“There have been seven shooting incidents in Paris in what appears to be a co-ordinated terrorist attack by at least eight attackers. First hit were two restaurants – Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon, both on Rue Bichat. Then came attacks on the Boulevard Beaumarchais, Rue de Charonne, Avenue de le Republique and Boulevard Voltaire. At least three terrorists took more than 100 people hostage in a hall, Bataclan, where a music concert was being held, before they began randomly killing 120 innocent people. They had time to reload their weapons at least three times during the attack. Five explosions were heard when police stormed the venue.” – Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday: Andrew Day on Comment: Inaction on Syria threatens our security
“David Cameron has offered “thoughts and prayers” to the French people after at least 120 people were killed in Paris. The British PM said he was “shocked” by the gun and bomb attacks, adding: “We will do whatever we can to help.” The Foreign Office says it is “urgently investigating” whether any British nationals have been caught up in the shootings or hostage-taking. Eurostar says services to France are running but that it will exchange the tickets of those not wishing to travel.” – BBC
“All fixed speed cameras must be painted yellow, ministers will today order. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has told highways chiefs to transform 200 grey devices on all A roads and motorways within a year. Police forces are already under a long-standing obligation to ensure all fixed cameras on smaller local roads are yellow so drivers can spot them from afar. The new ruling will delight motorists hit by millions in fines from devices mounted on motorway gantries.” – The Sun(£)
“David Cameron privately lobbied to stop the closure of police stations in his constituency as the force tried to find £60m of savings, the BBC has learnt. The disclosure has prompted Labour to accuse him of “jaw-dropping hypocrisy”. Number 10 said Mr Cameron had acted in his capacity as a local MP who believed Thames Valley Police could make savings without affecting front-line services. This week it emerged Mr Cameron, MP for Witney in Oxfordshire, is involved in a row over cuts with the county council.” – BBC
“The government has sold £13bn of former Northern Rock mortgages that taxpayers acquired during the financial crisis. The portfolio is being sold by UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) to US investment firm Cerberus. The deal is thought to be the largest financial asset sale to date by a European government. UKAR was the “bad bank” set up in 2010 to run down loans made by Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley.” – BBC
“Claimants for some in-work benefits could be better off giving up their job temporarily as a consequence of the government’s EU negotiations, Whitehall officials have told the BBC. The PM has made welfare reform one of his key EU demands. One option under consideration would see all claimants denied in-work benefits unless received unemployment benefit in the previous year.” – BBC
“Eurosceptic Tory MPs are prepared to support giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote in a move that could delay the EU referendum by a year, The Telegraph has learnt. The House of Lords is expected to vote through the change next week, meaning it will be up to MPs whether to give teenagers a say in the referendum. While MPs voted down the proposal earlier this year, senior Tory backbenchers have told this newspaper they are now considering backing the change.” – Daily Telegraph
“Hundreds of consultants from the Royal Free London NHS foundation trust have written to the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to express their support for junior doctors and to back possible industrial action. In a letter to the Guardian, the 505 consultants, who will bear the brunt of any potential strike, say they recognise that junior doctors are an integral part of the health service.” – The Guardian
“Doctors are among the best trained and most capable of all public servants. That unusual ability goes together with relatively high pay. Hospital doctors in the UK receive an average salary of £79,000, around a third higher than their French counterparts (with junior doctors receiving less than that, given the earlier stage of their career). The Government has a responsibility to get value for this part of the NHS budget. It is right to bring forward new proposals, just as it has across the public sector. Much as it would like it, the BMA cannot have a veto on change.” – Andrew Haldenby Daily Telegraph
“This was not an official event: it was thrown by the Europe India Forum, not the Foreign Office. Yet it was hard to discern the difference as the crowd leapt to its feet to welcome “our two prime ministers” before David Cameron introduced Mr Modi, shouting “Namaste (hello) Wembley!” His wife, Samantha, wore a scarlet sari.” – Daily Telegraph
“Jeremy Corbyn is set to defend his leadership of Labour in a speech later that sets out his approach to foreign policy, the economy and politics. He will confront claims that he lacks patriotism and represents a threat to national security. Mr Corbyn will tell a regional party conference in Hertfordshire that he will take no lectures in patriotism from the Conservatives. It comes after criticism of his leadership from a number of Labour MPs.” – BBC
>Yesterday: LeftWatch: The Corbynites have no choice but to fight the PLP
“Jeremy Corbyn has been ridiculed by one of his own MPs after saying it would have been ‘far better’ to capture Jihadi John alive – as David Cameron insisted killing him was the ‘right thing to do’. The Labour leader said Mohammed Emwazi – who Pentagon officials are ’99 per cent’ sure was ‘evaporated’ in a US drone attack – should have been arrested and held to account in a court of law. But he was mocked almost immediately by Labour MP Ian Austin, a former aide to Gordon Brown, who tweeted ‘I’m sure he’d have come quietly’.” – Daily Mail
“A senior Labour MP has come out in support for Tracey Crouch, the Conservative minister, after she suggested that struggling families worried about tax credit cuts should cancel their TV subscriptions. Frank Field, the Labour chairman of the Commons work and pensions committee, said that few would object to the sports minister’s remarks when they are read in the round. Ms Crouch was heavily criticised after she said in an interview on Thursday that the political row over tax credit cuts, which economists predict would result in three million families losing an average of £1,300 a year, was due to a failure of communication.” – The Times(£)
“New research into May’s general election sheds light on what went wrong with the opinion polls, which notoriously all failed to predict David Cameron’s outright win. The face-to-face survey of nearly 3,000 adults in 300 constituencies was conducted soon after polling day as part of the British Election Study (BES), and it accurately gauged the Conservative advantage over Labour…The results of the survey suggest that pre-election polling may have failed to accurately reflect the electorate’s preferences because those interviewed were not selected randomly.” – The Guardian
“A 50-home private development carried out by one of the big eight doesn’t face that many more bureaucratic hoops than a two-home development: the form filling, the ecological surveys, the inspections, are the same. Some of these disadvantages arise unavoidably from the economies of scale that big business enjoys. But there’s one disadvantage that all concede has hit small builders hardest — and it’s proved by the fact that between 2007 and 2013 the number of builders involved in building less than a hundred units per year halved. In the crash their credit dried up. Isn’t there an opportunity here for the chancellor: not to subsidise but to underwrite?” – Matthew Parris The Times(£)
“Like most eurosceptics, I feel frustrated that Mr Cameron is not making stronger demands. Unlike most, however, I am not so sure that his mission is doomed. In private, he compares his referendum campaign to a plane which has now taken off and cannot yet be sure exactly where it will land. Certainly not an easy situation, but better, perhaps, than that of Mrs Merkel, whose wings seem to be melting like those of Icarus.” – Charles Moore Daily Telegraph
Yesterday: WATCH: Moore speaks on new Thatcher biography