Monday, 19 July 2010

Today's newslinks

Damian Green confirms Coalition's ambition to cut net immigration to tens of thousands

"Today sees the introduction of the first ever limit on immigration into the UK. It is a small but historic step forward towards reducing the tensions surrounding immigration policy. For too long we had a Government in denial about the effects of unlimited immigration. The current Government is taking a more balanced approach, recognising the benefits of immigration but ensuring that the levels of immigration do not place a strain on our public services or the ability of individual communities to cope with change." - Damian Green in The Telegraph

David Cameron will seek to forge a “realistic, sensible and practical” relationship with President Obama

"The Prime Minister will aim to recast the special relationship away from what he regards as the “needy” approach of the Blair-Brown years into one focused more on results." - Times (£)

Freeing Megrahi 'wrong', Cameron will tell Obama - Independent

The Daily Mail calls on Cameron to fight for Gary McKinnon in his talks with Obama.

Cameron's two-day US visit also includes meetings with Joe Biden, John McCain and Nancy Pelosi - Guardian

Ministers turn their attention to cutting old and superfluous quangos - Times (£)

Caroline Spelman under fire for making feminist case for the burqa

Burkas "I don't, living in this country as a woman, want to be told what I can and can't wear. I've been out to Afghanistan and I think I understand much better as a result of actually visiting why a lot of Muslim women want to wear the burka. It is part of their culture, it is part of understanding that they choose to go out in the burka and I think those that live in this country, if they choose to wear a burka, should be free to do so. We are a free country, we attach importance to people being free and for a woman it is empowering to be able to choose each morning when you wake up what you wear." - Caroline Spelman in the Daily Mail

"Caroline Spelman described being able to chose to wear the burka as "empowering". For many Muslim women, forced to cover themselves on some spurious religio-cultural grounds, this is the one thing it isn't. Some choose to do so; many others are required to. That is not empowerment." - Telegraph leader

Britain trails China in dash to 'Green Gold' economy, warns Tim Yeo MP

Yeo-Tim "Yeo says in an interview it is a great mistake to assume China is "completely off the page" on climate change. "They are using this period furiously, while their economy is growing, to invest in low-carbon technology. They are rolling out a high-speed rail network in very short order, so that will cut the demand for domestic flights in China; they are investing quite heavily in renewable energy; they have got quite demanding vehicle standards; they have a quite impressive tree planting programme." - Guardian

Green Gold: the case for raising our game on climate change - Tim Yeo in The Telegraph

Jeremy Hunt is Number 9 in The Guardian's list of 100 powerful mediacrats

HUNT JEREMY NW "A passionate advocate of local city television, Hunt appointed Lazard banker Nicholas Shott to oversee a review of local broadcasting. He ruled out privatising Channel 4 and reluctantly backed controversial anti-piracy measures passed as part of the Digital Economy Act, saying to block them would cause too much damage to the creative industries." - Guardian

Mail Editor Paul Dacre is Number 13 in The Guardian's list: "A longtime admirer of Gordon Brown – even though he stood for many of the things that Mail readers hate – Dacre spared the former prime minister the sort of personal attacks that he was subjected to in the Sun. If it took a while for Dacre to warm to the Tories under Cameron, whom he was said to "dislike viscerally", then its attitude to Clegg remains ice-cold."

Downing Street Communications Head, Andy Coulson, is Number 32: "The last time Andy Coulson appeared on this list we said he had made the Conservative party electable again. Well, we were almost right. Despite failing to win an outright majority David Cameron made it to No 10 and Coulson followed him as Downing Street's new director of communications, earning more than Cameron's deputy, Nick Clegg." - Guardian

Save Aunty Beeb from Jeremy the Philistine - Janet Street Porter in The Daily Mail

The real issue for Mr Hunt in 2012 is not the level of the licence fee, but its survivability - David Elstein in The Times (£)

> Saturday's ToryDiary: Jeremy Hunt puts the BBC on notice that it should expect the licence fee to be cut next year

Whitehall 'unhappy' at Eric Pickles' policy on household waste

Pickles "Mr Pickles annoyed officials in Defra, the environment department, within weeks of arriving in his post at the Department of Communities and Local Government by announcing an end to “bin taxes” and fortnightly recycling." - FT (£)

Grant Shapps saves £15m by axeing local government 'opinion surveys' - Telegraph

Gove rushes Academies Bill past MPs - Press Association

Millions more to wait to 68 for pension as government speeds up plans to raise retirement age - Daily Mail

'Betsy told me it was cancer; her words took my breath away'

Iain Duncan Smith talks for the first time about his wife's illness in an interview for The Daily Mail.

Vince Cable accuses banks of "ripping off" customers on unauthorised overdrafts - Express

Ed Miliband raised £8,000 in low value contributions in 24 hour online fundraiser - Telegraph

The Commons is being revitalised under the Coalition and John Bercow - Julian Glover in The Guardian

And finally... Can bald people succeed in politics?

"Forget about race and gender: baldness is the real victim of prejudice today, the last taboo, if you will. And now that politics is such a televisual event, I'm afraid baldies have no chance – something Silvio Berlusconi knows, he of the possible hair transplant and of the definite combover. The man might be rich enough to buy the country, but even he knew there is not enough money in the world to buy off the baldism of the people." - Hadley Freeman in The Guardian

Highlights from the weekend
Seats and Candidates: The Isle of Wight should be allowed to remain a single parliamentary constituency

HUNT JEREMY OPEN NECKED SHIRTToryDiary: Jeremy Hunt puts the BBC on notice that it should expect the licence fee to be cut next year

Also on ToryDiary: "Every day, 25,000 children die of diseases which we absolutely have the power to prevent."

Rowan Cole on Platform: Britain cannot abandon Afghanistan to the Taleban

Robert Halfon MP on CentreRight: The world must support Israel, as if she goes down, we all go down

Graeme Archer on CentreRight: "It is unreasonable for the champions of the burqa to pretend that their use is merely some manifestation of liberal orthodoxy, supposedly culturally neutral, rather than a deliberate, petty and offensive message to the un-burqa'ed citizenry."

WATCH: We need Trident to protect Britain from nuclear blackmail, says Liam Fox

6a00d83451b31c69e20133f25d7132970b-800wi General Election Review: Tories ditched £300,000 election ads that included gay shower scene