There are two groups who suffer most from this lack of interest. One is women. Over the past 15 years, the number of female prisoners has more than doubled, and more than 10,000 women are now sent to jail every year. The five-part investigation which...

So far, so good. But while Mr Gove's (albeit reluctant) eschewing of a new-look CSE may have dodged the most obvious row over social divisiveness, the question about what happens to those not up to the more demanding test has still not been answered....

You may have supposed that we Scots could at last hold our heads high, our self-confidence and national pride recharged in one sensational night in New York. Not me. I have a confession, and the shame of it I will carry to my grave.We have heard much...

The name, which is pronounced "An-tee-tum", derives from an old Algonquian Indian word meaning "swift water". But on 17 September 1862, in those same pastures and croplands, blood ran as copiously as water, in the deadliest single day in all American...

"Unable to move for over half an hour, I was condemned to watch them cry for help, throw up, plead for their lives and die," he wrote. "A heap of corpses piled up in front of me." Over 700 others were injured. Thousands more were scarred emotionally ...

Decades of dictatorship, corruption and under-employment have created reservoirs of males who have a strong sense of grievance and nothing much to do. In some countries, where unpleasant regimes have recently been overthrown, they have guns. They're ...

It was hastily recalled and the offending word altered to "some people". What's wrong with bigots, Nick? We're all bigots, to a greater or lesser degree. If the cap fits, wear it, I say. The Church of England announced that it found the term "very of...

Yes, there are companies that rely on airports to shuttle their executives in and out or to freight in exotic produce. Yes, airports generate large volumes of revenue and, yes, the public loves the possibilities offered by air travel. But are global ...

On Radio 4’s Week in Westminster, I interviewed the former Defence Minister, Nick Harvey, one of the Liberal Democrats who lost his job in the reshuffle. Admittedly, he is bruised, and openly admits to being disappointed at what happened to him. Yet ...

On the other hand, I have just returned from a week in Japan, so perhaps I am out of touch with the priorities in Britain (and maybe mainland Europe, too): what to do about the publication of fuzzy photos of the Duchess of Cambridge without her top o...

It is quite possible, one discovers, to oppose Castro’s locking up of writers, or the despoiling of the British countryside, or excessive nannying of offensive songs or comedy – all apparently symptoms of a right-wing mentality – while also disliking...

Virginia says...Which would you rather? Your friendship be over or, if your cousin were responsible for a fatal accident, having that person’s death on your conscience for the rest of your life? It is, to use an expression I’m not madly keen on but f...

In recent months I have found the news utterly maddening. As someone whose main job is to publish newspapers and websites, this is an occupational hazard. But let me give you some examples. First, last week: bigot-gate. Nick Clegg said opponents of ...

As a disability rights campaigner who works in online media, I’ve seen quite a lot of that.What I didn’t expect and probably should have done, is that as my profile online increased and in asking for balance, others were not quite so flexible. I’m no...

Unlike the infants in today’s opening feature on page 6, I was never in jail with my parent, although my Dad did manage to dispense a certain amount of parenting, albeit during visiting hours and from behind half inch-thick, yellowing safety glass. W...

‏@JeromeTaylor tweets: "#Harwood lawyers say he has admitted his actions were gross misconduct but charge he inadvertently caused #Tomlison death is "grotesque"" and "Lawyers for #Harwood claim #Tomlinson death was "freakish mischance" & "complet...

Lord Stevens, who led Scotland Yard between 2000 and 2005, was placed under surveillance by Southern Investigations, a firm of private investigators linked to one of London’s most notorious unsolved murders.Its co-founder Jonathan Rees claims the def...

Until last week I hadn’t actually taken much notice of the Fifty Shades trilogy. I was a man the last time I checked, and apart from the fact that my gender is conditioned (biologically or socially, you tell me) to sexually respond to images more tha...

Home and AwayBritish designer Dominic Wilcox invented the GPS shoes "No place like home" are programmed to show you the way home "anywhere in the world." dominicwilcox.comMulti-TaskingOklahoma judge hands down prison sentence, then presides over nupt...

Set to run in an edition next week, editor Alfonso Signorini said not even a call from the Queen could stop him printing the paparazzi shots. He added:"If I had had more scandalous photos I would have willingly published them."St James's Palace annou...

A detailed report on the impact of repeal states that there has been "no overall negative impact on military readiness or its component dimensions, including cohesion, recruitment, retention, assaults, harassment or morale.” While a small number of s...

The line of American soldiers stood facing a jumble of Afghan soldiers. They were trying to get ready to practice some basic drills; clearing rifles and machine guns, applying tourniquets, carrying stretchers and marksmanship. Then the improvised exp...

Nor is this the first such instance. The day after an episode about hapless efforts to get schoolchildren to write mobile phone apps was recorded, the real Education Secretary announced plans so similar that the scriptwriters worried about leaks. Lif...

Personally, I dread Thatcher’s death. It will be a nightmarish blend of the hysteria that followed Princess Diana’s tragic accident and a month-long political broadcast for the Conservative Party. “She put the ‘great’ back in Great Britain,” our impa...

Once, we could say with some certainty that Islamicist fanatics, thugs, killers and mind-benders represented a minority and that most Muslims, quiet and sane were unseen and unheard. Today, I fear it is the opposite. Modernist Muslims, amalgams of th...

Then he goes on: "Gove was hurt that Clegg dismissed the idea out of hand,  seeing this as a breach of the reformist spirit that he believed had to underpin the Coalition. The Liberal Democrat opposition seemed so implacable that Tory strategists add...

He goes on: "The police never come quietly. As one former chief constable puts it, there is an "inbuilt conservatism" about the service which makes it "often risk-averse, process-dominated and defensive." It is a big thing for governments to take on ...

Don't worry, I'm not about to regale you with tales of deviancy, of being strung up in a Barratt Home and spanked with a middle-class hairbrush or fed chocolate pudding while wearing a nappy by a highly paid tormentor working from a back-room in Ch...