I’m not writing my usual blog this week but here, as an alternative, is the Politics Live readers’ edition. It is a place for you to discuss today’s politics, and to share links to breaking news and to the most interesting stories and blogs on the web.
Feel free to express your views robustly, but please treat others with respect and don’t resort to abuse. Guardian comment pages are supposed to be a haven from the Twitter/social media rant-orama, not an extension of it.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
And here are some of the main ones on our site this morning.
- Theresa May’s new wave of grammar schools must give priority to “ordinary working class families” as much as to children from poorer families eligible for free school meals, the education secretary will say.
- Philip Hammond has defended Boris Johnson’s failed bid to secure backing for tougher sanctions against Russia over the Syria chemical attack, as he accused other G7 nations of being “less forward-leaning” than Britain.
- Rising prices and stagnant wage growth have resulted in the first fall in living standards in two and a half years, according to official figures.
- The Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, pleaded with his activists to hold their nerve and “keep the faith” as the party launched its local election campaign in Kent with a frank admission it had been suffering a post-Brexit-referendum slump and came close to collapse last year.
- Talks aimed at restoring a power-sharing cross-community government in Northern Ireland have been given an extended deadline over Easter.
