Saturday, 3 November 2012

Today's newslinks
Further fallout from the EU budget vote (1): Another rebel amendment on Europe
“David Cameron is heading for another bruising vote on Europe next week when parliament debates contentious proposals for a banking union in the eurozone. ... Bill Cash, a eurosceptic Tory MP, has proposed an amendment to a government motion in support of the banking union, urging ministers to use their veto if the eurozone pushes ahead without signing a new treaty.” – Financial Times (£)
Further fallout from the EU budget vote (2): Ken Clarke says it would be "ludicrous" to go to Brussels intending to use the veto
Ken Clarke"Mr Clarke – one of the Tories’ most senior pro-Europeans – said: ‘It’s absolutely ludicrous to go there intending to veto. It’s just absurd. What they’ve got to do is reach a negotiated situation.’ ... His remarks appeared to clash with Mr Cameron’s position yet several hours later, Mr Clarke issued a clarification. ... ‘The clear meaning of what I said was that we cannot go intending to exercise a veto before we actually arrive,’ he said. ... ‘But we have an undoubted right to exercise a veto i f we cannot negotiate a satisfactory conclusion.’" - Daily Mail
  • "The Prime Minister either doesn’t see, or doesn’t want to see, the level of public hostility towards Brussels." - Simon Heffer,Daily Mail
  • Matthew Parris: The more interesting Tory argument isn't over Europe but about the role of the state - Matthew Parris, The Times (£)
  • UK rushes needlessly towards the EU exit - Martin Wolf, Financial Times (£)
  • Westminster is the real anachronism, not the European Union - Deborah Orr, Guardian
> Yesterday:
Ken Clarke also says that his current job is "particularly mysterious and baffling" - Sun
David Cameron admits that it may take years for the public to get behind the idea of elected police commissioners
Cameron“’It takes time if you have a new role, it will take time to get going,’ Mr Cameron told The Times. ‘It’s always difficult when there’s a new post, trying to get people to turn out and vote in an age of cynicism and apathy, it’s difficult. That doesn’t mean it’s the wrong thing to do.’ … He also signalled that the next Tory manifesto would include a commitment to legislate for directly elected city mayors without the idea having to win approval in a referendum first.” – The Times (£)
> Yesterday on Local Government: Could Prescott lose?
Ministers want to cut health and safety regulation in the workplace
"Under proposals that Labour have claimed were "sneaked into Parliament", ministers are trying to amend health and safety laws to water down employers' liability for accidents and leave employees having to prove that their managers were negligent." - Independent
Government report raises doubts about state funding for social care
"In the joint submission, the Department of Health, Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Communities and Local Government say that the Government is 'unable to commit' to the £35,000 cap. ... 'Any such system will have a cost,' the official submission says. 'At this time, the Government is committed to reducing the structural deficit, and we are unable to commit to introducing a new system.' ... The failure to cap care costs will lead to a growing number of people losing their life savings, the submission adds." - Daily Telegraph
  • Taxpayers being stung by expensive governent phone lines - Daily Telegraph 
Newsnight doesn't name the "leading poltician from the Thatcher years" linked with a paedophile ring
Newsnight"BBC's Newsnight has sensationally claimed that a 'leading politician from the Thatcher years' was embroiled in a widespread paedophile ring - and repeatedly raped boys from a children's home. ... But despite a string of damning allegations, Newsnight reporters said it didn't have 'enough evidence' to name the politician, sparking angry claims on Twitter that the Beeb 'bottled it'." - Daily Mail
Jeremy Hunt to introduce new legal safeguards around end-of-life treatment
"Last night Mr Hunt said he would enshrine the ‘basic right’ of patients to be involved in decisions when they are mortally sick. ... He threatened ‘tough consequences’ for hospitals that fail to consult. ... Patients and their families will be able to sue health trusts that break the rules and doctors who ignore their wishes face being struck off for misconduct." -Daily Mail
The government's airport tsar confirms that "a third runway at Heathrow is on the table" — Boris left unamused
Runway"[Boris] wants Sir Howard [Davies] to ‘accelerate his timescale’. He derided the Coalition for ‘a policy of utter inertia’ and described delays to deciding aviation plans as a ‘fudgerama’. ... ‘It’s going to be toxic and disastrous to go into the election of 2015 with Heathrow runway three still on the agenda, millions of Londoners still in a state of great anxiety and uncertainty about whether or not they are going to suffer from severe noise pollution,’ he said." - Daily Mail
HMRC refuses to name the 500 "Lagarde list" Britons whom they have investigated for suspected tax fraud
"Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke, an accountant, called for the culprits to be prosecuted. ‘We should name, shame and prosecute in order to stop people from evading their taxes,’ he said. ... ‘HMRC has let things go for the last decade and the state of the UK’s finances mean it is time for them to show a firmer hand.'" - Daily Mail
  • New figures suggest that foreign-owned companies in Britain owe £5.5 billion to the Exchequer - The Times (£)
High Court put temporary block on MoD plans for Afghan prisoner transfers - Daily Telegraph 
Leading figures from the arts world attack the Government's Ebacc plans - Guardian
Robert Halfon's ideas for funding a freeze in fuel duty
Robert Halfon"Fuel duty could be frozen if ministers axed handouts for rich pensioners and cut benefit fraud, an MP has claimed. ... Robert Halfon said the move would free £800million — enough to halt the 3p rise due in January." - Sun
Graeme Archer: Marriage is a bulwark against loneliness — the government should promote it
"Michael Howard deployed a powerful phrase in defence of his criminal justice policy: prison works. It’s time we used a similar phrase, in defence of social justice: marriage “works” too. It works for most people and definitely for civic society, yet we find it hard to say this, and shy away from its political implications." - Graeme Archer, Daily Telegraph
Gaby Hinsliff on the child benefit row
"If you want people to keep risking their money in tough times you have to show where there’s potential for a return. And bleating that you need it for piano lessons doesn’t count." - Gaby Hinsliff, The Times (£)
  • Experts advise taxpayers to use "salary sacrifice" schemes to avoid child benefit cuts - Daily Telegraph
Dr David Green: Lord Heseltine's report ignored some of the self-inflicted wounds caused by current government policy - Dr David Green,Daily Telegraph
Steve Webb's warning after new assumptions about pension growth
“Steve Webb, the Pensions Minister, said that the new assumptions – which were revealed in The Daily Telegraph - are a ‘kind of reality check’. … ‘We are saying to people if you want the pension you thought you were going to get you are either going to have to work longer, which is an option for some, or save more,’ the minister said.” – Daily Telegraph
Denis MacShane quits Parliament in the face of a police probe into his expenses claims
Denis Macshane"Scotland Yard last night vowed to examine a report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards which found Mr MacShane guilty of submitting 19 false claims ‘plainly intended to deceive’ Parliament’s expenses authority. ... But he could still dodge criminal charges because evidence submitted to Parliament is inadmissible in court." - Daily Mail
The number of firms going bust has hit a seven-year low - Daily Mail
And finally... the SNP compares its campaign for Scottish independence to the American Revolution
Washington“The party hit back at a Washington Post editorial that claimed an independent Scotland would be ‘unable to contribute meaningfully to global security’ and lead to ‘a less stable world’. … In a letter to the Post’s editor, a US aide to Angus Robertson, the SNP’s Westminster leader and defence spokesman, said ‘people in London would have read similar warnings about a small upstart country just across the Atlantic’ during the War of Independence 230 years ago.” – The Times (£)

Posted by Britannia Radio at 09:55