Britannia Radio

Today's highlights on ConservativeHome ToryDiary: ROLLING RESHUFFLE BLOG Also on ToryDiary: Andrew Mitchell must deploy his charm, not wield the cane Alex Deane on Comment: A vitally important speech by David Davis Matthew Oakley on ThinkTankCentral: How a northern pay-restraint-for-more-infrastructure deal would work Local Government:  Peter Walker: Police and Crime Commissioners must ensure better protection of witnesses What Eric did in the summer holidays The Deep End: Shale gas – what a fracking liberty! Or is it? WATCH: George Osborne booed at Paralympics Today's newslinks David Cameron embarks on his first major reshuffle "David Cameron has embarked on his first major government reshuffle that will see a comprehensive clear-out of cabinet ministers who have failed to deliver successful change and the promotion of a new generation of fresh faces. The prime minister, who hopes to announce his new cabinet by Tuesday afternoon, has started to telephone ministers with the news that only those who can play a decisive role in the next delivery phase of the government can expect to keep their places in the cabinet." - < a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/03/david-cameron-reshuffle-cabinet-coalition" target="_blank">Guardian "Aides said that the changes across most government departments would herald a “new generation” who had shown that they could deliver results. “This is the delivery phase of government,” they added." - Times (£) David Cameron's reshuffle cull targets ministers who failed to deliver change - Guardian What Cameron must achieve in the reshuffle - Times (£) 'Thrasher' Mitchell to be Cameron's Chief Whip - Independent Health Secretary likely to be shock casualty in Cameron's reshuffle - Daily Mail Cheryl Gillan may lose Wales Office - BBC > Today:  See all the latest reshuffle news on our rolling blog ToryDiary: Andrew Mitchell must deploy his charm, not wield the cane > Coverage from yesterday: ToryDiary: Man or mouse? Cameron must be ready to sack senior Ministers who try to wreck his shuffle ToryDiary: Did you miss any of our reshuffle posts in recent weeks? You can catch up on them here. Reshuffle comment: Cameron can't rid himself of the disloyal Clegg. So what good will a reshuffle do? - Lord Tebbit for TelegraphBlogs Clegg’s veto of fairer seats is more important than the reshuffle - Allister Heath for City AM The decisions that the PM will announce will be taken in some way to define and reveal him - Patrick Wintour for theGuardian David Cameron’s reshuffle today will be secateurs in the Rose Garden rather than a Night of the Long Knives - Rachel Sylvester for the Times (£) In the past three decades, only two reshuffles have made a big difference to the fate of a government - Steve Richards for the Independent First the wait, then the call, then the clear-out. Moving ministers is painfully inefficient - Chris Mullin for the Times (£) You’re sacked! And thank you for taking it so well... - Oliver Pritchett for the Daily Telegraph Stop the excuses, start the tax cuts, says David Davis "David Davis called for a swath of tax cuts and the scrapping of business red tape as he warned the Chancellor that he would not be excused if he failed to take drastic measures to kick-start growth. In a withering critique of the Government’s economic performance, Mr Davis accused ministers of seeking excuses, such as the eurozone crisis and the debt inheritance from Labour, rather than solutions. “An alibi is not a policy,” he said. “There is a risk that by focusing on parcelling out blame we accept our circumstances with too much fatalism.”" - Times (£) Mr Cameron’s old rival shows him the way - Daily Telegraph editorial > From today - Alex Deane on Comment: A vitally important speech by David Davis > Coverage from yesterday: ToryDiary: Davis says the UK economy needs shock therapy and urges the Coalition to adopt a clear roadmap to a very different system of tax, regulation, banking and energy policy WATCH: David Davis: "The parlous circumstances should not be an excuse for inaction" Gove admits GCSEs were unfair... but says Labour is to blame "Education Secretary Michael Gove yesterday admitted pupils who sat GCSEs this year were treated unfairly  – but insisted he cannot intervene. He said new-style GCSEs inherited from Labour, which split courses into bite-size modules, were 'not best equipped to ensure that all students could perform well and be treated fairly'." - Daily Mail > From yesterday - WATCH: Questioned in Parliament, Michael Gove rejects calls for him to intervene in the GCSE marking row Daily Telegraph continues series in which "leading young Tory MPs" set out their ideas for growth The second entry today is by Liz Truss: "Britain’s history is rich in science, from Isaac Newton to Alan Turing to Tim Berners-Lee. ... Our universities produce more citations per researcher than the US, China, Japan and Germany. There are signs that the next generation sees where value lies: maths at university and A-level is increasing. But small change is not enough. Taking the tough option will have to become mainstream if we are to continue to lead the world in science. Our economic future depends on it." Imagine