“The deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader insists that proposed restrictions on benefits for migrants are enough to protect Britain from an influx from eastern Europe. He has signalled that there will be no further negotiations on the issue with Conservative colleagues before 2015. Writing in The Sunday Times today, he says: “This is where we draw the line.” Clegg’s intervention comes two days after David Cameron told Brussels that Britain will veto any further expansion of the EU unless far tighter controls are placed on the “vast migrations” of workers.” – Sunday Times (£)
“One of the first things I did when I became Prime Minister in 2010 was to set out a plan for bringing our troops home. My message this Christmas is simple. I am going to deliver on that plan. By the end of next year we will no longer have British servicemen or women in a combat role in Afghanistan. Of course, we will not leave behind a perfect country or a perfect democracy. Afghanistan is an extremely poor country with a very troubled history.” – Sun on Sunday
“This is why, in moments of private candour, the PM admits that he would much prefer another coalition with Clegg to governing with a small Tory majority, pleading daily with a handful of his own backbenchers, staving off disaster hour by hour. Don’t forget that Cameron was a Cabinet special adviser during the Major years: he knows how that movie ends, and it is not pretty. Between now and polling day, you will often hear him denouncing coalition as a woeful second-best, and he’ll mean it when he says it. But you’ll never hear him say “never again”.” – Sunday Telegraph
“George Osborne has also dedicated his considerable resources to blocking the Mayor getting back into the Commons. A Tory MP jokes that Mr Osborne has an alarm set up in his office to alert him to Boris being on manoeuvres. Indeed, so good is the Chancellor’s intelligence network that in the event of Boris snooping around a desirable constituency, and treating the chairman of a friendly local Conservative association to dinner, Mr Osborne will know about it before they have finished the starters.” – Sunday Telegraph
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“Greening’s Commons office is right next to that of Andrew Mitchell, her predecessor. Her criticism of his record is so thinly veiled that I half expect him to burst in, especially when she declares that what DfID needed was “someone to really show some leadership . . . and start making this department a proper government department”. Lucky the walls are thick. I point out that she has said nothing nice about him. There is an awkward pause. “I’ve not said anything about him, full stop,” she replies briskly. An aide immediately signals that the interview is over. We are on dangerous territory.” – Sunday Times (£)
“The proposals have been submitted to the School Teachers Review Body, an independent panel that vets teachers’ pay and working conditions, by Michael Gove, the education secretary. The panel is due to report by January 14, after which the government will decide whether to accept its recommendations. Gove wants to give schools more powers over pay, the length of holidays and working hours available to staff. He argues that “children in the Far East are often learning for many more hours than their peers in England”.” – Sunday Times (£)
“Mould first wrote to Duncan Smith in June, saying that many of the problems people were facing could be tracked back to changes in their benefits, and to delays in the payment of them…[Duncan Smith] rejected any suggestion that the government was to blame. “I strongly refute this claim and would politely ask you to stop scaremongering in this way. I understand that a feature of your business model must require you to continuously achieve publicity, but I’m concerned that you are now seeking to do this by making your political opposition to welfare reform overtly clear.” – Observer
“Tory Right-wingers are demanding the Prime Minister proves his low-tax credentials by pledging to slash the top rate of income tax from 45p to 40p. The call comes after senior figures – including Thatcherite ex-Minister John Redwood – gained a key role in drawing up policies for the party’s next General Election manifesto. Mr Redwood, given the job of feeding the demands of backbenchers into the manifesto, is set to make a cut to a 40p top rate the core of his proposals.” – Mail on Sunday
“Mr Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, spoke out to voice his concerns about growing harassment and attacks suffered by Christians in the Middle East. Writing in the Telegraph, he warns that the mounting persecution of Christians is a “story that goes largely untold”, describing those who have spoken out on the issue, including the Prince of Wales, as lone voices. “Across the world, there will be Christians this week for whom attending a church service this Christmas is not an act of faithful witness, but an act of life-risking bravery. That cannot be right and we need the courage to say so,” Mr Alexander says.” – Sunday Telegraph
“This row at the heart of the British establishment has become bruisingly personal. Chilcot insists that his eminent committee of privy councillors should be allowed to publish the material in its report ordered by parliament, not least because protocol has already been violated by disclosures in the memoirs of Blair, his chief of staff Jonathan Powell and Alastair Campbell, and even in the fictionalised stage play Loyalty, written by Powell’s journalist wife, Sarah Helm. Adding further piquancy, one of the characters who comes out worst in Helm’s play, Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, is thought to be considering publishing his own version of events.” – Sunday Times (£)
“To rebuild confidence in the ISC’s independence, the Government should adopt the balanced proposals of the 2009 Wright Committee on parliamentary reform. The ISC chairman should be elected by MPs, subject to a prime ministerial veto over initial nominations. This would both bolster accountability to Parliament and provide the appropriate safeguards. The importance of restoring credibility to the appointment of chairmen should not be underestimated. The manner of these appointments, under the last government, did much damage to the ISC’s standing.” – Independent on Sunday
“Then Farage comes up against another limit. The more successful Ukip is, the harder it is for him to maintain the anti-politics pose. His dinner with Rupert Murdoch in March made him look like just another politician; and it is notable that he rarely mentions same-sex marriage, although it really animates his new recruits. His reluctance is part of his desire to keep his party away from some of the fruitier cakes of the better yesterday brigade, such as Godfrey Bloom, the former Ukip MEP who yesterday accused Farage of having done a deal with the Tories to stand aside in some seats in return for a peerage. (As if: the party would lynch him.)” – Independent on Sunday