Columnist Stephan Shakespeare: There's no such thing as Worcester Woman or Mondeo Man Lionel Zetter on Comment: Lobbying is legitimate Douglas Murray on Platform: A final word on my differences with Paul Goodman Also on Local government: How Labour's referral fees from ambulance chasing lawyers were exposed WATCH: Inflation is expected to hit a three-year high, landing the Government with a bumper bill for increased state benefits and underlining the squeeze on household incomes "September's consumer prices index (CPI) will be used to determine next April's rise in the basic state pension, piling pressure on the public purse but bringing some relief for hard-pressed pensioners." - PA Labour MP's call for David Cameron to apologise for Hillsborough blunders -Metro Forty MPs back Nick de Bois MP's attempt to toughen Ken Clarke's knife crime policy - Sun The Sun Says: "Mr Clarke is refusing to let the Government's new law jailing knife thugs apply to under-18s — even though they cause 40 per cent of knife crime. The law is being brought in belatedly after the Tories broke a manifesto promise to jail anyone with a knife. It seems Mr Clarke can do what he likes. Even if it puts the public in peril." Labour lead grows to 8% in Times (£)/ Populus poll but is just 3% in overnight YouGov/ Sun survey. Cameron rather than Huhne fronts meeting with energy companies in sign that electricity and gas prices are at top of political agenda - FT (£) "Be it a “co-payments system”, as advanced by a former Labour minister, a supplementary insurance scheme, as preferred on the Continent, or a so-called fat tax, whichever policy is adopted must reflect a determination to bear down on demand by moving some responsibility for healthcare away from the State and towards the individual." - Dr Philip Lee MP in The Times (£) Care services for older people are being denied vital funding because “under-performing” NHS hospitals are soaking up public money "Lord Warner claims that some failing hospitals must be closed to cut spending and pay for care of the elderly. He also warns that watering down the Coalition’s health reforms will mean the Government does not have enough money to meet the increasing costs of social care for older people." - Telegraph The FT examines why Osborne will pursue the IMF route to help the Eurozone Hague highlights Government's cyber war strategy in Sun interview "Britain is prepared to strike first to defend against a cyber attack from an enemy state, William Hague declares today. The Foreign Secretary's warning to the world is the first clear signal that the UK has developed new weapons for the online battlefield." - The Sun 200,000 people have signed a National Trust petition calling on the Government to rethink its controversial planning reforms - Independent "If there was one thing which would have condemned Cameron as hopelessly out of touch with "ordinary people", it would have been a levy on hamburgers and chips." - Dominic Lawson at The Independent “I set out at the start of my campaign what I called new unionism, which is the belief that the best way to defend the United Kingdom is to understand that most people in Scotland actually are comfortable with the idea of a Scottish Parliament and are relaxed at the prospect of having more powers.” - Murdo Fraser interviewed in The Scotsman Margaret Mitchell MSP promises to be backbench thorn in Murdo Fraser's side if he wins and attempts to form new Scottish party - Scotsman £34m Sovereign Grant becomes new way of funding Royal Family - BBC Labour's Children's Minister: 47 Sure Start centres in England will close because of funding cuts - BBC "Skiving' MPs want another mini-break: An extra five days off... because riots disturbed recess" - Daily Mail A new security chief could be appointed to oversee the protection of Parliament after the “chaos” caused by a foam pie assault on Rupert Murdoch - Express Local government: Localism will be an ally of good design in planning Brandon Lewis MP on Comment: Community active - getting the unemployed active in the community to prepare for work WATCH:
MajorityConservatism: A summary of the differences between the Conservative Party we have and the Conservative Party we needLocal government: Pickles says coordination needed for 120,000 troubled families
Sir Gus O'Donnell's report will find that Liam Fox breached ministerial code but did not benefit financially from his relationship with Adam Werrity -PA | BBC
Cameron's summit with energy companies can't hide the impact his green taxes are having on energy prices - Daily Mail leaderTory MP and GP Philip Lee floats measures that will tackle the problem of ever-increasing demands on the NHS
"Any eurozone support from the IMF could hit UK taxpayers only in the most extreme circumstances in which Greece, Portugal or Ireland simultaneously defaulted on all their other debts and still could not service their IMF loans. In such a world, an IMF default is unlikely to be the most pressing problem for the chancellor as, for example, he would already have had to deal with a bilateral default from Ireland. For these reasons Mr Osborne is determined to tough out the criticism. Any help to the eurozone through the IMF is less provocative to the Tory right than other forms of help." - FT (£)
Former MSP Bill Aitken is latest backer of Murdo Fraser - Scotsman
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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