David Willetts: Yes, let’s have more white male working class students. And new universities, too – some in the Red Wall.

The final piece in our series on levelling up comes from our fortnightly columnist – as the White Paper looms.

Vox Pub in Sidcup: “I think that Boris will get in and Labour will have to have a rethink”.

Voters at this week’s by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup are angry with the Prime Minister, but do not appear to have settled on anyone better.

Sunak resisted Rees-Mogg being moved to the Treasury as Chief Secretary at the last reshuffle

The Leader of the House has been a critic of tax rises, and is a key ally of the Prime Minister.

Daniel Hannan: The Prime Minister is no more off-the-wall than he used to be. But his Peppa Pigg riff revealed his allies have changed.

It is always easier to laugh at the jokes of someone you like, and Rightist columnists no longer indulge their former colleague.

Sarah Ingham: In these woke-not-bloke days, the military’s main mission is being increasingly overlooked

Those in power seem to actively dislike the culture which has made Britain’s forces globally respected.

Bim Afolami: MPs’ plight. Trolls, terrorists and thugs account for much of it. But some our problems are of our own making.

We need to stand up for the value of Parliament and of spending time there improving and working on legislation.

Andrew Bowie: Cameron, and his modernising agenda, inspired my generation. Who or what will inspire the next one?

Conservatives must reach out, listen and engage much more with young people.

Sympathy for Sunak

The Chancellor is damned if he yields to backbenchers’ demands for bailouts – and damned if he doesn’t.

Eamonn Ives: Markets, price signals, and supply-side reforms can hasten decarbonisation. Ministers take note.

Extending carbon pricing would serve as a constant pressure on emissions. But it won’t be enough on its own.

Churchill, walking with destiny. Johnson, winking at destiny.

His biggest strength now is that to a mass of people who don’t follow politics he is a Given, A Fact – like Thatcher, Blair or the weather.

Tim Montgomerie: Lessons for ideology-free Johnson – and the Conservatives – in ideology-free Merkel’s legacy. And her party’s fate.

Political popularity appears to be broad and sustained but, when eventually it is exhausted, the falling away of support is dramatic.

Peter Franklin: Ten reasons why Labour isn’t dead yet

If Conservatives don’t take the Opposition seriously, one can hardly blame them. And yet that could prove to be a big mistake.

Payne journeys through the Red Wall seats to discover how Labour lost them and Johnson won

Local pride in towns like Blyth is wounded at every turn by evidence of neglect, shoddiness and former greatness.

Robert Halfon: America has abandoned the Afghans. But we must stick with the Kurds.

My great fear is that 
isolationism on the left and right could take root. And not all interventions have been disastrous – let alone about imposing our values.

Andrew Haldenby: Health and Social Care. Central planning and targets didn’t work for Blair – and won’t do so for Johnson, either.

The Government has a choice. Local solutions with limited funding – or £10 billion on centralised non-solutions.