Jobseekers forced to clean private homes and offices for nothing
Concern over unpaid workers taking overtime from staff as some placements last more than a monthUnpaid jobseekers have been forced to clean private homes and offices for more than a month at a time...
View ArticleFresh questions overshadow launch of Sun on Sunday
Mounting pressure on Rupert Murdoch's News International over allegations of bribes at the Sun and hacking at NoWRupert Murdoch's News International will face fresh questions over allegations of bribes...
View ArticleLetters: Work schemes don't create jobs
I agree with Patrick Butler (The dangers of a Great British Idea, 23 February): the Work Programme is a coalition prototype for the whole public sector. But it's wrong to suggest there's anything new...
View ArticleCountry diary: Sandy, Bedfordshire; Not a bird but a pompom
Sandy, Bedfordshire: A little ball weighing no more than a 10-pence piece, the goldcrest dipped and dabbed at the needlesBeyond the frost-tipped heather on an open heath, four blackbirds held to a dawn...
View ArticleThe slanging match over workfare is getting us nowhere
What's needed is constructive criticism of the work placement programme – and I have a modest proposalYou would imagine, with unemployment standing at a frightening 2.67 million, that companies with...
View ArticleGood to meet you … Mark Hainge
A retired colonel tells how he 'came out' as a Guardian-reading army officer and why he loves the writing of Tim DowlingI have spent much of my career in the army, including working as a bomb disposal...
View ArticleLetters: Being an MP is a tough job – it's time we supported them again
The incident in Strangers' Bar on Thursday must raise questions about the way we expect MPs to live their lives (MP charged with assault over fracas in Commons bar, 24 February). I count many MPs as...
View ArticleLetters: Theatre is in hock to sponsorship
Arthur Miller is another playwright who, had he been alive today, would have enthusiastically joined the three British playwrights lamenting the decrease in risk-taking in British subsidised theatre...
View ArticleLetters: Homage to Adele
Yes, Mr Jenkins, singer Adele is one of the "ilk", or working class as we used to be called (Comment, 24 February). She is a gorgeous young woman with bundles of heart and soul and the ability to...
View ArticleLetters: Binge for Britain
Administrative detention (Israel agrees release deal for Palestinian hunger striker, 22 February) can be found in other democratic countries, like the UK and US. When a nation confronts serious danger,...
View ArticleMadame, Mademoiselle: in France these are about sex, not respect | Marie...
To French women these titles aren't mere words, but intrusive definitions. This struggle is about our freedomIn France men are addressed as Monsieur and women as Madame or Mademoiselle. While a...
View ArticleSaturday interview: Michael Parkinson
Michael Parkinson is the doyen of British talkshow hosts. Since he left, things – he says – have gone downhill. Thank heavens he's got a new series on the wayMichael Parkinson is not here yet, so I...
View ArticleMary Portas's big plans for smalls
Retail guru's new channel 4 show will see her try to revitalise UK textile manufacturing through a posh underwear businessShe has tackled independent businesses, charity shops and high-street retail...
View ArticleUnderground ghost station explorers spook the security services
Legal battle over crackdown on friends found in disused Aldwych tube tunnel days before royal weddingThey entered through Russell Square station. For 10 minutes, the four of them sprinted along the...
View ArticleTwo British journalists arrested in Libya
Reporter Nicholas Davies and cameraman Gareth Montgomery-Johnson work for Iranian-owned Press TVTwo British journalists have been arrested in Libya, the Foreign Office confirmed today.Nicholas Davies,...
View ArticleA fitting epitaph for Marie Colvin
The war reporter's death has been seized on to score points, but the fact is, she always did what was rightThe monstrous murder by the Assad regime of the war correspondent Marie Colvin, was...
View ArticleShakespeare, Broadstairs, warmish summers – I'm an Anglophile, it seems
Can one be an Anglophile and also a Scottish nationalist? I can't see why not, despite the vitriol of the 'cybernats'Reading the comment threads that follow many pieces of journalism online, including...
View ArticleHosni Mubarak's mafia ending | Ahdaf Soueif
At first Egyptians simply wanted Mubarak out. But the more they learn, the more calls for execution growAn old man, obduracy etched on every feature, lies on a hospital bed in the dock of a courtroom....
View ArticleWhat should work experience look like?
Debate rages over whether government programmes offer genuine help for jobless people or if they are simply exploitativeDo the government's work experience programmes provide much-needed experience for...
View ArticleEric Joyce's antics may call time on the cheap parliamentary pint | Marina Hyde
Brawling in the Commons Strangers' Bar is something we all enable – we subsidise MPs' drinksNot only do I blame myself for what happened in the Commons Strangers' Bar on Wednesday night – I blame you....
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