4.15pm WATCH: Farage – "No deal with Cameron"
2pm WATCH: Cameron confirms British hostage deaths
1.30pm ToryDiary: Exclusive – EU memo to the Prime Minister from his Political Adviser. "The Cabinet has already been informed that its members will be required to support a Yes vote in the event of an In/Out referedendum. As we correctly anticipated, members opposed to Britain's EU
membership will have calculated that the referendum is a long way away and thus will not resign, at least
before the next election."
11am LeftWatch: How Miliband and Clegg worked together to block the boundary reforms
ToryDiary: "Rebel reserve" of 55 Conservative MPs "is being gathered for Cameron leadership challenge"
Richard Pater on Comment: Who will be in Israel’s Next Government?
WATCH: UK to rule forced marriage a criminal offence
Algeria: At least 5 Britons dead or missing
"Algeria's special forces stormed the gas complex, jointly run by BP and staffed by many British workers, after reports that the extremists had begun shooting foreigners they had kidnapped. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said five Britons and one UK resident, called Carlos Estrada, remained "unaccounted for" and the country had to “prepare for bad news”. One Briton had already been confirmed dead on Wednesday." – Sunday Telegraph
Algeria: Cameron – We will root out terror
"Prime Minister David Cameron last night vowed to 'root out and defeat this terrorist scourge and those who encourage it'…Mr Cameron said: 'I know that the whole country shares my sympathy and concern for everyone who has been caught up in this incident, and for their friends and families. 'It is our priority now to get people home as quickly as possible and to look after the survivors.' " – Mail on Sunday
Matthew D'Ancona: Fleet-footed Al Qaeda…and the cumbersome EU
"The scope of the Obama-Cameron telephone call captures the sheer breadth of the supranational issues now confronting the PM. On the one hand, he is trying to resolve a question that is a fundamental bequest of the 20th century: what is Britain’s most advantageous role in Europe? In this case, the arguments, categories of thought and factional divisions are wearyingly familiar. On the other, Cameron – like Obama – faces the hyper-modern phenomenon of 21st-century jihadism, a shape-shifting foe that is as fleet of foot and elusive as the EU is lumbering and bureaucratic" – Matthew D'Ancona, Sunday Telegraph
Other Comment:
> Yesterday:
Musicians of Mali fight for nation's soul – Ian Birrell, Independent on Sunday
Prime Minister's EU speech could come as early as tomorrow
"Amid uncertainty over the exact timing of the jinxed address, senior government sources told the Observer that the prime minister intends to make the speech this week – possibly on Monday – if a resolution has been found to the Algerian hostage crisis. "He wants to go ahead as soon as possible. There will be something in it which will pacify all but the hard core," said the source. "But he could deliver the same kind of speech that Margaret Thatcher gave in Bruges in 1988 and around 25 MPs would not be happy. It is not possible to please everyone." – Observer
Dominic Lawson: The lie that claims millions of jobs would be lost if we left the EU
“While Professor Begg stands by his research, he takes great exception to headlines that suggest that millions of Britons would be thrown on the dole if Britain left the single market . . . According to the people who did the research, talk of mass redundancies if Mr Cameron goes for a European exit is just scaremongering.” Professor Begg himself added: “If anyone tried to do it completely objectively” — that is, to work out analytically what the pros and cons were of leaving the EU — “you would probably find that the economic plus or minus is very small.” – Sunday Times (£)
> Yesterday: Tom Mludzinski on Comment – Europe is only the fifth most important issue to UKIP voters
Is there a plot to challenge Cameron? And if so is it gathering pace?
"An
increasing number of backbenchers are privately discussing the
possibility of attempting to unseat the prime minister before the poll
in 2015 if the party continues to trail in the polls. While there is no
immediate threat to his position, a well-placed source said that up to
17 MPs had now written letters of “no confidence”, and there are rumours
that at least one list of MPs willing to back a coup is being gathered.
