“Yesterday the Office for National Statistics said the unemployment rate is now at 7.1 per cent after falling faster than any economist or the Bank predicted. … But the Bank of England insisted interest rates are not on the brink of their first rise in nearly seven years despite governor Mark Carney saying it would consider raising rates if the jobless rate fell to 7 per cent. … In an unusually political statement, the Bank also said the Coalition’s benefits clampdown may have pushed more people into looking for work, rather than continuing to rely on State handouts.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
> Yesterday:
“As expectations grow of an interest rate rise before the 2015 election, the UK chancellor is preparing to change his message and claim an increase would be ‘a sign of success’. … His aides insist that savers would be pleased to see higher rates, which would be evidence of a return to economic normality and healthy growth. ‘It’s not something we are worried about,’ an aide said.” – Financial Times
“The Coalition’s welfare reforms will ‘make Britain great again’, Iain Duncan Smith will say, after the Bank of England suggested for the first time that benefits curbs are pushing people back into work. … In a speech that seeks to build on ‘extraordinary’ jobless figures, the Work and Pensions Secretary will promise to end the ‘twilight world’ of entire communities that are reliant on benefits. … He will warn of the hidden ‘ghettos’ of long-term unemployment that still exist and will pledge to transform lives by ‘lifting people up’.” – Daily Telegraph
“Iain Duncan Smith has been challenged by union leaders after saying that the coalition’s welfare changes have helped make people feel ‘more secure’ about the future.” – Financial Times
“An elite Tory dining club that enjoys direct access to David Cameron in return for cash has given more than £43million to the party, it emerged last night. … The secretive Leader’s Group of major donors is open only to those prepared to give the Conservatives at least £50,000 a year. … In return, they are promised regular dinners, lunches and drinks reception with the Prime Minister and other senior Tory figures. … But data released in the wake of the 2012 ‘Dinners for donors’ row reveals that 72 members of the group have taken the opportunity to dine privately with Mr Cameron and other senior ministers in the past 18 months. ” – Daily Mail
“The Health Secretary warns that hospital care has become a series of ‘brief encounters’ with staff and calls for the end of ‘ping pong’ referrals that leaves patients feeling ‘like parcels’. … He will today announce plans for a single doctor to take charge of each patient from the minute they are admitted to the second they are discharged. … Calling for a ‘culture change’ in the NHS, Mr Hunt will say: ‘That means reasserting a simple truth: every patient is a person.’” – Daily Mail
And comment:
> Today: ToryDiary – Jeremy Hunt, people person
“Theresa May faced calls last night to ban a Hungarian far-right politician from staging a political rally in Britain this weekend. … Jewish groups, anti-fascist campaigners and politicians are lobbying the Home Secretary to prevent Mr Vona from entering the country. … A petition drawn up by the Hope not Hate group calling on Mr Vona to be banned because his ‘politics of hate are simply not welcome here’ has been signed by more than 8,000 people.” – Daily Mail
“The number of crimes committed by foreign criminals is ‘sizeable and increasing’, a minister warned yesterday. … Police Minister Damian Green made the warning as he promised new action to clamp down on offenders from overseas. … He pointed to figures showing more than 74,000 foreign national offenders were arrested in London in a single year.” – Daily Mail
“The situation has only worsened since the Macpherson Inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s death: black people are 27 times more likely to be affected than their white counterparts. … Is this really the way we wish to police our nation? How can young people’s trust in the police be restored when so many of them have had only bad experiences? Stop and search stands out as perhaps the biggest source of resentment towards the police today.” – Andrew Mitchell, The Times (£)
“The UK government has waved aside complaints its immigration policy hurts Scottish companies and universities, saying the current system gives Scotland the ‘best of both worlds’ when it comes to securing its borders and attracting foreign talent. … The latest in a series of government papers arguing the case against Scottish independence claims that Scots benefit from a UK-wide approach to border controls and migration.” – Financial Times
“All this is to say to Scottish Tories: stop apologising and start proselytising. We get that you are sorry for Margaret Thatcher, but until you get over her, no-one else will. When the dust settles, she in her turn will be rehabilitated. The first step will be when she is recognised as the patron saint of Scottish home ownership – never forget that without Right-to-Buy half of all Scots would still live in council housing. Half. That time will come for sure, but for now just be bold enough to say that you have paid the price for more than 20 years. The grovelling stops now. Go back to the long Scottish tradition of conservatism, name it and reclaim it.” – John McTernan, The Scotsman
> Today: Brian Monteith’s column – Would the Prime Minister have to resign if Scotland votes Yes?
