Labour must speak not only for organised labour

As predictable headlines follow Ed Miliband committing to speak at the TUC rally on March 26th, Rob Marchant takes a more detached look at how the relationships between Party, movement and workplace demographics interact.

Demographic expert: Tunisia may be ready for democracy, Egypt probably isn’t

The model does indicate that there are grounds for optimism in Tunisia. The proportion of its working age adults who are young adults is xxx, which translates to a probability of liberal democracy of 0.48, or around one in two, similar to Chile’s probability as it democratised. Meanwhile Egypt, with its young-adult proportion of 0.48, translates to a probability of liberal democracy of 0.31 – less than one in three.

Cost of studying for a degree to double by 2012

The annual cost of studying for a degree will double by 2012 – having already risen 300 per cent since 1988, through a combination of grant cuts, rising living costs and tuition fees, which the government last week confirmed would increase to a maximum £9,000 per year. The news comes as thousands of students prepare to march on Westminster today to protest the coalition’s “looming, savage education cuts”.