Middle-class parents know how to win the race for places at ‘good’ state schools, despite an admissions code which aims to level the playing field Photograph: Unknown/PA Middle-class anxiety about state education is being fuelled by a controversial new book which portrays comprehensive schools too bleakly, according to a headmaster featured in it. Andrew Penman’s [...]

Eoin Morgan hits out during England’s win over Pakistan. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images There are, said Andrew Strauss before yesterday’s game, just a dozen matches of this kind for England to play before their first World Cup match next February, so this series is about putting finishing touches to their selection process, an eliminator in [...]

The Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff – the assembly could help pay for ailing Welsh language channel S4C. Photograph: David Jones/PA A few days ago an email arrived in my inbox from the Welsh Language Society, Cymdeithas yr Iaith. It threatened a resumption of “non-violent direct action” similar to that adopted in the fight to [...]

AP Sept. 9: Tiger Woods tees off on the 11th hole during the first round at the BMW Championship golf tournament in Lemont, Ill. LEMONT, Ill. — At this point in a strange season, slow starts should be nothing new to Tiger Woods. This one came at a bad time. The BMW Championship is the [...]

Unite said it was ‘appalled’ by HSBC’s move. Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA HSBC, which last week doubled its first-half profits to £7.2bn, today faced a confrontation with unions after demanding changes to the contracts of its branch managers. According to union Unite 12,000...