ARCHIVE BLOGS

There's scope for massive improvement in giving children the very best life chances
How are measures working in your school to close the gap and make school a life-enhancing experience for the ones who usually get left behind? David Allaby wants to know

Coalition falls short with energy saving plans
Without managing energy performance in existing commercial buildings, the government is going to be pushed to meet tough carbon emission targets, writes Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation

Old wine in new bottles? Logging the name changes in government
Names and phrases are usually changed when a new government comes into office but there are remarkable similarities between the old and new regimes, writes Colin Talbot

Will oil and globalisation continue to keep the peace?
For decades, the fragile global framework of relative peace and cultural tolerance has been held together by trade and commerce – especially in fossil fuels - but will it last? Dean Carroll reports

McCluskey overstepped the mark when he attacked Labour
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, went too far when he attacked Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, as well as Stephen Twigg, Liam Byrne and Jim Murphy. The timing, language and style was not appropriate for the general secretary of Labour's largest affiliate and the union leader should take a deep breath and step back from this kind of confrontation, writes Luke Akehurst

English votes on English laws – easier said than done
Even if Scotland chooses to reject independence and to settle for the status quo, the rise in English sentiment against the current arrangements will prove hard to resist, says Nick Pearce, director of the think tank IPPR

Dangerous SNP hubris over referendum
Does the SNP really want a free, democratic, Scotland? If so they are doing everything they can to ensure it may, just, become independent but is unlikely to be a genuine democracy, writes Colin Talbot

Can you make a racist remark and not be racist?
The view that using racist language, especially due to ignorance or insensitivity, does not make the individual a racist can result in people claiming that there is no racism in football or in the office, with the implication that nothing needs to be done. And that cannot be right, says Blair McPherson.

I have better job security in the NHS than my husband does in the private sector
Publicservice.co.uk reader Rachel from Sussex works for the NHS but doesn't see that it should be considered a 'job for life' or that her contract should be cast in stone. And she recognises that her husband, who works in the private sector, has lost more privileges than she has

We Are Not "All In It Together" – it's official
How far can inequality go – especially when living standards of the majority are falling as they are in the UK today – without a sense of social coherence, and order, breaking down? These are acute questions that governments and oppositions ought to be addressing, but generally are not, writes Colin Talbot