Monday, 10 June 2013

Today's ConservativeHome Newslinks
Cameron says: Bloated welfare and poor schools are hobbling us in the global race...
"The Prime Minister will lay out three key goals - creating a world-class education system, reforming benefits and rebalancing the debt-fuelled economy - which he will describe as ‘national weaknesses’.  In a bullish speech ahead of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland next week, he will set out ‘ruthless’ plans to ‘turn our country around and give all our people the best chance of success’." - Daily Mail
...And lines up with Ken Clarke in defending Britain's EU membership
CLARKE HAPPY"In a speech explaining Britain's standing in the world a week before he hosts the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, the prime minister will say that membership of the EU is crucial in guaranteeing Britain a seat at the "top table". Cameron's staunch defence of Britain's EU membership, a month after Michael Gove and Philip Hammond said they would vote to leave now, will be reinforced by Clarke who will warn that Britain will be "reduced to watching from the sidelines" if it leaves the EU." - The Guardian
  • Don't pay ransom to terrorists, says Cameron - Daily Telegraph
  • Pressure on Cameron to clarify owners of firms at G8 - The Guardian
  • Prime Minister cuts human rights court backlog - Daily Express
  • Irish bailout costs British taxpayers an extra £10bn - The Times (£)
Security v liberty 1) Internet giants could end up in the dock, says Claire Perry
"Mr Cameron, Mrs Perry and Culture Secretary Maria Miller are to tell internet giants that ‘enough is enough’ at a summit next week. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and other firms have been summoned to a Whitehall meeting where they will be told to consider urgent measures to limit access to harmful material. Phone companies, including Vodafone and O2, are also being asked to attend the talks because of the amount of harmful material being downloaded on mobiles." - Daily Mail
Security v liberty 2) Hague claims its "nonsense" that GCHQ has tried to break the law
Screen shot 2013-06-10 at 08.27.53
"William Hague, foreign secretary, has dismissed as “nonsense” fears that the UK’s GCHQ eavesdropping service has been seeking to circumvent Britain’s spy laws by using data gathered by foreign intelligence systems. Mr Hague is to give a statement to parliament on Monday about allegations that GCHQ had been given access to the US National Intelligence Agency’s Prism programme, which apparently intercepted personal data held by internet companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook." - Financial Times
Boris: why on earth are we surprised at the Prism allegations?
Johnson Boris Head in Hand
"My only question is: what on earth did you expect? I have never trusted the security of the internet, or emails, or indeed texts – because it was obvious from the very dawn of what was once called the information superhighway that any data you sent to some server or database or gizmo could no longer be in any sense private. It was no longer shared between you and one recipient. It was stored in the memory of some vast global intermediary. It was out there, in the ether, just waiting to be hacked or lost or stolen or accidentally blurted to your enemies." - Daily Telegraph
  • MPs must be told more about the oversight of monitoring communications data - Times Editorial (£)
Hammond plans procurement savings and reaches Treasury settlement
"A new independent watchdog will be established to ensure that the taxpayer receives value for money from sensitive defence contracts which are currently not put out to tender. Almost half of all contracts for major defence projects are awarded in this way and Mr Hammond is concerned that the lack of competitive pressure is keeping costs unnecessarily high. Mr Hammond will on Monday publish a Defence Procurement White Paper which will set out the plan, along with proposals to bring in a private sector partner to run other defence projects for the Government." - Daily Telegraph
Policy Exchange to Osborne: privatise RBS and Lloyds before the next election
Screen shot 2013-06-10 at 08.31.59"A report by the influential thinktank Policy Exchange says the chancellor should ignore calls from Tory peer Lord Lawson, the outgoing Bank of England governor, Sir Mervyn King, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to break up Royal Bank of Scotland. Instead, he should press on with a scheme to distribute shares to voters, who would buy them at a later date, alongside a sale to big City investors that could raise new capital." - The Guardian
  • Treasury mulls Lloyds stake sale - Financial Times
  • Chancellor to focus on key transport projects in spending review -Financial Times
  • Can Osborne defuse our debt timebomb? - Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
  • Phillip Blond says that banks should insure loans to small businesses - The Guardian
> Today: Syed Kamall MEP on Comment: How to get the banking system we want
Centre for Social Justice to government: a million children are growing up without a father at home
"The report described the impact of family breakdown as an ‘emergency’ and said that the response of politicians of both Left and Right has been ‘feeble’. It urged David Cameron to ‘get a grip’. The findings are potentially embarrassing for the Prime Minister because the Centre for Social Justice is the brainchild of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who launched it in 2004 shortly after being deposed as Tory leader." - Daily Mail
Personal independence payments go live today
McVEY ESTHER"Ministers said the new benefit is designed to support disabled people to live independent lives and includes a new face-to-face assessment and regular reviews. Esther McVey, Minister for Disabled People, said: "Disability Living Allowance is an outdated benefit introduced over 20 years ago and was very much a product of its time. "The Personal Independence Payment has been designed to better reflect today's understanding of disability, particularly to update our thinking on mental health and fluctuating conditions." - Daily Express
  • 140,000 claim disability cash for a bad back - Daily Mail
Did the Whips Office leak Andrew Bridgen's name?
