3pm ToryDiary: What Ministers should do about appointments
2pm Local Government: Council byelection results from yesterday
1.30pm Emma Gray: What Francis Urquart's creator told me about political fiction
12.15pm Local Government: Brighton and Hove Council propose abolition of "Mr" and "Mrs"
11.30 Nick Faith on Comment: How the new Police Commissioners should spend their first 100 days
ToryDiary: In the last year five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories
Columnist Bruce Anderson: We cannot simply rid ourselves of Europe, as the Britons were rid of Julius Caesar
Chris Skidmore on Comment: "Most people will not be talking about who is commissioning their NHS treatment. They will be asking why their local hospital is making £4 million a year from car parking"
MPsETC: Who are Conservative Friends of Israel? A profile of the Conservative Party's most populous grouping
LeftWatch: The man pictured in this article is "a human hand grenade"
Local Government: Labour's u-turn on Boris Bikes
The Deep End: Heresy of the week: If we want our politicians to be normal we should be nicer to them
The Mail reports that IDS has floated plans to cut benefits for workless families for more than two children…
"Jobless couples with more than two children should have benefit payments limited, Iain Duncan Smith suggested yesterday. The Work and Pensions Secretary said there were ‘large numbers’ of couples on welfare having big families – unlike middle-income parents who had to weigh up if they could afford to have another child. Mr Duncan Smith condemned the ‘madness’ of the state subsidising large workless families – saying it would be fairer to the ‘vast majority’ of responsible taxpayers if benefits were limited to the first two children in future." – Daily Mail
…But the Independent suggests that he believes child benefit should be cut for all families with more than two children
"Families would receive child benefit and other state handouts only for their first two children under a controversial change proposed yesterday by the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith…The Work and Pensions Secretary, under Treasury pressure to find another £10bn of cuts to the welfare budget, said it would be fairer to the vast majority of taxpayers if benefits were limited to the first two children, so that all families had to "cut their cloth" – The Independent
- IDS:The welfare warrior with a hotline to the Tory Right – The Independent
Record one in four newborns has mum from overseas – The Sun
Sadiq Khan: immigrants know more than Britons about UK – Daily Mail
The Times reports Grieve moving to heal his rift with Cameron over the ECHR…
"Parliament is free to ignore a European Court ruling that the blanket ban in prisoners voting is unlawful — and need not pull out of its jurisdiction, the Attorney-General said last night. Nor is the UK subservient to the Strasbourg Court, Dominic Grieve, the Government’s chief law officer, said. But to ignore its ruling would leave the Government liable to criticism and sanctions FOR (not or) being in breach of its international obligations, he insisted." – The Times (£)
…But the Independent says the Attorney General has widened it
"But last night…Mr Grieve said that although the ultimate decision lay with Parliament, which was not subservient to the Strasbourg court, "observing its judgments is an international legal obligation… It is possible for Parliament to take no action on the judgment, although that would leave the Government in breach of the Treaty and liable to criticism and sanctions from the Council of Europe by its fellow signatories and to damages awarded by the Court." – The Independent
> Yesterday: MPsETC – Prisoner votes, the Twittering MPs revolt – and an unwhippable Parliamentary Party?
Cough up or lose rebate: Van Rompuy tells Cameron over budget
"European Council President Herman Van Rompuy yesterday threatened David Cameron with the removal of Britain’s EU budget rebate if he vetoes an inflation-busting rise in the Brussels budget. Mr Van Rompuy warned that other countries will seek to abolish the deal which Margaret Thatcher negotiated in the 1980s when he visited Downing Street yesterday." – Daily Mail
- Did Clegg hold Van Rompuy meeting in Dutch to out-fox Cameron? – Daily Telegraph
> Today: Columnist Bruce Anderson – We cannot simply rid ourselves of Europe, as the Britons were rid of Julius Caesar
> Yesterday:
- Columnist Andrew Lilico – On Europe, beware of "the tyranny of the status quo"
- WATCH: Derk Jan Eppink of the ECR Group produces a video about the spiralling costs of the EU's multiple building projects
Prime Minister moves to sort payout to daughter of soldier killed in Afghanistan – Daily Express
MPs inflict defeat on Government over badger cull
"Just 28 MPs voted in favour of the Government’s cull yesterday, with 147 opposing it. Ministers will not be forced to ditch the policy. However, the result will heap pressure on them to find an alternative to the termination of badgers in two pilot areas in the South West. The Government has been pilloried after being forced to delay the cull for a year, a decision taken in the wake of the botched forest sell-off." – The Times (£)
- "The environment secretary was assailed by all sides over this U-turn. He coped by shouting very
loud. We had to "bear down on wildlife". He meant "bear down on the
disease in wildlife," but that's not what he said." – Simon Hoggart, The Guardian
- "As a boy Mr Paterson may have had two pet badgers (Baz and Bessie) but he has been studying the issue for years and is a fervent believer that a cull will reduce TB in cattle." – Ann Treneman, The Times (£)
- "As if losing patience with a hard-of-hearing elderly relation, he gave the same answers repeatedly, louder each time (“There was a 28 PER CENT REDUCTION in disease after NINE YEARS in the CULL AREA, so THAT’S why we’re going ahead next YEAR!”)." – Michael Deacon, Daily Telegraph
Tim Montgomerie: Owen Paterson – Cameron's Cabinet's most conservative member
