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Voices

<p>The government will set out how it will reform the SEND system in the Schools white paper later this year</p>
The Independent View

SEND reform cannot wait – and neither can fiscal reality

Editorial: The SEND system is widely acknowledged to be broken – but repairing it will require political courage, fiscal discipline and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths

<p>King Charles III, next to Stella McCartney, opens London Fashion Week</p>
Catherine Pepinster

At this brutal time for the monarchy, King Charles must show he cares

<p>By striking down President Trump’s tariffs, the US Supreme Court showed no one is above the law</p>
The Independent View

Now Trump and the royals know ‘the rule of law’ is no empty phrase

<p>By sharing data with the Lung Cancer Screening Programme, GPs will be enable thousands to be invited for a lung health check</p>
Stephen Kinnock MP

Lung cancer is our deadliest killer – early detection will save lives

<p>The Ivy restaurateur Jeremy King said he’s fed up with influencers in his restaurant ruining the dining-out experience for ‘bona fide guests’ </p>
Esme Gordon Craig

Sorry, Jeremy King – Insta is the only reason I go to restaurants

<p>Apple Martin, the 21-year-old model, published a statement on her Instagram page, saying: ‘I have never been expelled from any school, especially not for bullying anyone’</p>
Ava Vidal

I was expelled three times – and I’ve never been allowed to forget it

<p>President Trump’s immigration policies are causing concern ahead of the 2026 World Cup</p>
Khalid Sayed

After the Winter Olympics, will ICE cast a shadow over the 2026 World Cup?

<p>From left to right: Labour’s Angeliki Stogia, Reform’s Matt Goodwin and the Greens’ Hannah Spencer</p>
John Rentoul

Most by-elections don’t matter – but Gorton and Denton does

<p>‘There is so much talk around Generation Z’s supposed “laziness”, which only really adds to our despondency, because almost everyone I know is juggling their job search with minimum wage work’</p>
Izzy Combi

I’d have been better off working in a restaurant than getting my 2:1

<p>Former prime minister Tony Blair</p>
John Rentoul

Everything the Blair documentary got wrong about the man I know

<p>Celebrated civil rights leader Rev Jesse Jackson has died aged 84</p>
Joe Murphy

What a chance encounter taught me about Jesse Jackson’s true stature

<p>‘The King is the principal figure to be defended. This has produced a rapid professionalisation of comms and advice streams across both Charles’s and William’s operations’</p>
Anne McElvoy

The royal family is built to survive disaster, but Andrew is a new low

<p>‘Try as they might, the royals cannot simply shake off the scandal engulfing him. Andrew’s downfall serves to shine a light on their own financial arrangements’</p>
Chris Blackhurst

The fall of Prince Andrew shows why we must always ‘follow the money’

<p>Ryan Reynolds films a colonoscopy to highlight importance of the cancer screening procedure</p>
Frieda Hughes

A colonoscopy is a gift to stop me following my father to his grave

<p>The King gives the process his ‘full and wholehearted support’ and says ‘the law must take its course’</p>
Hugo Vickers

Queen Elizabeth would be horrified by how far Andrew has fallen

<p>Donald Trump’s bellicose threats – backed up by enormous naval and air power – continue to escalate in parallel with the diplomacy</p>
The Independent View

As Trump’s armada descends on Iran, Starmer should keep the UK clear

Editorial: If the prime minister has denied the US the use of British airbases, he is to be commended for standing up to Donald Trump in the interests of international law

<p>‘Periodically I am asked what I think about leg-lengthening surgery’</p>
Tom Brada

Take it from me at 5ft5 – life’s too short to care about being short

<p>Volodymyr Zelensky has learned to be polite, if not sycophantic, when commenting in public about the Trump administration</p>
The Independent View

President Trump is wrong. Ukraine can win this war

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More Voices

<p>Victoria Beckham and her son, Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola Peltz, look uncannily similar </p>
Voices

Why do all the Beckham girlfriends look like Victoria?

Voices

Why do all the Beckham girlfriends look like Victoria?

Charlotte Cripps
<p>Victoria Beckham and her son, Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola Peltz, look uncannily similar </p>
<p>King Charles revealed how much he paid in tax before he ascended to the throne, but William has not done so</p>
Voices

After the scandal of Andrew, the royals owe us financial transparency

<p>These are promising signs that a limp UK economy is finding a little fuel – a big win for the beleaguered Rachel Reeves</p>
Voices

Britain just had a surprise £30.4bn economic boost – can it last?

