News about John Stuart Mill

COMMENT DAILY MAIL: More than half of local councils have warned that they are in danger of going broke, you might expect they're tracking every penny. Despite this, they have almost doubled their spending on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) roles, which most council taxpayers would consider as superfluous in these tough times. A change from £12 million a year to £23 million might not be significant in the midst of a big gamut of public spending. However, libraries are closing and social care is being squeezed, it shows a warped sense of priorities. Taking Birmingham is a challenge. The city's majority Labour council declared itself bankrupt last September, owing to persistent mismanagement and weak investments. As a result, it must lift council tax by a whopping 21% and slash services. Despite this, the corporation found the funds to recruit an EDI 'tsar' at a salary of over £100,000.

STEPHEN GLOVER: The Conservatives have been praised as a powerful election winning machine, and their pragmatism has made them the country's most influential political party in the last century. However, they suffer from time to time from time to time, and John Stuart Mill's description of them as the'stupid party' is accurate. This is just such a time. We're a year from a general election, and most polls show Sir Keir Starmer (right) and Labour will win by a vast majority. You might guess that now is not the time to start a new round of internecine war. However, that is just what has happened in the last few days as a follower of Rishi Sunak (left) trade insults with Boris Johnson's (second from left) bag carriers. In yesterday's Mail, Jacob Rees-Mogg (inset) warned Tory party leaders that they should not stop his hero from fighting any constituency that might pique his interest.

COMMENT FROM SUNDAY: Our freedom to think and talk is one of the things that have made us happy and prosperous. According to John Stuart Mill, the great apostle of liberty, silenced an opinion. He said it would harm those who disagreed with the banned view even more than those who hold it: 'If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error