Weblinks for Saturday 30th October 2010
7.45pm Local government: Labour councillor calls for Baroness Thatcher to "burn in Hell"
5pm Archie Manners on CentreRight takes a light-hearted look at the official list of gifts and hospitality received by the Cabinet
4.15pm WATCH:
- After chairing a Cobra meeting, Theresa May gives an update on the situation surrounding the package found at East Midlands airport
- Former equalities minister and High Priestess of Political Correctness Harriet Harman calls Danny Alexander a "ginger rodent"
3.45pm Gazette update: Watch Damian Green's address to the TRG 35th anniversary conference in full
3.15pm Twenty years ago this very day Margaret Thatcher memorably told the Commons: "The President of the Commission, Mr. Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community, he wanted the Commission to be the Executive and he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No! No! No!" Click here to relive highlights of that famous statement
1.30pm Martin Sewell on CentreRight: Who is putting the positive case for an expanding EU Budget?
11.30am Gazette: Damian Green heads the line-up at TRG's 35 anniversary conference, delivering an address emphasising the need for the Conservative Party to remain moderate and progressive
ToryDiary: How the Right-wing press have reviewed David Cameron's performance at the European Council
James Brandon on Platform: Exposing Islamic extremism on British university campuses – and what we can do about it
Local Government: The overwhelming majority of councils plan shared services
Parliament: Jacob Rees-Mogg is fast becoming the star orator of the 2010 intake
David Cameron insists he is a 'Eurosceptic' following EU 'deal'...
"David Cameron has tried to reassure Conservative MPs about his approach to Britain's place in Europe, by declaring openly for the first time since becoming Prime Minister: "I am a Eurosceptic". The Prime Minister made his most explicit statement of opposition to further European Union integration, at an EU summit in Brussels. The EU does not spend its money well and must not be allowed to become a "superstate," he said." - Daily Telegraph
Cameron claims victory in Europe - but budget battle isn't over yet - The Times (£)
> ConHome coverage:
- Don't believe the Downing Street spin - Cameron is not getting a good deal for Britain in Europe
- "Cameron may well have severely underplayed the UK's hand" says Open Europe
- Lee Rotherham's verdict on David Cameron's EU "deal"
- Britain has prevented "crazy" 6% increase in EU budget, claims Cameron
...as he sparks row over 'delicious' BBC cuts
"David Cameron has ignited a furious row about the funding of the BBC, after he described the corporation’s six-year funding freeze as “delicious” and poked fun at it sending three reporters to his Brussels press conference yesterday." - Daily Telegraph
"Cameron under fire from all sides as Coalition’s honeymoon ends"
"If David Cameron and Nick Clegg ever really enjoyed a honeymoon, this was the week when it ended... The Government endured sustained criticism of plans to cut housing benefits led by the London Mayor Boris Johnson, who likened the policy to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. It faced difficult questions over child benefit reforms and suggestions it was watering down the planned immigration cap. And Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, stole Mr Cameron's thunder at the CBI by mocking his Tory partners' lack of economic judgement. As Mr Cameron travelled back from Brussels, the mood in the Coalition camp reflected the reality of running a two-party government in a country with no money." - The Independent
Cameron predicts 'no problems' with child benefit cuts
"Prime Minister David Cameron says he does not "predict a problem" in implementing child benefit cuts, amid claims plans are unenforceable. He was quizzed about plans to stop payments to families with higher earners, after it emerged they could face fines if they do not declare it." - BBC
Osborne's tax adviser warns against child benefit changes - Daily Mail
New fear for state pensions - Daily Express
Volunteers could get 'care credits' - Press Association
Hysterics over housing
"Don’t believe the hype, don’t believe the prophecy and don’t believe the numbers. Nobody knows the numbers. The media and political world have been guilty over the past week of swallowing hook, line and sinker some bizarre prophecies about social housing let fly by stakeholders in triumph or disaster; speculation, flying under the colours of fact." - Matthew Parris in The Times (£)
"Something disturbing is happening to political discourse in Britain. Opponents of the Coalition, most of them on the Left, have adopted the hysterical language of the student activists who manned barricades in the 1960s or screamed obscenities at “Thatcher” in the 1980s. One of the hallmarks of those young revolutionaries was a willingness to fling the words “fascist” or “Nazi” at anyone who provoked them (by, for example, telling them off for missing an essay deadline). This week, Polly Toynbee, grande dame of the Left, used the phrase “final solution” – the Third Reich’s euphemism for the massacre of six million Jews – to describe the cap on housing benefit. Supposedly liberal pundits are using increasingly illiberal language in an attempt to whip up popular anger against the Coalition." - Telegraph editorial
"Minister demanded an end to the ‘hysteria’ over housing benefit cuts last night. Official figures made a nonsense of claims that the reforms are designed to ‘cleanse’ the inner cities of poor people. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail that scaremongering and in some cases blatant lies about the money-saving plans had spiralled out of control... Figures seen by the Mail show that 96 per cent of 642,200 claimants whose handouts will be reduced will face rent shortfalls of £20 a week or less, and 79 per cent of £10 or less." - Daily Mail
> Tuesday's LeftWatch: "The vicious Tory determination to make the poor suffer"
> Thursday's ToryDiary: Three questions about Coalition housing policy
> Colin Barrow yesterday in Local Government: Reforming Housing Benefit must not be ducked
Theresa May: Flights to UK from Yemen suspended after terror alert
