilling her destiny rather than the pell-mell of politics