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Her adviser should probably not have issued a reminder to the paper, but Miller may feel it is she who is being picked on Share 1 inShare0 Email The culture secretary's housing arrangements have come under scrutiny. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters Should Maria Miller's special adviser have reminded – "flagged up" was the verb of choice – the Daily Telegraph that the boss is currently involved in discussions over the new post-Leveson regime for press regulation when the paper started sniffing around her expenses claims over her London home, the one where her parents also live? Probably not in the current inflamed climate, I'd say. Should the Telegraph have made an issue of its hurt feelings in today's edition? Probably not. These things happen. Politicians and their bagmen and women try to bribe (with information) or bully newspapers, the press does the same – as everyone who listened to much of the evidence presented to Lord Justice Leveson in court

Evidence that state agents connived in the lawyer's murder is disturbing, but context is important Share 7 inShare0 Email The De Silva report into the murder of Pat Finucane. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Who could not be disturbed by the latest evidence from the De Silva report that agents of the British state connived in the murder of the Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane all those years ago, or moved by the dignity of the dead man's family in pressing for yet further investigation of what happened and how it was subsequently covered up? There are plenty of questions still to be teased out. The Slugger O'Toole website, always a lively read, provides a few here in an item written by Brian Walker, a well-informed former BBC correspondent and Ulsterman. But broad context matters too. Terrible things were done in Northern Ireland in the Troubles, some of them by the state but rather more by the paramilitary gangs on both sides, the loyalist gangs and by the prime m

Looking back on 2012, Labour MP Bridget Phillipson sets out three Cs - connectivity, competitiveness and cooperation - as the core of revival in a region rich in people, skills and resources Share 34 inShare0 Email Showing the way: Bridget Phillipson on her election as MP for Houghton and Sunderland South at the general election. Photograph: Gareth Copley/PA Despite the reported headline fall in unemployment this week, 2012 was yet another year when thousands of young people across the north east could not find work. In my constituency in Sunderland long term youth unemployment has risen by 194 per cent in the last year. Hard pressed families have no choice but to support younger family members, despite already suffering from the effects of lower wages, higher energy bills and rising food prices. The social and economic consequences of long term youth unemployment are devastating to the wider community as well as destroying young people's confidence and future career prosp

The Guardian Northerner's political commentor Ed Jacobs picks some statistics to illustrate the way the party fared in 2012 Share 7 inShare0 Email Off your bike. In a generally good northern year for Labour, John Prescott took a spill. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA It's been a year of mostly ups for Labour in the north, but not entirely. Success was punctuated by the shock of the dreadful result for the party in the Bradford West by-election which saw George Galloway return to Westminster for Respect. The party also had to endure prolonged controversy over one of its own MPs, Denis MacShane, who was ultimately forced to resign his Rotherham seat over misclaimed expenses. And John Prescott's high profile attempt to become Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside proved a damp squib. So here is Labour's year in the north in numbers: 47% is the average support for Labour in northern England in 2012 among those certain to vote as measured in the Guardian's

Manchester councillor Amina Lone finds worrying practice in the Government's altered system of assessing and paying disability benefits Share 136 inShare0 Email One of many recent protests against disability benefits assessment tests. Photograph: Philip Kirk/Corbis The welfare reforms enacted by the coalition government have proved to be controversial; but none more so that the shift from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independent Payments (PIPs). Each share many similarities, for instance the inclusion of a daily living allowance and mobility component that are essential to ensure that individuals can maintain control over their own lives by taking responsibility through personal choice. However, organisations such as Disability Rights UK believe that the main driver is to cut allowance and reduce public expenditure. Whilst reducing the deficit is of course critical for our economy, it is also a political choice about who carries the responsibility for achi

Elizabeth II's reputation for restraint means she is given a lot of credit – which was not always true of her predecessors Share 32 inShare0 Email The Queen and David Cameron – distantly related via some 200-year-old hanky-panky. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images The announcement that the Queen will be attending a session of the cabinet on Tuesday to mark her diamond jubilee tells us more about the monarch, the cabinet and indeed ourselves than is obvious at first glance. Not so long ago the very idea might have caused uproar, among constitutional purists as well as republicans. It may well do again one day. The Queen has spent 60 years demonstrating personal restraint and (most of the time) discreet good judgment. That may be why the rightwing press failed to get pompous about her dignity when she did that classy gig with James Bond for the Olympic opening ceremony. She has a lot of credit in the bank. That was not always true of Queen Victoria, whose reputation fo

Private equity firm Cerberus is selliing its stake in gunmakers – instead of leading a campaign to clean up gun laws Share 56 inShare0 Email The Newtown school shootings have sparked renewed calls for gun control. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA I thought BBC Radio 4 showed commendable delicacy on day four of the Newtown school massacre story when it placed an unrelated news item within its wall-to-wall coverage of the dreadful slaughter of 20 children and their teachers from a report that nine Afghan girls had been killed when they stumbled on an old landmine when foraging for firewood. Though no offence was meant, the contrast between the coverage of the two incidents was painful. The grief of the American parents, the shock that went through wider society, so powerful that even the powerful and complacent National Rifle Association (NRA) noticed by day five, was heart-rending and distressing. But to my mind the coverage was excessive, with the multiplier effect caused b