Raising national insurance to fund social care is fraught with political risk

Analysis: both employers and employees pay NI but the burden weighs heaviest again on younger workersAfter months of havering, the government is poised to make two big announcements in the coming weeks. Both break manifesto pledges, both are fraught wi…

A tale of two towns: Rochdale and Braintree expose UK’s uneven asylum system

Relatively wealthy Braintree has supported just one asylum seeker in recent months while deprived Rochdale hosted 734Labour councils house eight times as many asylum seekers as Tory areas, analysis findsSituated in the heart of rural Essex, Braintree o…

Spencer review – Princess Diana’s disastrous marriage makes a magnificent farce

Kristen Stewart’s entirely compelling Di has no escape from the dress-up game of monarchy in Pablo Larraín’s unreverential movieSandringham, Christmas 1991. Bare trees, frosted fields, dead pheasants on the drive. Inside the grand house the dining tabl…