“David Cameron has set himself the “firm aim” of keeping Britain in the European Union after running a referendum campaign that will focus on the risky consequences of a British exit, according to a leaked document of the prime minister’s negotiations. In the first authoritative account of his private thinking, the diplomatic note suggests Cameron has formulated a relatively modest reform package to secure agreement among fellow EU leaders. The leaked account of a private meeting between the prime minister and a fellow EU leader states: “He believes that people will ultimately vote for the status quo if the alternatives can be made to appear risky.”- The Guardian
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Cameron is trying to negotiate with people who can’t agree on anything
“David Cameron told a fellow European leader that it “might be better” for Greece to leave the eurozone, it has emerged. The prime minister said that the drastic step may be the best option for the country as it struggles to resolve its debt crisis, but acknowledged that leaving the eurozone carried serious risks. A leaked diplomatic document recounted Mr Cameron’s private discussion with another anonymous EU leader in Brussels. The revelation comes before a crucial meeting of eurozone finance ministers today as they search for a solution to the Greek crisis.” – The Times(£)
“A CONTROVERSIAL plan to find 40,000 Mediterranean boat migrants homes across Europe will only encourage fresh hordes to come, David Cameron has insisted. The PM slammed the move eventually agreed by angry EU leaders yesterday as “counter productive”. The eurocrats’ proposal left the bosses of the 28 countries deeply split and locked in a bitter bust up at a Brussels summit dinner until 3am.” – The Sun(£)
“At least five Britons are among the dead after an attack on a beach near the Tunisian resort town of Sousse, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said. Tunisia’s health ministry has said at least 39 people are dead, mostly foreigners.”- BBC
“Boris Johnson is planning to form an alliance with Theresa May and three other senior Conservatives to oppose a third runway at Heathrow amid fears of a damaging Cabinet split. Sir Howard Davies, the chairman of the UK Airports Commission, will on Wednesday publish a flagship report into airport capacity in the South East which will establish whether Heathrow should expand.” – Daily Telegraph
“The government insists it only learned recently that promised rail upgrades would have to be delayed, amid Labour claims voters were “betrayed”. Labour said it was clear multi-billion pound plans to electrify Midlands and Pennine lines were in “serious difficulty” before May’s election. They want to know if ministers ignored specific warnings from regulators. But a Department for Transport source said the extent of the problems became clear “only in the last week or two”.” – BBC
“The crisis in Britain’s railways is threatening to engulf HS2, with the government being forced to release a damning report showing the Department for Transport believed the high-speed project was unaffordable given its other spending commitments. Opponents of HS2 claimed the government was burying bad news as it finally published the Major Projects Authority assessment from 2012 on Thursday, the same day it announced a host of major rail upgrade schemes would be scrapped because of spiralling costs. The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, had previously vetoed its release, overruling the information commissioner.” – The Guardian
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: The rail farce raises serious questions about HS2
“The government has claimed MPs risked undermining efforts to tackle extremism by downplaying the seriousness of the “Trojan Horse” events in Birmingham. The Department for Education was responding to the education select committee’s report on the events. The report, published in March, found only a single incident of extremism or radicalisation.” – BBC
“Ex-Lib Dems MPs who were kicked out by voters are to be handed peerages in a move which today was branded ‘absolutely absurd’. Senior Conservatives have confirmed that Nick Clegg’s party is planning to appoint more people to the Lords, despite branding the Upper House undemocratic and trying to abolish it when in government. It will mean the Lib Dems will have 13 times more seats in the Lords than the eight MPs who survived the party’s near wipeout in the election bloodbath on May 7.” – Daily Mail
“Norman Lamb’s campaign to become leader of the Liberal Democrats has received a significant boost after another former party leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, and a large group of other former MPs, declared their backing for the Norfolk MP. In a letter to the Guardian, they say Lamb can set a new tone in politics and has the qualities required to take the party out its comfort zone. Lord Ashdown has already announced he is backing Lamb but Nick Clegg has decided he will not set out his preference. Campbell was party leader from 2006 to 2007, and succeeded Charles Kennedy.” – The Guardian
“Labour cannot afford to be complacent and assume it will continue to attract the support of a majority of black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) voters, Yvette Cooper has said. Committing herself to leading a taskforce to improve BAME representation in Labour if she wins the leadership contest, she said the parliamentary party was still too white.” – The Guardian
“Has Labour leader candidate Andy Burnham dyed his hair? That was the hot topic trending during BBC Question Time this week – not least because it’s less ethically challenging than the plight the Calais Stowaways. Anyway, the thing is, Burnham’s hitherto silvery crowning glory suddenly appeared as abrupt and unnervingly black as one of Gordon Brown’s moods.” – Daily Telegraph
“Family farms may need a special exemption from SNP plans to overhaul the inheritance of property to prevent them being broken up and put out of business, an official report has admitted. A Scottish Government consultation on changing the law of succession, giving children and spouses a greater right to inherit part of an estate, warned it may be impossible to meet their claims in cash. Instead it said that “parcels of land” from the farm may have to be sold and concluded that this could compromise its “commercial viability”.” – Daily Telegraph
“A Ukip council candidate has been dropped by National Express after making disparaging remarks about interracial marriage – in another day of bad publicity for the coach company. Steve Latham was a coach driver for the firm and is standing for Ukip in a Sandwell council byelection on 9 July in the Newton ward. He made the controversial remarks on Facebook.” – The Guardian
“Technological progress is what enables us to prevent child mortality; to use less land to feed the world, and so begin reforesting large parts of the rich world; to substitute oil for whale blubber and so let whales increase again; to get fossil-fuelled electricity to people so they don’t die of pollution after cooking over fires of wood taken from the rainforest. “Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way,” says the Pope. Personally, I would rather speed up the stunning and unprecedented decline in poverty of recent decades.” – Matt Ridley The Times(£)
“In short, it’s probably best to string along with the EU for the time being but I wouldn’t go to the stake on it. Tens of millions of my fellow-citizens think like this. But we’re open to persuasion the other way if “Europe” gets too big for its boots. Ours is neither a noble, nor a principled, nor even a particularly clear position to take but it does summarise, if not a position, a disposition that is very common. In it there’s a message to both sides of the coming referendum campaign, and to our European partners. All three should realise that precisely because most of us don’t feel all that strongly, the mood could flip.” – Matthew Parris The Times(£)
“By moving away from our own tradition, we also cut ourselves off from the other countries which pursued it. At the time, our break with the Commonwealth, which EEC entry entailed, was seen as a sign of modernisation. Instead of dreary old New Zealand butter, we would have the smart French unsalted stuff. We were getting rid of our old imperial pretensions, it was said, and belatedly recognising the existence of the continent of which we were a part. But it was a strange decision to weaken our open and friendly relationships with countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand who, literally and metaphorically, spoke our own language. We opened our borders to people with whom we had little historic connection and increasingly blocked them to our cousins.” – Charles Moore Daily Telegraph