“More than 100 people every working day are buying new homes under the Government’s Help to Buy scheme. … David Cameron will announce today that 6,000 applicants have applied for a mortgage using the scheme at a rate of 500 a week in the three months since Chancellor George Osborne unveiled the plans. … Officials say that will mean a total of £910million in extra lending to those trying to get on the housing ladder or trade up to a larger property.” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday on ToryDiary: David Cameron provides a cribsheet to his campaign plan
“The ring-fencing that protects NHS spending must end, a senior Conservative has warned David Cameron. … Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary and Shadow Health Secretary, and standard bearer of the Tory Right, said the idea that money could solve the health service’s problems had been ‘tested to destruction’ and despite massive investment Britain still lagged behind other countries.” – The Times (£)
And non-Fox, NHS-related news:
“Murderers could be given US-style jail sentences lasting more than 100 years, under plans being considered by ministers. … Senior Conservatives believe changing the sentencing regulations could overcome a ban on whole life terms being imposed by the European Court of Human Rights. … Sentences lasting several decades are understood to be one of the options put forward in a review of Britain’s human rights laws, which will be published in the coming weeks.” – Daily Mail
“Train firms are to be paid millions by the Government to convert first class carriages for use by standard ticket holders to ease overcrowding. … Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin is preparing to pay train companies to do away with first class seats that are left empty, government sources say. … From next month, as a declaration of intent, one operator is expected to be told to remove at least one first class carriage from each high-speed train in its premier fleet and replace it with a standard class alternative.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“Britain has condemned the release of Taliban prisoners accused of killing and maiming Western forces in Afghanistan. … To the fury of the UK, the US and victims’ families, president Hamid Karzai has freed 88 dangerous militants from a jail at Bagram, the former US air base run by the Afghan government. … The US wants them to be prosecuted and says 30 per cent carried out direct attacks that killed or wounded 60 coalition troops, and 40 per cent killed 57 Afghans, including police and security forces.” – Daily Mail
“The only way Britain can benefit from US-style low energy prices is by creating a totally integrated power market across Europe, the Energy minister Ed Davey has claimed. … In an exclusive interview with The Independent, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said neither Labour leader Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices for two years, nor a UK fracking boom, would reduce household bills.” – The Independent
“Households may have paid £150 over the odds for their electricity over the past three years because energy companies bought their power for almost £4bn more than the average market rate, Labour has claimed. … In a new analysis of official figures, the Labour party said the big six energy suppliers appear either to be inflating their prices to make extra profits for their own power plants, or striking very expensive deals to the detriment of consumers.” – The Guardian
“Ed Miliband was branded out of touch last night after Labour unveiled its latest crusade over the ‘cost of living’ crisis – the price of a gym membership. … Shadow Public Health Minister Luciana Berger complained that two-thirds of local authority gyms and leisure centres have increased the cost of an annual membership in the last three years – by up to £100. … Labour blamed the Prime Minister, declaring: ‘Since 2010, David Cameron has made severe cuts to local government, leaving council services struggling for money.’” – Daily Mail
“In truth Lord Kinnock — today slightly famous for being father-in-law to Denmark’s selfie-snapping PM — deserves a better press. Where Mr Miliband has indulged his party by telling it what it wants to hear, he told it what it needed to learn. In 1985 he confronted the Militant Tendency and gave perhaps the most compelling conference speech of the postwar era.” – Tim Montgomerie, The Times (£)
“Labour would take control of privately run prisons if their managers failed to meet a six-month ‘buck up’ deadline, the shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan, has said in the wake of a damning report on a flagship jail run by G4S. … Tougher contracts would be negotiated, including stiffer financial penalties, after the chief inspector of prisons reported that inmates find it easier at HMP Oakwood to get hold of illicit drugs than soap, Khan said.” – The Guardian
“Labour MP Keith Vaz yesterday warmly greeted migrants arriving from Romania and Bulgaria – before calling for a referendum on free movement within the European Union. … Mr Vaz, the influential chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the British people needed to decide if the rules which allowed free-flowing migration across the continent should be changed.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
> Today on ToryDiary: Conservatives should stop being quite so frightened of immigrants
“At present, 80 per cent of workers retire by the age of 65, but by 2020 this is expected to have dropped sharply to 35 per cent. … By 2028, this will have fallen further to just 15 per cent, predicts the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA).” – Daily Mail
“Politicians of all parties have voted Margaret Thatcher the most successful prime minister since the Second World War. … The Iron Lady was valued for her decisiveness, with most MPs citing this as a more important trait than principles, honesty or intelligence. … Mrs Thatcher, who spent 11 years at No10, beat Labour’s Clement Attlee, who oversaw the creation of the NHS.” – Daily Mail
“According to two years of consumer data gathered from GFK MRI and analyzed by the right-leaning National Media Research Planning and Placement, voting habits can be realized according to drink choices. … While the results were varied, the summary findings concluded that Democrats go for clear liquors, such as vodka and gin, while Republicans are more likely to opt for something darker, such as whiskey.” – Daily Mail