麻豆约拍

Jackie Ashley of the Guardian picks through the debris after the government is thwarted on Lords Reform by Tory backbenchers.

For an insight into a thrilling parliamentary occasion, she talks to three MPs: the Conservative Adam Afriyie, the Lib Dem Charles Kennedy and Labour's Tristram Hunt.

How good are MPs at asking the right questions when they grill top figures in select committee hearings? Not very good at all, according to the political commentator John Kampfner. But Labour's Paul Farrelly wonders if journalists are any better.

This week's shake-up in the funding of social care for the elderly has been long in coming. But the Labour peer Joan Bakewell finds a key component is missing. The Tory MP and doctor Dan Poulter explains why.

Tony Blair is advising the Labour Party on the economic legacy of the Olympic Games. His friend, Tessa Jowell says he is ready to come back into domestic politics.

The editor is Peter Mulligan.