4.15pm JP Floru on Comment: Property crime must be punished more severely: Why work if thieves can steal with impunity?
3.45pm WATCH: The moment the egg hit Miliband
3.30pm ToryDiary: "There was a time when most of our rulers
had front-line experience of war as well as politics. Nowadays they have
experience as backroom boys. Which is one reason why the public finds so
many politicians lacking in authenticity." In praise of older politicians
11.45am ToryDiary: Unemployment keeps falling, employment keeps rising; now we must focus on those at risk of being left behind
11.30am Henry Hill's Red, White and Blue column: Former SNP leader demands nationalists attack 'southern cancer'
10.30am Chris White MP on Comment describes his role as the Government's social value ambassador: "In essence, it asks local authorities and public bodies to think about how we can
squeeze maximum value out of every penny of public money spent." Social value holds the key to making public services sustainable
Chris Skidmore MP on Comment: You want evidence that Gove's policies are working, StephenTwigg? Here's some.
Local Government: Labour-run Sheffield told to ditch Student Tax
MPsETC: Two more unbeaten games for the Bluebirds
The Deep End: Why low paid jobs are a bigger problem than they used to be
Tory membership 1): ConHome research shows that it's likely to have fallen below 100,000
“The Conservative membership is now likely to
have dropped below 100,000, according to research from the ConservativeHome
website which reveals that 139 local parties have recorded with the Electoral
Commission a total of only 58,884 members. A further 535 local parties have not
submitted accounts or disclosed a number, but ConservativeHome says that the
total is unlikely to reach six figures” – The Times
(£)
Tory membership 2) Paul Goodman: It's unsustainable for CCHQ not to give a figure
“Imagine the Campaign for the Protection of Rural
England refusing to disclose the number of people who have signed up as supporters,
claiming that because it has local branches, it can’t possibly know the figure.
Or Tesco saying it has no idea how many shoppers hold its clubcards. Or
Manchester United declaring that it hasn’t a clue how many fans have priority
home match tickets. All would look ridiculous and their positions would be
unsustainable — which is exactly where the Conservative Party now stands over
its refusal to answer a similar question: how many members do you have?” – The
Times (£)
Alan Duncan
warns David Cameron against promoting “token” women
“David
Cameron should avoid promoting women in the forthcoming reshuffle at the
expense of more talented or experienced men, one of his senior ministers has
warned. Alan
Duncan said the prime minister should avoid ‘tokenistic’ gestures in an effort
to boost the number of women in his top team” – Financial
Times
Labour funding: Three-quarters of it now comes from the unions
"More than £2.4million of the £3.1million that flowed into the party's coffers in the three months to the end of June came from the unions. A
total £772,195 came from the public-sector union Unite while the GMB
gave £485,830 and Unison gave £458,080. The figures for donations over
£7,500 from the Electoral Commission sparked fresh concern that the unions have increased their grip on Labour under Ed Miliband.” – Daily Express
Miliband urged to bring back Alistair
Darling and Alan Johnson…
“Ed Miliband needs to bring back ‘grown-ups’ such
as Alistair Darling and Alan Johnson to improve his party’s performance, a
former Labour minister has said. Chris Mullin, a former Foreign Office
minister, said it was without doubt that members of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet
were not making their voices heard and did not yet have a ‘coherent line’ on
Britain’s economy” – The Times
(£)
Mary Riddell: Friends and foes are wonder if the Labour leader has lost the plot
“'Our messaging strategy is useless,' says one such henchman. “The danger is
that the whole thing could rupture.” On the leader’s first day back, a
fortnight of silence and drift culminated in an immigration speech that
exemplified the party’s shortcomings. The most worrying aspect of Chris
Bryant’s intervention was not the amateurish errors, but the convoluted
message." – Daily Telegraph
– Mary Riddell, Daily
Telegraph
Politicians "pocket spinster’s legacy"
“The Tories and
Lib Dems stood accused of ‘robbery’ yesterday after pocketing a £520,000
bequest to the nation left in an elderly spinster’s will. When she died
aged 90, former nurse Joan Edwards left her fortune to the Government to spend
‘as they may think fit’. But instead of using the money on the Health Service,
schools or to ease the national debt, the Coalition shared it between them as a
party donation” – Daily
Mail
Commuters in the South “cheated” by fares
increase
“Ministers are facing a battle with Tory MPs over
‘warped’ rail franchises that mean commuters in the South subsidise passengers
in the North. Rail users were hit again yesterday when they learnt that fares
are to increase by an average of 4.1 per cent next year…Travellers on South
West Trains, which takes commuters from Hampshire and Surrey into London
Waterloo, paid an extra £228 million last year to subsidise six other rail
companies” – The Times
(£)
Ministers deny loan guarantee schemes will cause
housing bubble
“Developers and politicians have hit back at claims that the government’s
housing stimulus measures are promoting a wave of speculative buying that risks
inflating another housing bubble. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary,
moved to quash the concern, arguing the coalition’s package of measures to
boost housing was working, with ‘house building and housing supply on the up’”
– Financial
Times
Victims
of crime to get right to challenge police cautions
“Ministers want to give magistrates a range of new powers to
oversee how police cautions are used amid widespread concern that too many
criminals – including violent offenders – are being spared serious punishment.
