Labour’s persistent failure to address its electorate’s salient concerns is behind the protest vote, asserts DIANE ABBOTT
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A-levels and U-turns
The secret algorithm that penalised all students — especially those from poorer schools — shows just how little our ruling class actually believes in meritocracy, explain SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Washington’s lawless behaviour towards countries in the region it considers its ‘back yard’ should be condemned by all law-abiding people, says LUKE DANIELS
In part I of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY takes a look at the early days of organising government workers
Colombia’s success in controlling the drug trade should be recognised and its sovereignty respected, argues Dr GLORY SAAVEDRA
The shadow lord chancellor has recently made a name for himself as an rabid hater of immigration – but there are exceptions to every rule, says SOLOMON HUGHES
Plaid Cymru’s front-bench spokesman on health and social services MABON AP GWYNFOR, in a two-part series, analyses the Caerphilly by-election and the wider political scene in Wales ahead of the 2026 Senedd election
LOOKING into the details of the now-abandoned algorithm used to predict exam results in England last week it was announced that students and teachers had squeezed a hard-fought and rapid U-turn out of the Conservative government.
The reversal of previous decisions in the A-level results fiasco in England followed earlier U-turns by both the SQA under the SNP in Scotland, and the Welsh Labour government.
In an already agonising and difficult year, the government had used an opaque algorithm that was not available for public scrutiny to predict grades for students who were unable to sit their exams due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The word algorithm here is being used to mean the use of statistics to predict and determine outcomes, rather than merely monitor and analyse distributions to better understand them. As in the old saying “lies, damn lies and statistics” — algorithms, or the systematised application of statistics, can be used to justify any political will imaginable.
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