ToryDiary: George Osborne says 20% VAT is here to stay as he and Janet Dale y clash over tax cuts
- Alex Morton: How to ensure a supply of both affordable and more desirable homes
- Steve Baker MP: The British bailout will not necessarily help Ireland in the medium to long term
- Alex Deane: Come on, Labour, hurry up and give us an identifiable alternative national narrative
- Cllr Brian Connell: Councils should have an incentive to attract businesses to their area
- Councillor Awards 2011
Parliament: 27 Tory rebels back Douglas Carswell's attempt to amend the Loans to Ireland Bill
Seats and Candidates: The Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election looks set to take place on January 13th
Cameron heads to European Council to call for budgetary restraint...
"David Cameron will fight today to stave off attempts by Eurocrats to snatch a multi-billion handout that will saddle British taxpayers’ with a colossal financial burden for the next decade. The Prime Minister will tell European leaders that he wants “restraint” when the EU’s long-term budget is decided." - Daily Express
"David Cameron will push his European Union partners to adopt a measure that would prevent non-euro countries from being pulled into future eurozone bail-outs at Thursday’s EU summit, according to European diplomats." - FT (£)
...while at home he condemns the parliamentary expenses watchdog
"David Cameron has risked stoking the row over MPs' expenses by condemning the new tougher regime run by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). The Prime Minister branded the watchdog's rules "anti-family" and warned that it must improve by April or he would force changes. The comments appeared to soothe Tory backbenchers who have been up in arms over IPSA's new system. However, they are likely to prove controversial after the National Audit Office (NAO) embarrassed the House of Commons again by refusing to give a clean bill of health to its 2009-10 accounts." - Press Association
> Last night's ToryDiary: David Cameron pleases Tory backbenchers as he says IPSA must change or it will be changed
Government to stop detaining children in asylum centres
"No children will be detained in asylum centres this Christmas and the practice may be banned within months, the deputy prime minister will say today. Nick Clegg will hope the decision will lift the spirits of Liberal Democrat activists by making good the pre-election pledge to stop the detention of children in asylum centres." - The Guardian
- "Asylum gets even softer" - Daily Express
Liam Fox: The MoD is making cuts but must maintain the integrity of the Forces
"Given the financial difficulty faced by the country at large, and the MoD in particular, we have no choice but to cut running costs to ensure we prioritise the front line above all else. During the Strategic Defence and Security Review we made some very difficult decisions to help rebalance our Forces to meet future threats, but also to make a start on bringing our budget back into balance. We should all be very clear; the transformation in defence will be a process not an event." - Defence Secretary Liam Fox writing in The Times (£)
- Fox concedes there's a “downside” to the 2015 Afghan troop withdrawal deadline - FT (£)
- Liam Fox's Sri Lanka trip makes Foreign Office furious - The Guardian
Ken Clarke: Radical reform is needed to break the cycle of crime
"The first priority of this Government is the safety and security of its citizens. We all have a right to feel safe in our homes and on our streets. When that safety is threatened those responsible should face a swift and effective response. But the truth is that the justice system is not doing nearly enough to support this aim." - Justice Seceetary Ken Clarke writing in the Yorkshire Post
- Ken Clarke seeks to curry favour with law and order crowd by hitting out at prisoners' 'daft' human rights demands - Daily Mail
- David Cameron faces Tory rebellion over prisoner voting - Yesterday's Evening Standard
Massive NHS shake-up as thousands of managers axed... but the pen-pushers will survive with jobs running new system
"Thousands of NHS managers due to be sacked as part of plans to streamline the NHS will now have to be kept on to help run the new system, the Government admitted yesterday. Announcing plans for a massive shake-up, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley confirmed that primary care trusts would be abolished by 2013 and their responsibilities for overseeing medical services devolved to groups of GPs. But because GPs have neither the expertise nor the time to micro-manage budgets they will need to employ experienced administrators. This is likely to lead to a ‘revolving door’ in the NHS ." - Daily Mail
