“David Cameron attacked the Liberal Democrats last night as being ‘all over the place’ on the economy and a ‘threat’ to prosperity, in a sign of a growing chasm between the coalition partners on tax and spending plans. In an email to all Conservative MPs, the prime minister bracketed the Lib Dems with Labour and pitched his own party against the pair, stating that the choice for the public was ‘between competence and chaos’ – The Times (£)
“The Conservatives are in the grip of a ‘pre-election panic’ and have resorted to ‘pandering to Ukip’ and pursuing a policy of ‘austerity forever’, Danny Alexander says as the Coalition civil war reaches new heights. In an article for the Telegraph, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury claims that his Coalition partners want to ‘inflict unnecessary pain’ on Britain because they are ‘ideologically committed’ to ‘shrinking the state ever further’. His intervention will fuel calls from Tory backbenchers for David Cameron to break off the Coalition early” – Daily Telegraph
“Theresa May has extended her lead over Boris Johnson as the choice among grassroots Conservatives to be a future leader of the party, according to a poll published yesterday. The survey by the Conservative Home website found that the home secretary received 29 per cent of the vote, up four points, compared with the mayor of London, who got 18 per cent. Mr Johnson’s total was down by four points while George Osborne moved into third spot with 13 per cent” – The Times (£)
>Yesterday:
“Middle-class families who have benefited from an era of cheap borrowing will suffer the most when interest rates are increased, the Bank of England warns today. In its latest health check of household finances, the Bank says that those on middle to high incomes will suffer the biggest drop in spending power. Interest rates have been at a record low of 0.5 per cent since March 2009, but analysts have predicted that the first rise could arrive next October” – The Times (£)
“The Conservative party is seeking to avert one of its biggest rifts with the Church of England for decades as an all-party report on food banks warns that Britain is stalked by hunger caused by low pay, growing inequality, a harsh benefits sanctions regime and social breakdown. The church-funded report says voluntary groups have been courageously fighting ‘a social Dunkirk’ without the assistance of the government, and calls for urgent action to ensure ministers do more to combat hunger…The initial Conservative reaction to leaks of the report – which is formally published today – was hostile” – Guardian
>Today:
“Today comes yet more confirmation, as if it were needed, that Britain’s politicians are grasping, vain, self-interested and shamefully underemployed. As evidence of their greed, it emerges that more than a quarter of MPs – among them ministers and senior Labour members – now rake in extra money by employing relatives at our expense. Shockingly, the cost of family members on the public payroll has risen by 50 per cent since 2010 to almost £3.8million, while many of them enjoyed substantial salary increases when other state sector workers endured pay freezes” – Daily Mail Comment
>Today:
“Alex Salmond has announced he plans to return to Westminster because Scots must be ‘their own guardians’ of the nation’s future following Gordon Brown’s departure as ‘guarantor’ of more constitutional powers…He told supporters in the Aberdeenshire constituency of Gordon, where he plans to stand, that the Smith Commission on more devolved powers has not ‘lived up to what was promised’…Perhaps it’s time to use the Westminster elections to apply that pressure – to rumble them up in Westminster’” – Scotsman
“The Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, has blamed his late arrival at an event on immigration. He was due to appear at a ‘meet the leader’ drinks reception as Ukip prepared to host its first Welsh conference. But he was running more than two hours late and failed to show. ‘It took me six hours and 15 minutes in the car to get here. It should have taken three and a half to four,’ he later said. ‘That has nothing to do with professionalism. What is does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof, chiefly because of open-door immigration, and the fact the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be’” – Guardian
“Some of the Labour heartlands Nigel Farage hopes to storm might warm to his aid policy but they should have a close look at his tax policies first. Ukip simultaneously wants to help the rich in Britain while scrapping funding for drought-resistant crops, flood defences and malaria nets. Its policies would be devastating for millions of people in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Somalia — people who thought they could count on Britain. If this is what Ukip means by a new kind of politics, I prefer the old” – Tim Montgomerie, The Times (£)
“The idea of sending a piece of the Elgin Marbles to the Hermitage did not need to be cleared by government. The British Museum did not obtain prior government approval – and in that simple fact you have the difference between Britain and so many other countries on earth, and especially Russia. This is not a tyranny. We do not have power located in one place. We have and we protect an idea of cultural, artistic and intellectual freedom – and that is of immense economic value to this country” – Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph