Tories would reduce licence fee and ‘watch BBC like a hawk’
The Tories are responding to the prank call scandal by planning a substantial licence-fee cut. Under the proposed plan, half of the extra £800m that was raised to cover the switch to digital will be returned to viewers. This would reduce the license fee by £6 a year, costing the BBC around £200m a year. According to a senior source, a Tory administration would 'watch the BBC like a hawk' to make sure that it does not try to increase the license fee again. (Sunday Telegraph)
Matthew Carr: Where's the outrage against Blair and Mandy? 
Zoe Williams: Brand/Ross saga brings out the loony in us all
Obama’s immigrant aunt exposed
Obama's campaign has been shaken by the revelation that his aunt is an illegal immigrant to the US. Four years ago Zeituni Onyango, 56, was told to leave the country having been denied political asylum - yet she now lives in local authority housing in Boston. It is damaging for Obama to seem soft on the 10 million 'illegals' in America - the issue is especially important to the white working-class voters that Obama and McCain have been competing for so hard. (Observer)
Sullivan: expectations may turn to tears
US election night guide
Alexander Cockburn: Republicans prepare for the wilderness
Labour says it is narrowing class gap
Despite recent reports, social mobility has been improving under Labour, ministers will insist tomorrow. Downing Street is seizing on new research by the London School of Economics showing that people's chances in life have become less dependent on their background since 2000. Earlier research suggesting the opposite had led David Cameron to claim that the Tories were now 'the party of social mobility.' (Sunday Times)
New Labour is an elite defined by hate
Muslim chef sues police
A Muslim chef employed by the Metropolitan Police is suing his employer for requiring him to cook pork. Hasanali Khoja is accusing the force of religious discrimination for failing to draw up a contract exempting him from handling pork products. The problem arose when he was moved from his first placement, at Hendon Police College, to another team that was expected to prepare the '999' fry-up, which includes sausages, bacon and black pudding. (Sunday Telegraph)
Prescott cashes in with class war
The BBC paid John Prescott's £40,000 for his recent television series on class. The payment takes his earnings in the past year to £360,000 - 12 times average household income. Theresa May, shadow Leader of the House of Commons, questioned whether this was an appropriate use of the licence fee, and added: 'It is highly ironic that Mr Prescott has cashed in on his obsession with class warfare to the tune of £40,000'. (Sunday Express)
The Mole: Will class warrior Prescott take a seat in the Lords?
Barack Obama will ask Britain to contribute thousands more troops to Afghanistan if he wins the election, according to a US military official. When Britain pulls its remaining troops out of Iraq next summer it will be requested to contribute to a new 'surge' against the Taliban. Other European allies will also be expected to help more in the post-Bush era. (Sunday Telegraph)
Antonia Quirke: CNN gives Obama top Marx as madness spreads
Is America ready to dump Hamid Karzai?
Gordon Brown's attempt to introduce a 'bill of rights and responsibilities' has been attacked by his own ministers. Earlier this year Brown said that the bill was 'of fundamental importance' and that it 'opens a new chapter in the British story of liberty', but rebel ministers fear that it would only lead to endless litigation. (Sunday Times)
If Lewis Hamilton becomes Formula 1's youngest-ever champion today, some of his long-running fans are set to scoop jackpots. Some placed bets ten years ago, when Hamilton, 23, was a go-karting star, that he would one day win the F1 title, at odds of 500-1. (Sunday Times)
In pictures: Hamilton's F1 season
The Government was criticised yesterday as it emerged that the Royal Bank of Scotland - which was bailed out with £20bn of tax-payers' money - is to pay bonuses to thousands of its staff. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman, called for tougher guidelines on bonuses - the Government should 'read the riot act' to the bankers, he said. (Independent on Sunday)
A trillion reasons to remain gloomy on the ecnomy
Veteran broadcaster Michael Parkinson has said that Jonathan Ross deserves to bounce back from the prank call scandal, but Brand does not. "He's generously called a comedian. I can't feel much sympathy for him," he said. He also implied that Lesley Douglas was right to resign: "she was the one who invited Brand in". (Observer)
What the BBC ban means for Jonathan Ross
The ban on NHS patients topping up their treatment with private cancer drugs is to be lifted. This week Alan Johnson, the health secretary, will finally announce an end to the practice of denying NHS care to those who pay privately for better medicine. Ministers have previously feared that allowing private medicine would lead to a 'two-tier NHS'. (Sunday Times)
Barack Obama is promising a $150bn plan for an alternative energy ecomony. The "Apollo project" will be his "number one priority when I get into office" he said in a radio address yesterday. The plan includes five million new green jobs, and an end to dependence on foreign oil. (Independent on Sunday)
European politicians are considering whether to intervene in the civil war in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mark Malloch Brown, Britain's Africa minister, said that UN troops might have to be supplemented, to ensure that aid reaches victims. At present aid is restricted to the area surrounding Goma, but the chaos is spread more widely. (Sunday Telegraph)
In pictures: Congo crisis deepens
According to Washington sources, Syria co-operated in the recent US attack on an Al-Qaeda commander. Though the Syrian regime denounced the raid and protested to the UN, its intelligence service was involved in locating the Iraqi-born terrorist target, Abu Ghadiya, who was hostile to the secular regime in Damascus. (Sunday Times)
A company controlled by Amanda Staveley (pictured), a former girlfriend of Prince Andrew, will earn a £40m commission for brokering last week's deal between Barclays and Middle East investors. Staveley, 35, was working for Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for whom she also masterminded the takeover of Manchester City FC a few weeks ago. (Sunday Times)
Plans for the swift merger of Lloyds-TSB and HBOS have been disturbed by a last-minute bid for the Scottish bank. The mystery bidder has requested a meeting with Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary within the next few days. The Lloyds TSB-HBOS merger was given the go-ahead by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, on Friday. (Sunday Telegraph)
The Daily Mail is believed to be considering a bid for the Independent and its Sunday sister title, owned by Independent News & Media. Industry sources claim the titles could be off-loaded for £1, with the Daily Mail General Trust taking on the loss-making papers' liabilities, even though DMGT has debts of its own. (Observer)
Pauline Prescott (pictured) has stolen the limelight from her husband and attracted offers of television work, after she appeared in his series Prescott: the Class System and Me. Producer Daisy Goodwin compared her appeal to that of Cilla Black. Pauline, 68, has often been seen in public but hardly ever heard before. (Sunday Times)
The studio that made the Abba film Mamma Mia! wants to make a follow-up, but the film's female trio of creators aren't so sure - they fear that sequels put money before creativity. Despite mixed reviews, the film has taken £67m since its release in July, making it the highest-ever earning British film. (Sunday Times)
A new study has found that teenagers agree with their elders that the media contains too much swearing and vulgarity, and that the 9pm watershed should be more strictly observed. The findings challenge claims that younger viewers require 'edgy' material. The swearing of Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver came in for particular criticism from the participants. (Sunday Telegraph)
Jonathan Ross's possible demise comes as his wife's career is blossoming. Jane Goldman is a screenwriter with two films in production in LA. (Sunday Express) Just as Britain officially entered a recession, Shaun Woodward MP, the Northern Ireland secretary, flew to Marrakesh with 50 friends last weekend to celebrate his 50th birthday. (Sunday Times) Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has warned that Brown's tinkering with the constitution threatens to damage our ancient institutions. (Mail on Sunday) Questions have arisen over the authenticity of the knighthood of Sir Allen Stanford, the American billionaire who sponsored last night's Twenty20 cricket competition. (Mail on Sunday) Pippa Middleton, sister of Kate, has been named by Tatler as the most eligible person in the country. The sisters have been dubbed the Wisteria Sisters due to their social climbing powers. (Mail on Sunday) David Beckham has been fiercely criticized by his American fans for his decision to go on loan to AC Milan – his Californian honeymoon period is over. (Independent on Sunday) Earl Spencer, famous for his funeral oration to Diana, is to judge a new reality TV show about public speaking. (Sunday Telegraph) Sarah Brown is rushing to her husband's aid in the Glenrothes by-election, which is near to the family home in Fife. She even spent her 45th birthday on the stump. (Sunday Times) David Cameron and George Osborne are in for more blushes – Channel 4 has commissioned a documentary about the exclusive Bullingdon Club in Oxford to which they belonged. (Sunday Express) Lord Mandelson will this week insist that he is under no obligation to disclose details of hospitality he received from Oleg Deripaska. (Sunday Times) David Cameron is planning to spare Caroline Spelman, even if she is found guilty of paying her nanny from state funds. (Independent on Sunday) Formula 1 is such a racially limited sport that Lewis Hamilton has never yet raced against another black driver. (Sunday Telegraph) Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, has launched a buy-British campaign, telling farmers that they produce the safest food in the world. (Sunday Times) Prince Harry's desire to join the Army Air Corps and fly an Apache helicopter has been welcomed by senior pilots, but they also warn that it's one of the toughest job in the military. (Sunday Express) Young author Francesca Amber Sawyer was seduced by Russell Brand into a threesome at his posh Hampstead house. When Sawyer returned the next week, Brand, under pressure over Manuelgate, dropped the friendly pose and turned nasty. (News of the World) Georgina Baillie is no innocent victim, but a sex maniac who boasted about sleeping with Brand, according to her ex-boyfriend Pete Turner. She also wants to be very famous, and is glad to be in the spotlight, says her former lover. (News of the World) Simon Cowell has been dumped by Terri Seymour after he refused to commit to her. Cowell's mother Julie, 80, is very upset that her son allowed the six-year relationship to fail. (Sunday Mirror) Peaches Geldof has been involved in another 'shoplifting' mix-up. She left a boutique with an item she had not paid for, and claimed it was a mistake. The shop assistant said she was behaving strangely. (Sunday Mirror) Robbie Williams spent Halloween at a weird séance in Stoke-on-Trent, adding to his image as an oddball with a keen interest in the supernatural. He beieves he has seen UFOs on three occasions. (Sunday Mirror) Siena Miller is reported to have split from married actor boyfriend Balthazar Getty. The 26-year old actress, who has returned to London, is disappointed that the father of four has refused to divorce his wife. (Mail on Sunday)
Sport: England surrender to Superstars 
David Beckham: world star, LA deadbeat 
Oleg Deripaska, last man standing 
Zoe Williams: Ross/Brand saga brings out the loony in all of us 
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