- Andrew Lansley's NHS scheme misses a trick - Telegraph editorial
> WATCH: Andrew Lansley explains the thinking behind his healthcare reforms
Cameron would alter budget to protect NHS
"David Cameron is prepared to rewrite the Government’s spending plans in order to protect his pledge on increasing the health budget, Downing Street signalled yesterday. The Prime Minister vowed to honour his promise of above-inflation annual rises in health spending amid fresh warnings of the risks posed by the Government’s NHS reforms." - The Times (£)
- Ed Miliband accuses Government of breaking NHS spending promise - Daily Mirror
£500 on electricity bills to pay for green energy
"Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, will outline government plans today to encourage energy companies to develop low-carbon power plants, including nuclear power stations and wind farms. Energy analysts say the Coalition's plans will put Britain on course for a "high cost, low carbon" electricity market where consumers pay the price for environmentally friendly generating technology." - Daily Telegraph
- The biggest energy market shake-up in 25 years - Chris Huhne MP writes in the Daily Telegraph
Nadhim Zahawi bids for a St George's Day bank holiday
"An MP has launched a bid to make St George's Day a national holiday. Nadhim Zahawi is also bidding to give the Welsh a day off on March 1 - St David's Day - in a Bill launched at Westminster yesterday. Tory Mr Zahawi said it would put both nations on a par with Scotland, where St Andrew's Day is a bank holiday. He said: "It is through national days we can celebrate what makes our nation so great." - The Sun
> Nadhim Zahawi MP on Platform yesterday: It is time to make St George's Day a bank holiday in England
Benedict Brogan: Protests from the shires won’t derail David Cameron’s dream of speed
"To get from London to Birmingham at high speed, you have to go through 16 Conservative MPs. Or rather, you have to go through their constituencies, which is what David Cameron wants to do with his new 250mph rail line. On Monday, the Government will confirm the precise route it will take, and set in motion a protracted battle with some of the wealthiest and most politically powerful areas in the country." - Benedict Brogan in the Daily Telegraph
> Recent relevant ToryDiary posts:
- Tory MPs raise concerns about High Speed Rail 2
- Tory Associations withhold money from CCHQ in protest at HiSpeed Rail plans
Other Coalition news in brief:
- Ireland loan won't add to UK deficit, says Osborne - Daily Telegraph
- Coalition wields axe over Christmas as 100,000 jobs to go by spring - The Guardian
- Peers say fixed term Parliaments are bad for democracy - The Times (£)
- English, Welsh and Northern Irish 'face Scots degree fee rise' - BBC
- Housing cheats cost taxpayers £5 billion a year - Daily Telegraph
Former Labour Cabinet Minister wants all drugs decriminalised
"All illicit substances, including heroin and cocaine, should be legalised, according to a former drugs minister who will today become the most senior politician to push for a dramatic change in the strategy for tackling Britain's drug problems. Bob Ainsworth will argue that it is better for addicts to receive their fixes on prescription rather than relying for their supply on the international criminal gangs that make billions of pounds from the trade." - The In dependent
Balls criticises Miliband live on TV
"Ed Balls shattered Labour's fragile truce yesterday by launching a bitter attack on Ed Miliband. In an astonishing move, the shadow home secretary criticised his leader's performance at Prime Minister's Questions on live TV." - The Sun
Other Comment:
- Leo McKinstry: Why lower taxes are the answer to Britain's problem - Daily Express
- Nick Clegg seeks a surge of optimism and relief from the Judas jibes - Michael White in The Guardian
- Coalition? This is a Tory government - Mehdi Hasan in the New Statesman
Lib Dems back down to 8% in the latest tracker poll - YouGov
ToryDiary: Liberal Conservatism's central error
ToryDiary: Ed "Basil Brush" Miliband puts in a painfully weak performance at the last PMQs of the year
Local Government: Boris freezes his share of council tax bills for the third year running
Local Government: Labour-run Newham Council spends £111 million on one office block
Parliament: The Lords rebellion on tuition fees that never was
LISTEN: Iain Dale and Tom Watson MP discuss the pitfalls of political blogging on the Today Programme
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