Wednesday, 25 June 2014

PMQs special - politics.co.uk

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"He didn't like the answer because he wanted to prove some cooked-up conspiracy between the Conservatives and News International"

Phone-hacking PMQs

PMQs verdict: Cameron uses the law as a shield, but forgets to cover his legs

Cameron takes questions at PMQs

Cameron uses the law as a shield to avoid scrutiny, but he does so with little grace

PMQs as-it-happened

Prime minister's questions as-it-happens: Cameron's judgement under scrutiny after Coulson verdict

David Cameron's judgement faces scrutiny in the Commons following Andy Coulson's guilty verdict yesterday

Coulson case collapses as judge attacks Cameron

Cameron undergoes grueling PMQs over Coulson row

Remaining case against Andy Coulson ends after jury fails to return a verdict - but not before judge issues a stinging rebuke to the prime minister for nearly causing it to collapse

Coulson guilty: Cameron apologises but Miliband declares government 'tainted'

In other news...

Universal credit cost jumps amid free school meals 'fiasco'

Free school meals are likely to increase the cost of universal credit

Iain Duncan Smith's department faces renewed mockery over its universal credit "fiasco" after it emerged the cost of the reform could increase by up to £750 million.

Right-to-die appeal dismissed by judges

Doctors face up to 14 years in jail under current laws if they assist suicides

Supreme court judges have dismissed a bid to effectively make euthanasia legal in the UK, after months of deliberating behind the scenes.

Right-to-die campaigners are wasting their time

Tony Nicklinson died naturally after losing his high court case last year

Parliament is deeply sceptical about changing the law - and might even legislate against euthanasia it if it had to.

Freedoms and fragmentation put pupils at risk

"They are yet another example of where increased ‘freedoms’ in and fragmentation of the system lead to important statutory and good practice provisions being ignored".

HS3 proposals will significantly improve northern cities’ ability to compete with London

The Institution of Engineering and Technology has welcomed the proposals for HS3 as it represents the opportunity to reap benefits for the smaller cities in the north.

Government must do more to protect animal welfare

New polling of public, politicians and animal welfare experts highlights the need for the Government to lead the way - and identifies the plight of research animals, breeding animals and those hunted for sport as top priorities.

How the Longitude Prize Challenge can help preserve the cornerstone of modern medical care - antibiotics

The development of antibiotics has been vital to our survival, yet the rise of antimicrobial resistance is threatening to make them ineffective in the future.

Teachers strike in Lancashire school

Members of the NASUWT are today taking strike action following the failure to resolve their deep concerns over poor management practices at Leyland St Mary’s Catholic High School in Lancashire.

Government bans all existing and future Academies and Free Schools from teaching creationism as science

The Government has changed the rules to preclude all Academies and Free Schools, both those that already exist and those that will open in the future, from teaching pseudoscientific ideas such as creationism as scientifically valid.

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Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Phone-hacking verdict - Politics.co.uk

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"I have an old-fashioned view about innocent until proven guilty. But if it turns out I have been lied to, that would be the moment for a profound apology. In that event, I can tell you I will not fall short"

Phone-hacking

Cameron apology awaited after Coulson found guilty of phone-hacking

Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former head of communications, has been found guilty of phone-hacking

David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson has been found guilty of phone-hacking - but Rebekah Brooks has been cleared.

In other news...

Why we can't afford not to pay the living wage

Happy workers: Higher minimum wages boosted productivity and worker retention

Paying workers properly doesn't increase unemployment - but it does boost the economy

Between the lines: Cameron's counterproductive EU strategy

Jean-Claude Juncker talks with the man determined to stop him becoming president of the European Commission

It's David Cameron's boldest diplomatic move yet - and possibly his stupidest. So why is the PM making an ill-fated bid to sabotage Jean-Claude Juncker's appointment as president of the European Commission?

The first step in the criminalisation of cigarettes

Smoking: End game in sight

Finally, the anti-smoking lobby dares to reveal its final objective: a ban on adults buying cigarettes

Khat ban comes into force despite fears Somali community will be criminalised

khat: Ban could criminalise communities from Horn of Africa

The long-awaited ban on khat comes into force at midnight, despite fears the move will criminalise communities from the Horn of Africa

Mission impossible: MPs are wasting their time taking on the might of No 10

No 10 has slowly amassed power over the centuries

Over the centuries No 10 has amassed a vast amount of power. Can backbench MPs really take it back?

