Dr Rowan Williams has strongly criticised government plans to make the long-term unemployed do unpaid manual labour for their benefits.

As arms companies target university careers fairs, they may be hoping that the economic situation will encourage graduates to work for them. But a wave of student protests have broken out at graduate recruitment events across the UK, suggesting that students are more unwilling than ever to use their skills in the service of a trade that fuels war and perpetuates poverty.

At 11.5 per cent, the UK has the highest incidence of adults living in workless households of the six largest EU economies, says a new report.

A new report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) shows that Scotland’s unemployment rate is back to 1996 levels.