Mike Molloy is probably one of the nicest men who ever edited a major Fleet Street newspaper. He was enormously popular with his staff during his 10-year stint as editor of the Daily Mirror from 1975 to 1985, and during the many years he spent as assorted kinds of associate, assistant and deputy editor on the paper before he got the top job.

There used to be a theory that numbers were precise, but words were not. This has all changed. Now neither is precise, but, of the two, numbers are less reliable.

Everybody has a stake. That was one of the founding ideas behind our welfare state. Whether it’s support for children or our National Health Service, universalism has always been a core principle. And I believe it’s vital that those on modest and middle incomes – not just the poorest – are part of it.

The longest-serving current leader of a major national political party is looking a little careworn, with spin-doctors struggling to sell their chap as the fresh-faced change that Britain needs. David Cameron’s hairline isn’t all that’s receding, as a spate of opinion polls show the Tory lead diminishing as Gordon Brown closes and a hung parliament appears to be, not just a possibility, but a probability for the first time since 1974. Politics is a marathon, not a sprint, and the Bullingdon Boy who was fast out of the traps in December 2005 when elected Tory leader is visibly flagging as the finishing line approaches.

Since women’s values are aligned with Labour’s, the party’s challenge is to get back their support, says Seema Malhotra

There are things polls can tell us, and things they can’t – so let’s not confuse the two, argues Ivor Gaber

I can’t remember exactly who said it, but it was probably some American clever clogs who quipped that the problem with being British is you’re only allowed to find out about current affairs 30 years after they happened. Recent examples of the political past being illuminated for today’s news junkies contrast in the respect accorded to this country’s venerable 30-year-rule, which is applied to civil service documents. Sometimes it feels the past has been pored over with almost indecent haste. At others, we have been reminded of anachronisms of a bygone age that feel out of kilter with our modern, less deferential politics.

Amid growing indications that Labour can make a fight of the general election, two major shadows are cast over Gordon Brown’s chances of avoiding the kind of humiliation that so many in the party believed was inevitable so short a time ago. One is the ghost of Tony Blair, conjured up by his appearance before the Chilcot inquiry last week, rekindling all that led to the dismemberment of “new” Labour and the British body politic even before the expenses scandal came along to bury it. The other is Mr Brown’s own forthcoming appearance before the inquiry, a gamble, like the inquiry itself, of his own making. It’s a gamble with consequences that may outweigh, or at least fatally reverse, Labour’s closing position on the Tories even as the election campaign proper is getting under way.

• From the archive: Tony Blair knew there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

As the Tory lead narrows, Colin Burgon argues that Labour can win back its lost voters

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.