Most toxic is the role of commercial competition, with Monitor acting as enforcer. By opening every NHS corner to “any qualified provider”, the whole service can be taken over by private companies, with a few token charities and mutuals. NHS hospitals, cherry-picked of lucrative work, risk bankruptcy when left with only complex cases. Stroke care

Sam LaHood, son of the US transport secretary, is among those charged with operating civil society groups without permission and receiving unauthorised foreign funding

I know I harp on about income disparity and how it has widened since the mid-seventies. There others who do see this as the major problem in society today, and not least of these are those attending Davos this year. Listen to Gillian Tett of the Financial Times talking about this on BBC’s This Week.

You're more likely to die if admitted to hospital during the weekend. It's a shocking truth, and one that's explored further in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine today. Last year, as Pete blogged at the time, the 2011 Dr Foster Hospital Guide discovered that emergency patients are 10 per cent more likely to die if admitted at the weekend. Today's report goes further ...

The Labour leader outlines his vision for a more responsible "one nation banking".

Ed Miliband is to call for a culture of "one nation banking" in which financial institutions are not "isolated" from the rest of the economy and society.

Jeb Bush’s reference to his is father indicative of a growing arrogance among society’s elite, writes Gary Silverman

In a speech tomorrow, Ed Miliband will call for ‘one nation banking’. The Labour leader will argue that banks have to show that they are part of the society in which they operate.   But, perhaps, most interesting is Miliband’s point — previewed in the political column this week — that the behaviour and pay structures of banks are fair game for parliament because ...

A beer called Top Totty has been banned from the Strangers’ Bar in the House of Commons because its pump plate, featuring a half-naked woman, offended female MPs. Well how obsurd! This is just another example of the ridiculous PC nature that has been allowed to creep into British society through the cotton wool and

Online activists across Europe are protesting against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which officially aims to protect intellectual rights but which critics say violates privacy. An online petition against the international treaty attracted more than a million signatures, EurActiv's network in Central Europe reports. More »