Britannia Radio

Invitation to David Davis lecture Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: There he is! The submarine Chancellor surfaces to display his social liberalism in the Times Also on ToryDiary: Invitation to David Davis lecture on Europe Columnist Peter Hoskin: The media is battling to stay relevant and trusted — as should politicians Tim Aker on Comment: An EU Exit is now on the agenda  Local Government: Pickles says imposed unitary status "a complete Horlicks" The Deep End: The decline of human civilisation: The first forty years WATCH: Nadine Dorries MP fails her "bug trial" Today's newslinks Conservative MPs side with George Osborne in fuel duty battle — for now "[Labour's motion to postpose a 3p rise in fuel duty] was defeated by 282 to 234 as Tory rebels backed off in the belief the Government was in 'listening mode'. ... It piles pressure on Mr Osborne to deliver good news in next month’s Autumn Statement. ... One Tory MP told the Sun: 'Many supported the Government tonight on ‘trust’. If the Chancellor does not deliver there will be a lot of angry MPs.'" - Sun Mr Osborne's summary of the US election: voters want economic toughness and social liberalism "Republicans lost swathes of voters who were on their side of the economic argument because of their positions on social issues. For women, the most important of these became abortion. Two 'Tea Party' Senate candidates escalated the issue with inflammatory arguments about abortion in rape cases. ... I should declare my personal position on these social issues: I wouldn’t change the current abortion laws and I strongly support gay marriage on principle." - George Osborne, The Times (£) George Osborne, Michael Gove and Ed Vaizey are thought to have accepted tickets for all four parts of the Ring cycle at the Royal Opera House that were worth £2,664 - Mandrake column, Daily Telegraph > Today's ToryDiary: There he is! The submarine Chancellor surfaces to display his social liberalism in the Times > Yesterday: ToryDiary: A measly 5% of Britons would vote for an anti-state party and it's time for all Tories to drop the libertarian language ToryDiary: Warsi says that the party must win minorities to win majorities. She's right. David Cameron stands up for the City of London and the defence industry in his Mansion House speech "In a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet at Mansion House the Prime Minister said last night that the UK should support all sectors of the economy where it had a comparative advantage, including defence. ... The Prime Minister also defended the City of London against critics wanting to “trash” the banks, arguing that financial services underpinned jobs for two million people." - The Times (£) The Abu Qatada fallout "A British immigration court sided with European judges by declaring it would be a breach of the fanatic’s human rights to put him on a plane to face terror charges in Jordan. ... Mr Justice Mitting said that, as a result of his decision, Qatada must be freed from Long Lartin high-security prison on bail terms that allow him to roam the streets for eight hours every day." - Daily Mail "There was never a cat in hell’s chance that he’d be booted out of Britain." - Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail "The faceless immigration appeals commission has too much power. Why should it have authority on national security over an elected home secretary?" - Sun editorial "Would any other country in the world have been willing to demonstrate its judicial impotence in such a humiliating fashion?" - Telegraph editorial > Yesterday's ToryDiary: Theresa May vows to fight on, despite Abu Qatada's latest legal victory Maria Miller criticises George Entwistle's £450,000 BBC pay-off "Culture Secretary Maria Miller told MPs it was ‘not right’ for Mr Entwistle to be handed such a massive pay-off and urged him to ‘consider whether it is appropriate for him to accept those payments’. ... Mrs Miller, who invited the National Audit Office to investigate the deal said it was a ‘reward for failure’, adding: ‘The circumstances of his departure make it hard to justify the level of severance money agreed.’" - Daily Mail "The next BBC Director-General is likely to be an outsider" - The Times (£) "Smearing an innocent man’s name is the real tragedy here" - Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph "The BBC faces a smaller, cheaper future" - Janan Ganesh, Financial Times (£) > Yesterday: Columnist Bruce Anderson: Jeremy Paxman is the man to revive the BBC J P Floru on Comment: Privatise the Biased Broadcasting Corporation MPsETC: Andrew Bridgen MP calls on Oxfam, Save the Children and other groups to cut links with Bureau of Investigative Journalism MPsETC: Tory MPs queue up, including the Party Chairman, to attack £450,000 pay off for George Entwistle Jeremy Hunt's "online revolution" in the health service "Patients will be able to order prescriptions, book GP appointments and even see crucial test results on the internet under an online revolution. ... Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will today pledge the major developments will be delivered within three years — by the next General Election in 2015." - Sun Doctors are threatening to strike over Government plans to change their contracts - Daily Mail Doctors could save the NHS money by using internet services such as Skype, according to legal advisers - Daily Mail Nurses union claims that job cuts are harming care standards - Guardian Ministers to announce that people can continue to get tax discs and driving licences from local post offices - Daily Telegraph Damian Green: Police commissioner elections will end 'cosy' relations with officials "The first ever police and crime commissioner elections on Thursday will mark the end of 'cosy' relationships between chief constables and their police authorities, the policing minister, Damian Green, has told the Guardian. ... As the latest YouGov polling data showed a modest rise in the proportion of voters who are certain to take part, to 28%, Green urged everyone eligible to vote and promised that an oath of impartiality will ensure the commissioners will act on behalf of all constituents." -Guardian The Guardian's Q&A about the elections - Guardian "Police commissioner elections: hardly The Wire, but they still really matter" - Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian > Yesterday on Local government: Labour's West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner candidate doesn't want the job IDS's Universal Credit "will not make work pay," warns study - Daily Telegraph Another obstacle to the proposed boundary changes "Conservative hopes of preventing a Labour-Liberal Democrat alliance from deferring plans to revise parliamentary boundaries until after the next election have been dealt a blow. New legal advice given to Labour says the delay is lawful, thus freeing Labour and Lib Dem peers to vote to scupper the reforms." - Guardian > Yesterday on ToryDiary: The biggest Commons obstacle to the new boundaries could be Conservative MPs themselves MPs and peers speak out against Coalition plans for "secret justice" "The Joint Committee on Human Rights said all the evidence it had received - apart from that of the Government - suggested the proposals would mean a ‘radical departure’ from ancient principles of ‘open justice and fairness’. ... In a report published today, it suggests the Government will have difficulty getting the legislation through the House of Lords and will lead to calls for it to be dropped altogether." - Daily Mail John Whittingdale warns against state regulation of the press "State regulation of newspapers would set ‘an extraordinarily dangerous precedent’ that would send a message ‘around the world’ that Press freedom wasn’t worth fighting for, a senior MP warned last night. ... John Whittingdale, chairman of the influential Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said Lord Justice Leveson would send ‘a very dangerous message’ if his inquiry into press standards calls for statutory regulation." -Daily Mail  > Today's column by Peter Hoskin: The media is battling to stay relevant and trusted — as should politicians Nick Clegg to announce new family-friendly policies "Nick Clegg has been forced to drop plans to give fathers six weeks of paid paternity leave, following opposition from Tories and business. ... However, he will unveil a new legal right for fathers-to-be to take unpaid time off work to attend two antenatal classes. ... And he will confirm that, from 2015, mothers and fathers will be able to share the standard 12 months of parental leave between them. Nine months of this will be paid, at the statutory rate." - Daily Mail Ed Davey's "concern" at allegations of price-rigging in the gas market "The City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, is investigating claims by a whistleblower that Britain's £300bn wholesale gas market has been 'regularly' manipulated by some of the big power companies, exploiting weaknesses that echo the recent Libor scandal. ... The energy secretary, Ed Davey, said: 'I am extremely concerned about these allegations and will be keeping in close touch with the regulators while they get to the bottom of this.'" - Guardian Protest planned ahead of "secretive" Tony Blair speech - Independent Andrew Adonis: Boarding schools must not be for the rich alone - Andrew Adonis, The Times (£) Sally Bercow apologises over Lord McAlpine tweet - Sun Executives from Starbucks, Google and Amazon face MPs over tax avoidance - Daily Mail The Welsh Assemly passes its first Bill -Guardian A drunken teenager posts a picture of himself burning a poppy on Facebook ... and gets arrested - Daily Mail 1-in-10 Brits are planning to take out a payday loan in the next six months - Sun Donations to charity fall by £1.7 billion in a year - Daily Mail And finally (1)... David Cameron's sartorial screw-up "Lost in thought, David Cameron was the picture of concentration after he gave a stirring warning to those who attacked British banks at a banquet. ... Perhaps he was contemplating his choice of words. ... Or, perhaps, he was trying to work out how to discreetly button up his shirt - which was open from the throat to the navel." - Daily Mail And finally (2)... Nadine Dorries' jungle torment continues "Ms Dorries bottled out of her first Bushtucker Trial, failing to win any food rations for her campmates. ... The trial - ominously titled Bug Burial - involved the Tory MP lying in an underground coffin as thousands of maggots, crickets and cockroaches were poured on top of her." - Daily Telegraph "Her mother has spoken out to describe how the MP ‘failed everything’ at school and was a ‘nightmare’ pupil. ... Retired teacher Sylvia Dall also revealed that she had doubted whether her daughter was ‘cut out’ for a political career and warned her: ‘You will never get a good job.’" - Daily Mail > Today's video to WATCH: Nadine Dorries MP fails her "bug trial" > Yesterday's video to WATCH: ITV viewers vote for Nadine Dorries MP to face a 'bug trial' in first instalment of I Am A Celebrity And finally (3)... the OED names "omnishambles" the word of the year- The Times (£)