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

THE government’s own Social Mobility Commission has attacked Tory MP Robert Halfon’s attempt to say the reason poor white kids do poorly at school is because teachers care too much about black and Asian kids.
Halfon’s education select committee issued a report this June about poor school performance of white pupils who get free school meals: this is a very real problem as poor kids, especially in small towns, have been neglected, and don’t do well at school.
Thanks largely to previous Labour governments, some efforts to improve school performance of the poorest kids has paid off in London and other big cities. But less well-off kids in towns and smaller cities – often poor white kids – still do very badly.

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