the loss if the M25 closed and we bulldozed Bexleyheath. Now imagine the gain if we built new ones - Simon Wolfson for the Times (£) > Yesterday on MPsETC: The Unchained Five and a turning point for the 2010 intake Government 'planning new benefits cut' "Ministers are considering slashing £71-a-week from the income of sick and disabled benefit claimants if they refuse to take part in work-related activities, it was reported last night. The move planned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is designed to reduce weekly Employment Support Allowance by up to 70 per cent to those who won't try to get back into the workplace" - Independent Fines for workshy sickness benefit claimants to double - Daily Telegraph Government push to reform planning laws could backfire, warns senior planning officer - Daily Telegraph Policy Exchange says local public sector pay bargaining would save £6bn a year - Scotsman > From today - Matthew Oakley on ThinkTankCentral: How a northern pay-restraint-for-more-infrastructure deal would work George Osborne booed at Paralympics "If he was hoping for some signs of improvement on recent poll findings showing that he is the most unpopular member of the government, George Osborne was in for a rude awakening at the Olympic Stadium. A chorus of boos rang out from the crowd at the announcer's mention of Osborne's name shortly before the chancellor presented medals to the winners of the Men's T38 400m, in which Mohamed Farhat Chida of Tunisia took gold." - Guardian ...as Cameron is there to cheer on world record-breaking Ellie Simmonds - Daily Mail The Lib Dems would keep more seats with Vince Cable as leader rather than Clegg "The Liberal Democrats would win almost twice as many seats at the next election under Vince Cable as they would under Nick Clegg, according to a ComRes survey... According to ComRes, the Liberal Democrats would win 18 per cent of the vote with Mr Cable as leader, compared to 14 per cent under Mr Clegg. Under [Cable], they would hold 39 of their 57 seats on a uniform swing, while under [Clegg] they would be left with only 23 MPs." - Independent Janan Ganesh: Clegg's anti-Tory strategy has tainted not just this coalition, but coalitions in general "The Lib Dems have flaunted disagreements with Mr Cameron... Only their commitment to the government’s fiscal strategy has remained admirably adamantine. Yet none of this ornery behaviour has lifted the Lib Dems’ dismal poll ratings. ... What it has done is taint not only this particular coalition but coalition as a concept. Voters now overwhelmingly say they favour single-party government. As an existential threat to the Lib Dems, this is as menacing as the fact that they are struggling to score 10 per cent in the polls." - Janan Ganesh for the FT (£) > From yesterday:  Mark Thompson on Comment: Why do so many Tories reject their own manifesto? Because they had no say in writing it MPsETC: Tory MPs take the opportunity to give Clegg a kicking Clegg confirms Lords reform bill to be dropped "Mr Clegg confirmed to MPs that the bill will be dropped because Labour and back-bench Conservatives refused to back a timetable motion to prevent it being talked out. The statement confirmed his announcement over the summer, which has also seen the Liberal Democrats pull out of a deal to back boundary changes to House of Commons constituency seats" - Scotsman Mary Riddell: The cracks between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls could swallow Labour’s hopes "Labour, unlike the Coalition, is free from deadly conflict. The danger is that the stasis caused by trying to accommodate two marginally different doctrines results in a political version of locked-in syndrome. Coalition blood-letting should offer no comfort to the Opposition. The consequences of paralysis can be just as fatal as those of war." - Mary Riddell for the Daily Telegraph > Yesterday on LeftWatch, Tim Montgomerie explains how the Left went bad Border Agency blamed for student visa 'chaos' - Independent University begins legal action after being banned from taking overseas students following Government immigration probe -Daily Mail Young and low-skilled workers hit hardest as 'underemployment' rises - Guardian More violence in Belfast, 50 policemen injured - BBC EU to impose gender quotas on boardrooms - City AM Highlights from yesterday ToryDiary: ROLLING RESHUFFLE BLOG Did you miss any of our reshuffle posts in recent weeks? You can catch up on them here. Man or mouse? Cameron must be ready to sack senior Ministers who try to wreck his shuffle Mark Thompson on Comment: Why do so many Tories reject their own manifesto? Because they had no say in writing it MPsETC: Tory MPs take the opportunity to give Clegg a kicking The Unchained Five and a turning point for the 2010 intake On LeftWatch, Tim Montgomerie explains how the Left went bad Local government: At last...Labour-run Nottingham agrees to publish its spending WATCH:  Andrew Neil grills the new leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett, elected today Questioned in Parliament, Michael Gove rejects calls for him to intervene in the GCSE marking row David Davis: "The parlous circumstances should not be an excuse for inaction"