Monday, 22 November 2010

Today's other newslinks

Osborne to water down bank bonus rules

OSBORNE GEORGE NW"George Osborne is set to water down plans to force disclosure of bank bonus payments above £1m, in a move that will delight the City but sets up a political clash with business secretary Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats. The chancellor has been lobbied by senior bankers who claim that if Britain introduces more pay transparency unilaterally it could put the City at a disadvantage and lead to some banks shifting activity to New York or other financial centres." - FT(£) | FT video investigating whether London is losing its appeal

  • George Osborne delays publication of 'growth master plan' - FT (£)

FT and Mail give Cameron conflicting advice on immigration

"David Cameron risked igniting a dispute with his coalition partners by insisting that the number of immigrants coming into the UK could be cut by tens of thousands a year without damaging the economy." - Guardian | Video of the PM talking to Sky News

"Today, we report how – far from being deprived of staff – companies have not yet allocated thousands of the work permits made available to them under these interim arrangements. Meanwhile, instead of seeking to bring in ‘highly skilled workers’, they have been asking for staff to work in ticket offices and fast food restaurants – vacancies which should be filled by our own unemployed. In just one example of this madness, 1,700 care workers were given visas while 30,000 UK care assistants and home carers were claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance." - Daily Mail

  • FT(£) leader: "Since EU immigration cannot be controlled, to meet its targets the coalition must crack down harder on non-EU arrivals. One-fifth of these are skilled workers; another fifth come to join relatives; the remainder are students. None of these groups can be squeezed painlessly..."
  • Jan Boucek on the Adam Smith Institute blog: "The immigration cap is a bad idea that’s going to tie up the new government in knots with an ever-more complex regulatory response to an unworkable objective. Come the next election, this government will be judged on whether it has put the nation’s finances in order and whether the economy is healthy. An immigration cap is more likely to damage both objectives."

Michael Gove to swap modules for single-exam GCSEs - Guardian

GOVE MICHAEL NW"Pupils studying GCSEs are to sit exams only at the end of two-year courses in a sweeping change to secondary education. The current structure of GCSEs, which are divided into modules with an exam after each, will be scrapped in two years in a move to O-level style exams for all." - Times (£)

  • FT (£): "Michael Gove has dropped ambitious plans to bypass local government and fund all state schools directly from Whitehall. The education secretary said on Sunday that “we will be funding schools through local authorities as we do at the moment.” | Yesterday's ToryDiary
  • Telegraph leader: A worrying number of teachers subscribe to the Old Left orthodoxy and teacher training reform is therefore vital to Michael Gove’s plans

HERBERT NICK NWCoalition in brief:

  • Nick Herbert under fire for suggesting no link between police numbers and crime - The Sun
  • A new era of “right-to-buy” will be heralded by ministers today as part of a fundamental shake-up of Government housing policy - Telegraph
  • 10 Downing Street's E-petitions website shelved - Guardian
  • Cameron backs 'Queen Camilla': But the public want William to leapfrog Charles - Daily Mail

David Laws calls for tax cuts once the deficit is eliminated

Screen shot 2010-11-22 at 08.13.06"Once the £10,000 personal allowance is delivered, there will be a strong case for looking at the burden on those in employment on low and middle incomes. After tax, national insurance, graduate contributions and pension payments, some of these individuals will face marginal deduction rates of almost 50 per cent. That may be necessary in the tough times, but it will hardly be acceptable once the deficit is eliminated." - David Laws in The Telegraph

"Everything you need to know about coalition politics you already know from your marriage."

"The Liberal Democrats have been told to regard their partnership with the Conservatives as a "marriage" as Nick Clegg tries to calm his party's nerves over their slump in the opinion polls. A brainstorming session on Liberal Democrat strategy for the party's ministers, MPs, peers and their advisers became dominated by language more in keeping with a relationship counselling session than a policy workshop." - Independent

In a Guardian interview the Labour leader vows to pursue social justice and equality to make the party electable again - Guardian

  • The 50p tax rate for high earners should be made permanent, according to Ed Miliband - Telegraph
  • Labour cries foul over cuts to school sports funding - Times (£)
  • Labour 'went too far in trying to hold terror suspects for 90 days' -Independent
  • As the left falls into a negative sulk, the centre-right have become the optimists - Julian Glover in The Guardian
Highlights from yesterday

Gove on MarrToryDiary:

Jiehae Choi and Nathan Gamester onPlatform: Can the Government actually make people happier?

Robert Halfon MP on CentreRight: Sir Humphrey's ingenious defence of First Class rail travel

LeftWatch: Whitewashing BBC fails to tell licence feepayers about new union leader's militant ambition to take over Labour Party

WATCH: Because Liberal Democrats didn't win the election, we didn't break tution fees promise, says Cable

Local government: Tory MP Andrew Percy attacks Labour councillor who described royal family as "parasites"

Parliament: Chris White's Private Member's Bill promoting social enterprise passes its first Commons hurdle

International: Tory allies in Polish Law and Justice Party set for split

Posted by Britannia Radio at 09:35