Teatime newslinks for Tuesday 18th October 2011

HIGHER INFLATION

• Pete Hoskin examines the upsurge in inflation: "We have the second worst inflation in Western Europe. Even if you strip out the effect of taxes, our inflation still surpasses the eurozone average" - Spectator
• "September's retail prices index, which includes mortgage interest payments, leapt to 5.6 per cent, the highest in 20 years. For all of the hype around yesterday's summit between ministers and the big six energy companies, it will not persuade them to lower their prices, which have jumped by up to 19 per cent in the past few months. This winter, that will hurt." - London Evening Standard leader
• The Mail's Kirsty Walker speculates that the Treasury might NOT uprate benefits by this inflation measure.
• Treasury Minister David Gauke predicts that inflation will be falling again by the turn of the year - ConHome

FOX-GATE

• Adam Werrity met other defence ministers, including Gerald Howarth and Lord Astor - FT Westminster
  
• Ministerial code to be rewritten - The London Evening Standard politics blog
• Six things the new Defence Secretary needs to do - Daniel Korski at The Spectator

MPs TO HOLD HISTORIC VOTE ON EU REFERENDUM - BBC | ConHome

BORIS JOHNSON TO THE PRESS GALLERY

• "London Mayor Boris Johnson set himself at odds with David Cameron and George Osborne today with a warning that any move towards fiscal integration in the eurozone would be “absolutely crazy”." - Times (£)
• Tom Newton-Dunn of The Sun: "Boris Johnson sure knows how to please the mob. He has just delighted the assembled Westminster hacks of the Press Gallery lunch by a tour de force of a story fest. There was something for everyone - a call to keep press freedom to please the Daily Mail's editor Paul Dacre, a rant against Ken Clarke's soft justice which won our support, an attack on further EU integration that the Telegraph loved, and a venting of the 'Pret a Manger problem' - his theory that the sandwich shop chain's entirely foreign staff exposes Brit-born Londoners poor work ethic - which everyone enjoyed. So great was the story avalanche, anyone would think he's up for re-election...."

THE POLITICS OF GEORGE OSBORNE

• Is George Osborne claiming credit for Chris Huhne's work? FT Westminster's Jim Pickard examines whether the Chancellor's green scepticism is all that it appears.
• Meanwhile, notes Paul Goodman, an Osborne-ite replaces a Cameroon as PPS to the Defence Secretary.

FLIP-FLOPPING STEPHEN TWIGG

• Toby Young notes how Labour's new education spokesman Stephen Twigg is a flip-flopper; first supporting free schools and then back-tracking - Telegraph.
• Cranmer reflects on the flip-flopping: "While politicians of substance and conviction refuse to bend with the winds of pressure and stand as resolute as the oak, Mr Twigg lives up to his etiolated name."

OTHER

• Ken Livingstone announces a five point plan to create 11,500 jobs for young Londoners - LES