“Social mobility has stalled in Britain because young people from modest backgrounds lack aspiration and no longer believe they can make it to the top, David Cameron suggested yesterday. … Endorsing his predecessor Sir John Major’s comment that there are too many ‘posh’ people in top jobs, he said the Government and the professions need to move ‘further and faster’ to change that.” – Daily Mail
“The economic recovery will be a ‘failure’ unless it raises earnings and living standards for ordinary people, the Government’s adviser on child poverty and social mobility warned today.” – The Independent
“David Cameron is urging mobile phone companies to give customers a better deal as the prime minister fights to win ground in the battle over the rising cost of living. … Downing Street has instructed Maria Miller and her officials in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to exact concessions from mobile phone companies, including on roaming bills, as well as on the lack of transparency in costs.” – Financial Times
“David Cameron has warned of the need for ‘sensible and calm language’ about immigration after former home secretary David Blunkett suggested the arrival of Roma immigrants could lead to riots. … the prime minister said he believed in a combination of tough action and measured language about immigration, after Blunkett added to concerns raised by Ukip and Tory right-wingers about a potential influx of settlers from Romania and Bulgaria.” – The Guardian
“The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK has risen by 19 per cent in the past year, according to official figures published yesterday.” – The Times (£)
“George Osborne is looking at a radical plan to abolish all jobs tax for bosses if they take on unemployed young people, The Sun can reveal. … Under it, employers would not have to pay National Insurance contributions for any job-seeking under-25s they take on. … The Chancellor has been persuaded only dramatic action can solve the crisis of the million-strong lost generation of youths out of work.” – The Sun (£)
Today, by Michael Fallon MP on Comment: A Conservative business policy – competition, entrepreneurship, deregulation
Economic recovery has finally taken hold, the governor of the Bank of England declared yesterday. … Publishing its most optimistic set of forecasts for years in the latest quarterly inflation report, the Bank raised its outlook for growth and jobs and lowered its outlook for inflation. … It came as figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that employment rose by 177,000 between July and September to a record high of 29.95million.” – Daily Mail
“Around seven in ten jobs created in Britain over the last year went to people who were born in this country, it emerged yesterday.” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday:
“The NHS 111 helpline could be putting even more pressure on A&E units – despite being set up to reduce the number of patients turning up at casualty, research has shown. … A government-commissioned study found that in some areas the helpline led to an extra 400 patients and an additional 600 ambulance call-outs every month.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“The bill for winter fuel payments to British pensioners living abroad has soared by 70 per cent in a year, thanks to a European court ruling. … Iain Duncan Smith yesterday said the decision by the European Court of Justice was ‘ridiculous’ as his department revealed its staggering cost. … ‘This increase is a direct result of a ridiculous ruling by the European Court of Justice and we are not prepared to sit back and allow hard-working taxpayers money to be used in this way.’” – Daily Mail
“In contrast to the 1975 referendum campaign the Out campaign will also have money. Some of Britain’s richest business leaders, including the likes of the mobile phone billionaire John Caudwell, are likely to provide financial muscle. There will also be a broader range of politicians arguing for exit. Crucial to the Out campaign having any hope of victory will be the enlistment of key leftwing voices and this presents something of a dilemma for David Cameron.” – Tim Montgomerie, The Times (£)
“Police will today be banned from letting off repeat offenders with a second caution for similar offences within two years. … Justice Secretary Chris Grayling is clamping down on the scandal that has seen cops give thousands of persistent offenders an easy way out.” – The Sun (£)
“Chief constables could be stripped of powers to investigate their own officers for rudeness or laziness on duty, a minister signalled today. … Instead, low level misconduct probes could be carried out by elected Police and Crime Commissioners, police minister Damian Green suggested.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“[Pickles] says he has not imposed reorganisation on councils but has left them to change ‘organically’. Once they have made savings, they can concentrate on what matters to the public, like schools, parks and… emptying bins. ‘We’ve stopped the drift towards fortnightly collections; we’ve reduced or abolished bin fines. But it is the public who have to start organising petitions, holding meetings and securing pledges from local councillors. What I’m doing is giving a nudge.'” – Daily Telegraph