If the plan goes ahead it would see the police come under unprecedented scrutiny
over their decisions to use cautions, which were handed to more than 200,000
criminals in England and Wales last year including violent offenders and sex
attackers” – Daily
Telegraph
Gibraltar: Foreign Office protests to Spain, Government to mount legal challenge
"Officials are still considering whether to mount a legal challenge to Spain
over its imposition of additional border controls in the latest diplomatic
spat between the two countries over the Rock. Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, on Friday defended the border
controls. "The government of Spain has not taken any illegal steps," he said." – Daily Telegraph
Mark
Carney has not yet bent the markets to his will
“It
was not quite the debut that Mark Carney must have hoped for when, last
Wednesday, the Bank of England’s new governor presented his policy of forward
guidance to the markets. His aim was to shift investor expectations of how soon
the central bank is going to tighten the monetary purse strings – but he
failed, which speaks volumes about the constraints on the governor” – Martin
Sandbu, Financial
Times
Peter Hoskin: How Texan Republicans turn their back on locking up criminals
"Money was funnelled into treatment programmes for those convicted of
non-violent crimes. More people were employed to help inmates once they left
prison, so that they left it for good. And it worked. By most measures,
including falling crime rates, the Lone Star State is becoming a lodestar
state. The funny thing is, this policy wasn’t introduced by soppy hippies but by the
sorts of conservatives who starch their cowboy hats. Jeb Bush, brother of
George W, has signed up to the “Right on Crime” campaign for criminal
justice reform, as has Newt Gingrich." – The Times (£)
Neil Clark: Expect a deluge of rising bills from water companies
"The
idea that Thames Water needs to raise bills by as much as 12 per cent
to stay afloat is absurd: this is a company that earned profits of
£549million last year on sales of £1.8billion, and which awarded chief
executive Martin Baggs a 5.9 per cent pay rise bringing his salary up to
£450,000, plus a £274,000 bonus." – Daily Express
Alexander Perkins: Churchill would have stood by our Afghan interpreters
“When he was 27, my great-grandfather, Winston Churchill, made
his maiden speech in the House of Commons. Unlike him, I am not a
parliamentarian, still less a public figure. But today, on my 27th birthday, I
will be among a group of former soldiers petitioning Downing Street for a cause
to which I am convinced my great-grandpapa would have lent his most eloquent
support. We are asking the Government to offer all Afghan interpreters who have
served alongside British troops right of entry to this country” – Alexander
Perkins, Daily
Telegraph
News in brief
And finally, Sarah Vine writes her last column
for the Times, on Jeremy Paxman’s beard
“Prince Michael, Evgeny Lebedev and Tom Ford, the
owners of successful beards, have much to teach the Newsnight presenter. The camera panned in very, very slowly, perhaps out of deference for
those of us holding hot drinks. The lips were moving, the man behind the desk
was saying something serious about something or other of vital national
importance, but no one was listening. A nation was slack-jawed in wonder:
Jeremy Paxman with a beard” – The
Times (£)
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