Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

This year for South Africa is, above all, the occasion we host the World Cup. Expectations for the success of our own soccer team are miserably low, so – on the pitch at least – there is unlikely to be disappointment. Even a moderate showing will be greeted with relief, while a place in the quarter-finals would precipitate delirium.

Millions of people aged between 40 and 74 could soon be given the legal right to a health check every five years. By law, the National Health Service would have to offer a barrage of tests to assess our risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease.

Murad Qureshi says that while others are clobbering bankers, London’s Mayor clobbers commuters instead

All human life is up ’ere, as the News of the World used to say and perhaps still does, for all I know. And more besides, indeed. The tragicomedy of Doncaster blunders on, unscripted and out of control. While the nation reeled at the sheer horror of child-on-child violence in the former pit village of Edlington, the council responsible for their care carried on its private war oblivious to the disbelieving gaze of the outside world. You think they have reached the limits of farce and they go and exceed themselves.

How much do you love your partner? Are they worth £30 a year to you? Or perhaps £380 a year? As with much concerning Conservative Party policy, which now includes marriage, it all depends on how much money you have to begin with. That £30 per annum is approximately what the poorest married couple could expect to save under Tory proposals to give married couples a tax break. That £380 a year is how much better off those who already have a large household income could expect to be under the Tories. In fact, this constitutes a hugely redistributive tax – from poor to rich. Those at the top of the economic table would receive 13 times as much in benefits as those at the bottom.

President Obama’s bank plan is a good one and Britain should follow suit, says Stephen Beer

Many of Northern Ireland’s Protestants are demanding a new holy grail. They are in search of a new champion to replace the irreparably tarnished Iris Robinson.

A vital British industry can have a viable, long-term industrial future, insists Ashok Kumar

Since actually knowing anything about how science works doesn’t seem to be a requirement for pontificating about it in the media, I’m going to play at being an ophthalmologist. The patient is the press and the diagnosis is excellent: it has perfect 20/20 hindsight.