"Owen Paterson, the recently appointed Environment Secretary, is a total conservative. He's Eurosceptic. Hawkish against foreign threats and tough on domestic ones. Deregulatory on the economy. In favour of small government. Socially traditionalist — opposing, for example, gay marriage. Environmentally a conservationist: in love with Britain's countryside but sceptical about grand designs to change the global climate. He's undoubtedly the most conservative member of David Cameron's Cabinet." – Standpoint
Savile 1) BBC engulfed in "tsunami of filth" over Savile, says Patten – The Times (£)
Savile 2) BBC Chairman apologises to Shapps over Savile briefing – Daily Express
Laws says that teachers are 'to blame' for lack of ambition among pupils
"David Laws attacked the “depressingly low expectations” that he said are holding back children in many parts of the country and preventing them from getting ahead in life. Even in relatively affluent parts of the country, schools and careers advisers are failing to encourage children to “reach for the stars,” instead pushing them to settle for middling exam results and careers with “medium-ranked” local employers, he said." – Daily Telegraph
- You destroyed my dreams, Fiona Phillips tells her old school – Daily Mail
- Labour slam 'chaos and confusion' in Government's higher education policy – The Independent
Ministers' last-ditch council tax giveaway 'dangerous', warns IFS – The Guardian
ONS figures confirm that Britain is out of recession
"The one per
cent growth in the economy between July and September exceeded City
expectations and triggered optimism among business leaders. Olympic
ticket sales and a surge in the manufacturing and service sectors of the
economy fuelled the biggest quarterly growth for five years, according
to official figures yesterday from the Office for National Statistics.
David Cameron said the figures showed Britain was “on the right track
and our economy is healing”. But, sounding a note of caution, he added:
“There is still much to do." – Daily Express
- Ford deals blow to UK economy – Financial Times (£)
- Danny Alexander to hold talks with petrol price campaigners – The Sun
Comment:
- "Yesterday
marks a significant moment in the long climb out of the worst economic
downturn in memory. Most important, it vindicates the Coalition’s fiscal
strategy." – Daily Telegraph Editorial - "In
fact, the Games contributed only one fifth of the increase in GDP,
which was largely fuelled by an impressive performance by the service
sector" – Daily Mail Editorial - "The
hard working and enterprising people of Britain can now go from
strength to strength but it is profoundly to be hoped that they keep one
thing at the forefront of their minds as they build the new economy:
never allow Ed Balls to get his hands on the levers of power again" –
Daily Express Editorial - "Analysts’
understanding of what is happening in the economy now, let alone in the
future, is imperfect. It is bizarre to release an estimate only three
weeks after the end of the quarter it relates to." – Times Editorial (£) - Cheer we grow – Sun Editorial
> Yesterday:
- ToryDiary: What does growth of +1.0% mean for the Coalition?
- ToryDiary: Twitter reaction to GDP figures
- The Deep End: The inflation hawks were wrong, but for the right reasons
- WATCH: Andrew Neil corners Balls on Labour's structural deficit
- WATCH: Matthew Hancock on the GDP figures: "This is good news, but there's a long way to go"
Boris and Whittingdale warn against statutory press regulation as Leveson report looms
"Senior Tories last night warned David Cameron of the dangers of state regulation of Britain’s free Press ahead of the publication of the Leveson report on media standards next month. London Mayor Boris Johnson said that Britain’s international reputation was due, in part, to a vibrant Press exposing corruption and incompetence. And John Whittingdale, Tory chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, warned he would not support any statutory restrictions on newspapers and websites." – Daily Mail
> Yesterday: Boris – we must fight to keep the press free
Admiralty Arch to be transformed into a luxury hotel – Daily Telegraph
Further blow to Salmond over EU independence advice
"Alex Salmond yesterday referred himself for investigation into whether he breached the ministerial code about what he said concerning legal advice over an independent Scotland’s future in Europe. The panel of advisers on the code will look into claims that the First Minister misled the country by wrongly indicating the SNP had sought advice to back up its case that the country would remain in the EU." – Scotsman
- Businesses face 'climate of fear' for opposing independence – Herald Scotland
Fraser Nelson: Labour may have lost the election, but the Left still controls the charities, the quangos – and patronage
"The ideas of Trotsky and Lenin may have failed in Britain, but Gramsci’s notion of a long march through the institutions of power has succeeded. This goes wider than the well-known Left-wing bias in universities and the judiciary. The Institute for Economic Affairs has calculated that there are 27,000 charities dependent on the state for at least three quarters of their income. By and large, any organisation dependent on tax money will argue for more of it. On a practical level, from shale gas to school dinners, reform is being thwarted by quangos." – Daily Telegraph
Ianucci says that the present series of The Thick Of It is the last – The Guardian
Government promises a top-up for HS2 compensation payouts – The Independent
MPs attack Government road safety response – BBC
Labour member of Climate Change Committee describes sceptical new member, Peter Lilley, as a "human hand grenade" – The Times (£)
> Today: LeftWatch – The man pictured in this article is "a human hand grenade"
Hospitals bribed to put patients on pathway to death – Daily Mail
Government rejects U.S plea to use British bases in Iran standoff – The Guardian
Cameron purchased IPAD gift, but turned down sportswear from Lord Lamont – Daily Mail
Prime Minister buys poppy a day early – Daily Express
And finally…
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