Newslinks for Monday 31st October 2011
5.15pm WATCH: Tim Loughton MP: "There is too much delay in the courts, too much bureaucracy" in the adoption process
5pm Edward Timpson MP on Comment: Improving the adoption system will transform lives
4pm Jim McConalogue on Comment: The UK will be hemmed in by an impoverished set of European neighbours when a two-tier EU is created
3.45pm WATCH: Ed Miliband: "We've got a perfect storm in our economy, a perfect storm of higher unemployment and higher inflation"
2.30pm MPsETC update: Robert Halfon MP's petrol prices e-petition has a "very, very high chance" of being debated, says the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee
2pm WATCH: David Cameron: "We need a real culture change in this country to be more pro-adoption"
12.30pm On Comment, Charlie Elphicke MP shows how Labour's deficit plans would saddle you with £8,000 more debt than the Coalition
11.30am John Stevens on Comment: Clegg should back an 'In or Out' referendum and finally resolve Britain's EU question
11am Columnist Anthony Browne: Move the clocks forward an hour
11am ConHomeUSA: Today's top Republican and American political news
ToryDiary: Dangerous distance opens up between Cameron and the country, party and centre right press on Europe
MajorityConservatism: The economic policy we have and the economic policy we need
Columnist Bruce Anderson: It is time for the Conservative Party to recognise and trust its Leaders
Nick de Bois MP on Comment: Parliament must debate the European Arrrest Warrant
Tim Montgomerie on Comment: In praise of City AM's Allister Heath, one of Britain's most insightful economic commentators
Local government: Second home owners to lose Council Tax discounts
Also on Local government: Councils failing on adoption to be named and shamed
MPsETC: A fourth e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures - on financial education
WATCH: Nick Herbert MP considers action to stop protests becoming permanent encampments
Councils with poor adoption rates to be named and shamed as Government launches... GiveAChildAHome website
"A Green Paper detailing new “floor standards”, similar to those issued to schools for their exam results, will set out the minimum proportion of children that should be adopted from care each year. It will also impose time limits on the process." - Times (£)
- "Control over adoption and fostering services will be removed from councils that are failing in their duty to find parents for children in care, David Cameron will announce today." - Daily Mail
- Private companies could take over the children's services of poorly performing local authorities - Telegraph
- "Cameron, who is meeting parents, carers and adoption services representatives, will launch the website www.giveachildahome.co.uk, which aims to open debate on reform and provide information on adopting and fostering." - Guardian
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: The scandal of the racist dogma that stops black children being adopted
Distancing ourselves from the EU would be suicide, warns Clegg - Scotsman
"Mr Clegg said the idea that the UK should position itself as a leader of the 10 EU member states that have not joined the euro was a fundamental mistake. “To limit our ambition like this would be an extraordinary own goal,” he suggested. “Why would we seek to head up a smaller club with a fast diminishing membership? Many of our fellow ‘outs’ eventually want to become ‘ins’.” - FT (£)
- States that opt to stay out of the euro should form a group to ensure their voices are heard - David Owen in The Times (£)
Sun attacks reported deal between Cameron and Clegg on EU
Sun Says: "The deal between David Cameron and Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg on Europe looks suspiciously like a cheap PR stunt. Mr Clegg is to graciously agree to the UK trying to claw back powers from Brussels — but only if the same rights are returned to all the other 27 EU nations. And with Germany and France relentlessly pushing for more integration, not less, that's worth about as much as a Greek IOU."
Tory MPs line up to attack Clegg on Europe
- Peter Bone: "‘The Prime Minister wants powers back from Europe. Yet it seems to be Mr Clegg and a few Lib Dems dictating policy – it is outrageous."
- Douglas Carswell: "‘Nick Clegg needs to be reminded that he is leading a party which is now running neck and neck with UKIP. If he wants to trigger a General Election on this issue then good luck to him."
- Julian Lewis: "‘I am a conservative Conservative: if I had wanted to be a Liberal, I would have joined the Liberal Democrat party, and if the country had wanted the Liberals to be having as much influence as they have got, they’d have voted for them in rather larger numbers."
Quotes taken from the Daily Mail.
"Even now, with the eurozone sinking deeper into crisis, Clegg still clings to his party’s cherished doctrine of European integration. As the public mood in Britain turns decisively against the EU, Clegg grows ever more hysterical in his defence of Brussels." - Leo McKinstry in The Express
- Tory MP Mark Reckless claims that half of all Tory MPs would like to leave the EU - Telegraph
- Cameron under pressure from Tory backbenchers to veto a fresh EU bid to grab £40billion for its budget - Express
David Cameron vows to boost infrastructure projects - BBC | Telegraph
Ed Miliband suggests Government's tax changes penalise long-term investment - Guardian
"Companies should be given a £1,500 tax break for taking on a jobless 16 to 24-year-old in an attempt to combat rising youth unemployment, the CBI has urged. The employers’ group said the incentive, which would cover the first year’s national insurance for employers, would cost £150m a year and “is affordable within the context of the government’s deficit reduction plan”." - FT (£)
Cameron warns colleagues on talking down UK - FT (£)
> Yesterday evening's ToryDiary: Cameron sets out his three-pronged plan to revive Britain's economy
Smaller charities working with the young unemployed losing local government funding - Times (£)
Theresa May has launched a fresh attack on British judges accusing them of being overzealous in their use of the Human Rights Act - Daily Mail | Express
"Gun dealers are set to face life in prison as ministers launch a major crackdown on networks that fuel horrific gang crime. Home Secretary Theresa May will this week unveil a new firearms law aimed at smashing a deadly underworld of importers and middle-men." - Sun
Cameron gives green light to British merchant ships carrying armed guards to combat Somali pirate threat - City AM | Sun
Cameron: Developing countries which ban homosexuality may lose aid payments - Scotsman | Metro
Treasury Select Committee presses Bank of England on its handling of financial crisis - Guardian
The Public Administration Committee criticises executive's appointment of so many MPs to 'government jobs'
"The public administration committee says its call to reduce the ministerial ranks from 121 to 80 has been ignored... The committee said the government employed more parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) - or ministerial aides - than it needed and that they performed "few functions of real value"... [Bernard] Jenkin, a key figure during the recent rebellion by Tory backbenchers over a referendum on EU membership, said the employment of aides was "more about exercising patronage over MPs, and thus being able to influence debates and votes, than it is about efficiency and accountability."" - BBC | Guardian
"Ministers have been forced to seek permission from Prince Charles to pass at least a dozen government bills, according to a Guardian investigation into a secretive constitutional loophole that gives him the right to veto legislation that might impact his private interests." - Guardian
Hunt backed by PM accused of breaking rules to keep foxes - Independent
Britain would be better off and lives would be saved if we had summer time all year round - Boris Johnson in The Telegraph
Labour drops support for Heathrow runway - Independent
Tony Blair's Faith Foundation champions religious freedom. So why is he doing deals with a despot who persecutes believers? - Jerome Taylor for The Independent
Care in the community is 'a £100bn failure': Mentally ill patients have been neglected for decades, says Iain Duncan Smith think-tank - Daily Mail
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