HS3 proposals will significantly improve northern cities’ ability to compete with London

The Institution of Engineering and Technology has welcomed the proposals for HS3 as it represents the opportunity to reap benefits for the smaller cities in the north.

Government must do more to protect animal welfare

New polling of public, politicians and animal welfare experts highlights the need for the Government to lead the way - and identifies the plight of research animals, breeding animals and those hunted for sport as top priorities.

How the Longitude Prize Challenge can help preserve the cornerstone of modern medical care - antibiotics

The development of antibiotics has been vital to our survival, yet the rise of antimicrobial resistance is threatening to make them ineffective in the future.

Teachers strike in Lancashire school

Members of the NASUWT are today taking strike action following the failure to resolve their deep concerns over poor management practices at Leyland St Mary’s Catholic High School in Lancashire.

Government bans all existing and future Academies and Free Schools from teaching creationism as science

The Government has changed the rules to preclude all Academies and Free Schools, both those that already exist and those that will open in the future, from teaching pseudoscientific ideas such as creationism as scientifically valid.

British Social Attitudes survey finds most people have no religion, just 41.7% are Christian

The 31st annual British Social Attitudes survey (BSA), has found that 50.6% of the population saying they have no religion (up from 47.7% last year), with just 41.7% regarding themselves as Christian (the lowest ever figure).

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Monday, 23 June 2014

Keeping the badger faith - politics.co.uk

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"The powerhouse of London dominates more and more. And that’s not healthy for our economy. It’s not good for our country. We need a Northern Powerhouse too."

Keeping the badger faith

Cameron: I'm a badger cull believer

More than 5% of culled badgers have not been culled humanely, it's now clear

David Cameron has reaffirmed his commitment to badger cull pilots, which are set to resume this autumn.

Monday speeches

George Osborne's 'northern powerhouse' speech in full

George Osborne: Very good at digging holes

Read the script of the chancellor's speech setting out the case for linking northern England's cities together - and using a new high-speed rail link to do so, to boot - delivered in Manchester this morning

Labour turns against Iain Duncan Smith's universal credit programme

Rachel reeves: Labour starts to turn against universal credit

Labour will halt Iain Duncan Smith's universal credit programme if it wins the election, Rachel Reeves says

Anti-politics

Directly elected mayors: A rare case of justified hypocrisy?

Alex Stevenson: The chancellor's gamble is that, once up and running, mayoralties will be demonstrably more democratic

The public rejected directly elected mayors - so is George Osborne wrong to propose forcing them on voters?

Why doctors should stop hating politicians

Politics is never going to be divorced from the NHS

MPs will never stop playing politics with the NHS - however much doctors want them to.

Sexist, male and damaging: What women really think of parliament

Not a woman in sight: The government front bench sits across from Ed Miliband with an all male team

There was further evidence of women's widespread disillusionment with parliament today, after a new survey showed huge levels of distrust and anger about the British political system.

Labour troubles

Knives out for Miliband (again) despite poll improvement

Miliband: Poor personal polling masks a stubborn lead over the Tories

Labour bolstered its poll performance this month to re-establish it's pre-2014 lead over the Tories, despite a relentless wave of damning coverage

Costing the opposition: Labour forces vote on manifesto audits

Balls forces vote on manifesto audits

Labour will try to improve its reputation for financial competance this week with a Commons vote demanding all parties' manifestos are independently audited

Government must do more to protect animal welfare

New polling of public, politicians and animal welfare experts highlights the need for the Government to lead the way - and identifies the plight of research animals, breeding animals and those hunted for sport as top priorities.

How the Longitude Prize Challenge can help preserve the cornerstone of modern medical care - antibiotics

The development of antibiotics has been vital to our survival, yet the rise of antimicrobial resistance is threatening to make them ineffective in the future.

Teachers strike in Lancashire school

Members of the NASUWT are today taking strike action following the failure to resolve their deep concerns over poor management practices at Leyland St Mary’s Catholic High School in Lancashire.

