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By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Tory Minister, Anna Soubry, fell out with the speaker (again) this time during a debate about the "Northern Powerhouse" where she heckled Labour's statement. The Business Minister's decision to close her department's Sheffield office and move 247 jobs to London had offended the Labour Party and beyond. Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh accused her of "contempt for the north" after she failed to guarantee the survival of more offices in Gateshead, Leeds, Manchester and Teesside ....

We’ve all known them. The lovely people at the places we work. They have no desire to be top dog yet they have pride in what they do and want to do their best for their colleagues and so they can go home knowing they have done their best that day. These are the people who keep the country going. The grafters, the millions of boys, girls, men and women who neither blaze a trail to glory and nor will...

By Steven Topple  2016 marks 80-years since the BBC’s first Royal Charter expired – and the issues surrounding its decadal renewal in 9 months are as tempestuous as they have ever been. The news yesterday that “Auntie” will be campaigning for the over-75s to voluntarily give up their free licence, in a bid by the organisation to rake back some of the £700 million it will incur in costs by 2020 (after the Government forced it to suck-up the expense...

By Oliver Ward @oli_ward_1 A British led enquiry released information on Thursday that Putin "probably" sanctioned the killing of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. This cannot come as a surprise to many given the ostentatious contempt Putin has shown for the west in recent years. However in as modern world of espionage, full of NSA surveillence and phone monitoring you can´t help but feel that a spy being poisioned with a radioactive teapot feels a little like a regression to old style...

By Callum Towler  Sometimes I watch PMQ’s as if it’s a dystopian pantomime, like if all the robots in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot defeated the people, but upheld democracy once a week in parliament just for a laugh. Witnessing David Cameron duck, dive and quip his way through the weekly questions is to watch a well-oiled machine programmed to dodge bullets. Rarely ever does he respond candidly. Instead, in the space where thoughtful answers should be, we’re treated to nothing...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor You can swim, march and fight your way to the UK border and then “live” in the jungle, but if you are the Amazon (see what I did there?) you can step right in and plunder our riches. Tax was issue of the day, well until Cameron decided to be racist/ignorant/heartless/inflammatory (mix and match which ones you think work best). Corbyn was wondering, along with everyone else in the UK, except the Chancellor, why Google...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Today, 28th January, is young carers day, a time to raise awareness and praise the selfless work of children as young as five who look after a loved one. In every classroom in the UK, it is thought there are two young carers, spending the majority of their time looking after a parent or close family member. Instead of enjoying their childhood like their class mates, they tend to others. 13,000 of these people care...

New job data has revealed almost a half a million female and ethnic minority jobseekers in the finance and IT sectors will not be considered for roles this year purely because of the name on their CV. The research revealed that even though employment in finance and IT is on the increase, the proportion of women and minorities working there has fallen. There are also inherent barriers to progression for those already in-situ: women with supervisory responsibility in the finance sector are...

Britain's imperial legacy is complex and widely disputed but one curious side effect is the number of independent countries that still have the Queen as head of state. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a bevy of small nations are part of her domain, despite Britain having little or no authority over them. This Australia Day the premiers of all but one of the country's states called for a republic. The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is a known republican, as is...