Sunak whistles in the dark

The Chancellor is groping his way, knowing well that the future is unknowable, trying to hold on to as much of the past as he can.

Rough sleeping has fallen sharply. The challenge is to stop it rising again.

A bed is not enough. A chance of employment, as well as good physical and mental health are needed to turn lives around.

Robert Halfon: The Government was wise to give way to Rashford. Now let him head up the Social Mobility Commission.

Plus: vision from the top for left-behind pupils, a National Education Broadcasting Service, and Alan Turing summer schools.

Christian Guy: Slavery. Not a remote horror from the past, but a living one in the present. It must be stamped out.

We’ve seen gunshot wounds and babies born as a result of rape. With UK Border Force in Dover, we found a girl heading for a lifetime of sexual slavery.

James Frayne: We should prepare ourselves to hear horrifying tales of what’s happened in lockdown Britain

Getting the economy moving won’t even begin to give the Government political momentum. It will need to conduct its own Fairness Audit.

Keelan Carr: That sinking feeling. The ups, stresses and downs of writing speeches for a Prime Minister.

When the brief is, for example, a speech to commemorate Armistice Day or World AIDS Day, the challenge is even more intense.

Robert Halfon: The Budget we need today is for social as well as physical infrastructure

Plus: As of writing, I’ve had hardly any communications at all from constituents about the Coronavirus.

Andrew Boff: Ending the prohibition of drugs is becoming a mainstream view

Legalise the mainstream ones, such as cannabis. Decriminalise the more harmful, but lesser used, ones such as heroin.

Robert Ward: Robust data is needed to defeat knife crime

We are left with a scattergun of projects, selected on old information, the best sales pitch, and political favouritism.

Chris Bullivant: If free market and social conservatives find common ground, they could be unstoppable

The schism between between Tory Eurosceptics and Europhiles has been overcome; now another divide must be healed.

Richard Holden: Five ideas for the new Chancellor’s Budget

The Chancellor could please every beer & cider drinker; charity donor; motorhome manufacturer, retailer and owner; caravan site owner, and public toilet user in Britain.

Nadhim Zahawi: The new drug that helps prove our commitment to the NHS

Inclisiran was the reason for one of the first phone calls I made when appointed to my present role last year.

WATCH: Phillips – “I’m definitely open to different models around decriminalisation.”

She says that she’s open to the conversation because the full-on prohibition of illegal drugs isn’t working.

Robert Halfon: For years, I’ve urged that the Conservatives become a Workers Party. Now it is one.

As the Prime Minister said, many people have lent us their vote, and they won’t be so generous next time if we get it wrong.

Matthew Barber: How catching drug dealers cuts crime more generally

A string of bicycle thefts could be a coordinated plan, with those stealing the bikes paid with a small amount of Class A drugs.