Labour said an "extremely large" number of people have put themselves forward to succeed the late David Cairns as the new MP for Inverclyde.

Gloucester number eight Luke Narraway will captain the England XV in Sunday's non-cap game against the Barbarians at Twickenham.

The Coalition Government suffered a defeat on a flagship policy last night when the House of Lords rejected plans for elected police commissioners by 188 votes to 176.

I am going to ask you to do a little time travelling as you begin this column.

This is a landmark weekend for Rory Lawson. The impressive individual who lines up at scrum-half this afternoon in a Scotland side seeking the country's first win at Twickenham since 1983 turned 30 yesterday.

On 21 March 1918 around 38,000 British soldiers died in the biggest artillery barrage the Great War had seen. It is the nervous dread suffered (and concealed) by a unit of officers as the seconds ticked toward that onslaught, known beforehand to be "murder", which gives R C Sherriff's sublime play its fascinating heartbeat.

Vince Cable has criticised The Daily Telegraph for the sting by undercover reporters posing as constituents which resulted in him being stripped of responsibility for media regulation.

Police deployed extra reserves today in a bid to prevent a repeat of ugly scenes that marred the student march two weeks ago.

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Which is why a new exhibition in London has decided to exhibit a selection of copies, homages and pastiches of art ‘masterpieces’, in a bid to explore the motivation.

"To wake the soul by the tender strokes of art" runs the quote from Alexander Pope on the proscenium arch of the Richmond Theatre. Ardal O'Hanlon has a reasonable go and finds that most souls are awake for his second half, if not all for his first.

It must seen difficult for a younger generation, steeped nowadays in sex, to realise that in the 1950s nudism was illegal on stage. Or rather, you were allowed a nude but only if it didn't move an inch. The results were bizarre tableaux which the compere would introduce with words like: "First, ladies and gentlemen, the lovely Natalya and the charming little Renée offer you 'The Toilet of Nudes' by Diego Velasquez from the National Gallery here in London."