“A growing reluctance in an increasingly multicultural Britain to see UK troops deployed on the ground in future operations abroad is influencing the next two strategic defence reviews, according to senior figures at the Ministry of Defence. … As well as a general feeling of war weariness, sources say they have sensed a resistance in an increasingly diverse nation to see British troops deployed in countries from which UK citizens, or their families, once came.” – The Guardian
“Nick Clegg will today seek to upstage David Cameron at the World Economic Forum in Davos when he warns business and European leaders that the Tories are damaging Britain by ‘flirting with exit’ from the EU. … The deputy prime minister will call for Britain to ‘stand tall in the EU’ when he takes part in two events in Davos – a discussion on the new Europe with EU leaders, and a discussion about China – before Cameron takes to the stage.” – The Guardian
> Yesterday: Lord Flight on Comment – The cost of the EU
“Currently, eight men are subject to restrictions on their movements – which can include strict curfews and an electronic tag. … But, under rules demanded by Nick Clegg, seven of the so-called Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures will lapse by January 31.” – Daily Mail
“Nick Clegg’s wife has angrily hit back at claims that she put pressure on her husband to take a tougher stance on sex-pest allegations against Lord Rennard. … In a highly unusual public statement, Miriam Clegg insisted she had nothing to do with the decision to suspend the peer from the party, describing a report suggesting so as ‘a complete fabrication’.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“The Liberal Democrats are embroiled in a new sex scandal after a second politician was suspended from the party over ‘unwelcome sexual approaches’ to a vulnerable constituent. … Mike Hancock, the MP for Portsmouth South, has been stripped of his Lib Dem membership over a series of texts, lewd comments and sexual advances that he allegedly made to a woman with a history of mental health problems.” – Daily Telegraph
“The EU has scrapped rules that bind countries to renewable energy targets, lifting demands that Britain build more wind and solar farms. … Britain will still have to provide 15 per cent of its energy from renewable power by 2020, but after that there will be no target. Instead, the EU as a whole will have to produce 27 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2030. … Energy Secretary Ed Davey said the new rules provide flexibility in tackling emissions in a cost-effective way ‘so that British consumers aren’t paying over the odds to go green’.” – Daily Mail
“A politically toxic battle over the £1.5m pay of Royal Mail boss Moya Greene looks likely to intensify as the government suggested it might block any large increases in executive remuneration. … The move by Vince Cable’s Department for Business comes after he previously objected to £250,000 in relocation payments awarded to the recently privatised company’s boss when the mail service was wholly owned by the state.” – The Guardian
“Ed Miliband has alienated himself from Britain’s blue-chip companies and is risking the recovery by developing irrational and unpredictable policies, senior business figures have warned. … Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, one chief executive of a FTSE 100 company said: ‘Ed Miliband doesn’t give a toss about business. He will say anything to get elected. [We] think it’s economic vandalism.'” – The Times (£)
> Today: Pinning Down Miliband – Energy and the environment
“Tory MPs have complained that they receive more attention from Ed Miliband than from David Cameron. … The Labour leader often writes notes, sends text messages or stops for chats with Conservative backbenchers. By contrast, the Prime Minister is regarded as frosty towards his own MPs when he bumps into them in the Commons.” – The Times (£)
“The slogans Labour high command does worry about are more personal. ‘Not up to the job’ is one phrase that gets them nervous. I presume that’s because their own focus groups have alerted them that a soundbite of this kind – ‘Doesn’t look like a prime minister’ is another variant – is already out there in voters’ minds. Even Gordon Brown’s ‘No time for a novice’ jibe at Miliband’s brother David causes some unease.” – Martin Kettle, The Guardian
“We’re all familiar with what we might call U-can’t-be-serious-KIP: the oddballs within Mr Farage’s ranks who talk about “sluts” who don’t clean behind fridges and suggest rivers flood because two men can now marry. But there’s another UKIP emerging, which we could call NewKIP. This group within the party wants to blend UKIP’s patriotism and populism with a social justice message.” – Tim Montgomerie, The Times (£)
> Yesterday and today, as part of Local Government’s UKIP Week:
“Teachers and social workers have a responsibility to tell some people they are ‘bad parents’, the chief inspector of schools and social care has insisted. … Sir Michael Wilshaw called for an army of ‘good citizens’ to be given financial incentives to wake problem families up in the morning and make sure the children are fed and sent to school.” – Daily Telegraph
“Amid hostile exchanges in Switzerland, Syria’s government ridiculed demands by opposition leaders and their Western backers including Britain for Assad to stand down, saying it would never happen. … With renewed fighting in large parts of Syria, the opposition insisted the country’s leader lost his legitimacy when he crushed a once-peaceful protest movement. … But foreign minister Walid al-Moallem said it was terrorists and foreign meddling that had ripped his country apart.” – Daily Mail
“Charity volunteer Liz Marsden had phoned Conservative MP Sir Richard Ottaway ahead to let his office know that she and around eight other people would be presenting a petition against the lobbying bill to the MP for Croydon later that evening. … Yet when they arrived, the group, amongst whom was an 81-year-old woman, were met by two officers and a police car barring their entrance to the building.” – The Independent