“The Children’s Minister has criticised the ‘useless’ official inquiry into the death of four-year-old Hamzah Khan, who was found mummified after being starved by his alcoholic mother. … Edward Timpson, the Minister for Children and Families, expressed his ‘deep concerns’ about the ‘glaring absences’ in the 126-page report.” – Daily Mail
“…the chairman of the Conservative Party launched himself into an exceptionally ill-judged attack on the BBC. … .The chairmen of the Conservative Party invariably have a bash at the BBC in the run-up to elections. I have to say to my eternal shame I did the same. But what was odd [about Shapps’s intervention] was publicly linking an attack on a journalist [the BBC home editor, Mark Easton] with the BBC as whole and the licence fee.” – Chris Patten, interviewed in the New Statesman
“The Conservatives have said they did not mean to delete David Cameron’s pre-election speeches from the internet, a move that prompted accusations of Orwellian interference. … Speculation arose on Wednesday that Mr Cameron had authorised a deliberate drive to minimise reminders of his pro-green, pro-localism speeches from the halcyon days of opposition.” – Financial Times
> Yesterday on ToryDiary: Deleting the archive of speeches may be understandable, but that doesn’t make it any less foolish
“Two fifths of northern voters would never consider voting for the Conservatives, according to a poll laying bare the challenge facing David Cameron outside his party’s southern heartlands. … One in four voters in the North said they did not know anyone who supported or voted Conservative. Only 21 per cent thought the Tories understood their area and 20 per cent thought that their region was represented among the Tory leadership.” – The Times (£)
> Today on ToryDiary: New Times polling confirms the Conservatives’ northern problem
“John Bercow could go down as a great reforming Speaker of the House of Commons. It’s thanks to him, in large part, that the Commons chamber once again seems like the cockpit of the nation. But he now risks becoming the second successive Speaker to be ousted from his job. Even his friends admit that his inability to conceal his dislike for David Cameron and various Tory backbenchers has put his position in jeopardy.” – James Forsyth, The Spectator
“David Cameron’s plans for permanent cuts in spending would condemn Britain to ‘indefinite austerity’ and ever-worse public services, Nick Clegg has said. … The Deputy Prime Minister rejected the Prime Minister’s call for a leaner, smaller state as “ideological”.” – Daily Telegraph
“Vince Cable yesterday attacked the demand for ‘superfluous’ degrees in a range of careers that act as a barrier to applicants. … The Business Secretary said ‘qualification inflation’ was holding back people who wanted to become police officers, nurses or accountants.” – Daily Mail
“Official figures yesterday revealed that Unite donated £777,740 a fortnight after the Labour leader reinstated two union members who had been suspended over allegations of trying to fix the selection of a new parliamentary candidate in the safe seat of Falkirk. … The huge cheque was almost a quarter of the £3.1million donated to the party in the third quarter of this year.” – Daily Mail
“A Labour rightwinger who had hoped to be selected as the party’s candidate in the embattled constituency of Falkirk West has admitted paying for 11 members to join the party with a single cheque amid claims that the new recruits were expected to support his nomination.” – The Guardian
> Yesterday on LeftWatch: Practicing what they preach – Labour struggles under self-inflicted £12m debt burden
“It is not enough to exhort the market and fiddle with planning. The state must engage once more in building communities – including new towns, extensions to existing towns and cities, and a radically improved approach to transport investment linking infrastructure to new housing.” – Andrew Adonis, Financial Times
> Today:
> Yesterday on Local Government: Labour ignore the plight of the overcrowded
“Lord Butler, who led the Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction in the aftermath of the invasion, said there was no shortage of ‘very good’ information available to help ministers evaluate the case for war in 2003. … But [he] suggested that the former Prime Minister had intentionally kept the documents away from the majority of the Cabinet.” – The Independent
“A report prepared by the Gibson Inquiry, to be published next week, is understood to conclude that there is evidence that UK agents were aware that detainees were being maltreated in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere. While it may not contain direct criticism of Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006, it is believed to recommend investigation of how much his office knew and the extent of ministerial oversight.” – The Times (£)
“Anglican schools are moving away from selecting pupils on the basis of religion, the Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday. … [He] said faith-based entry tests were no longer the best way of choosing students. … ‘There are unbelievably brilliant schools that are entirely open to all applicants without selection criteria apart from residence, where you live, and which produce staggeringly good results,’ he said.” – Daily Mail
“Russell Brand has lashed out at David Cameron and George Osborne — claiming they slash benefits because they are rubbish in bed. … The comic laid into the PM and Chancellor over their welfare bill cuts, insisting ‘mean’ people are no good between the sheets.” – The Sun (£)