This is a discussion of the specific issue of foodbanks and hunger, and also of the welfare state more generally. If you're on the left you won't like it, which is exactly why you should listen to it.

The Observer thinks that the UK government needs to establish the degree of Russian interference in our politics, and take action to prevent such behaviour. I suggest that given the nature of their behaviour, and what we're prepared to do, it might prove very difficult to dissuade them.

Jonathan Freedland is pleased that Labour's new leader Keir Starmer has sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey from his shadow Cabinet, for retweeting an anti-Semitic article. I try to place the issue in the broader context of Labour politics, and political theory more generally.

Hanif Kureishi argues that the riots and disorder we've seen are symptoms of a world that's changing, and which needs to change.

This is mainly about the Scottish education system, and the journey we've taken from "unusually good" to "quite remarkably bad", while spending a huge amount of money. The argument applies more generally. On both sides of the Atlantic we've forgotten what education is.

This is my first attempt to wrestle to some kind of conclusion the issue of Scottish Independence. I appreciate it's too long. Best consumed in two or three bites.

I think there's been a great deal of nonsense spoken about immigration. Once we've accepted the obvious facts we can agree on how to proceed. Our media, and too many of our politicians, have suited themselves, or feared the label "racist". The net result of this has been Brexit, and a country ill at peace with itself.