David Willetts: Solving our nation’s problems requires a fair deal for the young

They have been handed a raw deal during the course of the pandemic. Investing in them is an investment in our future.

What Thatcher’s response to the AIDS crisis teaches us about tackling the present pandemic

The proposals published today to make England the first country to end new cases of HIV fit within a Tory tradition of pragmatic health policy.

Three actions that Ministers must take if we’re to live without fear. Or else they and we will be lost.

If the public conversation about lives and livelihoods doesn’t change, we risk being trapped in semi-lockdown semi-permanently.

We need a Plan B for universities as well as schools – and much the same one

Many still assume that going to college and leaving home are bound up together. But it ain’t necessarily so.

Neil O’Brien: Higher and technical eduation. The universities should reform themselves. Or have reform forced on them.

For a country deep in debt, lofty thoughts are not enough to justify such huge numbers of students doing things that don’t help them economically,

Dean Godson: How the Conservatives divide on policy towards China

As with Brexit, much of the Tory family finds itself pitted against the permanent State on how Britain aligns itself in the world.

Scruton and the Tories. “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country.”

Why is the Party so mistrustful of Tory intellectuals? We mourn the passing of our former contributor.

Do voters distrust Johnson on the healthcare? Sure. But Labour is no longer seen as “the party of the NHS”, either.

The latter’s NHS myth is fading as time passes, and younger people bring their consumer viewpoint to their use of public services.

Nick Hillman: Don’t be swayed by the outrage. Treating EU students like other non-British students makes sense.

There are real problems with the Government’s general approach to international students. But morally and economically, this decision is the right one.

Philip Booth: Field is a great man and a great politician – but no, he is not a Conservative

It would be a mistake for the Conservatives to even try to recruit him. Instead, they should follow his lead of thinking – and saying – the unsayable.

Our survey. Are Tory members shifting towards backing tax rises? They divide over one to help fund the NHS.

41 per cent say spending should rise further and be funded by a specific hike, while 44 per cent oppose the idea.

David Willetts: The tuition fee system makes sense. The challenge now is to make it acceptable.

In his second piece on Higher Education, the former Universities Minister looks at how they might be tweaked – and why the alternatives are reactionary, expensive or both.

Universities. The Conservatives will be “stepping up our speaker programme”. Here are some suggestions.

Boles isn’t as well known as the star of our Moggcast, but he is well-briefed, independent-minded and can make waves.

Interview: Jo Johnson condemns the hounding of vice-chancellors over their pay

The Universities Minister takes on Lord Adonis, and insists the new regulator will control pay by insisting on transparency and the right benchmarks.

Willetts makes a powerful case for university expansion

The former minister upholds tuition fees, points out that these are good for the poor, and attacks academic resistance to competition.