Anthony Browne on our Columnists' page: Who will win the £250,000 prize for designing a €uro exit plan? Dr Eamonn Butler on Comment: The idea of forcing the banks to keep more ‘safe’ assets at hand is equally misguided Lord Ashcroft on Comment: The Leveson inquiry - it is revelations about the activities of the “quality” press that may yet be the most interesting MPsETC: Robert Halfon's debate on fuel prices highlights a growing problem in the Chamber Local Government: WATCH: Are Anglo-German relations worsening? Cameron is accused of being self centred by Merkel's ally Benedict Brogan writes that "France’s uneasy alliance with Germany must not prevent Britain having a say over the euro" "Mr Cameron has embarked on a difficult game of three-dimensional European chess with Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel. Age-old historical truths are asserting themselves. As it always has done, Britain has a stake in ensuring the balance of power between its two main Continental rivals does not favour one against the other" - Telegraph In a speech today, William Hague will stress that the intelligence services will be able to stand future scrutiny Former UK Borders Chief, Brodie Clark escalates row as tells Home Affairs Select Committe that he didn't go "rogue", accusing May of destroying his reputation "Clark, who resigned last week to fight an employment tribunal case after being publicly blamed by the home secretary for the border checks fiasco, revealed there had been an attempt to pay him off quietly with a retirement package but it had been blocked at the last minute. As expected, the senior civil servant claimed that ministerial authorisation of a trial involving targeting checks on high-risk groups had been "conflated" with long-standing Home Office policy dating back to 2007 to suspend some passport checks to deal with critical health and safety emergencies at airports and ports" - Guardian > Yesterday WATCH: UK Border Force chief Brodie Clark says he was "meticulous" in meeting Theresa May's requirements The Daily Mail suggests that Clark did defy May in the decision to relax fingerprint checks May faces fresh row as the Home Office is accused of "highly selective" drugs statistics at British ports "Home Office ministers faced a fresh crisis last night after being rebuked for manipulating drug-seizure figures in an apparent attempt to generate good publicity for the embattled Border Agency. Sir Michael Scholar, the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, condemned the department for a "highly selective" briefing to journalists which claimed that the amount of heroin and cocaine detected at ports and airports had soared – just days before properly audited figures showed seizures had fallen" - Independent Business leaders meet with Cameron to discuss ways of tacking youth unemployment, which is set to surge past 1 million Dominic Raab, in a paper published today for the Centre for Policy Studies ('Escaping the strait jacket - Ten regulatory reforms to create jobs'), suggests suspending the minimum wage for young people "Suspend the minimum wage for 16 to 21-year-olds working for small businesses to give them a foot on the ladder. The Low Pay Commission recently told ministers that the current level of the minimum wage may be hurting young people’s job prospects" - Times (£) David Miliband says that youth unemployment has "undoubtedly got much worse in the last year”, calling for "extraordinary measures" to deal with it - Times (£) Jesse Norman MP celebrates the end of Private Finance Initiative's (PFIs) Meryl Streep's 'Iron Lady' is not "the Margaret Thatcher I knew" says Norman Tebbit "She was never the half-hysterical, over-emotional, over-acting woman portrayed by Meryl Streep. She could be angry and on at least one occasion I walked back to my department unsure whether I would find on my arrival that I was no longer the Secretary of State. Contrary to some accounts of her negotiating tactics, I never felt that she was playing “the feminine card”. It was all about reality, not emotion, and she was no stranger to the game of hard ball" - Telegraph Parliament votes unanimously to halt the increase in fuel tax- Sun Senior MPs fear "they have created a monster with the e-petition scheme", after a series of Government embarrasments - Daily Mail MoD admits to security concerns over delay in production of cutting-edge attack submarines - Daily Mail The British Medical Association want smoking to be banned in cars, to protect passengers - especially children - Guardian ToryDiary: On our Columnist's page, Andrew Lilico responds to Bruce Anderson labelling him as a "belly-aching" right wing pundit: Failing to engage with the main issues of public concern has always been a losing strategy On our Columnists' page, Bruce Anderson gives four reasons we should trust Cameron, Osborne and Hague in response to Iain Martin on Comment yesterday: If the Cameroons are going to be three years late to every party, why should the rest of us stand around talking politely and waiting for them to turn up? On Comment: MPsETC: Local government: WATCH: ConHomeUSA: Yesterday's top Republican and American political newsToryDiary:
"Close allies of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, turned on Mr Cameron after he called for the European Union to rewrite its rules after the debt crisis. Days before he meets Mrs Merkel for talks, the parliamentary leader of her Christian Democratic Union party told Mr Cameron he would not get away with opposing the new financial transaction tax branded by George Osborne as a “bullet aimed at the heart of London”. Volker Kauder also accused Mr Cameron of being self-centred, saying that it was unacceptable for Britain to ignore its “responsibility for making Europe a success” - Times (£)
Hague "in a rare speech devoted to the intelligence services, will concede that claims about possible British involvement in extraordinary rendition and torture had damaged the country’s standing around the world. Proposed new rules to allow to courts to hear details of sensitive intelligence behind closed doors will help strengthen public confidence in the intelligence agencies at home and overseas. But agents would not be forced to reveal their techniques, which would alert Britain’s enemies and could put national security at risk" - Times (£)
"A bombshell inquiry has found the head of the UK Border Force relaxed vital immigration checks in clear defiance of ministers because he wanted ‘quick wins’ to reduce queues at airports. A leaked draft copy of a disciplinary investigation into the conduct of Brodie Clark – who yesterday denied being a ‘rogue’ civil servant – reveals fingerprint checks on foreign nationals who need a visa to enter the UK were relaxed on 164 occasions" - Daily Mail
"At a breakfast meeting in Downing Street today, business leaders at the CBI and the British Chambers of Commerce, among other trade bodies, will urge the Prime Minister to consider financial incentives to help employers hire young people. The Prime Minister is said to be open to their views about tackling youth unemployment and joblessness across all age groups, expected to rise from its current level of 2.5m to 3m next year, according to some analysts" - Telegraph
"So what should come next? A return to pure public financing would grossly constrain capital investment and fail to take any benefit from the experience of the past two decades. But the issue is not simply how private capital and skills can be better deployed for public benefit, though that is highly important. It is how new approaches to infrastructure can be used to drive economic growth, at a time when the eurozone is in crisis and large parts of the world economy are stuttering" - Telegraph
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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