ToryDiary: Is the Coalition preparing to go to war with the BBC?
Tom Clougherty on Platform: Britain needs a pro-growth agenda - and it's not the same thing as an industrial policy
Mark Wallace on Local government: Birbalsingh case shows more parent power in academies needed
Charlie Elphicke on CentreRight: If we don’t stop borrowing now, we’ll never get out of it
International: French police ready to break strikes and guarantee supplies for petrol stations
Dalibor Rohac on ThinkTankCentral: The environmentalist movement would lock the developing world in poverty
Gazette: Graham Brady meets his three surviving predecessors as Chairmen of the 1922 Committee
Public ready to back Coalition on cuts
A YouGov poll for The Sun finds:
- 60% of voters agreeing that the cuts are "unavoidable";
- 46% most trust the Tories to cut the deficit and only 20% most trust Labour;
- 48% most blame Labour for the current spending cuts, just 18% blame the Coalition;
- By 52% to 25% voters agree that Labour DOES NOT have a serious alternative to the Coalition's plan.
The aircraft carriers fiasco
"One of the Navy’s new £3 billion aircraft carriers will never carry aircraft and will sail for only three years before being mothballed and possibly sold, ministers will announce on Tuesday. The Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review will also confirm that Britain will not have an effective “carrier strike” capability – a working aircraft carrier equipped with fighter jets – until 2020. David Cameron had wanted to scrap one of the two carriers, the largest and most expensive vessels in British naval history, but the review found that contracts s igned by the previous government meant that doing so would end up costing the taxpayer more than going ahead with both. As a result, the two carriers will enter service, but one will be mothballed as soon as possible." - Telegraph
"David Cameron’s decision is inevitable but not admirable. It represents a humiliating compromise when no option was left to him but humiliating compromise. The SDSR is launched today amid serious concerns about the MoD’s ability to manage a budget, let alone a future military campaign." - Times leader (£)
Trident to be delayed for five years
"Whitehall sources said that the building of the new generation of nuclear submarines will be delayed until the mid 2020s. The decision means that the first of the new generation of nuclear submarines may not be in operation until 2028 or 2029, four to five years after the first Vanguard is due to be withdrawn in 2024. The lives of the Vanguard submarines will be prolonged to fill the gap." - Guardian
The FT (£) describes the cuts as the biggest since the Cold War: "The list of final cuts will include cutting the army by around 7,000 troops; axing the Harrier, the jump jet that helped win the 1982 Falklands war; and scaling back amphibious warfare capabilities to a level equivalent to that in the Netherlands."
The social housing budget in England is to be cut by more than 50%
"Council housing "for life" will also be phased out, with the needs of new council tenants assessed over time. Despite the cuts, ministers are likely to set a target of building 150,000 affordable homes, changing the way councils charge rent to finance them. Tenants will be charged nearer the going market rate, to release cash for the building programme." - BBC
Pensioners face £100 cut in winter fuel allowance - Times (£)
Spending cuts will force 'swaths of universities' to close - Guardian
The BMA attacks "foolish" timetable for NHS reform - BBC
Chris Huhne has given the go-ahead for eight new nuclear power stations - Telegraph
"It's hard to know whether to congratulate Chris Huhne for finally coming to his senses, or condemn him as an appalling hypocrite. His decision to cancel the £30billion white elephant Severn Barrage and to push ahead with eight new nuclear power plants is hugely welcome. Yet until very recently, the Environment Secretary argued that nuclear power was ‘a great threat to the environment’, and ‘economically unviable’." - Daily Mail leader
Alan Johnson wants £3.5bn more from banks - Guardian
"How can Labour win the next election proposing tax rises against the Conservatives arguing for tax cuts?" - Steve Richards in The Independent
> Yesterday's LeftWatch: In just one day Alan Johnson offends Britain's biggest businesses, refuses to take journalists' questions and adds £10bn to Labour's fiscal black hole
Ed Miliband ducks out of TUC cuts protest
"Thousands of union members and other campaigners are set to join protests later against government spending cuts... Ed Miliband will not take part despite saying last month he "definitely" would attend the rally in Westminster." - BBC
Three-quarters of employers polled in a survey back tougher anti-strike laws - FT (£)
TaxPayers' Alliance: The national debt has hit £7.9trillion - Express
"Britain's real national debt is £7.9 trillion - or £130,000 for every man, woman and child in the country - a bombshell report claims today. The eye-watering estimate - mainly fuelled by the massive black hole in pensions - dwarfs the official government figure of £890billion. It is the equivalent of every household in the UK being saddled with a second mortgage of £300,000, and will be hanging over us for generations to come." - The Sun
Sarkozy and Merkel: We need a new EU treaty
"Following a meeting in France, the French President threw his weight behind calls from the German Chancellor for changes to the Lisbon Treaty in order to prevent future government debt crises threatening the euro zone." - Telegraph
EU wants to axe Britain's £3bn rebate
"Plans to overhaul the EU budget will target Britain’s £3 billion annual rebate in a blow to Government’s efforts to prevent any review of the deal won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. The European Commission will today set out a plan for future budgets that includes an option to end the rebate in its present form, The Times understands, as well as moving to increase tax payments direct to Brussels from banking and other sources." - Times (£)
Eastern Europeans return to Britain in record numbers
"The number of foreigners working in Britain has hit an all-time high despite the fragile state of the recovery. This summer, the total topped 2.4million for the first time after thousands arrived from abroad in the spring. Some of them were Poles and other Eastern Europeans who began to return to the UK. The number of Eastern European workers also reached a record – of 551,000." - Daily Mail
House of Lords Committee: Three peers should repay tens of thousands of pounds of expenses
"Baroness Uddin should be suspended until Easter 2012 and told to repay £125,349, the committee said. It recommended Lord Paul be suspended for four months and cross bencher Lord Bhatia for eight months. Both have already repaid substantial sums." - BBC