Universities have complained that the current A-level system does not stretch pupils sufficiently or give them the intellectual independence and curiosity needed for degree-level study.

BBC: A-level students facing shake-up

Reforms may be hammered out in education and immigration and (at a stretch) the environment and the Social Security pension system.

ECONOMIST: American politics

Obese people are at greater risk of heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and a host of other ailments that not merely hurt them, but stretch America's already overtaxed health-care system.

ECONOMIST: Lexington