High pressures squeeze and crush, but low pressures damage too. Losing the atom-level buzz that keeps us held safe in the balance of internal and external pressure releases dangerous storms, disorientation and pain, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

LOOK at the meltdown on Northern Rail and most people will think somebody should be sacked for this. But what is actually happening is somebody — meaning a top, connected Tory — is getting hired.
Faced with their own failure to run trains, Arriva is hiring David Cameron’s former adviser Ameet Gill. The company hasn’t hired somebody that’s better at running trains. It’s hired somebody, a key insider, for “strategic communications.”
Arriva needs to communicate with a Tory government and persuade it that it should keep the contract despite its terrible performance. So it has hired a former Number 10 adviser.

The new angle from private firms shmoozing their way into public contracts was the much-trumpeted arrival of ‘artificial intelligence’ — and no-one seemed to have heard the numerous criticisms of this unproven miracle cure, reports SOLOMON HUGHES

It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES

Keir Starmer’s hiring Tim Allan from Tory-led Strand Partners is another illustration of Labour’s corporate-influence world where party differences matter less than business connections, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES