Sitting near a performer puts you in the firing line – but it also makes you an invaluable part of any comedy showJohn Oliver looked into my eyes and cocked his head. We held each other’s gaze. On the “stage” of an upstairs room in a grimy little pub, his...

The inspectors’ new catchphrase shows ‘white, middle-class paternalism’ that will alienate many students, critics say A two-word term, invented in the 1970s by a French sociologist heavily influenced by Karl Marx, makes an unlikely entrance in Ofsted’s new framework [pdf] for the inspection of schools in England this week.Each institution...