Jonathan Freedland on The Evening Standard

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Jonathan Freedland

Don't knock faith schools - they work

Today is the first day of the Jewish new year. To mark it my sons will have two days off school, just as I did as a child. But there's a difference. When I stayed away for Rosh Hashana, or any other Jewish festival, lessons continued for my classmates as normal. But my two boys go to a Jewish state primary school - which today and tomorrow will be emphatically shut.

13 September 2007 03:30 PM

The killing of a schoolboy sets Gordon Brown his toughest test in London

Soon words themselves begin to feel weak. How do you describe the murder of yet another teenager on London's streets? Do you say Tuesday night's killing of Martin Dinnegan, aged just 14, in Holloway was appalling? A tragedy? A wicked crime? It was all three, of course, but somehow the words seem tired if only because we have already used them nine times in the past five months.

07 September 2007 07:08 PM

We can't beat terror without free speech

There is now a rhythm to these things. First comes the terror alert, then comes the assault on civil liberties with free speech first in the firing line. It happened like that after 7 July 2005 when Tony Blair declared "the rules of the game have changed", before rattling off a 12-step plan that would have banned this group and closed down that mosque all in the name of the war on terror.

07 September 2007 07:07 PM

My hopes and fears for the great health shake-up

When I read about the new plan for a radical overhaul of London's health service published yesterday, I confess I searched for mention of one hospital in particular. I wanted to know what fate Sir Ara Darzi, the acclaimed surgeon tapped by Gordon Brown to be a junior health minister and author of the new vision, had in mind for University College Hospital.

07 September 2007 07:06 PM

Change this crazy drug law for our children's sake

London parents will be torn by this decision, divided not just among themselves but within themselves, too. Gordon Brown's proposed review of the reclassification of cannabis apparently aimed at branding dope once more as a Class B, rather than as a less serious Class C drug will split many Londoners of a certain age in two. It will pit their youthful selves against the people they are now.

07 September 2007 07:04 PM

Will nobody answer for killing Jean Charles?

They say justice delayed is justice denied and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes must be feeling the truth of that twice over. More than two years have passed since the 27-yearold Brazilian was shot dead by police at Stockwell station. Yet after 25 long months, still no one has been brought to account for his death.

07 September 2007 07:02 PM

Welcome back to the age of the train

We all know the problem. Even if you're lucky enough not to have travelled through Heathrow recently, you'll have read the tales of woe in the pages of the Standard and elsewhere.

07 September 2007 07:01 PM

Stand by for London's new class war

The race to be London's Mayor hardly needs to be talked up. It's already mesmerising, pitting two of the most compelling personalities in British politics, Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson - who launched his campaign this week - against each other. And it's important: at stake is the largest direct electoral mandate in Europe bar the presidency of France, and executive authority over the greatest city in the world. As if that's not enough, the London race is also set to be a trial run for the next general election. The Ken v Boris contest could foreshadow uncannily the Brown v Cameron battle to come - with London as a testbed for the entire country.

06 September 2007 04:05 PM

Breath of fresh air: the sunny bank holiday weather saw Londoners flocking to enjoy St James's Park

London must invest in its great outdoors

So the sun waited until the last days of August finally to show its face. But this latest spell apart, it has not been a classic summer for outdoor life in London. A washed-out May, June, July and most of August meant there were all too few of those balmy evenings when you could stand on a street corner and drink till the sun slips away. Most of the time it felt like the year summer forgot. All we could do in revenge was to steal the odd hint of summer when it came our way.

04 September 2007 03:08 PM