Labour say Lord Ashcroft will be celebrating ‘payback time’ now that ministers have approved the construction of an airport on St Helena. Photograph: Rex Features The government faced accusations todayof improper use of aid funds after ministers approved the construction of an airport on the tiny South Atlantic island of St Helena just weeks after [...]

The UK spends a high proportion of its university budget on student support. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The university funding crisis is largely manufactured – the result of the new government’s panicky surrender to deficit busting, but also of the increasingly wild debate about who should pay for higher education. The coalition partners are deeply [...]

Thad Allen, highlighting seepage around the capped BP oil well, told a news conference the leaks were not a threat. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Concerns about oil and gas seepages around BP’s newly capped well in the Gulf of Mexico appear to have eased after the US government said they were not “consequential”. Thad Allen, [...]

The new commission will be free to examine compulsory funding of long-term care. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian The government was accused today of performing a U-turn on one of the most explosive issues of the general election when the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, left open the option of a “death tax” to fund [...]