Anthony Browne on Columnists: If we don't set the agenda for financial regulation, the EU will do it instead John Glen MP on Comment: Access targets will lower the quality of our top Universities Also on Comment: Piotr Brzezinski: Make no mistake, Plan B has arrived MPsETC: 58 MPs (including 46 Tories) sign next Thursday's European referendum motion Local Government: Trade unions launch campaign to defend council-employed Youth Workers WATCH: Gilad Shalit is released Fox to make Commons statement today. O'Donnell report slams "failure of judgement". Cameron would have sacked the former Defence Secretary in its wake if he hadn't gone last week. Fox report 1: Severity of verdict further blights Fox return prospects "In what amounts to a serious reprimand to the Ministry of Defence permanent secretary, Ursula Brennan, No 10 insisted no warnings about Fox's misconduct were passed to O'Donnell, Britain's most senior civil servant…Number 10 made it clear that Cameron would have sacked Fox if he had not resigned last Friday, saying "his conduct was not consistent with remaining a member of the government". His chances of returning to a ministerial post in the medium term look minimal." - The Guardian Fox report 2: Cabinet Secretary doesn't delve fully into Werritty donors "Sir Gus did not investigate Mr Werritty’s backers or their motives, but he did uncover two previously secret donors: Michael Davis and a company called IRG Ltd. The FT has revealed that the Mr Davis referred to is the chief executive of Xstrata, the FTSE 100 mining company. South Africa-born Mr Davis, who is a friend of Poju Zabludowicz, chairman of pro-Israel group Bicom, is head of the United Jewish Israeli Appeal charity." - Financial Times (£) Comment: > Yesterday: David Nuttall Commons EU referendum motion unveiled. Cameron will order Conservative MPs to vote against it next week... ...As they are caught between party whips and Tory members "Senior Tories warned last night that the party's MPs will be under enormous pressure to defy Mr Cameron on 27 October by voting in favour of a referendum. They said the crucial factor in many Tory MPs' minds would be the proposed shake-up of parliamentary boundaries to allow the Government to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600. This will provoke a scramble for seats, with many MPs doing battle with colleagues for the right to be their party's candidate at the next election." - The Independent Priti Patel piles in, as does... "One Eurosceptic Tory MP, Priti Patel, warned that Mr Cameron risked creating “animosity” within his party if he blocked MPs from acting freely. The warning came as Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, claimed that it would be “absolutely crazy” for members of the eurozone to intensify their fiscal union…Ms Patel said that the vote was long overdue. “It gives us a chance to restore public faith in Parliament and show that we are on the side of the people.” -The Times (£) ...Boris! "Boris Johnson has described as “absolutely crazy” George Osborne’s prescriptions for the long-term survival of the euro, fuelling speculation that the two men are jockeying for position in a future battle for the Tory leadership. The London mayor rejected Mr Osborne’s suggestion that the only way to preserve the single currency is for eurozone countries to follow the “remorseless logic” of monetary union by moving towards closer fiscal co-operation." - Financial Times (£) "The usual crazed melange of common sense, weird apercus and outright lunacy" German finance minister to 10 Downing Street: Renegotiation? Forget it "Schäuble, who took part in a question and answer session with academics at Chatham House, left some of his London audience with the impression that Germany did not believe that Britain would have any bargaining chips in the negotiations. His apparent remarks prompted alarm bells in Westminster and Whitehall because David Cameron told the 1922 committee in July that the eurozone crisis would give Britain a golden opportunity to repatriate powers." - Wintour and Watt, The Guardian > Yesterday: Mervyn King: Euroland crisis and world economy have derailed recovery... ...As inflation hits a three year high "Inflation has hit a three-year high, underlining fears that squeezed UK households will continue to cut back as a thinktank predicts spending will not recover to its pre-recession level until at least 2013. The Institute for Fiscal Studies lays bare a drop in spending that is longer and deeper than during any recession in recent history. Charities are warning that many households continue to struggle to buy even essentials such as food." - The Guardian Higher inflation threatens to cost £1.8bn in welfare - The Times (£) > Yesterday: Chris Skidmore MP unearths the writing-off of more than £40m in foreign national NHS bills "Foreign nationals who are treated medically in the UK but do not pay their NHS bills have cost the service more than £40 million, a Tory MP claimed today. Chris Skidmore discovered 118 trusts had written off a staggering £42 million - and believes the total figure could be more than £50 million as he is still due responses from another 66 trusts." - Daily Mail "Why the Prime Minister doesn't understand the middle classes" While other MPs agree to cut their pensions, John Bercow refuses to follow suit - Daily Mail Clampdown on lobbyists will hit charities and unions (but wouldn't have covered Adam Werritty) - The Times (£) Djanogly interest declaration failure claim - The Guardian MPs applaud Hillsborough victims in Commons debate - The Sun Suspected Russian spy admits affair with Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock - Daily Telegraph Welsh Education Minister Leighton Andrews dubbed "Stalinist" and "Thatcherite" by Prince of Wales' representative - Wales Online Other Political News and Comment Europe: Liam Fox: ToryDiary: Has one of Smiley's People replaced Tobias Ellwood at Defence? Columnist Anthony Browne: Immigration appears to be cooling as an issue James Arbuthnot MP on Comment: Israel did the right thing in trading 1,000 prisoners for one captured Israeli soldier The Teatime newslinks include reaction to the rise in inflation; the latest on Liam Fox; and Boris delighting a press gallery lunch with some talk that won't endear him to Cameron, Osborne or Clarke Noon ConHomeUSA: Today's American political news"Sir Gus concluded that Dr Fox, who resigned as defence secretary on Friday, had been guilty of “a failure of judgment” and not lived up to the standards of behaviour required of ministers. He had inappropriately “blurred the lines” between his official role and personal friendships, but had taken the “ultimate responsibility” by resigning. Dr Fox quit after a series of allegations about his conduct and his decision to allow Mr Werritty to attend private meetings both at the Ministry of Defence and overseas." - Daily Telegraph
"A cross-party coalition celebrated briefly yesterday after securing a landmark debate and vote next week on staging a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU. But, to the fury of many Tory MPs, Government sources last night indicated that Mr Cameron may order his troops to vote against the proposal, virtually guaranteeing its defeat." - Daily Mail
"Boris huffed and wheezed. No, this was all a charade. But he had been incredibly lucky to get the position he had. It was the last big job he would do in politics, and in life. So, we gasped, he really did want to become prime minister! The man's ambition is insatiable. You may imagine that he was saying the opposite. But those of us with PhDs in Borisovian studies know that is what he really meant. The rest of the speech was the usual crazed melange of common sense, weird apercus, and outright lunacy." - Simon Hoggart, The Guardian "Britain’s economic recovery is off-track, Sir Mervyn King warned on Tuesday night as he defended the Bank of England’s decision to pump money into the economy again by purchasing £75bn of gilts over the next four months. As consumer price inflation surged to 5.2 per cent in September, close to a 20-year high, the Bank governor justified the resumption of money printing… on the grounds that he now thought it would take longer to return the economy, public finances and interest rates to normality." - Financial Times (£)
"It was the Economist that best captured this objection, just before the General Election: ‘Mr Cameron epitomises British elites: he understands his high-earning peers and feels a genuine noblesse oblige towards the poor, but the people in between are somehow beyond his ken. It is fair to say that the Tory leader, more than anyone, is desperately concerned about this impression being given." - Dominic Lawson,Daily Mail
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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