Is Darling dancing to Cable's tune?

Alistair Darling's plan has Vince Cable's endorsement, but he must make sure it is not used to reward the feckless

Tesco pulls out of eco-towns project

The supermarket chain's decision to remove its backing for a 7,000-home development is a blow for Gordon Brown

Ken Livingstone is adviser for Hugo Chávez

The former Mayor of London will act as a consultant to the Venezuelan president, whom he described as 'a friend'

Mortgage rescue fund at the ready

Ministers are preparing to empower councils to help the thousands of families who are at risk of losing their homes

Property crash opens the door to council homes

Gordon Brown set to usher in a new era of council housing by helping local authorities to buy unsold and repossessed homes

Deepening slowdown set to send GDP tumbling

Chancellor expected to bow to the inevitable in the autumn and downgrade drastically his present forecast of 2.25 per cent

Britain claims Ascension seabed in oil quest

Campaign at UN could be dry run for move to seek rights to oil reserves around Falklands, risking tension with Argentina

Super-jails are waste of £1bn, say governors

Prison officers and penal reform groups to condemn plans to build 2,500-space jails as a waste of £1bn of taxpayers’ money

People: Boris Johnson

The Mayor of London remains unapologetic about the Olympic jacket buttons fiasco that so outraged bloggers in China

Tories say 'no excuses' for fat children

Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, said today that "peer pressure" should be used to discourage obesity

Power groups set to fight windfall tax call

Britain energy companies gave warning that consumers would pay if the government imposed a windfall tax

At last Miliband delivers the right words

Democracy is the subject on which David Miliband is most fluent and in Ukraine he revealed the skill that he has not often shown

Immigration to make Britain EU’s largest nation

Population expected to rise from 60.9m to 77m within 50 years according to forecasts from the European Commission

Sliding into a ‘banana republic’ nation

Countless reports have been laid at ministers’ doors seeking urgent action to combat rising postal vote fraud

Children 'put at risk' in out-of-school clubs

Ofsted report finds many schemes are insufficiently staffed and are hiring workers who have not even attained good GCSEs

A report deserving scrutiny

Childcare is now regarded as the mother of all issues by the major political parties

Analysis: consumers support windfall tax

An exclusive survey for The Times suggests that consumers believe energy suppliers have been profiteering this year

Police hunting criminals to get database access

Police are to be given access to the Government’s new children’s database in order to search for evidence of criminal activity

Brown faces high-level revolt over windfall tax

Members of the Government have threatened to break rank unless the PM imposes a new levy on energy companies’ profits

Q&A: is it time for a windfall tax?

As energy companies report greater profits, and our bills soar, should the government be recouping some of the benefit?