ToryDiary: Has David Laws let slip the truth behind the Lib Dems' motivations on AV? Also on ToryDiary: Five days of comment moderation Parliament: David Ruffley suggests withdrawing from the ECHR over votes for prisoners LeftWatch: Labour MPs and advisers admit - We failed on immigration ThinkTankCentral: The challenge of caring for Britain's ageing population "Teachers will be trained in schools rather than at universities and pupils will take fewer but tougher exams under plans to reform education in England to be unveiled by the government on Wednesday. Education Secretary Michael Gove will also detail proposed legislation to give teachers greater powers to discipline unruly students and for headteachers to expel the most troublesome." - Reuters "As part of the plans, former troops will be offered sponsorship to retrain as teachers, and there will be new aptitude tests for the profession." - BBC Theresa May announces immigration cap > Yesterday in Parliament: Theresa May confirms commitment to reduce net immigration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands Martin Callanan elected to lead Tory MEPs > Yesterday's ToryDiary: Martin Callanan elected to lead the Conservative MEPs Lib Dems fear Royal Wedding date will scupper voting reform fight "Senior Lib Dems were privately furious last night after the timing of the Royal wedding dealt a serious blow to their campaign to change Westminster’s voting system.The April 29 date falls less than a week before the national referendum on electoral reform on May 5." - Daily Express Cameron dismisses royal wedding date clash claims - The Guardian Coalition news in brief Douglas Carswell MP: Don't bail out Ireland, free it Simon Heffer: Twenty years on, Europe is still the issue that divides the Tories - Daily Telegraph Ross Clark: The Coalition ignores the plight of Middle Britain at its peril "The Government is quietly shifting resources away from public services in middle class areas to fund improvements in poorer areas. The pupil premium will see higher spending on school education per head in poor areas. Good GPs working in middle-class areas are to be tempted with extra money to work in poor areas. Middle-income taxpayers contribute far more towards public services than do the poor and yet in return they are now being made to put up with a lower quality service. Again and again the coalition has proved itself to be a government for the poor and for the rich but is offering little for those in the middle." - Ross Clark in the Daily Express Other comment: Former Tory donor Stuart Wheeler opposes donations cap "People who make large donations to political parties expect to gain influence and shape future policy, and it is "absolutely natural and unobjectionable" for them to do so, a [former] major donor to the Conservative party said yesterday. Stuart Wheeler, who at one point made a single donation of £5m, called for the cap on donations to be lifted and dismissed allegations that the big donor culture had made politics less fair. "Fairness isn't the be all and end all," he said." - The Guardian Boris bikes available for "everyone" next week - Metro And finally... "Big Society" is the word of the year Local Government: Council leaders demand LGA Chief Exec take a pay cut - and he agrees to do so Alex Estorick on CentreRight proposes a "tax cap"; an idea whose time has come? Robin Simcox on CentreRight: "If you're a British soldier fighting against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, you can earn as little as £17,000 a year. If you train with the enemy and accuse the British state of torture without having to prove it, then you can become an overnight millionaire. This was precisely what happened last week when the government came to financial agreements with former detainees at Guantanamo Bay..." Gazette:
Bernard Jenkin MP on Platform: It's a frustrating time for EU-sceptics inside the Conservative Party Grant Shapps MP says that local councils must now look to the people they serve...
"Traditional academic subjects will be put back at the centre of learning under radical government plans to be unveiled today. Education Secretary Michael Gove told the Daily Mail he plans to tear up the schools league table system so success in old-fashioned subjects such as science, history or foreign languages is the chief measure of achievement." - Daily Mail
"The number of migrant workers allowed to come to the UK from outside the EU will be slashed to 21,700 - plus some exceptions, the Home Secretary has said. She announced an official cap on immigration but in a concession to the business community, will allow them to transfer some staff from outside the UK." - Sky News
"Martin Callanan has been elected as the new leader of the UK Conservative group in parliament... "Our task as Conservative MEPs and my job as leader is to represent UK interests and help to fulfil our manifesto commitment to repatriate power back to member states. Europe needs to be on the right road, a road where member states co-operate, where our sovereignty as a nation is not eroded further, and where co-operation in areas such as the single market and trade can reap dividends for all of us." - The Parliament
"Britain has just promised £7bn towards a €90bn package aimed at rescuing Ireland's economy. But the bailout has not worked. Instead, we are sinking billions into a temporary rescue of the euro that will prolong Ireland's economic misery. So we should change course and prepare to offer a dramatically different solution – help Ireland decouple from the euro and allow the country to default on its debts." - Douglas Carswell inThe Guardian
"The news is surely enough to make tweeps woot with joy. These two bizarre expressions from the internet age were yesterday shortlisted as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year... Yesterday’s winner was somewhat better known, however, with David Cameron’s ‘big society’ phrase emerging triumphant. The term, which attracted criticism during the election for being ambiguous, is defined as: ‘A political concept whereby a significant amount of responsibility for the running of a society’s services is devolved to local communities and volunteers.’ Susie Dent, of Oxford Dictionaries, said: ‘Big society was for us a clear winner because it embraces so much of the year’s political and economic mood'." - Daily Mail
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
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