"The Whips’ Office was accused of leaking the name of Andrew Bridgen as one of the estimated two dozen MPs who have demanded a no-confidence motion in Mr Cameron. MPs said Mr Bridgen was “outed” in retaliation for his role in drafting a letter signed by 80 Tory MPs that has forced a reluctant Downing Street into granting a Commons vote on the Prime Minister’s readiness to arm Syrian rebels. The disclosure comes as the Prime Minister seeks to move on from the divisions with his backbenchers that have dominated the news agenda in recent weeks." -The Times (£)
  • Lynton Crosby is at the centre of controversy (again) - Sonia Purnell, The Guardian
Yeo: Margot James is less than impressed
Screen shot 2013-06-10 at 05.31.42
"Tory MP Margot James wrote on Twitter that the allegations were ‘damning’. She said ‘paid consultancy and directorships relevant to committee work surely incompatible with chairing [a] committee’. Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Tim Yeo appears to have been caught red-handed in a disgusting attempt to bend the rules." - Daily Mail
  • "Previously, the independent-minded Tory MP Chris Heaton-Harris responded: ‘I’m sure Yeo’s genuinely worried about the subsidies for green jobs, especially as he holds so many of them himself." - Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail
  • "The former Tory MP Paul Goodman, who now edits the Conservative Home website, said yesterday: 'The lesson of the Yeo affair is that those who chair select committees should be barred from having any outside interest that can reasonably be seen to conflict with their role as chairmen. The case for banning conflicting outside interests has now become overwhelming.' " - The Independent
  • Yeo pulls out of TV interviews - Daily Telegraph
  • Yeo must go. He cannot have this conflict of interest - Paul Staines, The Times (£)
  • It's good to hear Pickles upholding press freedom over Yeo sting -Sun Editorial
  • Severn barrage proposal founders - Financial Times 
Some Pakistani men do sexually exploit young white girls - and the police mustn't shy away from the problems, says Vaz's Home Affairs Select Committee
Screen shot 2013-06-10 at 08.34.06"The committee’s report said: “Evidence presented suggests that there is a model of localised grooming of Pakistani men targeting young white girls. “This must be acknowledged by official agencies, who in some areas of particular community tension had reportedly been slow to draw attention to the issue for fear of affecting community cohesion. “The condemnation from those communities of this vile crime should demonstrate that there is no excuse for tip-toeing around this issue.” - Daily Express
  • Pupils flee school fire feared to be work of anti-Islamic arsonist -Daily Express
Balls, Sunday morning: Labour will cap the state pension.  Balls, Sunday afternoon: Labour won't cap the state pension
"As for pensions, I think this is a real question,” the shadow chancellor said. “George Osborne is going to announce his cap in two weeks’ time. “I do not know whether he would exclude pension spending or include it. At the moment our plan is to include it.’’ However, Mr Balls appeared to change his position later in the day when confronted by Conservative accusations that Labour was planning a raid on pensioners." - Financial Times
  • At last, the parties get serious about spending - Andrew Haldenby,Daily Telegraph
  • Liam Byrne says that Labour didn't build enough houses when it was in power - The Independent
  • Pension payouts to soar by 25% - Daily Express
Tim Montgomerie: Religious liberty in Britain is under threat
MONTGOMERIE TIM CARTOON"In the not too distant future, will mosques that teach their members that homosexuality is wrong be denied charitable status? Will teachers who believe abortion is wrong be interviewed for headteacher posts? Will church schools that teach that other religions are false be barred from local authority funding? A big opportunity to address these questions will come if and when the Conservative Party drafts a replacement for European human rights laws. For me the ideal model is the nation’s abortion laws rather than the laws governing gay adoption." - The Times (£)
News in Brief
  • Patients at risk in a quarter of A & Es - Daily Telegraph
  • Erdogan says Turkish protestors are vandals - The Guardian
  • Academics call for return of polytechnics - The Times (£)
  • Iain Banks dies of cancer - The Independent
  • Bets are off for Rory Kinnear as new Doctor Who - The Sun
  • Sunshine and storms on the way - Daily Express
  • Ultimate QTWTAIN: Is George Osborne's cat Freya a secret agent of the Chinese Government? - Daily Mail
Yesterday on ConservativeHome
ToryDiary: Select Committee Chairmen should be barred from having outside interests
MPsETC: Chairman Shapps is culling the candidates' list - but he must be careful not to destroy its newfound diversity
WATCH: William Hague: Law-abiding citizens have "nothing to fear" from phone and email snooping