Chancellor plans £12.5bn VAT ‘holiday’ to combat recession
Alistair Darling is to announce an unprecedented plan to encourage shoppers to spend their way out of recession with a 'VAT holiday'. It is thought the most likely plan will be to reduce VAT from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent for at least a year, before returning it to its current level. A Government source said the VAT cut would cost about £12.5bn in its first year. The move was immediately welcomed by Charles Clarke, one of Gordon Brown's most trenchant Labour critics. (Sunday Telegraph, Observer)
The Mole: Labour MPs urge Brown to cut VAT in Pre-Budget Report 
Liquid bomb suspect killed in air-strike
Rashid Rauf, a baker's son from the West Midlands accused of being the mastermind of a 2006 plan to blow up airliners using liquid explosives, has been killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan. Unconfirmed reports say Rauf was among five people killed by the attack by an unmanned drone in the North Waziristan district. The 27-year-old's Pakistani lawyer said he was unable to confirm or deny reports of his client's death, and his family refused to make any comment. (Independent on Sunday)
Our servile government allowed Bush to ruin liquid bomb plot investigation
Call for new rules on MPs lobbying
Documents obtained under the freedom of information act show how, without breaking any rules, one MP used his parliamentary office to lobby officials for contracts for a private company. Stephen Ladyman, a Labour MP and former transport minister, touted for business on behalf of ITIS Holdings, a transport company that pays him £1,000 a month. Labour MP Paul Flynn said: "I would like to see a bar on [former] ministers taking jobs in the areas in which they had responsibilities." (Sunday Times)
Ofsted admits child deaths error
Ofsted, the Government's main child care and schooling watchdog, has admitted that figures in a recent report were "misleading". Released in the wake of the Baby P case, the report said that 282 child deaths had been reported by local authorities in the previous 17 months due to abuse or neglect. In fact the statistic relates to all children who died while receiving any kind of local authority support, including terminally ill children. The actual figure is closer to 100. (Observer)
Mugabe refuses visa for Carter
Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, has refused to issue former US president Jimmy Carter, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela's wife Graca Machel with visas to enter his country. In a show of disdain for the outside world, Mugabe blocked the three from making a fact-finding visit to Zimbabwe while a cholera epidemic drives Zimbabweans into South Africa. Speaking in Johannesburg, Carter said it was the first time in his life he had been denied a visa. (Observer)
Zimbabwe Today: Moses Moyo reports from Harare
Police across England and Wales are to be armed with 10,000 Taser stun guns, at a cost of £8m, as the Government steps up the fight against violent crime. Officials say the guns will be used against the most aggressive drunks, knife-wielding criminals and those causing serious disturbance. (Sunday Times)
David Cameron has revived one of the Tory party's most famous advertising campaigns - the 'Labour's Tax Bombshell' poster. The poster, which was used to defeat Neil Kinnock's Labour party in 1992, has been re-jigged, with the large bomb it depicts now in Christmas wrapping. (Independent on Sunday)
The Mole: Dave's spending U-turn puts him at odds with the world
Ministers are to meet next month to examine how extra funding can be given to churches after learning that one in five is under threat of closure. Culture secretary Andy Burnham said there will be a new drive to make churches central to community regeneration, backed with financial support. (Sunday Telegraph)
The number of police recruits from ethnic minorities has almost halved in the past five years, amid concern about discrimination within the service. The total number of black or ethnic minority entrants into England and Wales's 43 forces was 430 last year, down from 795 in 2003-2004. (Independent on Sunday)
There is consolation for shoppers feeling the pinch this Christmas: a bumper crop of mistletoe. Experts say that perhaps because of an unusually mild winter last year, this year's plants have more berries than usual. Traditionally, for each mistletoe kiss a berry must be plucked. (Observer)
The financial crisis could halt the growth in the amount of household rubbish recycled as the market for waste materials collapses. Hertfordshire county council has withdrawn a plastics recycling scheme because it is no longer economically viable. (Sunday Telegraph)
It has been revealed that the skull actor David Tennant holds for the gravedigger scene in the hit RSC production of Hamlet is real. It is the first time that pianist Andre Tschaikowsky's unusual bequest of his own skull, made to the RSC on his death in 1982, has been used by the company. (Observer)
An Italian countess has been recalling the 1958 'orgy' that inspired Federico Fellini's classic film La Dolce Vita. Seventy-four-year-old Olghina di Robilant says an Armenian dancer called Aiche Nana stripped at the party, and was thrown out by police: "Then the party resumed and went on until six in the morning." (Independent on Sunday)
Fans of Doctor Who are agog over 1960s files and correspondence released by the BBC which show that the Doctor nearly travelled through space and time in a giant egg, instead of his familiar Tardis. BBC bosses were also opposed to the Daleks, wanting to avoid "tin robots and "bug-eyed monsters". (Sunday Times)
La dolce vita turns sour for porn-again Fellini
US president-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have announced to which Washington school they will send their daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. The choice of school was a subject of great interest in Washington political circles as it gives other parents at the school unparalleled networking opportunities. (Observer)
Alexander Cockburn: Hillary Clinton for secretary of state? Is this change?
