Neil O’Brien: Fifty shades of conservatism

It’s a bit like the roof of Parliament’s Westminster Hall: which is held up by a lot of huge, ancient beams all resting on each other.

Robert Halfon: Thatcherism was wrong. We need to build social as well as economic capital. Including in our schools.

Educational traditionalists are wrong to believe that if we focus on academic rigour and high standards alone, everything else will fall into place.

Iain Dale: As I prepared for my Question Time debut, I heard that Diane Abbott had pulled out. Was it something I said?

Plus: May in trouble and Rudd in danger over Windrush. Corbyn stumbles. The pound rises. Local elections loom. And: the dignity of Neville Lawrence.

London’s local elections. Beware of spin.

The capital isn’t a single political entity. Rather, it is still in some ways a Napoleon-of-Notting-Hill-style mass of small towns.

John Bald: Progressive educationalists ignore how the brain works

The evidence of improved standards shows that a knowledge-rich curriculum is the best way to enable each person to achieve the best of which he or she is capable.

Technical education. Who’s right – Gove or Baker?

The reality is that most of it will be concentrated on pupils older than 16 – whatever the best age may be at which to select.

Cameron, radical punk – how he should want to be remembered

The recently departed Prime Minister is re-emerging – and working on his memoirs. He will want to project his greatest achievement: public service reform.

Andrew Kennedy: Home lessons in why democracy matters from Latin America

I hope that in the electoral battle that lies ahead ahead, a fresh-faced volunteer will stand on the streets of Quito, and pose questions in a refined Liverpool accent.

Andrew Kennedy: Who were the best Conservative Party Chairmen in modern times?

Lord Woolton (pictured right) was the greatest-ever, rebuilding the Conservatives after the war. But here are my favourite five.

John Bald: How Ken Clarke battled the Blob as Education Secretary

He was quick to detect rubbish and obfuscation – both of which he rightly identified as the stock in trade of his civil servants.

Martin Parsons: We must end the prejudice against secondary modern schools

The statistics actually suggest that, nationally, students of a similar ability do better in these schools than in comprehensives.

Too much excitement about grammar schools, not enough about technical schools

Kenneth Baker is backing vocational education practically and enthusiastically. But too many other members of the Conservative family just aren’t interested in it.

Towards a Charter for Party Reform

The row over the Prime Minister’s remarks about local Associations has been mostly concocted. But the need for Party reform is real. We open a ConHome series.

The case for splitting up CCHQ

It is expected to plan for the long-term as well as the short. It isn’t doing this – so change is needed.

Think Big, Britain

I’ve long hoped that the next Tory manifesto would offer an agenda for ensuring Britain can compete in what Digby Jones has rightly called the ‘Asian century’.