“Jean-Claude Juncker…spoke in his campaign of his readiness to address the concerns of the United Kingdom…If…we can agree that we are not heading, at different speeds, to the same place – as some have assumed up to now – then there is business we can do. I do not oppose further integration within the eurozone: I think it is inevitable. Eurozone members must make those decisions. But I know the British people want no part of it” – David Cameron, Daily Telegraph
>Today: Comment – John Stevens: The four-point EU reform programme that Cameron should push now
>Yesterday: MPs etc: Last week proves that the Prime Minister needs a big hitter in Europe. That means pulling the Lansley candidacy
“A British exit from the EU is ‘unimaginable’, according to Germany’s powerful finance minister, and Berlin will do everything in its power to keep the UK part of the union following the clash over Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as European Commission president. Wolfgang Schäuble said an EU without its island neighbour would be ‘absolutely not acceptable’ in an interview with the Financial Times” – Financial Times
“European countries have warned David Cameron that his threats about the British people voting to leave an unreformed EU may backfire, undermining the Prime Minister’s hopes of winning major concessions…A senior official from a pro-British EU nation told The Independent: ‘The threat to leave may prove an empty one. It is not the best way to get what you want. Cameron may find that other people will call his bluff’” – The Independent
“Income tax and national insurance will be merged under plans being lined up as a key element of the next Conservative manifesto. George Osborne came ‘within a whisker’ of implementing the plan in the budget and is now looking again at the policy for the general election. The chancellor is being urged to offer the pledge by Tories who believe that the decision to roll together the opaque national insurance system with income tax will remind people of the scale of the tax contribution they make” – The Times (£)
“As part of our long-term economic plan, we’ll shortly be setting out an ambitious new strategy to double the value of creative industry exports to £31 billion, while also increasing the value of inward investment in creative UK businesses. This Government’s commitment to the creative industries will be the focus on Monday when the Prime Minister hosts a reception for some of the sector’s leading figures. It’s not a showbiz party, or an attempt to bask in reflected glory and coolness” – Sajid Javid, Daily Mail
“The Prince of Wales wants more grammar schools to be opened, it has emerged, after a former cabinet minister disclosed that the future king had lobbied the Government over the issue…The disclosure by David Blunkett, the former education secretary, has delighted campaigners.…Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said: “Prince Charles frequently speaks common sense when politicians are missing the obvious points” – Daily Telegraph
“It is time for a simple and profoundly Conservative – not to say Thatcherian – change to the law. People have the rights to any diamonds or platinum or uranium they may excavate beneath their homes. Why shouldn’t they have the right to the one mineral [shale gas] that may – it now transpires – exist in glorious abundance?” – Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph
“Paedos who try to groom kids face jail for contacting them just once. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling is to amend current rules that mean deviants have to act twice before cops can swoop. One sinister communication or meeting will soon be enough to land the groomer a prison term of up to ten years…It follows outcry over TV star Jimmy Savile’s depravity” – The Sun (£)
“The NHS is ‘palpably fraying at the edges’, the leader of Britain’s doctors warns on Monday. Crucial services are deteriorating because the cash-strapped health service cannot cope with rising demand from patients at the same time as ministers are ‘attacking the overall financial viability of the service’, Dr Mark Porter said. Porter’s intervention comes as research shows that one in four people arriving at A&E are there because they could not see a GP quickly enough” – Guardian
“Scotland’s national dish is at the centre of a furious row between the Scottish and UK governments over efforts to restore exports to the US.Coalition Environment Secretary Owen Paterson will today hold talks with his opposite number in the US Government in a bid to overturn a 40-year ban on the import of haggis. However, Mr Paterson was accused by Scotland’s Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead, of taking up the issue only in response to September’s independence referendum” – Herald