Thilo Sarrazin, a Social Democrat politician and board member of the German Federal Bank, published his latest book on Monday (30 August), triggering a storm of disapproval over his racial and minority integration theories. He is now being threatened with dismissal both from his party and the Bundesbank.

Conspiracy theories, an increasingly popular dinnertime conversation, are often otherwise dismissed and ignored. At most they are regarded as the amusing yet ultimately harmless hobby of a fringe, irrelevant few. They are neither of these things. They are a powerful social phenomenon. In many contexts they demolish trust between government and communities. In some, they

Social networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web’s fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace international says at least 500,000 people have now protested at the organisation’s intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity

A day before the ballot papers get sent out, and the grey corpse that was the Labour leadership contest has suddenly leapt into a crazy jig. Ed Balls is slamming the "soap opera" of the Mili-rivalry, while calling for more social housing. Andy Burnham is insisting that he's still in with a chance of winning. Alan Johnson has - with a nod to Jose Mourinho, of all people - labelled Da...

Private equity tycoon Sir Ronald Cohen is set to receive more than £10m from the Government and the Big Lottery Fund to back his latest venture aimed at cutting Britain's reoffending rate.

Housing Policy died around the mid-1990s. It died a slow silent death. What was once an important ministerial portfolio was subsumed into urban regeneration agendas and programmes to tackle anti-social behaviour. In the last month, with the mild furore over the cutting of housing benefit, we have witnessed the death rattles of housing policy.

A team of cartographers have created a visualisation of Britain which makes the traditional map of the British Isles look outdated by comparison.

The problem is that hipsters are nothing like their namesake predecessors who attempted to operate outside convention with distinct agenda of cultural and social change. Nothing about the modern hipster is anti-anything. Rather, hipsters now are a manifestation of late capitalism run amok, forever feeding itself on the shininess of the Now: an impatient, forgetful mob taught to discard their produ...

We expect Lib Dem minister to be confused about reality and woolly - after all they have self selected for that. But Gove and Willetts are treading a dangerous line. Here are two headlines ( one for each of them ): Middle class to lose its grip on best state schools Why does a Tory minister want to be a Stalinist social engineer? What do they both have in common ? Social engineering to paper of th...

Ethical clothing company not so ethical actually. The confusing thing about Charney is his combination of out-of-control carnality and progressive social liberation. One industry insider calls him an “odious character about whom I have heard nothing but bad things, particularly concerning his recruitment techniques and the way he treats female employees”. There