For the first time, discussions about ousting Cameron before 2015
appear to be spreading beyond the so-called “usual suspects” — a hard
core of about 20 backbenchers who are hostile to his leadership." – Sunday Times (£)
> Today: ToryDiary – "Rebel reserve" of 55 Conservative MPs "is being gathered for Cameron leadership challenge"
> Yesterday: LISTEN – More Tory MPs may break with Cameron on gay marriage than on Europe or Lords reform
Campaign fights to keep EU cross-border crime powers – Observer
May to recruit top foreign police as chief constables
"In the latest broadside in the battle between government and the police, Theresa May, the home secretary, will say next week that she wants to change the law to allow men such as Bill Bratton, the former police chief in Boston, New York and Los Angeles, to run British forces. Officers with “suitable and relevant experience” from America, Australia, New Zealand and Canada would be able to apply. The move was described by a former chief constable as “a smack in the face for police leadership”. It comes amid hostility between the police and the Tories after the row over claims Andrew Mitchell, then the chief whip, called a Downing Street policeman a “pleb”." – Sunday Times (£)
Patel and Hollobone slam Letwin over Romanian and Bulgarian EU immigration
"Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Letwin was denounced by Tory MPs last night after he said the Government will not know how many Romanians and Bulgarians will emigrate to the UK – until after they have got here. The row came after the gaffe-prone strategist was challenged over the likely impact of people in the EU member states gaining the right to live and work in Britain next year." – Mail on Sunday
IDS: We will catch fraudsters, and universal credit will cut error
"A fraud taskforce targeting postcodes where high levels of benefit fraud take place has vowed to leave “no stone unturned” in the search for claimant cheats. A range of new measures will be enforced as the latest figures reveal fraudsters have pocketed £5.3billion in the last five years including £1.3billion housing benefit, £1.08billion income support and £1.2billion Jobseekers’ Allowance and Pension Credit. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: “The welfare state has over the years become so complex and confusing that fraudsters basically have been given the green light to pick the pockets of hard working taxpayers." – Sunday Express
Will Somerton and Frome Conservatives select Ivan Massow? – Black Dog, Mail on Sunday
Bernard Jenkin's Public Administration Committee will say Cabinet Secretary blundered over Mitchell investigation
"Britain’s most powerful mandarin faces public humiliation after MPs claimed his bungled investigation cost ‘plebgate’ ex-Tory Minister Andrew Mitchell his job. A report by a powerful Commons committee will tomorrow accuse Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood of failing to give the former Chief Whip a chance to prove he was the victim of a police conspiracy." – Mail on Sunday
Hunt and Grayling clash over proposed closure of Epsom Hospital A & E – Mail on Sunday
Hospital pays £1,800 a day for a nurse in NHS staff crisis – Sunday Telegraph
Miliband's office and Clegg's have been closely co-ordinating over the boundary review, effectively working as a combined opposition, as the relationship between the two men thaws
"It is a significant development with considerable implications for the future that there has been a thaw over recent weeks in the relations between Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. Put very simply, the two leaders are seeing more of each other. And generally speaking they have liked what they have seen. On the believable account of extremely well-informed observers on both sides, the two men are getting on better than they have done at any time before." – Andrew Rawnsley, Observer
McCLuskey compiles "schools pack" to teach pupils how to “stand together” and fight “cuts and attacks”
"Britain’s top union boss has been accused of brainwashing after launching a secret bid to sign up schoolkids. Unite leader Len McCluskey has set up a team of “union tutors” to target every 15-year-old in the country. The hardline Left-winger has ordered his hit-squad to visit secondary schools as part of a campaign to “educate, agitate and organise”. But the move was last night branded a “scandalous” exploitation of young people. Ex-docker Mr McCluskey let slip details of the classroom warfare after giving a lecture in London in honour of Labour leader Ed Miliband’s dad." – Sun on Sunday
Cost of childcare keeps 2.8m parents out of jobs – Sunday Times (£)
Will figures this week show Britain on the way to a triple-dip recession? – Observer
Dutch supplier source of horse meat – Sunday Telegraph
Energy giants get a £1bn gift from taxpayers – Sun on Sunday
Almost £2 billion in court fines and confiscation orders remain unpaid – Sunday Telegraph
Scottish independence: Labour needs answer to £30bn question – Scotland on Sunday
Britain's 4.2 million self-employed workers 'face tax rise to pay for larger pensions' – Mail on Sunday
Coalition's £75,000 cap on care costs 'mean and cynical', say campaigners – Sunday Telegraph
Education Select Committee: Careers advice is failing pupils – Sunday Express
Fracking "will ruin Bath spa waters" – Sunday Express
Claim that Bob Stewart MP refused to fly economy to Pakistan and stayed at home – Mail on Sunday
Lebedev, whose family owns the Independent and Evening Standard, faces trial accused of 'hooliganism' after punching businessman on talk show – Mail on Sunday
And finally 1) Gove weeps on hearing "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music – Atticus, Sunday Times (£)*
And finally 2): The Cherwell files
*Like everyone else
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