“A huge shake-up of health care provision was heralded last night by the NHS’s top doctor. … The three key planks of his reforms will set up distinction between super A&Es and standard A&Es, ask GPs to provide more same-day appointments as well as opening surgeries in the evenings and at weekends and bolster the 111 helpline with more doctors, nurses and pharmacists answering the phone. … Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Commons yesterday that the Government would not shy away from making ‘difficult decisions’.” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday on ToryDiary: Doctors’ contracts and an “NHS crisis”
“George Osborne has said Britain is ‘on the path to prosperity’ as he painted an optimistic view of the economy at the Telegraph Festival of Business. … The Government has ‘an economic plan that has delivered stability’, Mr Osborne added, but cautioned that risks remain, notably from the eurozone.” – Daily Telegraph
> Today on the Deep End: It was a supply shock, not a lack of demand, that crippled the British economy
“David Cameron is pressing for a formal meeting with Sri Lanka’s president to bring up allegations of war crimes and abductions by government forces, as he prepares to visit the country for the Commonwealth summit on Friday. … Sources said the UK had made it very clear that Cameron wanted a substantive meeting with Rajapaksa, and officials are confident that he will get one, but the Sri Lankan side had not agreed to it.” – The Guardian
“David Cameron has launched an aggressive lobbying campaign to sell Eurofighter Typhoon jet fighters to the UAE raising British hopes that BAE Systems could pinch a $10bn deal from its French rival. … ‘It’s looking good for us. The question is whether it can be signed at Dubai or whether there will need to be a last-minute push there to get us over the line,’ said one senior Conservative.” – Financial Times
“Lord Ashcroft said: ‘As well as being an authoritative biography of Cameron, the book will discuss the politics of the current parliament, the challenges facing the parties in the context of public opinion, and in particular the campaign leading up to the 2015 election.’ … The book will be co-authored by Isabel Oakeshott, the political editor of The Sunday Times.” – Daily Telegraph
> Yesterday, by Lord Ashcroft on Comment: Twenty minutes of Miliband
“Downing Street rejected [Sir John Major’s] criticism, insisting policies to help people get on were more important than the background of politicians. … But Mr Gove, who was adopted at just four months, insisted Sir John was ‘right’. … He told BBC Radio 4: ‘It’s an inescapable fact. … It’s also why we’re reforming the schools system so that the opportunities that wealthy children have are more equally spread.'” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday, by Peter Saunders on Comment: Wrong, Sir John. Social mobility is the norm in Britain, not the exception
“Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has fired a broadside at Brussels after a top judge warned that dozens of new ‘human rights’ had been smuggled into Britain by the back door. … Last night, Mr Grayling said: ‘Labour duped us when it signed the Lisbon Treaty and promised this kind of ruling wouldn’t happen. We cannot go on seeing crucial decisions about our society and our system of justice and government being taken by unaccountable European courts.’” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“Immigrants living in ‘a community of broken English’ are living in ‘no community at all’ Mr Pickles has said. … In an article for telegraph.co.uk announcing a £6 million scheme funding community language teaching for immigrants the Communities Secretary attacked councils for translating documents into dozens of languages.” – Daily Telegraph
> Yesterday, by Sir Andrew Green on Comment: Cameron must hold the line on controlling immigration
“An independent Scotland could not expect to keep the hundreds of jobs currently based at the UK’s overseas aid headquarters in Lanarkshire, the coalition’s International Development Secretary has said. … Justine Greening said that the staff would not transfer to a new state, despite her Scottish equivalent telling the same committee that such a step would be ‘up for negotiation’ after a Yes vote.” – The Times (£)
“A controversial scheme to get women to breastfeed in return for store vouchers amounts to ‘bribery’, critics have warned. … Tory MP Charlotte Leslie said: ‘This just doesn’t seem like a sensible use of public resources. The reasons why women don’t breastfeed are far more complex than this gives credit for – bribing women doesn’t tackle that, it just encourages them to take the money.’” – Daily Mail
“A senior Conservative MP will not be investigated by the Parliamentary authorities over his business dealings in Albania. … Kathryn Hudson, the Standards Commissioner, said today that she would not investigate Mark Pritchard, because there was ‘insufficient evidence’.” – Daily Telegraph
“The consumer prices index fell from 2.7 per cent to 2.2 per cent between September and October – the lowest rate for 13 months, the Office for National Statistics revealed yesterday. … The Prime Minister hailed the ‘significant drop’ – driven by decreases in the cost of fuel and the smaller-than-expected impact of higher university tuition fees – as ‘encouraging news for hard-working people’.” – Daily Mail
