4pm LeftWatch: Ken Livingstone's route to victory: hanging George Osborne and prosecuting Tony Blair
3.30pm Nick Pickles on Comment: Far too many surveillance powers are exercised beyond scrutiny and without accountability
3pm Local government: Rochdale Lib Dem councillor defects to Conservatives
1.45pm ToryDiary: Merkel says nein, nein, nein to Cameron
Noon MPsETC: Bundesbank should deploy its £130 billion of gold reserves if Germany wants to save €uro, says John Baron MP
Noon ConHomeUSA: Today's American political news
11am Matt Sinclair on Comment: George Osborne can't let energy intensive industry down at the Autumn Statement
10.45am Local government: Council byelection results from yesterday
10.30am Columnist Anthony Browne: Give a job to the unemployed and get half of the benefits saved
ToryDiary: Osborne ready to trim benefits increase and hand savings to motorists
BBCtv Politics Show graphic
Eric Pickles writing for ConservativeHome: "Our flagship Localism Bill, has been passed and given the Royal Seal of approval. It marks the biggest shift in power since Victorian age – reversing 100 years of creeping centralisation and it restores a gapping local democratic deficit."
Columnist Danny Kruger: There are no easy solutions to unemployment
Harriett Baldwin MP on Comment continues our seven part series on ideas to turbo charge the UK economy: Welfare could be localised and extra children shouldn't always mean more benefits
Tim Montgomerie: Can we talk about modern Germany without resorting to WWII imagery?
Local government: Hammersmith & Fulham plans housing preference for TA officers and Special Constables
Osborne will squeeze benefits in order to fund lower petrol duty
"For the past twenty years, annual benefit increases in April have been based on the previous September’s inflation rate. This September, inflation was 5.2 per cent, raising the prospect of a much higher benefits bill than expected. Ministers have now backed a compromise to use a lower inflation rate of 4.5 per cent, based on average inflation during the six months to September." – Times (£)
Eurozone crisis to dominate Cameron talks with Merkel – BBC
- ""The atmosphere between the two countries is currently frostier than it has been in a long time," the centre-left daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote Thursday. "With his speech he has positioned himself firmly against Merkel, who is calling for more Europe. In Berlin this development is being viewed with concern."" – EUbusiness
- Cameron will say no to financial transactions tax – Metro
- Merkel claims Cameron is an integrationist – Sun
Germany's Foreign Minister: Limited EU treaty change must strengthen the economic and currency union and nothing else
"We need to provide for the future and upgrade the monetary union to a stability union… It is vital to send a clear message to markets that the eurozone is determined to end the policies of debt-making. At the European Council in December, we should agree on establishing a convention for a limited treaty change. Its mission would be to strengthen the economic and currency union, no more, but no less." – Guido Westervelle for the FT (£)
- Frederick Forsyth in The Express: "Franco-Germany has announced that there will have to be an inner core dominated by them and the core will dominate the outer periphery which will have no say in decision-making but will do as it is told. And that includes the UK. Reaction of the British lion? “Oh, er, wow, I mean golly gosh, that’s not very nice.” The usual dynamic leadership."
- Ms Merkel’s political deputy told reporters: “I’m baffled that in Great Britain there doesn’t seem to be a clear view of the consequences a collapse of the euro would have for the City of London.” – Telegraph
- An intrusive European body with the power to take over the economies of struggling nations should be set up to tackle the eurozone crisis, according to a leaked German government document – Telegraph
- Technocracy is just contempt for democracy – Philip Collins for The Times (£)
- Germany's secret plans to derail a British referendum on EU – Telegraph
- To save the single currency, Angela Merkel must take on her own country’s economic establishment – Economist
In contrast to Westervelle David Davis sets out what Britain should strive to extract from EU Treaty changes
- "First, we need to reclaim control of justice and home affairs…
- Second, it is time to reassess Britain’s contribution to the EU budget…
- Third, we need to take control over key economic issues ranging from business regulation to striking trade agreements."
David Davis writing in The Telegraph.
Why UKIP could be a true scourge of the Tory Party – Amol Rajan for The Independent
Osborne sells off Northern Rock for £400m loss – Independent
"There is no point people tut tutting about losses on these holdings. The last government was wrong to buy these stakes at the prices they paid. We were bound to lose money on them. Recognising the loss is a necessary part of sorting them out and passing them on to owners who may be able to make them useful to our economy and turn a profit.Those profits can then be taxed. That was why I at the time recommended controlled administration." – John Redwood
Even The Economist backed the nationalisation of Northern Rock but Osborne and Cameron did not – Steve Richards in The Independent
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Taxpayers lose at least £400m on sale of Northern Rock (and keep the bad bank)
Ed Miliband sets out five-point plan for more responsible capitalism – Guardian
- Tax cuts for the low paid will reduce unemployment by encouraging people back to work – Fraser Nelson in The Telegraph
- You could argue that the debt reduction strategy amounts to the biggest tax cut in history – Tim Montgomerie in The Guardian
Rival airline chiefs urged George Osborne yesterday to scrap the hated £2.5billion Air Passenger Duty in order to encourage more holidaymakers to visit Britain – Express
Maude and Warsi highlight fact that only a minority of public sector workers voted for strike action – Sun
MoD spent £600m on consultants – The Guardian on how cash meant for equipment was used to pay outside specialists in breach of government guidelines on expenditure
Schools in deprived areas could lose most from national funding formula, warns IFS – Guardian
Tories representing rural constituencies fear public backlash over looser planning – Independent
Why on earth is it taking the police so long to decide whether to charge Mr Huhne? – Simon Heffer in the Daily Mail
Only 14% of Britons see police officers on a daily basis – Daily Mail
And finally… Charles Hendry MP and wife buys £8 million mansion in Ayrshire – Herald
> Please use the thread below to provide links to news topics likely to be of interest to ConservativeHome readers and to comment on political topics that haven't been given their own blog. This thread is moderated but during working hours (that's 6am to 10pm for ConHome) comments will usually be delayed no longer than sixty minutes. Read our comments policy here.
Please use the thread below to provide links to news topics likely to be of interest to ConservativeHome readers and to comment on political topics that haven’t been given their own blog. Read our comments policy.
Share this article: