Case study: a long wait, or go private

Layla Stephen and her husband are among the thousands of couples denied IVF because they live in the wrong postcode

Boris awaits the next hurdle in Beijing

Baffling the locals, the London Mayor objected to a request to identify the main benefit to the City in hosting the Games

Schools make the grade to avert fear of closure

The threat of closure has been lifted from scores of schools on the Government’s National Challenge hit list

A fiasco waiting to happen

Unlike the disappearance of 25 million child benefit records, latest incidents involve private firms entrusted with personal data

Thousands of criminal files lost in data fiasco

Scotland Yard is investigating the loss of sensitive records left on a memory stick in a major breach of Whitehall security

Brown breaks silence on leadership crisis

Gordon Brown dismissed threats to his leadership yesterday and promised a package of help for hard-pressed families

NHS cancels thousands of operations

Data obtained by the Tories shows the most common reasons for cancellations were lack of beds, staff and equipment

Team GB: How to save Gordon Brown

He is back at his desk facing disastrous poll ratings and a premiership in meltdown. Six experts explain how they would rescue him

Councils want to offer competitive mortgages

Council chiefs argue that the public sector should be able to help first-time buyers and those unable to secure a home loan

‘Class divide’ as language study falls

In ten areas, mostly in the North, more than three quarters of teenagers are dropping language study at GCSE, figures show

Failing schools pinning hopes on five Cs

Nearly 200 struggling secondary schools could be put under new management unless their GCSE results today improve

Gay rights champion Abse dies aged 91

The flamboyant Welsh former Labour MP, who created the Bill to legalise gay sex in the UK, has died in London

Muslim prisoners seek sanctuary from attacks

Chief Inspector of Prisons finds that Muslims at a top-security jail avoid violence by entering the segregation unit

Traffic wardens told to get friendly

London's parking patrollers are to be sent on customer service seminars to learn how to smile

How your leftovers could power your home

Anaerobic digesters will solve landfill problems, provide electricity and make us feel better about our waste

Food waste buckets pricked town conscience

Within months of starting food waste collections in Ludlow the amount wasted by each family fell dramatically

Anaerobic digestion is win-win-win scenario

Anaerobic digestion really is the way forward: you put rubbish in one end and get valuable products out of the other

Stop vying for top job, Miliband followers told

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham tells his colleagues to avoid the impression of jostling to succeed Gordon Brown

Tories attack Brown on rich and poor gap

The Conservatives claim that the number of British people in deep poverty has risen by 900,000 since Labour came to power

Team GB faces £100m shortfall for London 2012

Despite taking 12 golds in Beijing Britain’s Olympic heroes will return to a political wrangle over a hole in sports funding