Monday, 8 November 2010

Today's other newslinks

Cameron wants to free up places in UK jails by sending foreign prisoners home - Daily Mail

15796834Mail Comment: "Prison overcrowding could be solved at a stroke if the 11,000 foreign nationals in British jails could be sent back to serve their sentences in their own country. So the Prime Minister is right to engage in talks with the relevant governments to enable these deportations. Once that j ob is done, is it too much to hope he might persuade Justice Secretary Ken Clarke to abandon his dangerous plan to ease overcrowding by handing out soft community sentences to thousands of home-grown criminals who richly deserve to be behind bars?"

Forty-six 'dangerous' terrorists go free from jail - Telegraph

> Yesterday's ToryDiary gave key facts about the Coalition's prisons policy

Cameron to publish four year plans for Whitehall departments with an invitation for voters to monitor them

"David Cameron will today publish full details of the government's plans for the next four years, in a way he claims is tantamount to a "power shift" from Whitehall in favour of individuals and communities. A new government website will go live, showing what departments intend to achieve during this parliament and when they intend to get results, the website will also include data to enable voters to see whether Whitehall is succeeding." - Guardian | Telegraph

On his blog, the BBC's Nick Robinson says Number 10 aides "could scarcely be more excited" about these business plans.

Government asks private-sector bosses to help with public-sector jobs cull -Independent

David Cameron heads to China in bid to close trade gap

"The British Government is anxious to close a huge trade gap with the world's most populous nation. The UK imported Chinese products worth £25.4bn last year, but goods worth just £7.7bn went in the opposite direction – less than the value of British exports to the Netherlands, Belgium or Spain. Britain also lags behind European Union partners Germany, France and Italy in export sales in China." - Independent

"Mr Cameron is almost certain to bring up human rights, and has promised not to shy away from the issue. He will probably do so within the context of China's economic growth. Western leaders, when they do address China's human rights record in public, frame the matter as being in China's interests: that a country which respects human rights has more of a chance long-term of functioning as a desirable trading partner." - Clifford Coonan in The Independent

"The Scotch whisky industry is set for a multi-million pound boost after securing greater legal protection for the brand in China." - BBC

IDS' plans to force jobless into unpaid work are unfair, says Archbishop of Canterbury

IDS"Iain Duncan Smith's plans for welfare reform suffered a setback today when the archbishop of Canterbury suggested they were unfair and could plunge the unemployed into "a downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair"." - Guardian

The Sun Says attacks the Archbishop: "Dr Rowan Williams says a plan to make the long-term jobless do manual labour could lead some of them to "despair." He was the chump who once said adopting some aspects of Sharia law in the UK seemed "unavoidable." It is perfectly reasonable to try to re-awaken the work ethic in those who have got used to a life on benefits. Only those determined to swing the lead will "despair.""

"Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told the BBC the idea was not to "punish or humiliate" but to get people back into the habit of working." -BBC

'Workfare' is an American idea that won't work in Britain - Peter McKay in theDaily Mail...

PHILLIPS-MELANIEBut in the same newspaper, Melanie Phillips is supportive: "If IDS were to break the idea that welfare means getting something for nothing, that would, in turn, start to break the hitherto impregnable culture of self-righteous infantilism that fuels family breakdown and other destructive behaviour. And that would be a tremendous achievement. So we must hold our breath that he succeeds in reforming welfare — and that the Coalition holds its nerve to allow him to do so."

> Yesterday's ToryDiary on Iain Duncan Smith's latest welfare-to-work initiative
> Iain Duncan Smith is at the top of ConservativeHome's end-October Cabinet league table

Housing benefit cuts will 'push poor out of south', experts warn - Guardian

Cameron and Clegg to meet today to discuss how to fight but not fall out over Oldham by-election - Times (£)

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Senior backbenchers fear that Cameron wants the Liberal Democrats to win the Oldham and Saddleworth by-election

David Laws echoes Nick Boles' call for decade-long Coalition project

LAWS DAVID"In the endpiece to his forthcoming book, the Lib Dem MP David Laws will call for the coalition's ambitions to span a decade in power. That is tantamount to saying that some sort of election deal must be done, and the closest any Lib Dem parliamentarian has come to echoing the backing of the Tory MP Nick Boles for the same thing." - Julian Glover in The Guardian

First LibDem candidate defects since start of Coalition, blaming six months of Clegg U-turns - Independent

Experts question Cameron's copright review

"The prime minister on Thursday unveiled a series of measures to help create a Silicon Valley-style cluster for technology groups that will run from Old Street to the new Olympic Park in east London. As part of the initiative, Mr Cameron said the government would carry out a review of the country’s existing IP laws, which he said were constraining start-ups. However, lawyers said that previous reviews had proved to be expensive and fruitless and had added to uncertainty, while another lengthy examination would not benefit entrepreneurs." - FT(£)

Rory Stewart concedes career 'gives appearance' that he worked for MI6

Rory-FReport in The Telegraph

Frank Field: Children need parenting classes to break poverty cycle

"The coalition's poverty adviser, Frank Field, will call for all children to be given parenting classes at school when he presents a government-commissioned review into poverty to the prime minister later this year. The theme of Field's review is "how to prevent poor children becoming poor adults". He recommends a move away from a mainly financial approach to tackling child poverty, favoured by the last government, to a strategy that focuses on parenting, and on the early childhood years, up to the age of five." - Guardian

Labour to target Tories over Coulson - Independent | Iain Dale on Labour's hypocrisy

The Telegraph on the BBC strike over pension rights

"The BBC now has up to £2 billion in pension obligations that it does not have the money to fund. Four of the five unions that represent its workers have agreed to the new deal offered by the management; the NUJ has not. The details are complicated, but suffice it to say that the revised arrangements are still generous — far more generous, indeed, than almost anyone in the private sector can expect. BBC employees will hang on to their “defined benefit” pensions, which guarantee a large portion of their salary at retirement. The rest of us have to live with “defined contribution” schemes, where the level of the final pension is down to the vagaries of the stock market." - Telegraph leader

> Yesterday's CentreRight: Newsnight's economics editor wants programmes cut and assets sold to protect BBC staff pensions

BNP £700,000 in debt and Nick Griffin faces court ruling that threatens his position as MEP - Times (£)

And finally... Gordon Brown spends a day on Twitter

The Telegraph reviews the former Prime Minister's efforts.

Highlights from a busy weekend on ConHome

DAVIS LOOKINGToryDiary:

Local government:

Tim Loughton MP on Platform: By tackling political correctness and excessive bureaucracy we can get more children out of care and into adoptive families more quickly

On CentreRight:

Parliament: Mark Field staunchly defends the City and makes the case for a strong financial services sector

AmericaInTheWorld: Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Libya attack US record on human rights at UN

WATCH:

Posted by Britannia Radio at 10:22