Government bans all existing and future Academies and Free Schools from teaching creationism as science

The Government has changed the rules to preclude all Academies and Free Schools, both those that already exist and those that will open in the future, from teaching pseudoscientific ideas such as creationism as scientifically valid.

British Social Attitudes survey finds most people have no religion, just 41.7% are Christian

The 31st annual British Social Attitudes survey (BSA), has found that 50.6% of the population saying they have no religion (up from 47.7% last year), with just 41.7% regarding themselves as Christian (the lowest ever figure).

UK MOD praises Boeing for partnership on Chinook helicopter programme

The UK Ministry of Defence praised Boeing today for close collaboration and partnership that led to the new MK6 Chinook helicopter entering service seven months ahead of schedule.

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Friday, 20 June 2014

The Week in Review: A terrible secret about Nick Clegg - Politics.co.uk

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By Adam Bienkov

I have a terrible secret. It's a secret I've been carrying around for some time. It's a secret so shameful I don't want to admit it even to myself.

But admit it I must. You see the awful truth is that I quite like Nick Clegg. Not a lot. I don't have a picture of him on my wall and I'll never be the president of the All County Nick Clegg Appreciation Society.

But I do quite like him. All logic dictates that I shouldn't feel this way. All conventional wisdom says that he should fill me with utter disdain. But the truth is that he doesn't. The truth is that I just don't hate Nick Clegg.

The realisation of this shameful secret came to me as I waited to ask him a question at his monthly press conference this week.

Clegg regularly holds these events for journalists. Every month he stands and takes questions from whichever hack wants to ask one, however long it takes. This may seem like a small thing, but in an era of tight media management this is increasingly rare for frontline politicians. It's certainly not a practice that either Ed Miliband or David Cameron employ.

The answers he gave were not particularly exciting. His thoughts on education funding ring-fences and the European Commission are unlikely to grace even the most comprehensive book of quotations.

But the fact was that unlike David Cameron, he was prepared to take questions from more than just a few cohsen media outlets. The fact was that unlike Ed Miliband, he was prepared to answer questions without showing obvious disdain for the people who asked them.

My respect for Clegg also comes out of the nature of his enemies. The fact that he inspires such obvious bile in men like Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, suggests to me that he really can't be all that bad.

Of course there's still plenty of reasons to dislike him. His broken promises on tuition fees and his abandonment of many other liberal principles, have rightly brought him ire from both left and right.

But it's hard to think how he differs in this from many other promise-breaking politicians. It's also hard to see why he is so widely hated, when so many equally untrustworthy politicians are not.

So as I sat there waiting to ask my question, I began to feel genuinely sorry for the man. Clegg, who just months ago had still seemed relatively spritely, now seemed utterly dejected and broken.

His eyes were sunken, his skin was pale and his voice was slow and mournful. He looked, as Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts told him, like a "spat-out smartie".

In fact the whole occasion, had the feel of a funeral, with the only difference being that the corpse had opted to stand up and give his own speech.

The question I had prepared for him was unlikely to change his mood. I wanted to ask why local Liberal Democrat parties were passing votes calling on him to stand down. I wanted to ask him whether he should take this as an opportunity to jack it all in.

But when I raised my hand to ask the question, I did so more out of sorrow than anger. The truth was, that I just didn't hate Nick Clegg.

Britain Last.

The rapid rise of the fascist group Britian First tells us a great deal about modern Britain. Their use of shareable photos of soldiers, animals and little children, has allowed them to gather a mass online following for their extreme and fundamentalist views. 

It's a worrying reminder that fascism, when it comes, does not always come with truncheons and jackboots. Fascism when it comes, sometimes comes with smart phones and cat pictures.

Thankfully the group's offline disguises are far less convincing. Their military uniforms and vehicles, their mosque invasions, and their founder's call for a 'holy war' with Islam, should alert most sensible people to the kind of thugs they are.

But the fact they have been able to engage so many people in modern Britain, suggests that we're not quite the open and tolerant society we only recently believed.

There were worrying signs of this fact in the British Social Attitudes Survey released this week. According to the survey, attitudes to immigrants have significantly hardened in the past year. The vision of Britain as a cultural melting pot seems sadly to be melting away.

However, if you look closer it's not all doom and gloom. Delve into the figures and it's clear there are some much more positive long-term generational shifts.

