Picture this scene – hundreds of young black men, some appearing to be as young as 13, rounded up, surrounded and held for hours without charge by a cordon of police in body armour; parents standing outside the cordon demanding to be told what is happening to their children; dozens of officers with machine guns sealing off the area; simmering anger from those released from the cordon after being searched and finger printed.
For millions of people around the world, the crisis in the Caucasus has raised fears of a new era of war.
At the end of the last school year, schools secretary Ed Balls threatened nearly one in five secondary schools in Britain – 638 in total – with closure.
The closing of the Olympic Games in Beijing and the record haul of gold medals by "Team GB" became the perfect excuse for an outpouring of British patriotism last week.
New Labour is collapsing into civil war. Gordon Brown’s premiership is surrounded by turmoil and the party’s poll ratings seem to be entering freefall.
For many people the one thing Gordon Brown had going for him was that he wasn’t Tony Blair. But in less than a year Brown has managed to make himself more unpopular than Blair, both inside and outside the Labour Party.
In a decision that could potentially cost unions over £100 million, the Court of Appeal last week ruled that the GMB union discriminated against its women members while negotiating a pay deal with their employer.
Jimmy Ross – Glasgow socialist Many facts and statistics about Glasgow East have been bandied about over the last few weeks since the by-election was announced.
It seems that in the last week the entire political establishment has jumped on the issue of knife crime.
As part of its crackdown on crime and "bad behaviour", the government announced last week that it wants to extend teachers’ powers so they can search pupils for alcohol or drugs.
Leila Assaf – 16, east London ‘People usually carry knives for protection. I live in Hackney, east London, which is quite a rough area. So all my friends have got knives.
This month sees the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National Health Service.
