EXPLAINED: 27 | Rare Historical Photos

Rishi Sunak pushes to axe northern HS2 rail line ahead of Tory conference

Sources say the PM wants to scrap the project’s section o Manchester before the party’s annual gathering in the city next weekend

The Guardian - UK · Sep 23, 2023

OPINION - Generals like Shapps because he was not a soldier

By any Whitehall standard, the Ministry of Defence is a weird place. I am not just referring to its forbidding architectural lines, partly Orwell’s 1984 Ministry of Truth and Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, but its very nature. It is a hybrid, a frontline Whitehall ministry and an active military headquarters.

Evening Standard · Sep 21, 2023

Developers and their Tory allies are killing the high street. Only a people’s revolt can stop them now

While local shops in countries such as France are protected, the UK is crippled by lax planning laws and sky-high business rates, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

The Guardian - UK · Sep 14, 2023

Shortage of cyber-security experts ‘should send chill down Government’s spine’

The civil service has fewer than half the number of data and technology professionals it needs, MPs have said.

The Independent UK · Sep 12, 2023

Sue Gray quickly gets stuck in as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff

Former civil servant offers morale boost and promises Labour staff she ‘has their back’

The Guardian - UK · Sep 9, 2023

No 10 rejects MPs’ plan to stop ministers putting friends on Whitehall boards

Tory MP William Wragg calls decision not to prevent ‘super-spads’ being made non-executive directors ‘disappointing’

The Guardian - UK · Sep 8, 2023

DfE accused of covering up crumbling concrete at Scottish school for months

Exclusive: Scottish government sources say they were kept in dark about evidence of decay at a private school in Perthshire

The Guardian - UK · Sep 6, 2023

OPINION - Keir Starmer’s new-look Labour is fashioned in the hope of power

When Keir Starmer offered the role of chief of staff to Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who oversaw the partygate inquiry, he craved an organiser on his inner team who understood the interlocking levers of Whitehall — and the pitfalls of operating them.

Evening Standard · Sep 5, 2023

Sunak rejected funding request to fix more crumbling schools, minister says

Schools minister Nick Gibb said funding to rebuild 200 schools a year was requested but the PM granted funding for 50 a year.

The Independent UK · Sep 5, 2023

Collapsing schools are the latest sign of a crumbling country – and a lesson in Tory cost-cutting

What other shoddy quick fixes are we yet to discover, asks Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

The Guardian - UK · Sep 5, 2023