<p>Bridget Phillipson deserves credit for trying to address the crisis in provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities </p>
Voices

On SEND reforms, this useless government has something sensible to say

<p>Measles can be very contagious, so it’s important to seek medical attention</p>
Health

‘Misinformation is rife’: Readers on parents skipping measles vaccines

<p>Measles can be very contagious, so it’s important to seek medical attention</p>
Health

‘Misinformation is rife’: Readers on parents skipping measles vaccines

<p>‘In the UK, disclosures in the Epstein files have brought down a prince and a lord, at the very least costing them their titles. In the US, the Epstein survivors do not expect a reckoning. Not under this administration’</p>
Voices

Epstein toppled a prince in the UK. How has the US elite escaped?

<p>US president Donald Trump has criticised the UK’s Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius </p>
Voices

Two U-turns that would do Starmer (and the Chagos deal) some good

Most commented

Trump says he’s sending a hospital boat to Greenland. Nobody knows why

197 comments

Reform plans ICE-style borders agency for UK under new migration plan

200 comments

Ex-defence secretary accuses Farage of ‘Maga stunt’ with failed Chagos ‘aid mission’

214 comments

Man fatally shot by Secret Service after attempted break-in at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

202 comments
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More Voices

<p>California Governor Gavin Newsom called President Donald Trump 'Dozy Don' after he appeared to close his eyes at a recent event</p>
Voices

Dozy Donald’s board was like a Pyongyang meeting in a retirement home

<p>Cleo Watson and Helen MacNamara</p>
Voices

If you think Westminster is a boring boys’ club, why not join ours?

<p>‘Inclusion, high expectations and proper, early support are a route to stronger performance for all children. Schools that build cultures of belonging and early intervention do not see standards slip. They see them strengthen’</p>
Voices

The Ofsted SEND scandal that shows the public was sold a lie

<p>For now, US naval firepower is giving Iran a relatively wide berth. The nuclear-powered USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is on station off the coast of Oman, some 450 miles away</p>
Voices

If Trump goes to war with Iran, it will be without the American people

<p>Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested</p>
The Independent View

The King and the PM are right – no one should be above the law

<p>Difficult as it may be to believe now, of this ageing, seedy man, but it is well within living memory that he was one of the royal family’s most popular members</p>
Voices

Andrew’s arrest brings this awful drama to its final act

<p>For now, US naval firepower is giving Iran a relatively wide berth. The nuclear-powered USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is on station off the coast of Oman, some 450 miles away</p>
Voices

If Trump goes to war with Iran, it will be without the American people

<p>Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested</p>
The Independent View

The King and the PM are right – no one should be above the law

<p>Difficult as it may be to believe now, of this ageing, seedy man, but it is well within living memory that he was one of the royal family’s most popular members</p>
Voices

Andrew’s arrest brings this awful drama to its final act

<p>In the Budget in November, it was announced that the salary at which graduates must begin to repay their plan 2 student loan is being frozen at £29,385 for three years from April 2027</p>
Home News

‘We need to rethink university education’: Readers on student loans

Home News

‘We need to rethink university education’: Readers on student loans

Independent
<p>In the Budget in November, it was announced that the salary at which graduates must begin to repay their plan 2 student loan is being frozen at £29,385 for three years from April 2027</p>
Comment

We’re in trouble: everything about our armed forces is yesterday’s war

<p>I’m conscious that work probably judges me for getting interrupted when we’re on a call by a crying child or a demand for ‘snacks’ </p>
Voices

I can’t cope with the school holidays – am I a bad parent?

<p>Prince William joined a programme on Radio 1 to discuss suicide prevention and male mental health</p>
Voices

I didn’t see my friend’s suicide coming – we’re blind to mental health

<p>‘If you miss that first rung on the ladder in your late teens and early twenties, the risk is you never climb it,’ says Alan Milburn</p>
Voices

For a generation of unemployed young people, Labour isn’t working

<p>‘If you miss that first rung on the ladder in your late teens and early twenties, the risk is you never climb it,’ says Alan Milburn</p>
Voices

For a generation of unemployed young people, Labour isn’t working

<p>Robert Jenrick, in his serious-looking glasses</p>
Voices

If Jenrick applied to be my chancellor, I’d laugh him out of the door

<p>Reform leader Nigel Farage with his equalities spokeswoman Suella Braverman, who announced that a Reform government would rip up the Equality Act</p>
Voices

Why does Reform want to tear up the vote-winning Equality Act?

