Being released is a 're-entry to Earth'

Terry Waite and Brian Keenan have both compared their release from captivity to being a diver returning from the seabed

Tory guru’s bulletins from the thick of it

David Cameron has denied that Steve Hilton is like the TV comedy character, but his strategy e-mails to MPs are cool stuff

Brown promises to beef up UK airport security

PM orders review after 'wake-up call' of failed Christmas Day airline attack, and plans meeting on Yemen radicalisation

Bitterness of old year spills over into new

Britain’s assertion that it has ‘no evidence’ that the hostage Peter Moore was held for a time in Iran cut no ice in Tehran

Half of new armoured vehicles out of service

The Army’s Mastiff and Ridgeback armoured patrol vehicles appear to be unreliable, according to figures obtained by Lib Dems

Cameron can learn from Thatcher in 1979

The new Conservative Government agonised over cutting public spending. How it did so provides some clear lessons for today

‘A cheeky, bumptious, clever boy.’ Not much change then

Alex Salmond’s biographer David Torrance considers the making of the man who became Scotland’s Nationalist First Minister

Bruised and battered, but Salmond will bounce back

Celebrating his 55th birthday today, Alex Salmond may reflect on one auld acquaintance gladly forgot — the year 2009

Tories defy Cameron with plot to ditch Bercow

Tory leader has been warned his backbenchers will try to oust Bercow immediately after the general election

UK thought Reagan would be a lazy president

Archive papers reveal British diplomats’ verdict on Republican candidate in the early days of US election campaign

Benn wanted BBC to take over The Times

Energy Minister feared that the newspaper would not survive year-long strike that had stopped its publication

Thatcher preferred 'whites' over Vietnamese

Former Prime Minister tried to block 'boat people', preferring white immigrants from Rhodesia or Poland, secret papers reveal

Brown insists recession has ended

Gordon Brown to launch fresh attack on the 'privileged few' while insisting he will protect those on middle incomes

Britain rethinks strategy on China

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office appears to have considerably overestimated its leverage with the emerging superpower

How Britain tactfully told the Shah to keep out

National Archive papers show the extraordinary efforts made to avoid upsetting the new regime in Iran

MP stands down due to mental illness

Iris Robinson, wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, suggested homosexuals could be 'turned around' with help

Mandelson: how to deal with your 'boomerang kids'

Lord Mandelson, who has bounced back to the Cabinet three times, gives his advice about children moving back to the family home

Private schools hindered by Whitehall rules

Endless government regulation and a tick-box culture is diverting teachers away from education, says top head teacher