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

THIS WEEK the long-delayed Undercover Policing Inquiry began. In 2011 activists and journalists exposed undercover officers who had spent years infiltrating left-wing groups.
The undercovers didn’t stop any crime, but behaved in disgusting ways: they tricked women into long-term relationships and even fathered children under their assumed identities before disappearing back into the police. Revulsion at the undercover officers’ behaviour led to the inquiry.
In 1968 the government were scared of rising protest movements. But the Police could not recruit informants among the new protesters, so the Home Office agreed that officers should live undercover with the activists instead. The sinister practice continued for the next forty years.

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