<p>Clockwise from top left: Wayne Williams, Leroy Douglas, Joshua McRae, Shaun Anton Lloyd and Abdullahi Suleman</p>
The Independent View

Britain’s IPP scandal must end – justice demands it

<p>David Lammy and Jesse Jackson spent ‘precious time’ in Chicago and London over the years</p>
Voices

If one man made me who I am today, his name is Jesse Jackson

<p>Jesse Jackson raises a clenched fist from a police van after he and 11 others from Operation Breadbasket were arrested during a New York sit-in in 1971</p>
Voices

Jesse Jackson lifted us up. He knew how to keep hope alive

<p>Nigel Farage and his dream team of ‘drama queens’</p>
Voices

By unveiling his shadow government, Farage has just lost the election

<p>The Conservatives have accused Labour of treating motorists ‘like a cash machine’ amid reports that drivers of electric vehicles could face a new pay-per-mile tax in Rachel Reeves’s Budget</p>
Electric Vehicles

The pay-per-mile eVED tax on electric vehicles is coming

<p>Content creator Look Mum No Computer – also known as Sam Battle from Kent – launched his YouTube channel in 2016, and is now Britain’s pick for Eurovision</p>
Voices

Britain needs more young people who dream of being YouTubers

<p>Reform has a number of potential election breakthroughs in its sights</p>
Voices

Starmer’s election U-turn will hit the Tories just as hard as Labour

<p>Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is grinning all the way to the bank after a Labour U-turn will see the party’s legal fees being covered </p>
Voices

Why Keir’s latest U-turn has Farage laughing all the way to the bank

<p>Pancake Day has been dragged, blinking, into algorithmic, sugar-drenched spectacle</p>
Voices

Flipping ridiculous: Pancake Day was better before influencers

Voices

Flipping ridiculous: Pancake Day was better before influencers

Jack Burke
<p>Pancake Day has been dragged, blinking, into algorithmic, sugar-drenched spectacle</p>
<p>Liz Truss meets Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida</p>
Voices

Failed in the UK like Liz Truss? Try Trump’s America!

<p>Former BrewDog boss James Watt is reported to be planning a bid for the Scottish brewer and pub group</p>
Voices

Last thing BrewDog needs: a takeover bid from its embattled ex‑boss

<p>Keir Starmer’s administration has now had to row back on another bit of democratic jiggery-pokery</p>
The Independent View

Labour’s local election U-turn will not undo yet another own goal

<p>In the early days of the internet, safeguarding was primarily a matter of keeping children away from the bad bits</p>
Voices

I’ve changed my mind – young people should be banned from social media

<p>In the early days of the internet, safeguarding was primarily a matter of keeping children away from the bad bits</p>
Voices

I’ve changed my mind – young people should be banned from social media

<p>Alexei Navalny was allegedly poisoned while incarcerated in Russia</p>
Voices

Navalny’s poisoning will taint Vladimir Putin until his dying breath

<p>Editor-in-chief Paul Dacre slunk low in the witness box as he whispered his evidence in the long-running case of Prince Harry vs the publishers of his own newspaper group </p>
Voices

‘I must have been away’: Paul Dacre is The Man Who Wasn’t There

<p>Any teenager who can endlessly scroll without limits is going to be put into a situation where trouble or harm is more likely</p>
Voices

I’m 14 – please don’t take my TikTok away

<p>Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky addressing the Munich Security Conference about the war in his country</p>
The Independent View

A critical point for Ukraine – and for Europe

<p>Alexei Navalny was allegedly poisoned while incarcerated in Russia</p>
Voices

Navalny’s poisoning confirms that we cannot deal with Putin

<p>‘Yes, Lipa is a very famous woman. But she’s also still as entitled as the rest of us to not have her photograph taken, particularly because photos of her will be shared around the world’</p>
Voices

Why do we still treat celebrities such as Dua Lipa like zoo animals?

