What is play for? What benefits can it bring to children? And why should educational play stop at age five in England?

Back in October the Prime Minister said any area that needs a banking hub can have one. If that was right, LINK would have signed off Totnes’s banking hub by now. The truth is the government can’t demand LINK open a banking hub somewhere. But what they can do is change the rules under which a banking hub is granted. The current rules, which are way too narrow, focus solely on cash access. Our cash access is okay in Totnes. We’ve got a few ATMs – whether they are always workin

President Trump’s so-called board of peace looks like it will contain more male billionaires than women. Let that sink in. I am sure I am not alone in being deeply troubled by the lack of visibility of women on the world stage. Evidence shows that women’s participation in peace agreements increases the probability of them lasting at least two years by 20%. Yet in this uncertain world decision-making is being left to a small group of male leaders. We see this imbalance every d

The Government’s tighter guidance on smartphones is welcome, if long overdue, but giving Ofsted the power to inspect policies on phone use is the wrong approach.

The Education Secretary appeared to miss the point of my question. Though I do welcome the government’s expansion of free school meals, I was asking about smartphones in schools and the knock-on impact their presence have on teachers. It is clear too much admin and poor pay are driving teachers out of the profession. But so too is pupil behaviour and it is evident that this improves markedly once phones are out of schools. This week, the Government announced Ofsted would have

Our water industry is fundamentally broken, yet the Government’s new Water White Paper dodges the work needed to repair it. People in South Devon are fed up with our environment being ravaged by corporate greed. In 2024, South West Water pumped raw sewage into the Harbourne River via the Harbertonford Wastewater Treatment works for over 3,500 hours – that’s the equivalent of 40% of the year! This same overflow has been activated since 11th January. It is a disgrace. The situa