The former Home Secretary's article in this week's New Statesman whipped up a storm, but what's the back story?

I've been asked some interesting questions about the background to Charles Clarke's intervention in the New Statesman this week so it's only fair that I should share the answers with readers of this blog.

1. Did we solicit the article or did Charles Clarke come to the NS? We had a long-standing request with Mr Clarke for a piece about Labour's travails and he chose this moment to accept [...]

What’s the point of the chancellor's initiatives? To show they’re doing something but they're being about as useful as a chocolate teapot, writes Jonathan Davis

So, first time buyers (FTBers) save say £1,500 on a £150,000 property. How on earth is that going to help them when said property – which has already fallen from c £175,000 – is likely to fall to £120,000 over the next two or three years? This question is based on Armstrong Davis’ long-held (and publicly stated many times) view that house prices would fall c 35% from the peak [...]

Curbing Scottish drinking, being named after a favourite fishing spot and giddy excitement over Bristol's pregnancy...

Lead on, Salmond

Alex Salmond is either Scotland’s wise and benevolent national father, or an irresponsible toadman squatting in a rank pool of ideologically incoherent populism. This week, the SNP leader and First Minister unveiled the Scottish government’s legislative agenda for the coming year.

Jeff on SNP Tactical Voting was “honestly, genuinely impressed and excited”. Responding to the party’s plans to tackle binge drinking (by banning cheap booze, [...]

Broadcaster Esther Rantzen reads Morgan's story - part of our No Place for Children campaign

[...]

Throughout its years in government - from Tony Blair's famous "Education, education, education" speech to the more recent "Every Child Matters" programme - Labour has claimed to champion the needs of the younger generation. For the 2,000 children who are sent to UK immigration detention centres every year, however, these claims ring hollow.

These children are torn from their homes, their communities and their friends, locked up for an indeterminate [...]

The summer did not bring a coup against Gordon Brown, but during this time some inescapable realities have emerged

Just by way of a thought experiment, let's try to be as generous as possible to Gordon Brown and his beleaguered government. It has become tiresome watching the Prime Minister's best friends in the media turn against him, so why not try to view the world as No 10 would have us see it? With some effort, it would be possible to characterise Brown's fortunes as follows.

The catastrophe of [...]

In a New Statesman exclusive Charles Clarke takes on critics who abuse the word Blairite and warns Labour is destined for disaster if it continues on its current course and adds "we will not permit that to happen"

As various commentators consider Labour's prospects, the term "Blairite" is being deployed to characterise the policies and personalities of some who question the party's current direction and urge Labour to face the future. Like "That cherite", the word is not used kindly. "Blairite" (even "über-Blairite") is a lazy and inaccurate shorthand. It is intended not to illuminate but to diminish, marginalise and insult. It was, for example, the stock phrase [...]

Labour must face down the Tories on the "fair" agenda with concrete policies that they can't follow

There is an eerie calm as the new political season creeps into life. A leadership death-match, touted as a near-certainty a month ago, has quietly melted away. Nobody can quite fathom why Chancellor Darling, for so long the quiet man of the government, has deepened the economic gloom with his "You've never had it so bad" hyperbole. Most believe this was a cock-up, not a conspiracy, but it is an [...]

Pickles has taken to opening his suit jacket to show he's downsizing although, I hear from one underwhelmed gawper, he remains something of a work in progress

That jovial Tory, Eric Pickles, is not quite the man he was. The town hall porker still cuts a substantial figure, able to fill a room simply by entering it, but he's started counting the calories since Druggie Dave declared his fat-wa. Pickles has taken to opening his suit jacket to show he's downsizing although, I hear from one underwhelmed gawper, he remains something of a work in progress. The [...]

Politicians take heed: social injustice is, literally, deadly

When a report from the World Health Organisation came out a few days ago, the media highlighted an extraordinary fact: that life expectancy in one deprived area of Glasgow is lower than in India, Philippines, Poland, Mexico and Cuba. This, you might think, is attributable to booze, fags, bad food and lack of exercise.

You would be right - but only partially so. The WHO report (Closing the Gap in [...]

The trick for Brown and Darling would be to deliver an old-fashioned autumn statement to lift consumer spirits and boost political confidence

The narrative of Gordon Brown's ten years as chancellor looked irresistible: ten years of non-inflationary growth, the longest upturn in British economic history for 200 years, 59 quarters (which became 63) of uninterrupted growth, and so on. Brown liked kicking sand in the eyes of his critics, the City scribblers and the analysts who were so often bettered in their economic forecasts by him and the Treasury.

But out of [...]

The UK has one of the worst records in Europe for detaining children but accurate figures on how many are detained, and for how long, remain hard to come by

It is shameful that UK law allows children who are not British to be detained without time limits and without judicial oversight. Many of the 2,000 or so children detained for administrative convenience every year have been here seeking asylum with their families. Others arrive on their own and are detained because, in the absence of identification papers, the immigration authorities refuse to believe that they are children.

The UK [...]

Natasha Walter introduces the shocking cases of two young girls detained at Yarl's Wood

Having worked as a journalist for the past 15 years, I have met quite a few people with heart-rending stories to tell, and whose courage in overcoming adversity has been extraordinary. But some of the people whose experiences have moved me the most I have met right here in the UK, and they are children.

I first met Meltem Avcil in Yarl's Wood detention centre near Bedford last year, when [...]

'Our first night in Yarl's Wood was just terrible. We couldn't eat and we couldn't sleep. There were special people there to look after my mum to stop her trying to kill herself again'

Jasmine came to the UK with her mother from Cameroon in 2002, when she was seven years old. Her mother had been imprisoned in Cameroon because of the political activities of her husband. But their first asylum application was made with Jasmine's stepfather, and automatically refused when his was refused, even though they were no longer living with him. They were held in Yarl's Wood for two months and taken [...]

In my school report this summer, they said I was an excellent student. I am making a new start and one day I will show everyone what I am capable of. But I will never forget Yarl's Wood

Meltem came to this country in 2001 with her mother. They sought asylum here after the family was persecuted by Turkish police for being Kurdish. But because they'd passed through Germany, their asylum claim was refused. It was not turned down immediately, however, and by the time they were detained they had been in the country for six years, building a life for themselves. Meltem was doing very well at [...]