Sadly the rise of Britain First shows that there is nothing inevitable about this progress. Making Britain a more tolerant place, is a fight that will have to be fought again every year.

Best of news

Tory MP boasts of desire to punch female journalist in the throat

Michael Fabricant facing calls to stand down as an MP.

Michael Fabricant condemned for violent fantasy.

Trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare as money runs out: The reality of life under Atos

Disabled benefits: Atos once again given assessment contract

More evidence emerges of lives ruined by private contractor Atos, as MPs issue a devastating attack on the government for handing them new disability contracts despite their failure on work capability assessments

Nigel Farage 'proud' of alliance with far-right parties

Nigel Farage is 'proud' of his new alliances.

Sweden Democrats were founded as a white supremacist organisation.

Ed Miliband's Sun endorsement 'will not happen again'

Ed Miliband: 'genuinely sorry' for Sun endorsement

Labour leader 'genuinely sorry' for posing with the paper.

Secular triumph as government bans creationism from free schools and academies

Victory for secular campaigners as teaching of evolution explicitly required in free schools and academies

Creationism cannot be taught as a valid scientific theory in any free school or academy, government says

In chaos & running out of time: Passport boss apologises for ruined holidays

Fast-track processing fees cancelled for those urgently needing their passport

The head of the Passport Office apologises to those who could miss their summer holidays due to delays in processing their documents

Vince Cable faces investigation over Clegg plot polls

Vince Cable: Under investigation

Cable accused of failing to declare polls in his register of interests.

Supporters of Iraq face the reckoning

An Iraqi refugee fleeing from the city of Mosul prays at a checkpoint as he to enter Kurdistan

Supporters of the invasion of Iraq forced to defend the arguments they made over ten years ago, as events in the country seem to vindicate those who opposed the war

Best of Comment and Analysis

Comment: Michael Fabricant's 'throat-punch' tweets are an object lesson in silencing women

Jane Fae: "The problem is not just the original comment but the entire let’s-call-it-a-joke-and-move-on culture."

The reaction to Fabricant's tweets tells us much about our culture.

The MoJ doesn't even know who it has contracts with

Whole prisons were left off the MoJ document

How can a government pursing a privatisation agenda have so little knowledge of the contracts it's signed?

PMQs verdict: Miliband haunts Cameron with the ghost of Syria

The ghost of Syria: Military intervention is no longer the option it once was

Britain's self-imposed irrelevance looms large over proceedings, as Cameron and Miliband finally discuss Iraq

Parents are not to blame for the failure of white working class kids

Why are white working class kids falling behind?

It is government, not parents who are failing our children.

The coalition will leave more debt than all Labour governments since 1900

Christopher Goodfellow: The government's claims to be balancing the books don't stack up.

The government's claims to be balancing the books don't stack up.

Win! Win! Win!

Competition: Win Veep Season 2 boxset!

Veep stars Julia Louis-Drefus as a vice-president called Selina

Politics.co.uk has got its hands on three Blu-Ray boxsets of Veep's second season for your viewing pleasure.

Birmingham taxpayers’ money used by Council to urge systematic discrimination against non-religious in RE

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has uncovered a pattern of systematic discrimination against the non-religious by members of Birmingham’s Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE).

Assault on teachers' pay continues

The 1% pay award continues four years of deep cuts to teachers’ pay.

Lenders have met the 2020 interest-only mortgage commitment, says CML

The Council of Mortgage Lenders is pleased to report that mortgage lenders have successfully met a commitment they gave a year ago to contact their borrowers with interest-only mortgages.

Employers urged to build bridges with business schools

New report calls for every business graduate to undertake vital work experience as a core element of their course.

NASUWT comments on Ofsted reports on Birmingham Schools

The NASUWT will be studying the Ofsted reports in detail. Our priority is to support our members who are under great pressure and stress.

Bakers Union Leader urges Ed Miliband to end “light-touch austerity” and produce polices that appeal to core voters

Mr Draper said he had a message for Mr Miliband who has a “hell of a job” to win the general election next year.

Bakers Union president calls for a general strike against austerity and a living wage of £10 an hour

Bakers’ union president Ian Hodson calls for a general strike against UK government austerity, at the opening of the BFAWU annual conference at the Southport Theatre and Convention Centre.

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