The NEU kept children and teachers safe during the pandemic, yet we are disgracefully slandered by the politicians who have truly failed our children by not funding a proper education recovery programme — here’s what is needed, explains KEVIN COURTNEY

STUCK in lockdown and slowly going mad? Can I recommend you read Dan Rhodes’ When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow, which is the story of Professor Richard Dawkins also stuck in a lockdown, due to a snowstorm, and also apparently going bonkers.
I first came across Dan Rhodes through his short stories.
When I say short, they were really short. His earlier book, Anthropology, is of 101 stories, each 101 words long, so he knows all about economy and brevity. He can be funny and sharp and can get emotional depth out of fewer words.

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