• Why Bulger killers should have been locked up longer

In his statement about how he was refraining from providing further information about the case of Jon Venables, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said he had given “active thought” to releasing more details but had concluded this “would not presently be in the interests of justice”.

• Oh, Kerry! What did you ever see in gold-digging Mark Croft?

We all knew it would happen and now it has. Professional girl-next-door Kerry Katona has split up with her pantomime-villain husband Mark Croft.

• Why the public counts less than the Bulger killers

The Prime Minister won't do it. The Justice Secretary won't do it. The Home Secretary thinks someone should do it, but not him. The Probation Services won't do it.

• Grading up or dumbing down? Why it’s all a matter of degree

A cloud of dust is being raised in the education world south of the border by what they are calling the ‘grade inflation crisis'.

• Marching into another summer of discontent

The Orange Order has given a qualified welcome to the work done by the DUP/Sinn Fein-packed Stormont body on how to resolve the issue of contentious parades in Northern Ireland.

• Why the lack of transparency at the BBC is tarnishing its crown

The BBC has announced it is changing direction - but will it make any difference? It is important to note that the BBC is not saving £600m. The money is merely going to other core areas of broadcasting.

• Robert Fisk: Democracy doesn't seem to work when countries are occupied by Western troops

In 2005 the Iraqis walked in their tens of thousands through the thunder of suicide bombers, and voted – the Shias on the instructions of their clerics, the Sunnis sulking in a boycott – to prove Iraq was a "democracy".

• A moral victory for Capello off the soccer pitch

Something weird and fascinating has happened this week. A national debate about morality, gentlemanly conduct, responsibility and forgiveness has broken out in the most unlikely context — the football pitch.

• When it comes to Dawkins some are forum, others not

Nice atheist Richard Dawkins has got himself in a tangle over citizens who leave comments on his internet forum.

• Why MI5 is free to operate here while Stormont can't do a thing

At Stormont on Monday, Mark Durkan said that MI5 had "serious questions to answer" in relation to the killing of Kieran Doherty.

• Mark Steel: The moment you think of voting Labour, up pops the unregretful Tony Blair

There are many questions a population asks itself before a General Election, and the one that many people are asking before the one this year is, "Which of these rancid heaps of sewage will be slightly less repulsive than the other?"

• Denman can still out-shine Kauto Star in Gold Cup

Let's not make a crisis out of a minor disaster where Denman and Tony McCoy are concerned.

• Cost of pay freezes and high taxes was a culture of duplicity, envy and hypocrisy

The Chancellor was right yesterday to dismiss the idea of a High Pay Commission. His phraseology was characteristically mild: he was "not persuaded" of his merits.