<p>‘Graduates vote more reliably than students and non-graduates, have not yet locked into fixed party affiliations and are in the swing voter phase of the voting life cycle’</p>
Voices

Don’t scrap student fees, but give the system a serious hygiene test

<p>Carolyn Piro's son, Sean Curran, plays with a dolphin</p>
Voices

An ‘autism-friendly’ holiday often means the opposite

<p>Keir Starmer speaks during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference</p>
The Independent View

Keir Starmer is right to embrace our European future

<p>A poll found that Angela Rayner came top when Labour members were asked which MP they would like to lead the party if Keir Starmer resigned</p>
Voices

That was the week Angela Rayner nearly became prime minister

<p>Dominic Sandbrook says of books: ‘For a few hours, you leave the confines of your head and imagine yourself a boy wizard at Hogwarts, a sailor in the South Seas, a slave in antebellum America. No other art form can do this with such intimacy’</p>
Voices

Bookworms must stave off our becoming a ‘post-literate generation’

Voices

Bookworms must stave off our becoming a ‘post-literate generation’

Dominic Sandbrook
<p>Dominic Sandbrook says of books: ‘For a few hours, you leave the confines of your head and imagine yourself a boy wizard at Hogwarts, a sailor in the South Seas, a slave in antebellum America. No other art form can do this with such intimacy’</p>
<p>Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid dated for six years before their relationship ended messily in 2021</p>
Voices

Stop judging Zayn – true love is always evolving

<p>Attorney general Pam Bondi testifies before the House Judiciary Committee about the handling of the Epstein files</p>
Voices

Millions more Epstein files are coming – and powerful men are worried

<p>US president Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC</p>
Voices

Trump’s attack on the BBC is a harbinger of much worse to come

<p>‘The entire evening feels scripted and structured by someone else’s idea of romance. And love, in the end, has very little to do with choreography’</p>
Voices

Why I’d never dine out on Valentine’s Day – even as a food writer

<p>‘The entire evening feels scripted and structured by someone else’s idea of romance. And love, in the end, has very little to do with choreography’</p>
Voices

Why I’d never dine out on Valentine’s Day – even as a food writer

<p>Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London</p>
The Independent View

The government is now almost powerless against Palestine Action

<p>Improved certainty after Rachel Reeves’s Budget may have helped drive a spending rise</p>
Voices

The numbers that show the economy might be doing better than you think

<p>Chris Wormald was appointed cabinet secretary by Keir Starmer – and forced out by him after 14 months</p>
Voices

Why is Keir Starmer so good at appointing all the wrong people?

<p>Many feel discussions about fertility and birth rates are transforming The Handmaid's Tale from fantasy into fact</p>
Health & Families

France’s ‘offensive’ baby push ignores pressures on women, say readers

<p>‘To avoid Schroders’ slow slide into irrelevance, action is required. There won’t be any deep-pocketed rescuer wading in if it isn’t taken’</p>
Voices

How did the City let itself be blindsided by the sale of Schroders?

<p>‘For decades, there have been calls for the Church of England to recognise, bless and celebrate gay couples’ <em>(LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)</em></p>
Voices

I can marry same-sex couples in Scotland – so why not in England?

<p>Epstein was not convicted last week. He was not convicted last year. He was first convicted 18 years ago. Despite this, he managed not only to return<em> </em>to a gilded circle but grow that circle exponentially, with the promise of wealth, power, and impunity</p>
Voices

Tony Benn warned me about Mandelson 40 years ago

<p>Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’. ‘In the hopes of avoiding another romantic washout, I’ll be staying home cosy and dry this Valentine’s Day, and watching a movie set in a warm climate with absolutely no rainfall of any kind’</p>
Voices

Love in a damp climate: Rain made my last date a complete washout

<p>The UK’s spring flowers are blooming earlier because of climate change</p>
Voices

Long after Trump and Andrew are gone, we will still have spring

<p>Britney Spears performing live – something she says she won’t do again</p>
Voices

Britney’s back-catalogue sale shows the music industry collapsing

<p>‘It’s probably a good thing, because “post-milk generation” sounds like toddlers who have stopped breastfeeding and moved on to Fruit Shoots, but Oatly is furious’</p>
Voices

Oat milk isn’t milk. Even vegans like me can see that

Voices

Oat milk isn’t milk. Even vegans like me can see that

Flic Everett
<p>‘It’s probably a good thing, because “post-milk generation” sounds like toddlers who have stopped breastfeeding and moved on to Fruit Shoots, but Oatly is furious’</p>
<p>The City isn’t enamoured with Rachel Reeves, but they think the alternatives are much worse</p>
The Independent View

