“Young people currently in their 20s could be forced to work until their 70s, under a radical shake-up of the state pension system which will be revealed today by Chancellor George Osborne. … In the biggest change for a century, the age at which a person can begin to claim their state pension is to be linked directly to life expectancy.” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday on ToryDiary: Here you go, George: Conservative members’ priorities for the Autumn Statement
“George Osborne will proclaim on Thursday that a budget surplus is in sight for the first time since the millennium, raising Tory hopes of significant tax cuts in the next parliament after nearly a decade of austerity. … The chancellor will deliver his Autumn Statement against a backdrop of sharply rising growth forecasts, which could pave the way for Britain to be back in the black by 2018-19 – almost two years earlier than seemed likely in March.” – Financial Times
> Yesterday, by David Kirkby on Comment: Good news for the economy may be bad news for the Conservatives
“Another £3bn of public spending cuts will be announced by George Osborne as he warns that the job of clearing the nation’s deficit is far from finished. … The Chancellor has angered some cabinet colleagues by ordering them to find a new round of savings totalling £1bn a year over the next three years to help him balance his books in today’s Autumn Statement.” – The Independent
> Today, by Dominic Raab MP on Comment: Spending must be cut if tax hikes are to be stopped
“George Osborne has secured a 5 per cent cut in wind power subsidies amid increasing concerns about the hostility turbines have caused in rural areas, and to head off a revolt by Tory MPs. … But the green levies paid to companies building them off the coast – and out of sight – will increase slightly in the coming years.” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday, by Nadhim Zahawi MP on Comment: It’s time to get big businesses to pay promptly
“Quantum technology, which takes advantage of the strange behaviour of materials on an extremely small scale, will receive £270m government funding in Thursday’s Autumn Statement. … George Osborne announced the five-year investment, which covers capital and recurrent spending, at a meeting with physicists at 11 Downing Street on the eve of his fiscal update to parliament.” – Financial Times
“Car tax discs are to disappear from our windscreens after 90 years, Chancellor George Osborne will announce today. … Cops can now tell who has not paid the levy by checking a computer database — making the paper discs obsolete.” – The Sun (£)
“Children in Britain should ditch French and German and study Mandarin instead, David Cameron has said. … On his final day of a visit to China, the Prime Minister said he wanted education ties with the country dramatically strengthened. … He said he plans to double the number of Chinese language assistants in the UK by 2016 and increase funding to reduce the cost to schools of providing Mandarin training.” – Daily Mail
“Timid politicians with a ‘misplaced’ fear of offending Muslims have allowed Islamist extremism to take root in the institutions of Britain, the Prime Minister warned yesterday. … A task force chaired by David Cameron said the policy of treating different cultures as ‘separate and distinct’ – known as multiculturalism – had been a ‘mistake’.” – Daily Mail
“Shocked insiders said at least one official working on the £100 million Trademark Southern Africa scheme was being paid more than David Cameron’s annual £142,500 salary. … The revelation came as International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced that the flagship scheme would be axed with immediate effect, after investigators revealed ‘serious concerns’ about financial oversight of the programme.” – Daily Mail
“The police officer at the centre of the Plebgate controversy is suing Andrew Mitchell – and his superior has backed his version of events. … Sergeant Ben Mills said he was told by PC Toby Rowland that Andrew Mitchell called him a ‘f****** pleb’ two minutes after his run-in with the then chief whip at Downing Street. … PC Rowland has announced he is suing Mr Mitchell for saying he lied.” – Daily Mail
“Being the strongest economy in Europe isn’t enough. It’s like being the best CD retailer in an age when everyone downloads their music from the internet. The way for George Osborne to put the Tories in a winning position at the next election is not to retreat German-style, but to recapture that early vision and ambition.” – Tim Montgomerie, The Times (£)
“Our indigenous radical tradition has deep roots: roots that stretch back through the suffragettes and the Chartists; back through John Wilkes and Thomas Paine; back, arguably, even through the Levellers to the Lollards. So why has patriotism come to be associated largely with the political right?” – Daniel Hannan, The Guardian
“Nick Clegg was yesterday accused of a betrayal on gambling reminiscent of his U-turn on tuition fees as Liberal Democrats refused to act to curb fixed odds betting machines. … The Deputy Prime Minister had posed for pictures in March alongside campaigners trying to reduce the stakes and payouts on the machines where punters can lose £100 every 20 seconds.” – Daily Mail
“Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced £150million to to build and extend kitchens to cope with the expected demand for the scheme to give free hot lunches to every child under the age of seven. … But the Department for Education claims an £80million underspend in schools maintenance budget earmarked for the work does not exist, which the Lib Dems dismissed as ‘b*******’.” – Daily Mail
“David Cameron has sanctioned an emergency raid on the Government’s education budget to help Nick Clegg fulfil his pledge of giving free school dinners to young schoolchildren … The raid has infuriated Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, and his advisers, who regard the issue as ‘unresolved’.” – The Times (£)
> Yesterday:
“Baker, who stepped down from the Lib Dem frontbench in 2006 in order to devote a year to writing a 424-page book (The Strange Death of David Kelly) claiming that David Kelly was murdered, told me that he stil regarded his death as ‘unfinished business’. He told me: ‘People who attack it by and large haven’t read it. And I’d like them to come back and deal with the facts, if they want to deal with the facts.'” – George Eaton, New Statesman
“The former head of Britain’s judiciary last night demanded sweeping reforms to the Human Rights Act to make it clear our courts do not have to follow European rulings. … Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice until September, said issues such as prisoners’ voting rights were a matter for Parliament alone and not for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.” – Daily Mail
“The National Security Agency tracks the locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those belonging to Americans abroad … The NSA inadvertently gathers the location records of ‘tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad’ annually, along with the billions of other records it collects by tapping into worldwide mobile network cables, the Washington Post said in a report on its website.” – Daily Mail
“During a radio appearance this week, Boris Johnson dismally failed an IQ test, only days after saying the population is divided between the dunces who do terribly in IQ tests and the geniuses who pass them with flying colours. Harry Mount compiled some typical questions so you can find out which one you are…” – Daily Mail
> Today on ToryDiary: Boris retains his lead as Party members’ favourite to succeed Cameron
“At another auction, tea with Tony Blair had gone for £20,000, so expectations of exceeding the guide price for a chance to meet Mr Brown were high. But a trip to Italy and a vacation in Vermont attracted more enthusiastic bidding. The evening raised $15,000 and the dinner date with Mr Brown went for a disappointing $350.” – The Times (£)
“Furious voters have accused MPs of behaving like ‘morons’ in the Commons. … Speaker John Bercow has received dozens of letters from disgruntled Brits branding them “rowdy buffoons” and “over aged schoolchildren” after watching Prime Minister’s Questions. … They were released under Freedom of Information laws.” – The Sun (£)