“Energy and water bills are set to rise faster than inflation and wages for the next 17 years, the National Audit Office warns today. … It says major infrastructure projects, such as the switch to green energy, building nuclear power stations and new sewers, will cost the nation £310billion by 2030. … Almost £208billion – 67 per cent of the total – will have to be funded by families through their bills, according to government plans.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“The average cost of a home in Britain will hit £300,000 in 2020, a report predicted yesterday. … Accountants Pricewaterhouse Coopers said it expected house prices – currently at an average of £225,000 – to rise by around 4 per cent every year for the next seven years.” – Daily Mail
“Nick Clegg will today launch a fightback against Ed Miliband’s successful campaign on the ‘cost of living crisis’, claiming that a Labour government would wreck the economic recovery. … His tough language reflects Lib Dem concerns that the Conservatives have not mounted an effective counter-attack after Mr Miliband pledged to freeze energy prices for 20 months if Labour wins power.” – The Independent
“The Liberal Democrat president, Tim Farron, and one other Lib Dem MP joined Labour in voting against the bedroom tax in a Labour-inspired Commons debate on Tuesday that sparked rare passion including a claim by one Tory MP that feckless fathers should be chained and forced to work. … The Labour motion calling for the abolition was defeated by 252 to 226, a substantial cut in the coalition majority. A handful of Lib Dem MPs abstained.” – The Guardian
“Feckless absent fathers should be put to work ‘in chains’ to repay the State for the cost of bringing up their children, a Conservative MP said yesterday. … David Davies told MPs that it was ‘outrageous’ that some young men got women pregnant before leaving them to bring up their babies on their own on benefits.” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday, by Iain Duncan Smith MP on Comment: The public agree that cutting the spare room subsidy is fair
“Labour’s most senior official struck a special agreement with Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, about how to handle the mass recruitment of new party members in Falkirk, leaked e-mails indicate. … In an e-mail on January 21, [Karie] Murphy told her team that they had received dispensation from Ian McNicol, Labour’s general secretary, to use a recruitment method causing unease among other Labour Party staff.” – The Times (£)
“Labour MP Tom Watson has launched a bitter attack on Ed Miliband over the Falkirk scandal – branding him “embarrassed” and insisting he got it “so wrong”. … The party’s former election chief slammed vote rigging allegations now being probed by police as “total bull****”. … Mr Miliband should not have reported his office manager Karie Murphy and another party official to the cops, he added, insisting: ‘An injustice was done to those people’.” – The Sun (£)
“Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former media chief, will on Wednesday praise Ed Miliband for taking on the journalistic “cancer” created by the Daily Mail and Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper stable. … Mr Campbell will say he urged Mr Blair to stand up to the newspapers and that the two men “fell out” over the issue, with the former prime minister fearing that it would hinder efforts to get his message across.” – Financial Times
“A Labour candidate has urged union bosses to use new Press regulations to launch class action complaints against newspapers who criticise them. .. Clive Lewis – who is a member of three unions – criticised the Daily Mail’s exposure of bullying by Unite thugs.” – Daily Mail
“Jack Straw has admitted that throwing open Britain’s borders to Eastern European migrants was a ‘spectacular mistake’. … The former Home Secretary said Labour’s 2004 decision to hand immediate working rights to Poles and migrants from other new EU states was a ‘well-intentioned policy we messed up’.” – Daily Mail
“The former Home Secretary said ‘frictions’ with local people could lead racial tensions to ‘explode’ in a repeat of the riots that rocked Northern towns in the summer of 2001. … Mr Blunkett called on Roma migrants from Slovakia to ‘change their culture’ because their dumping of rubbish and refusal to send their children to school had caused ‘understandable tensions’ with residents in his home city of Sheffield.” – Daily Mail
“Senior Labour party figures are under pressure from the UK’s most important European allies to say whether or not the party will hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership. … In a sign of growing European worries over a possible British exit from the union, diplomats from the biggest continental embassies, have been holding meetings with Labour MPs and peers as they try to flesh out what the party will do if it wins the next election.” – Financial Times
“Tony Blair took his earning power to astonishing new heights yesterday when he pocketed £150,000 for just an hour’s work. … The former Prime Minister, who is said to have amassed a £50 million fortune since leaving office, was paid the staggering sum for conducting two 30-minute events in Dubai.” – Daily Mail
“Last night, Jeremy Paxman found a new way of signing off… with a tattoo tribute to broadcaster David Dimbleby – who this week revealed he’d had a scorpion inking on his back. … Paxman displayed his knuckles to reveal the words ‘Good Nite’ in gothic black letters.” – Daily Mail