The Economist has been talking up prize-giving as a good way to get the maximum bang for your charitable buck. In response to a flippant remark, suggesting prizes to solve the riddle of the missing NHS billions, from the excellent Dr Steele…

Government Britain will be divided into a patchwork of road-pricing zones where drivers will be charged varying rates, under a government plan to make them pay by the mile without tracking them on every road. Ministers believe that a zonal…

Francis Maude argued on tonight's Question Time that it would be good for there to be a serious contest for the leadership of the Labour Party, as Gordon needed to be tested. Was he admitting that members of his own party are not capable of…

Government OGCbuying.solutions has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with SAP, a business software provider. This new agreement will offer all public sector organisations preferential pricing arrangements on SAP software and services…

The NHS crisis is growing by the day - problems with IT systems, funding issues and misuses of funds, ineffective use of nurse and doctor resources, the list is seemingly endless. A story today has managed to combine all the worse parts of…

Government The government last night won a key vote over plans to privatise parts of the probation service. There had been speculation that ministers could be defeated on the Offender Management Bill by a combination of Labour rebels and…

Education. Education. Education. Remember that? What actually has Tony Blair done though to back up the sound bites? There was the city academies idea - 21 semi-independent schools that are largely funded by the tax payer and cost £2…

What is going on in the Treasury? They are ditching plans to promote good behaviour among "young people". The scheme that was to bribe the worst behaved kids on our streets with a £25 gift voucher for good behaviour. Has common sense…

**Government ** The full implementation timetable for the Companies Act 2006 was announced by Industry and Regions Minister Margaret Hodge. All of the Act will be in place by October 2008 with many elements implemented earlier. The…

Government Airbus will today announce plans to build a composites manufacturing facility near Bristol to supply the new family of A350 jets planned by the European aircraft maker under its €10bn (£6.7bn) development programme. The move…

The Daily Telegraph reports today that John Prescott has (rather amusingly) "-thrown his weight behind a growing campaign at Westminster to force a rethink of the decision to site Britain's first super-casino in Manchester-". Apparently he…

The NHS has a pensions black hole that has risen by £61bn in just two years. That is incredible! According to the Telegraph the figures include an addition £2.7bn because, and I kid you not, the Government accidentally lost this sum on last…