Ian Mulheirn blogs in the Independent on Osborne's options for growth

DAVID Cameron has a problem with women. Politically, that is. Everything, I’m sure, is fine with his wife.

Ian Mulheirn writes for the Times public sector pages on why it's time to scrap the Winter Fuel allowance

Ian Mulheirn writes for the Financial Times on why the macroeconomic debate has become sterile and what can be done about it.

Our networks – including our nationality, class and family – are critical in the formation of our character. This is because our actions are heavily determined by the unconscious, which is shaped by social context.

Ian Mulheirn writes for the journal of the Centre for Markets and Public Organisation.

Allow childminders to deliver early years free entitlement even if they aren't a member of an approved network, writes Ryan Shorthouse, researcher for the Social Market Foundation.

THOUSANDS of talented young people are in the process of applying to university....

The Social Market Foundation’s new report 'The Parent Trap', published yesterday, illustrates worrying growth in the private contribution parents are likely to have to make to afford childcare by 2016.

Ian Mulheirn lays out a growth plan to boost one of our traditional economic strengths.

The failure of Southern Cross wasn't a failure of private capital per se. If properly regulated, private operators can make services better for citizens.

Education really is the passport to thrive in modern society. Without a basic education, people are left feeling disillusioned or excluded.

The long-term educational and social outcomes of young people are generally determined very early in their lives.

Ryan Shorthouse from the Social Market Foundation believes that, far from breaking down, the family unit is as strong as it has ever been.

Time to blame the parents. Again.

Ken Clarke is right to blame our penal system for the high percentage of reoffenders involved in last month's riots.

The Government's flagship back-to-work scheme, the Work Programme, is a bold and innovative policy to tackle long-term unemployment.

Despite the heated opposition, it could be that the government's changes to the planning system do make sense.

How easily some commentators have joined forces with the rioters to trash modern society.

The Government’s flagship back to work scheme, the Work Programme, is in peril. The bold new scheme, which pays private and not-for-profit providers by results for getting the long-term unemployed into work, looks likely to substantially undershoot the Government’s expectations, putting it at risk of financial collapse.

Last week saw the launch of the long-awaited white paper on public service reform. As a vision of how to achieve better public services at lower cost there was much to like.

Last week, David Willetts - the Universities Minister but also the Chair of the Government's Gateways to the Professions forum - launched a new government code for Internships.

Pensions have become a key battleground between government and public sector workers.

"Idiot," she mumbled, leaving the room. Well, yes, I am. And proud of it.

Despite the welcome sentiments of the Open Public Services white paper, it's easy for the strategy to get derailed by failing to address the supply side issues.

Too often the attractive headline price that draws customers to a certain current account, credit card or Isa is just a smokescreen.

David Cameron said he was "very relaxed" about offering the children of his friends internships to work in his office.

House prices are plummeting at record rates. What should the government do? Alistair Darling, the chancellor, has been knocking around a few ideas lately, but they are the wrong ones. The government needs to leave the market alone and focus on mitigating the social, rather than the financial, consequences of the downturn.