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This is where I discuss the way we live in the UK and the many ways in which that is constantly changing
02:15 UK time, Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Forget the general knowledge quiz, the most interesting part of the government's new citizenship booklet is that, for the first time, it sets out our civic responsibilities.
The UK government has always been strangely reluctant to spell out what is expected from its people. Citizenship has been an essentially passive legal status involving few demands beyond obeying the law.
09:31 UK time, Monday, 28 January 2013
Ask me for the most important broadcast on the BBC each day and my answer is a moment of silence.
It comes a second before six o'clock each evening on Radio 4, between the Westminster chimes and the heavy cracked bong of Big Ben.
14:21 UK time, Friday, 25 January 2013
Will the government's Protection of Freedoms Act lead to an increase in murders, rapes and other serious crimes? New research from the United States suggests it might.
The legislation, which became law last May, is resulting in many thousands of DNA profiles being removed from the UK's giant DNA database - people arrested but not convicted of a serious offence after three years. Ministers argue that the previous approach, in which DNA samples were kept indefinitely, undermined the freedom of innocent citizens.
11:45 UK time, Thursday, 24 January 2013
Here's my report about changes to housing benefit which could lead to a rise in evictions, according to the National Housing Federation (NHF).
From October, the payment will no longer be made directly to landlords but to their tenants once a month.
08:19 UK time, Wednesday, 23 January 2013
When I was a teenager, "social networking" mostly involved hanging around with a few mates at the Butter Cross in Winchester's ancient High Street. Or at the coach station. Or, if wet, in the bus shelter.
Without money, it all got very boring very quickly.
12:46 UK time, Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Here's my report on the government's drugs strategy in England and Wales - it is not working because it focuses too much on criminal prosecutions, a police chief has told the BBC.
Tim Hollis of Humberside Police says responsibility for drug policy should be moved from the Home Office to Health. His words come on the same day as the British Medical Association called for addicts to be treated the same way as people with any other illness.
20:47 UK time, Friday, 11 January 2013
Jimmy Savile's ability to commit hundreds of serious sexual offences inside public institutions, "hiding in plain sight" as Friday's police and NSPCC report on his crimes puts it, seems almost incredible.
And for his victims, it is indeed credibility which is the issue at the heart of this scandal.
12:09 UK time, Wednesday, 9 January 2013
The simple fact that most prisoners come out of jail and reoffend is the government's central justification for dismantling the state-provided probation service in England and Wales. The hard part is putting something else in its place that will work better.
The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling is determined to cut recidivism but he wants to save money at the same time. His answer is, effectively, to privatise probation. All but the highest risk offenders will be managed by non-state providers.
17:11 UK time, Wednesday, 2 January 2013
The Census 2011 shows a 20% increase in the number of people in England and Wales whose marriages have collapsed, compared with a decade before.
There are now more than four million divorcees and more than a million people who are separated from their spouse.
01:14 UK time, Wednesday, 26 December 2012
Regular readers will know that this is a festive quiz with a difference - no-one is expected to know any of the answers.
Now in its fifth year, my Boxing Day Puzzler is specifically designed to foil the resident clever-clogs and give hope to those struggling to focus after the indulgence of Christmas Day.
01:44 UK time, Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Was 2012 a bad, good or great year? On one hand, awful weather and the rising cost of food and fuel. On the other, a sporting bonanza and a rise in employment.
We anticipated disaster. Jubilympic scale disaster.
15:08 UK time, Thursday, 20 December 2012
Here's my report into the Pollard review which showed there was "chaos and confusion" at the BBC over a shelved report into sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile, but there had been no cover-up, an inquiry has found.
The report dismissed claims the Newsnight probe was dropped to protect tribute shows to the late TV presenter.
06:03 UK time, Friday, 14 December 2012
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is calling for a royal commission on drugs, just five days after the prime minister and the home secretary rejected the idea.
On Monday an all-party committee of MPs recommended there should be a fundamental review of Britain's drugs laws, but David Cameron said that was unnecessary.
10:30 UK time, Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Here's my report about the 2011 census which shows the number of foreign-born residents in England and Wales has risen by nearly three million since 2001 to 7.5 million people.
That means about one in eight - 13% - of residents were born outside the UK.
14:31 UK time, Tuesday, 4 December 2012
What do current news stories about the Leveson report, Starbucks, nursing and the Scouts have in common? They all have an underlying theme - what it means to do one's duty.
As a young cub with the First Glasgow Scouts in the 1960s, I remember feeling a profound sense of solemnity and significance as I saluted and intoned the promise, on my honour, "to do my duty to God and to the Queen".
10:42 UK time, Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Here's my report about the government's flagship welfare-to-work programme which has failed to hit its main target, official figures show.
Under the scheme, firms and charities are paid to help find jobs for the long-term unemployed.
10:18 UK time, Saturday, 24 November 2012
Government plans to change the way social housing tenants pay their rent, could have serious consequences for some of the poorest people in Britain - and their landlords. So why are they being kept secret from the public?
Government ministers talk a lot about the importance of transparency and openness in the way the state operates. So it is surprising and disappointing that on an issue that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Britain they are being so secretive.
11:58 UK time, Friday, 16 November 2012
And so the inquest begins. Why were the people of England and Wales so emphatically indifferent to being given the power to elect their police and crime commissioners (PCC)?
There will be arguments about the wisdom of holding an election in November, the lack of information, the fact that many details were only available online, concerns about politicisation of the police, the vast constituencies, the shortage of high-profile candidates and on and on.
20:30 UK time, Monday, 12 November 2012
An acting director general. An acting head of news. There's a joke going round that there's more acting in BBC management at the moment than in EastEnders.
But there is a serious point. What we are seeing at the moment is not the thorough structural radical overhaul promised by the BBC Trust but emergency measures to try and steady the ship.
23:37 UK time, Saturday, 10 November 2012
George Entwistle said in one of his interviews that the BBC faced a big crisis of trust.
And it is that word trust that is the key to understanding his decision to resign.
Mark joined his local paper after leaving school, inspired to become a journalist by playing Waddington's Scoop aged 13.
He has won numerous awards for his reporting. Most recently, his writing won a Royal Statistical Society award for excellence and was a finalist in the online journalism awards in San Francisco.
His ambition is to try to chronicle the story of changing Britain, and for Arsenal to win some silverware.
Before becoming BBC News home editor in 2004, Mark was home and social affairs editor at Channel Four News and political editor at Five News.
He is married with four children.
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