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

THIS month Michael Gove gave a speech at Policy Exchange. The speech was boosted much further than the average Tory think tank talk: the Daily Mail headline read Gove’s Crony Capitalists Crackdown: He Declares War on Fat Cat Executives Who Have ‘Rigged the System’ to Build Huge Fortunes.
Attacking the worst aspects of capitalism is a familiar ritual for Tory wannabe leaders. In 2010 David Cameron gave a speech, also decrying “crony capitalism.”
On becoming Prime Minister in 2016, Theresa May gave a speech saying she would fix the “burning injustice” of unfairness to poor and black British people, take on the “powerful,” the “mighty” and the “wealthy.”

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