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| Theresa May had a bad reshuffle. On the plus side, she kept her job. The statuesque home secretary is enjoying her record-breaking three year stint in the graveyard of political careers. But Nick Clegg managed to box her in again, bringing more obstacles to bear on her authoritarian instincts. Jeremy Browne, who was typically thought to be one of Clegg's better performing troopers, was yanked out the Home Office and thrust back onto the backbenches. He's always been viewed with suspicion by Lib Dems. The man sounds like a Tory, says Tory things and even looks like a Tory. Some Liberal Democrats are starting to suspect he may actually be a Tory. He raised a lot of eyebrows when he wrote that Lib Dems should "own" all government policy. That view, you might not notice, is not a million miles off suggesting the party should meld with the Tories, given that it eradicates the differences between them. But Browne's real problem was that he failed badly on the so-called 'racist vans'. The GO HOME ads were given the green light without the Lib Dems' man in the Home Office knowing anything about it. And having discovered it, he failed to stop it. The Home Office presents the gravest danger to the Lib Dem's ability to keep their remaining supporters, because civil liberty and privacy issues are so key to the liberal (small and large 'L') brand. Clegg's people were particularly aggressive in setting the message when it came to the snooper's charter veto. That included a rather public humiliation for the home secretary, when the deputy prime minister used his weekly radio phone-in show to rule it out. Behind the scenes, Lib Dems have long been trying to erase May's more robust efforts. They got her to cancel a £40,000 income benchmark for foreign spouses, for instance, and move it down to £18,600. Clegg decided Browne had gone native at the Home Office and sent in Norman Baker. Baker looks more like a train spotter than Che Guevara, but don't let the mundane exterior fool you. Underneath, he's quite the radical. He thinks an Iraqi hit squad killed UN weapons inspector David Kelly and that Robin Cooke may have been murdered. The press had a field day with all that, but far more important are his civil liberties credentials, which are impeccable. Clegg has managed to get a dyed-in-wool libertarian into the Home Office. And the best part is he didn't even bother telling May it was happening. Neither, for that matter, did David Cameron. The home secretary was spitting blood. By the end of the week, the Lib Dems were flexing their muscles again, ruling out a proposal for private landlords to check the immigration status of those renting properties from them. The plans are quite mad anyway. They wanted to fine landlords who failed to do the check a heache-inducing £3,000, but there was precious little help for them to differentiate the maddening variety of immigration statuses on offer, not to mention the hundreds of forms of ID valid in the EU alone. Soon enough, it would have inevitably led to discrimination. The Lib Dems stepped in and had it restricted to a pilot project in a single area, with no expansion before the election. Other problematic proposals in the immigration bill – such as getting doctors to check immigration statuses – unfortunately made it through unscathed. The Lib Dems are hardly all powerful. But in important areas they are restraining the home secretary from being quite as authoritarian as her predecessors. Some policies, like the income benchmark for foreign spouses, are under the radar. Some, like the snoopers' charter, are emblematic. The constant is that the Lib Dems' influence over the Home Office is strengthening. Clegg knows which side his bread is buttered. He needs to ensure there are no civil liberties howlers between now and voting day, or the rank-and-file may finally give up on coalition. Baker is his man in the Home Office. Beyond the fun and games of his views on Kelly, it's a small and important triumph that Clegg managed to sneak him in. Pick of the week in newsThe test to prove you're gay: Report reveals cruel trap of British asylum system The strange limbo of the British asylum system has been laid open by a Commons committee report today, with reports of claimants waiting for a decision for up to 16 years and having to provide sexual photographs of themselves to prove they are gay. 'A deliberate attempt to deceive the public': Salmond caught out on oil fund Alex Salmond was accused of lying to the public today, after an internal Scottish government document cast doubt on the feasibility of Scottish National party (SNP) plans for an oil fund. Cold War PMQs: Cameron brands Miliband 'a Marxist' David Cameron branded Ed Miliband a Marxist today, as he adopted a full blown attack on the Labour leader's plan to freeze energy prices. Tommy Robinson quits the EDL The leader of the English Defence League (EDL) has quit the organisation in a dramatic move which saw him warn of the dangers of "far right extremism". Menthol cigarettes to be banned Menthol cigarettes will be banned, after the European parliament passed a raft of draconian anti-smoking laws. Commons clerk breaks silence over abandoned reform The Commons' leading civil servant has sent a clear signal he backs abortive plans to give more power to backbench MPs, in an unusual break from his silence on the issue. Scouts offer atheist options – but cling to Christian oath The Scouts have refused to dump religious words from their membership pledge, but offered concessions to secular groups by introducing an atheist alternative text. Pick of the week in Comment and AnalysisPress regulation royal charter in full Read the compromise royal charter by the government as it tries to find a way out of the press regulation roadblock - in full and unedited. Comment: Football fans are complicit in the repression of millions of people in the Gulf By tolerating the regimes that have bought Premier League clubs, football fans have become complicit in grotesque abuses of human rights. Comment: Turning doctors into immigration police will cost more than it saves Theresa May is turning doctors into UKBA agents to fix a problem which does not exist. Comment: We can help Syria if we stop being so macho The opportunity for political negotiation in Syria is real. Will we help, or are we only interested in bombing? Comment: Cameron's 'Marxist' jibe shows he's no better than a troll Cameron spent PMQs behaving no better than an anonymous Twitter account. Comment: This is what a Ukip reshuffle looks like Lots of top class women have been welcomed into the front line of Ukip politics - and we've not an all-women short list in sight. Comment: The stars are aligned for a better relationship with Iran For the first time in many years, we can build a decent relationship with Iran. We must not waste the opportunity. Comment: Here's the truth – there's been no global warming since the 1990s A United Nations report on climate change fits the political narrative - but its dodgy science covers up the weakness of the climate change case. Comment: Cameron should be furious with the Daily Mail By going against the British sense of fair play, the Mail has ceded one of the right's big tactical advantages against Ed Miliband. | CIOB video: It's all about people NASUWT comments on GCSE resultsCommenting on the GCSE results, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said: NUT Wales comment on GCSE ResultsCommenting on this year’s GCSE results, NUT Secretary, David Evans, said: NUT comment on GCSE resultsCommenting on today’s GCSE results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said: NASUWT comments ahead of publication of GCSE resultsThe fact that GCSEs are challenging and demanding qualifications is buried in an avalanche of politically motivated, false claims of grade inflation, dumbing-down and easy options, say the NASUWT. CIOT: Institute warns of ‘dangerous precedent’ over tax code for banksGovernment proposals for a strengthened Code of Practice on Taxation for Banks1 will set a “dangerous precedent” by giving HMRC power to determine and publicly announce non-compliance with the Code without any right of appeal, the Chartered Institute of Taxation has warned. |
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