Dozens of people detained after government building and two banks set on fire as tens of thousands march over education costs and corruption

Tens of thousands of students have taken to the streets of Tirana, the Albanian capital, setting alight a government building and two banks and hurling stones at police during a protest over rising education costs and ⁠corruption.

Police responded with water ⁠cannon and teargas to disperse protesters who started a fire at the ministry of education building, overturned bins and smashed the fronts of local businesses. A branch of Raiffeisen Bank near the education ministry also caught fire.

Kate Fleming says the government must look beyond the models it rewards today, while Jenny Haigh says unlocking potential means recognising that creativity and science are partners

Gordon Brown wants Britain to invent, invest in and own the future (British households would be £5,000 richer if we were more innovative. Let’s unleash our talents, 9 October). But invent what, and for whom? His hunt for “lost Einsteins” rests on a narrow vision: a lone genius invents, commercialisation scales, the problem is solved.

That may suit a cancer drug, but not the wicked problems of our time – social care, education, climate – which demand not silver bullets but new technologies and practices for collaboration, distributed ownership and collective innovation.

John Foster and Carol Peaker express their disappointment at Zack Polanski’s failure to focus on the climate crisis

There was no mention in Zack Polanski’s self-serving apologia of the real reason why we need the Green party – to insist unremittingly on putting the climate and ecological crisis top of the political agenda (Yes, it’s been a tough week for the Greens: but don’t lose sight of how we’re transforming British politics, 11 October).

Polanski should recognise that it is his own downplaying of that task in favour of populist foreign-policy posturing (along with bashing the rich) that has fuelled the anti-Jewish entryism he deplores, but isn’t quite brave enough to call out.

John Banks on the driving force behind a pioneering self-build project in the London borough. Plus a letter from Jonathan Pearson

An uplifting article by Phineas Harper about plans for self-build houses by Lewisham council in London (Free land for those who will build social homes on it. Is this the radical solution to the UK’s housing problem?, 8 October).

The original 1970s Lewisham self-build scheme that he mentions, using methods developed by the German architect Walter Segal, was proposed by a friend of mine, Brian Richardson, who was a Lewisham council architect at the time.

David Redshaw and Fernando Quintana respond to reports of a billionaire exodus from Britain

The idea that the departure of the super-rich is a problem ignores a historical fact (Apparent exodus of super-rich suggests UK is no longer billionaires’ playground, 7 October). Capitalism works better without them. The most successful countries today are states where redistributive taxation has empowered the working masses and provided a better and more stable market for business people.

How do today’s complaining uber-rich explain the postwar decades, when the top rate of income tax was commonly 80% or 90%, and yet the period is known as a golden age of capitalism? Then Margaret Thatcher lowered the top rate to 60% and the country tilted into a massive recession. The rich get to a point where they simply become wealth extractors, using their money to buy assets and raising the cost of them for the rest of us – housing being a good example today.

The Meta boss looked traumatised when he sipped stout on the Cheeky Pint podcast. An hour later, his glass was still half full

Name: Guinness.

Age: Arthur Guinness began brewing porter in the 1770s. Guinness draft was first poured in 1959.

Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from a time-travelling fantasy novel to an eclectic essay collection. Discuss what you’re reading in paperback in the comments

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As a new exhibition looks at how the pioneering photographer sparked a colour revolution, his son, William Eggleston III, explains his father’s unique approach