Only an EU reset can save our flatlining economy from the doldrums

<p>Drivers in Havana wait to fill up as fuel supplies run low (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)</p>
Voices

Watch out, Cuba – Donald Trump is coming for you next…

<p>‘Who doesn’t know what they’re talking about?’ Matt Goodwin, left, pictured with Reform leader Nigel Farage</p>
Voices

Oh great, Reform’s fascinating men have yet more opinions about women

President Donald Trump announced the first-ever 'Patriot Games,' which many social media users likened to the fictional Hunger Games
Voices

The BBC has no choice but to teach Trump a lesson about free speech

President Donald Trump announced the first-ever 'Patriot Games,' which many social media users likened to the fictional Hunger Games
Voices

The BBC has no choice but to teach Trump a lesson about free speech

<p>Times Square in New York City</p>
Americas

‘It’s not embarrassing, it’s dangerous’: Readers on holidays in the US

<p>Sir Keir Starmer has demanded that Jim Ratcliffe apologise for his comments</p>
Voices

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is like the bigoted pub bore we should all ignore

<p>Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky in ‘My Girl’</p>
Voices

I don’t know if I’ll ever get over my first heartbreak

<p>Constance Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, were jailed for the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, Victoria </p>
The Independent View

Victoria Marten was a victim of our child safeguarding failures

<p>‘I fear that Lægreid sees this whole thing as a big romantic gesture. The only problem is that it’s about as romantic as, well, skiing while holding a gun. As romantic gestures go, it’s a massive backfire’</p>
Voices

Diddums! Give the Olympic love cheat gold for cringiest confession

<p>Keir Starmer ‘did better than he might have done by showing some fight and getting through the half-hour without bursting into tears’ </p>
Voices

Starmer responded to attacks from all sides with anger… but no answers

<p>’How many national leaders will be tempted to ask themselves why, if the US can mount such unilateral action against a sovereign country in pursuit of what it may justify in terms of its own national security, they should not do the same?’</p>
Voices

How the capture of Nicolas Maduro will upend the global order

<p>Green Party hopeful Hannah Spencer described Levenshulme, one of the main towns in the Gorton and Denton constituency she hopes to represent, as having a high street full of “money-laundering takeaways”</p>
Voices

Oops! Like Hannah Spencer, I ran in a constituency I had badmouthed…

<p>Keir Starmer ‘did better than he might have done by showing some fight and getting through the half-hour without bursting into tears’ </p>
Voices

Starmer responded to attacks from all sides with anger… but no answers

<p>’How many national leaders will be tempted to ask themselves why, if the US can mount such unilateral action against a sovereign country in pursuit of what it may justify in terms of its own national security, they should not do the same?’</p>
Voices

How the capture of Nicolas Maduro will upend the global order

<p>Green Party hopeful Hannah Spencer described Levenshulme, one of the main towns in the Gorton and Denton constituency she hopes to represent, as having a high street full of “money-laundering takeaways”</p>
Voices

Oops! Like Hannah Spencer, I ran in a constituency I had badmouthed…

<p>Hair apparent: Angela Rayner gets her tresses pampered</p>
Voices

The race to replace Starmer is still on… and Rayner is ready to strike

<p>Is it okay to get rid of your dog when you have a baby?</p>
Lifestyle

Readers clash over giving up dogs after having a baby

<p>BP has halted its shares buyback after profit slump</p>
Voices

Is energy giant BP running out of gas?

<p>Donald Trump keeps suggesting it is time to move on from the Epstein files</p>
The Independent View

Epstein’s survivors are fighting yet another cover-up

<p>Matthew Doyle, who himself is not being accused of anything unlawful, quit his job last March because of his past association with someone who has admitted possession of obscene images of children </p>
Voices

In Matthew Doyle, Starmer’s lamentable judgement is clear once again

<p>When <em>was</em> the last time anyone spotted the Reform UK leader ‘at work’ in his own constituency of Clacton-on-Sea?</p>
Voices

Nigel Farage is a WFH icon – I can just picture him at his ‘home desk’

<p>Keir Starmer has held on... for now</p>
Voices

Why the coup that never was could be exactly what Starmer needed

<p>Who, if anyone, should replace Starmer as Labour leader?</p>
UK Politics

Poll: If Starmer were forced to step aside, who should lead Labour?

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