7.45pm WATCH: Lord Bates returns to Britain after completing over 6 million steps for the Walk for Truce campaign
5pm Reactions to the latest unemployment figures and inflation forecasts lead our teatime newslinks
5pm Local government: London councillors allowances league table published
4.45pm ToryDiary: "A speech by the PM has to be an event" says Janan Ganesh. He's right.
3.30pm Local government: Tower Hamlets Council pay adviser £1,000 a day
3.15pm Patrick Mercer MP on Comment: Abu Qatada must go back to his home country and face justice
3.15pm WATCH: Lord Freud: "The number of people long-term sick coming back into the workforce is terribly encouraging"
1.15pm WATCH: Sam Gyimah MP is challenged to live on benefits for a week
12.45pm Local government: Monmouthshire to freeze Council Tax
Noon ConHomeUSA: The battle for Michigan begins as Romney and Santorum draw contrasts
11.30am Lord Wei on Comment: Why we need legal advocates for trafficked children and the scandal of those we lose from local authority care
10.30am WATCH: Martin Callanan MEP: A default and devaluation "is the only way to salvage something from the Greek economy"
ToryDiary: Cameron focuses on Britain's £17 billion alcohol problem
Majority Conservatism: Building a Conservative Majority (2)… Replacing the Barnett formula with a nationwide Social Justice Fund
Columnist Jill Kirby: Vince Cable's choice for university access tsar shows why Gove should be given control of higher education
Philip Booth on Comment: This medium-termist government needs to think long-term – now
Local government: Labour rule in Glasgow under threat
David Cameron to announce support for minimum alcohol pricing and "drunk tanks"
"He will back such initiatives as "drunk tanks" – one-person cells used to hold troublemakers – and "booze buses" that tour the streets helping incapacitated drinkers. Mr Cameron will say that in the past year there were 200,000 hospital admissions with patients suffering alcohol-related conditions – 40 per cent more than in 2003 – while the number of people treated for extreme drunkenness more than doubled to 18,500." – Independent
Following negative credit rating outlook, Tory MPs urge more pro-growth measures
"George Osborne faces growing pressure from Conservative MPs and business leaders to produce a show-stopping growth Budget next month… Mark Field, MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, said the Treasury should accelerate its plans for credit easing while John Redwood, former cabinet minister, called for tax cuts for entrepreneurs… Peter Bone, a Tory MP, said it was time to find billions for urgent tax breaks for business" – FT (£)
> Coverage from yesterday:
Clegg's hope of tax cuts for lower earners hit by bleak news on economy
"Nick Clegg's hopes of faster tax cuts for low earners have been hit by the succession of grim news in the economy. Britain's cherished AAA credit rating is under renewed pressure because of fears over weaker-than-expected growth figures and the impact of the eurozone crisis on this country." - Independent
"Senior Tories, who are unhappy anyway at the way Mr Clegg has tried seize credit as the coalition’s tax-cutter, are warning that this is not the right time for a big tax giveaway. They are telling Mr Osborne to concentrate on cutting National Insurance contributions for employers as a way of spurring growth." – The Times (£)
Tories angered by Vince Cable's controversial new universities "tsar"
"Prof Ebdon… is regarded as openly hostile towards the country’s leading universities and has already threatened them with “nuclear” financial penalties. The decision has angered Conservative MPs who believe that Mr Cameron has “caved into” Liberal Democrat pressure on an issue that threatens to undermine education standards. A senior Conservative source said: “This appointment threatens the standards in some of the country’s, and therefore the world’s, best universities. The Prime Minister agrees and needs to put his foot down.”" - Daily Telegraph
Report says NHS reforms will lead to reduced patient care and over-spending
"The government's health reforms run a high risk of reducing levels of safety and patient care while leading to overspending, internal NHS reports have warned. The potential for conflict between NHS organisations in the new system and upheaval during the transition is high, according to risk assessments drawn up by the four English NHS regions." - Guardian
> Yesterday - Columnist Stephan Shakespeare: Voters approve of U-turns – if they bring politicians back in line with the public
Pressure mounts on the Government to send Abu Qatada home
"A security adviser for the Prime Minister was among those who said all options should be considered, including sending Qatada back to Jordan regardless of a European court ruling that he should not be sent… It came as the Jordan justice minister Ayman Odeh promised Qatada would be given a new and fair trial with no evidence gained from torture." – Daily Telegraph
> From yesterday:
Sir Malcolm Rifkind: An economic blockade can defeat President Bashar al-Assad
"Some might be concerned that ordinary Syrians would suffer hardship as a result of a total economic embargo. That cannot be denied, but it would be preferable to all the bloodshed that would be part of a protracted civil war… Closing the air space around Syria, combined with a naval blockade, would also stop most of the arms supplies. The international community must not be mesmerised by the Russian and Chinese UN vetoes. There is much that can and should be done to end the suffering of the Syrian people." – Sir Malcolm Rifkind for the Daily Telegraph
> Yesterday:
House of Lords votes down plan to cut housing benefit
"Defiant peers have narrowly voted again to demand that the government drop plans to cut housing benefit for claimants in under-occupied homes. The peers voted by 236 to 226, even though the Commons had last week rejected a similar amendment from the Lords" - Guardian
Falklands tension set to rise with visit of defence committee MPs
"Members of the defence select committee are expected to visit military installations on the islands, where a garrison of more than 1,000 troops is stationed at Mount Pleasant Complex, 35 miles (56km) from the capital, Stanley. The MPs will also visit the crews who are manning the RAF aircraft on the islands." - Guardian
Union threatens to turn off the taps for Miliband
"Ed Miliband is facing the threat of an open break with one of Labour's biggest union backers because of his refusal to promise to end the public pay freeze. Delegates to the annual conference of Britain's third biggest union, the GMB general union, will hold a vote on whether to put an end to the formal link with the Labour Party – a move that would deal a body blow to the party's already flimsy financial base." – Independent
Scottish independence question causing people "confusion and concern"
"The Scottish Affairs Committee will call on the Government to clarify big questions about a possible break-up of the union… Scotland’s national debt is one of the most pressing issues as there is controversy over whether it would be responsible for debts arising from the bail-out of Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS… The Treasury is already working on the potential costs of a break-up, while the Scotland Office has posed a number of questions to Mr Salmond about how he would solve the problems of splitting up shared services." – Daily Telegraph
Armed Forces face higher energy bills - Daily Telegraph
Cuts to children's services risk greater social inequality, says coalition adviser - Guardian
Even non-believers can find wisdom and comfort in observing the rituals of faith – Daniel Finkelstein for the Times (£)
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