"Examinations have begun on the explosive devices found on planes at airports in Britain and Dubai, which have sparked a major international terror alert. Loaded printer cartridges with wires attached were intercepted by staff at cargo hubs at East Midlands Airport and in the Middle East after setting off from Yemen, bound for the US. Home Secretary Theresa May announced all direct flights from Yemen to the UK have been suspended after confirming the package found in the UK contained explosive material." - Sky News
Coalition facing split over detention of terror suspects
"A top-level government review of counter-terrorism laws has been delayed amid deep divisions among ministers over controversial orders to detain terrorist suspects. Ministers are facing an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign by the security services, who warn that abolishing the orders would put public safety at risk of terrorist attack." - The Times (£)
UK and France to sign formal defence treaty
"David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will next week sign a formal defence treaty between Britain and France that ensures a new drive for military co-operation between the two nations cannot be reversed by their successors. As the two leaders prepare for the most important declaration of Franco-British defence co-operation in more than a decade, a deal to co-ordinate deployments of the countries’ aircraft carriers and ground troops looks set to be the centrepiece of their summit in London." - FT (£)
Ministers draw up plans to end school admission free-for-all
"Figures show that 100,000 families did not get first-choice place, as recession pushes more parents towards state sector Reforms to make the secondary school admission system fairer are being planned by ministers and council leaders, The Times has learnt, as analysis reveals that 100,000 families did not get their first-choice place this year. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, wants to scale back the 86-page School Admissions Code, which his predecessor Ed Balls toughened up two years ago." - The Times (£)
"Most schools" to have budget cut
"Two-thirds of English state schools will have their day-to-day budgets cut in this parliament, in spite of government claims to have protected resources for education, Financial Times research has revealed. The planned squeeze on funding will be made worse by a forecast increase in the number of pupils and a 60 per cent reduction in capital spending on infrastructure." - FT (£)
Government's drug rationing body, Nice, to lose powers to decide on new drugs
"The government's drug rationing body, Nice, is to be stripped of its power to turn down new medicines for use in the NHS, ending emotive battles with patient groups but raising the spectre of a postcode lottery for care. The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, believes that Nice, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, should continue to write guidelines for doctors on the best treatments for their patients, but the Guardian understands he will remove its controversial power to ban the use of drugs it considers too expensive for the benefit they offer." - The Guardian
Tory MP Charlie Elphicke calls on Big Society to run Port of Dover
"The Conservative party’s free-market ideals and its latest intellectual big idea promise to clash this weekend when Dover’s Tory MP launches a campaign to block the privatisation of the town’s port. Instead of being sold to private sector investors, Europe’s busiest ferry port should transfer to a company owned by Dover’s townspeople, Charlie Elphicke will argue. The plan accords with the prime minister’s Big Society rhetoric, he says... Dame Vera Lynn, best known for her sentimental second world war-era hits, will join supporters of Mr Elphicke’s “People’s Port” plan on Saturday." - FT (£)
Nick Clegg: 'I'm so hated that people put dog mess through my door'
"Nick Clegg claims that voters angry about Government spending cuts have pushed dog mess through his letterbox and spat at him in the street. In a candid interview, the Deputy Prime Minister says he had to ‘swallow pretty hard’ when he realised what needed to be done to bring down the budget deficit left behind by Labour." - Daily Mail
Boris Johson - why Tories love him and David Cameron is terrified of him
"Is David Cameron afraid of Boris Johnson? Not really, no. He's terrified of him, because the Conservative party loves its Boris Johnsons, and rather despises its Dave Camerons. They know the Camerons have their uses – when you've been out of power for 13 years, you want one of them. Dave has the party's head, but Boris has its heart – Thursday's outburst notwithstanding." - Francis Beckett in The Guardian
Boris Johnson vs David Cameron: populist maverick against political insider - Andrew Gimson in the Daily Telegraph
Boris Johnson may be forced to shelve key projects due to scrapping of LDA - The Guardian
Sinn Fein member speaks in House of Commons chamber
"A teenage student has become the first Sinn Fein member to speak in the House of Commons. Connor Morgan, 18, spoke in Gaelic as he addressed a meeting of the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) sitting in the Commons chamber." - Belfast Telegraph
Ann Widdecombe talks about Strictly Come dancing and life after the Commons
"Let us make one thing quite clear: Ann Widdecombe will not be making her entrance on tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing on horseback. No way, no how — and not ever. “They wouldn’t allow the hooves on the dance-floor,” she crisply points out." - The Times (£)
And finally... As we prepare to turn the clocks back an hour tonight, Boris backs calls for more daylight
"Britons face a day of chaos tomorrow as the clocks turn back an hour, plunging the country into evening darkness... Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said the economy could be boosted if the clocks were in line with Central European Time. He said: “It’s barmy that a great trading city and leading global financial centre like London is so out of kilter with the rest of Europe. We do immense amounts of trade with our partners across the Channel and all the evidence shows we have little to lose and much to gain by setting our clocks in line with Paris, Frankfurt and other big cities.” - Daily Express
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