American Transition: Is Obama playing it safe with his cabinet?
Fighters from the Shabaab militia, a powerful Islamist group, have arrived at the Somalian port of Haradheere where the oil tanker Sirius Star, the largest vessel ever to be hijacked, is anchored. The fighters are said to be seeking a share of the $25m ransom the pirates who took the ship have demanded. (Sunday Telegraph)
In pictures: Pirates of Somalia
Somalia: a great place to do business
Who are the million-dollar pirates?
India has been shocked by the suggestion that a series of bombings initially blamed on militant Islamists may have been carried out by the country's first Hindu terror cell. At least 10 people have been arrested in connection with several bomb blasts in the Muslim-dominated town of Malegaon. (Independent on Sunday)
A coalition of religious leaders, government backbenchers and trades unions has urged Labour to make sure that the rich foot the bill for the Chancellor's anti-recession package. The group is urging Labour to abandon its reluctance to tax the wealthy, and to tighten up offshore tax haven rules. (Observer)
American banking giant Citigroup is in desperate talks this weekend to try to secure a cash injection from the US government or an investor to prevent it becoming the latest casualty of the credit crunch. HSBC is negotiating to acquire some of the bank's assets in Asia in the event of a break-up. (Sunday Telegraph)
It has emerged that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is in secret talks with the Government to secure an emergency £1bn loan, demonstrating the sharp downturn in the global car market. According to a Government official, Gordon Brown is studying the request and will answer within the next fortnight. (Sunday Times)
GM, Ford and Chrysler: A nationalisation too far?
Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow has apologised to animal rights activists who complained in August that she had been photographed wearing fur, saying: "I assumed it was fake." (Independent on Sunday)
"I have always wondered why anyone took me seriously" - Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman. (Independent on Sunday)
Sigourney Weaver is to star in a cinema adaptation of Martin Amis's novel Night Train. (Observer)
"A library... should be at the very heart of any institution dedicated to learning" - Author Philip Pullman writes to the headteacher of a school which plans to scrap its library in favour of computers. (Observer)
Children's secretary Ed Balls has become noticeably greyer of hair since the summer. (Sunday Times)
Dame Stella Rimington, former head of MI5, has been approached by the makers of TV espionage drama Spooks to help make the programme more realistic. (Sunday Telegraph)
Astrologist Jonathan Cainer made two predictions on January 1 this year: Hillary Clinton would win the US election, and the global economic crisis wouldn't be as bad as expected. (Observer)
TV chef Nigella Lawson says she never accepts the free dresses she is often offered by couturiers anxious for publicity. (Sunday Telegraph)
"I'd never heard of [Nick] Clegg. You might as well have named the cast of Last of the Summer Wine." - Comedian Ricky Gervais, not a fan of the Liberal Democrats. (Sunday Times)
Artist Damien Hirst, who recently admitted his works were "over-priced", has made 17 of his 22 studio staff redundant. (Independent on Sunday)
Ethiopian president Girma Wolde-Giorgis has personally written to London's museums demanding the return of artefacts stolen by British soldeirs in 1868. (Independent on Sunday)
Theatre director Sir Peter Hall, 78 this weekend, has attacked the poor writing he says ruins most American films. (Sunday Telegraph)
Burglars stole Harold Pinter's mobile phone but left a PC containing all his current work. (Independent on Sunday)
The Queen Mother had a great deal of influence over her husband George VI's decision making, says a new biography. (Sunday Telegraph)
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, whose family was named Celebrity Family of the Year in 2007, has been having an affair for the last seven years with a former mistress of Jeffrey Archer. (News of the World)
Troubled singer Amy Winehouse has admitted that her marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil - recently released from jail - is over, saying: "It was never going to last. We were only together for sex." (News of the World)
Journalist John Sergeant received twice as many votes as his nearest rival after his final appearance on Strictly Come Dancing before he quit the show for fear that he might win. (People)
Twenty-three-year-old male model Danny Beauchamp, the secret son Robert Kilroy-Silk has never met, branded his father a "dickhead" and an "idiot" after seeing him on I'm a Celebrity... (Sunday Mirror)
Former Spice Girl Mel B is furious after she discovered she was not going to get sole billing on her upcoming Las Vegas spectacular, instead sharing the publicity with dancer Kelly Monaco. (People)
Posts
