Emma Thelwell

“One would rather be French than British at the moment,” Baroin said. FactCheck knows the situation is bleak, but does Britain deserve the cold shoulder from France or should we issue them a Gallic shrug?

David Cameron has vowed to pull “Britain’s underclass” back from the brink after this summer’s riots, pledging £448m to help local authorities turn around the lives of 120,000 of the country’s most troubled families. But here’s the catch – the £448m is only 40 per cent of the money that the government estimates local authorities need.

After David Cameron’s dramatic decision to veto an EU-wide agreement on greater fiscal union for the eurozone countries, it now looks likely that all 26 other European Union (EU) members will try to hammer out a new deal without the UK. But the question still remains, how on earth will it work?

As David Cameron slugged away on a deal to save the eurozone, David Davis hit the airwaves to insist that the PM should put his foot down should any seperate deal be tabled by the 17 euro members. All Cameron has to do is “point out the legalities”, Davis said, adding that the idea of a plan that didn’t include all 27 members was “not feasible”. Is he right or could the 17 go it alone?

‘Merkozy’ will formally propose their plan to the European Council on Friday. But under what circumstances could any treaty changes to the European Union trigger a UK referendum? FactCheck investigates.

To hear Labour speak, you’d think there was a veritable stampede of women desperate to escape the clutches of David Cameron in exchange for the warm embrace of Ed Miliband. But are they right? FactCheck speaks to pollsters and asks Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts what women really want.

All the mud-slinging between the unions and the government tends to obliterate the facts. The unions are striking over government plans to make them pay more into their pensions. But beyond that simple statement of fact, there’s a lot of murk, claim and counter-claim. The unions say the changes to the pensions will make them worse off. Ministers say on the contrary, an improved deal on the table would leave many low and middle income earners better off. What’s the truth?

Youth unemployment sailed past the million mark last week, and within days Nick Clegg has a billion pounds and a plan. The same thing happened in April 2009: youth unemployment hit an all-time high, and Labour rushed out the Future Jobs Fund, pledging a £1bn. But this time it’s different, says Mr Clegg – this time taxpayers will get value for money and the jobs will last longer. Is he right or is FactCheck having a déjà vu?

Danny Alexander claims his new public sector pensions deal is significantly more generous than the current deal. But has he got his numbers right? How generous is it? FactCheck investigates.

Youth unemployment is now at a record high, and the total number of jobless across the country has risen to 2.62m. Still, the employment minister Chris Grayling appeared to have found reasons for optimism today. He remarked that there were 90,000 vacancies at job centres every week. Sounds good? Time for the FactCheck team to investigate just what’s on offer.

The grim news that a “slow, painful contraction” is expected in the jobs market was met with defiance by the DWP. “We always said that the road to recovery would be tough – there is a long way to go until before we deal with all the economic challenges ahead particularly given the crisis in the Eurozone,” a spokesman said. The problem is, said the Department, the message isn’t getting through that despite the gloom, there are jobs out there. In fact, there are 10,000 new jobs advertised every day at the Jobcentre, they insisted.

After Theresa May’s catgate, you would think MP’s might tread more carefully on the thorny issue of immigration. Less than a month ago Ms May was complaining that all too often foreign criminals are allowed to stay in the UK – and for the most ludicrous reasons. Yet today, immigration minister Damian Green said the government is removing foreign criminals quicker than ever. So what’s it to be – are they staying or going?

A little Twitter spat popped up during Prime Minister’s Questions today between Ed Balls’ right hand man and the Conservative Press Headquarters. Both repeated well-worn mantras from their parties, prompting FactCheck to wonder if there was anything new to note.

Michael Gove rejects the image of kids taking classes under “leaky roofs”. In fact, he claims the government is spending more over the next four years than Labour did in its first two parliaments.

Rebel Tory MPs are defying their party to call for a referendum on the UK’s European Union membership. And according to John Redwood, the “overwhelming majority” of the British public is up in arms about it too.But Mr Redwood’s comment rang rather hollow with one of our Twitter followers, Jamie Robertson, who asked us to check it out.