Jim Murphy wants more religion in British politics. If we don't clamp down on faith schools now, he might get his wish.

By Ian Dunt

Religion is on all the Labour lips today. First children's secretary Ed Balls got a roasting for allowing faith schools an exemption from equality requirements in the curriculum. Then Jim Murphy, Scottish secretary, set up a speech tonight calling for religion to have a greater role in politics and for Labour to appeal to religious voters.

Despite all this, it's still too early to worry about a distinct shift towards religion in the British political culture. Labour just made a calculation. It realised it would upset religious groups more with the double-blow of the equality bill and the children, schools and families bill than it would upset equality activists by passing the amendment today.

For a long time, Labour was ruled by two men whose political senses were sharp enough to realise the folly of allowing religion into the political realm: Tony Blair

Bullying is an ugly word, but we need tough, committed individuals in Downing Street.

By Matthew West

If anyone was in any doubt about the extent to which this year's general election will be about personality, yesterday's expose by Observer political editor Andrew Rawnsley that the prime minister is a bully should have erased it.

For me personally, this has aroused some sympathy for Gordon Brown. It is likely that he has shouted at a few people. It is very likely in my mind that he neither suffers fools gladly nor is the most patient man in the world. But this doesn't make him a bad person for me, it doesn't make him a bully and it doesn't make him a bad prime minister. In fact, to me the effect is the exact opposite.

That doesn't stop this kind of 'revelation' being extremely damaging to a man who needs to be liked by voters regardless of whether or not he has better policies than his rivals.

The problem with revelations such as these is that, regardless how good Rawnsley's sources

The director of policy and campaigns at Which? discusses money, competition and whether we'll ever trust the banks again.

By Ian Dunt

A few weeks ago Which? held a debate on banking reform, at very short notice, on a cold and wet February night. Three hundred people turned up.

Analysts should not be surprised by the level of public interest in sorting out the banking sector. Some estimates posit that it will take £2,400 from each UK family per year for us to pay off the bank bail out. Banking reform is where politics and the personal meet.

"People are thinking: let's just have a look at this and make sure this doesn't happen again," says Helen McCallum, head of policy and campaigns at Which?. Her role is to act as a consumer advocate. But importantly, McCallum doesn't want the UK put at a disadvantage in the global economy - which wouldn't do consumers any good either. That fine balancing act dominates her thinking.

Suggestions for banking reform are not hard to find. So far, the

The judgement in favour of Jan Moir was the best course the PCC could take. But it is not always so intelligent.

By Ian Dunt

The Press Complaints Commission has come to the only sensible conclusion it could on the Jan Moir palaver, by deciding against taking action.

It's always a relief when the PPC gets something right, because it often gets it so utterly, utterly wrong. For those of us who believe in the self-regulation of the press, it is a distinctly unhelpful organisation. Late last year, for example, it decided not to investigate the phone hacking scandal revealed by the Guardian. That revealed the watchdog to be, in the Guardian's words, without the "ability, the budget or the procedures to conduct its own investigations". The allegations were well-enough documented to merit investigation and the issues raised were fundamentally important to journalistic ethics. The decision not to investigate was really an extra scandal on top of the original.

But occasionally it does get it

A debate on multiculturalism at Durham University had to be called off last week because of the possibility of violent action. But this didn't come from right-wing extremists, it came from the NUS.

By Jonathan Moore

The Durham Union Society (DUS) proposed to conduct a debate entitled 'This House believes in a Multicultural Britain' on Friday They invited commentator Kulveer Ranger and Conservative MP Edward Leigh to propose the motion with elected British National Party (BNP) representatives Andrew Brons MEP and councillor Chris Beverly providing the opposition.

However, prior to the event Durham's vice chancellor received an e-mail from two senior National Union of Students (NUS) officers requesting it be cancelled and asking for an apology to for any offence caused by its organisation in the first place.

Furthermore, the vice chancellor was told "you may bring legal consequences upon yourselves" and that both the NUS and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) were organising "coach loads of

Much of our time is spent worrying about the authoritarian leanings
of our leaders. Things are so much simpler on the unstable subcontinent.

By Alex Stevenson

The insight into the mind of ex-military autocrat Pervez Musharraf provided by London thinktank Chatham House yesterday afternoon is a case in point.

Mr Musharraf, or General (retired) Musharraf as he prefers but is almost never known, facilitated this process by appearing in person himself. On more than one occasion he slipped into what must be described as some sort of jovial dictator syndrome.

"I am a civilian, I am not a military man. I cannot take over or anything," he said at one stage, shrugging his shoulders in avuncular fashion. "Even if I think something is wrong in Pakistan!"

As he had just spent the last 45 minutes explaining at length the many things he thinks are wrong with Pakistan, we were left to assume this was more than a mere rhetorical flourish.

In fact General (retired, probably for ever) Musharraf

The crucial marginal of Gedling is exactly the kind of seat which David Cameron must win if he to take the coming general election.

By Alex Stevenson

This Nottinghamshire battleground is expected to be one of the closest in the East Midlands region. Vernon Coaker, the schools and learners minister, is being drawn into a tough fight. His 8.6 per cent majority in the 2005 election places him 90th in the list of Tory target seats. This is the kind of seat the Conservatives must win if they are to establish an overall majority. Both sides recognise it's a seat of crucial importance.

Coaker's challenge is Bruce Laughton, who during the days of Conservative opposition on the county council shadowed first the finance and then the environment portfolios. Gedling's borough council fell to Labour in 2007; two years later the county council followed.

"The individuals within the constituency are intelligent, understanding voters," Coaker's challenger Bruce Laughton says. "They will vote with their

The public, whose default attitude towards politicians is one of deep suspicion, are at their most sensitive when our elected representatives cry. Gordon Brown's gamble this weekend might not pay off.

By Alex Stevenson

Politics isn't just about ideas. It's about people. So politicians need to show emotion, sometimes, to help us realise they're ordinary human beings too.

The prime minister has spent much of his premiership apparently doing his best to ignore this unfortunate home truth. We've grown so used to calling Brown 'dour', 'reserved' and 'guarded' it's now almost a reflex. He has deliberately sought to shield his children from the public glare. What a contrast with his naturally charismatic predecessor, whose unpopularity stemmed from entirely different personality flaws.

Recent months have seen a shift, however. It turns out that far from being the grumpy old man we thought he was, the prime minister is as cute and cuddly as my baby sister's favourite teddy bear. Brown has shod