In future every person will undergo an independent assessment of their medical condition - and the decision will then dictate which rate of payment they receive.

BBC: Q&A: Universal Credit and the benefits overhaul

How ironic if the Germans, who long demanded an independent central bank as a condition for creating the euro, were now to join with the French to work for the opposite.

ECONOMIST: Germany

In a trenchant op.ed. for the Wall Street Journal, the eminent scholar David Satter further illuminates Russia's condition, revealing how "the Russian regime has worked systematically to eliminate all independent sources of power, " by, for example, adopting legislation that effectively gives the state control of NGOs - heretofore the sole outposts of Russian civil society.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Russia's emerging autocracy

Independent schools are required to show that they are offering a "public benefit", as a condition of charitable status.

BBC: Private schools want legal ruling on charity status