By Richard Heller

Rt Hon Baroness Warsi
Minister for Faith and Communities
London

As you must have seen, the Church of the Latter Day Saints have capitalised on the attention given to their sect by the musical The Book Of Mormon (which I recommend to you) by mounting a major advertising campaign in search of converts. This activity benefits from the charitable status accorded to that Church and contributions towards it are eligible for gift aid. In effect, they are being subsidised by non-Mormon taxpayers. I shall be asking you shortly to give your views on this situation on behalf of the government, but I would first like to put some general questions about your ministerial role.

Why do you and the government believe it necessary or desirable to create a ministry specifically to represent people who hold religious views? Why should they be paid special attention in the framing of public policy? How does this fit with the concept of equality of representation, which is at the heart of

Xbox One, mysteriously defying gravity (Credit: Microsoft)Since the rumormongers starting whispering about Microsoft's next-generation console over a year ago, one of the most controversial topics has been the fate of used games.

Some reports said the system would make it impossible to play them. Analysts scoffed at this, saying Microsoft wasn't stupid enough to alienate a substantial portion of its audience with such a sweeping move -- not to mention anger its biggest retail partner, GameStop, who sees significant revenue from used game sales.


                   [Xbox One: Hands-on with Microsoft's new 'home entertainment system']

Today, Microsoft itself finally weighed in on the matter, though if you were hoping for crystal clarity, you're likely going to be a bit disappointed.

"We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games," the company wrote. "We'll have more details to share later."

Microsoft's Don Mattrick showing off the Xbox One (Credit: Microsoft)The next-gen console war is on.

Putting an end to weeks months years of rumor and speculation, Microsoft formally pulled the wraps off its Xbox 360 successor during a media gala at its Redmond HQ on Wednesday. It’s called the Xbox One, and according to the company, it’s an “all-in-one home entertainment system” aimed squarely at taking over your living room. No specific release date or price was announced, though it will be available worldwide later this year.


                      [Xbox One: Hands-on with Microsoft's new 'home entertainment system']

"What if a single device could provide all your entertainment, what if it could turn on your TV and talk to all the devices in your living room?," said Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s president of interactive entertainment.

By Katie Russell

Barbara Hewson's ill-informed and damaging online article regarding Operation Yewtree was shocking on many levels, not least because it came from an apparently 'top' barrister.

By opening with the assertion that ongoing legal investigations pose 'a far graver threat to society than anything Jimmy Savile ever did', she invites us to accept that she believes a public figure's abuse of his power and privilege to rape and sexually assault women and children with impunity across decades, is no big deal compared to 'the persecution of old men', or put another way, the lawful investigation of sexual offences.

If we take that at face value, we must believe that Hewson has a contempt for criminal justice that is quite terrifying in someone practising law. To anyone who has ever experienced sexual violence, worked with sexual violence survivors, or campaigned for survivors' rights as part of a movement such as Rape Crisis, however, it seems more like a transparently cynical

Opponents can't have it both ways. Either there is no demand for civil partnerships for straight couples or it will be very expensive. But it can't be both.

You can spot the government panic a mile off. Terrified that the amendment being voted on in the Commons today will derail gay marriage legislation, they are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it.

Most Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs believe in allowing straight couples to have civil partnerships at the same time as allowing gay couples to marry. Tory MPs – up to 100 of which may support the amendment today – are late converts. Or rather, they are not converts at all. They are dinosaurs prepared to vote for anything in a bid to delay or even destroy the gay marriage bill.

Equalities minister Maria Miller has come out with guns blazing. Her department estimates a £4 billion price tag in access to public sector pensions if straight couples can have civil partnerships. Or they do now, at least. A week ago the price tag was £3

Does anyone remember the band ‘Vanilla’? They were a girl group from North London who released the single ‘No Way No Way’ in 1997 – reaching number 14 in the charts.
 
Still no? Let me jog your memory with some of the lyrics:
‘No way, no way
Ma na ma na,
Don’t get fresh with me’
 
STILL no? Oh well – they did only have two singles, after all.
 
The song was released when I was 13 years old, and I remember thinking ‘Surely this is some kind of sick joke – unleashing such revolting dreck on us teenagers and expecting us to lap it up’. It promptly won the dubious title of "Worst Music Video Ever" on the 1997 ITV Chart Show end-of-year special.
 
Years later, I was bickering with a guy about his jukebox choices in a London pub and the subject of Vanilla came up. He told me that he’d actually been the sound engineer for the song, and claimed that the whole thing was a bet between two established music producers for who could produce the worst pop video.
 
I was right! My 13-year-old brain had cracked

Let's face it: If you were forced into a building filled with as many politicians as the Palace of Westminster contains you'd probably need a drink or two to get by, too.

That is not the sort of comment likely to endear itself to Alcohol Concern, which has conducted a survey of MPs revealing levels of alcohol abuse which it claims would warrant "immediate action" in any other workplace environment.

Parliament is not any other workplace environment. It is a building lubricated by booze and populated by an elite species whose business is eased by alcohol. From red-nosed MPs to their earnest young researchers living the dream, often fresh out of university, a pint or two here or there helps make the wheels go round.

Let's not get carried away here. The truth is the parliamentary drinking culture of yesteryear has died out - literally, in some sad cases. The big shift came when the Commons' sitting hours shifted to more 'normal' working times. Since then there has not been interminably

It was a winning British mixture of tradition, sarcasm and extraordinary silliness. Committee room ten was the scene for the private members' bill raffle this morning, in which backbenchers cross their fingers and hope they'll be selected to carry a bill forward to its near-inevitable demise in the Commons chamber.

It was seriously good fun. Deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle, whose reputation in parliament is rising by the day, played up to the occasion well. Beside him, David Natzler, clerk of legislation, shuffling some crunched up bits of paper around an ornate black box. It really was that simple: it was like The National Lottery Presents: The Great Reform Act of 1832.

Perhaps we should use raffles for all political debates. It's as if politics was conducted by the Dice Man. Get a two and we'll integrate social care with the NHS. Get a four and we'll use baby's fingers as a new form of currency. It would liven Westminster up a bit.

Natzler shuffled the bits of paper around. "Number 20,"