‘In an opposition day debate in the Commons on Tuesday, new MP Heidi Allen became the latest Conservative to voice concerns over the cuts, using her maiden speech to criticise Mr Osborne’s plans. “To pull ourselves out of debt, we should not be forcing those working families into it,” she said. Labour lost the non-binding vote after the debate on Tuesday but Jeremy Corbyn, party leader, told the Financial Times that he was “very hopeful” that the Lords would block the tax credit cuts.’ – FT
>Today:
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: In seeking to control spending, Osborne is Thatcher’s heir. He deserves support over tax credits.
‘On average, pensioners have £394 a week after housing costs compared with £385 among the working-age population. Those in their 20s, 30s and 40s should be braced for lower incomes in retirement than their parents, he said. The findings will fuel resentment towards baby boomers, who grew up during a period of rising living standards and have been shielded from the worst of the austerity programme.’ – The Times (£)
>Today: Interview: David Willetts demands “Beaverbrookism” to bring intergenerational fairness in housing and pensions
>Yesterday: Jonathan Isaby on Comment: Making the old even better off at the expense of the young is morally bankrupt
‘Sajid Javid, the business secretary, said he would not “stand by”, and suggested major steel-hungry infrastructure projects such as HS2 could help. He stressed that there were limits on what the government could do to save the industry from global forces. Labour is likely to demand that Mr Cameron speeds up EU approval for moves to subsidise steel companies’ energy bills to stave off imminent closures. Officials admitted it could take weeks before the package passed a Brussels test on state aid.’ – The Times (£)
>Today: Rebecca Coulson’s column: It’s not religion that’s the opium of the masses – it’s ideology
>Yesterday: Mike Dolley on Comment: We should be celebrating, not killing, Britain’s renewables industry
‘David Cameron will announce plans on Wednesday for cheap tourist visas aimed at Chinese visitors, as he attempts to turn three years of courtship of China into hard cash for the British economy. Mr Cameron and Xi Jinping, China’s president, will seal a series of business agreements including a deal by Chinese investors to take a one-third stake in Hinkley Point C, the UK’s first nuclear plant for a generation.’ – FT
>Yesterday: Nick Timothy’s column: The Government is selling our national security to China
‘A sickly British grandad locked up for boozing in Saudi Arabia will not be lashed, MPs have been told. Fury erupted last week when The Sun revealed Karl Andree, 74, faces 360 lashes on top of his 12-month jail sentence…But Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told the Commons yesterday: “Let me say to you that I do not expect Mr Andree to receive the lashings that he has been sentenced to.”‘ – The Sun (£)
‘ Michael Gove’s plan to replace the Human Rights Act with a new British Bill of Rights risks encouraging childish “fantasy”, the head of the Government’s equalities watchdog has suggested. Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve, the philosopher and chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said any new charter which eventually replaces the Human Rights Act is likely to contain virtually the same principles as the controversial legislation it supersedes.’ – Daily Telegraph
‘The IRA still exists 17 years after the Good Friday peace deal, a security review found yesterday. Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers said the review revealed the Provisional IRA’s ruling body, the Army Council, still exists, but in a ‘much reduced form’. The council oversees Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA but has a ‘wholly political’ focus, it was found.’ – Daily Mail
>Today: Henry Hill’s Red, White and Blue column: First Minister picks fight with Crabb on Wales Bill
‘Britain’s spies will have the right to hack into smartphones and computers enshrined in a new law, The Times has learnt. Powers that give MI5, MI6 and GCHQ a “dizzying” range of electronic surveillance capabilities will be laid out in the investigatory powers bill next month, in a move that will bolster the confidence of the intelligence agencies but pave the way for a row with privacy campaigners.’ – The Times (£)
‘The CBI said that it wanted the EU to be reformed. However, it added that even under the current rules Britain’s membership was worthwhile. Dominic Cummings, the campaign director of Vote Leave, said that its leadership “does not represent business opinion”. “It campaigned for Britain to join the [exchange rate mechanism] which was a disaster,” he said. “It campaigned for Britain to scrap the pound, which would have been a disaster. It welcomed the EU constitution and tried to stop a referendum on it. It’s campaigning to stay in the EU regardless of the terms.”‘ – The Times (£)
‘Sugar in foodstuffs should be taxed to help fight obesity, health officials urged yesterday — as they called for a ban on the Coco Pops monkey. Cartoon favourites like the chimp encourage unhealthy kids’ diets, Public Health England added. The quango’s Dr Alison Tedstone told the Commons Health Committee: “We see a role for a fiscal approach in reducing sugary drink consumption.“The higher the tax increase, the greater the effect.”’ – The Sun (£)
‘Plans to hold the parliamentary vote next week have been dropped as discussion continues over the reforms. The proposals are still expected to reach the Commons in the form of an amendment to the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill. Ministers are trying to reduce anxiety in Tory ranks over the changes. David Burrowes, the Tory MP for Enfield Southgate who is at the helm of the potential rebellion, told The Times that an imminent Commons vote was the fear over the weekend. “The campaign has only just started,” he said.’ – The Times (£)
‘ Seumas Milne, who is Mr Corbyn’s new Executive Director of Strategy and Communications, spoke of the so-called “resistance movement” and its success at forcing “occupation troops” out of Iraqi cities in an article in 2004. He wrote: “The resistance war can of course be cruel, but the innocent deaths it has been responsible for pale next to the toll inflicted by the occupiers”, adding that armed terror groups were responsible for “Iraq’s real war of liberation”.’ – Daily Telegraph
>Today: Michael Fallon MP on Comment: Once again and for Britain’s security, Labour MPs must back the renewal of Trident
‘The Canadian election has overturned many assumptions, not least that Canada is boring. The rise and fall of Stephen Harper is the stuff of Shakespeare: a tough Conservative insurgent from the country’s west broke into and then broke up the eastern political establishment created by the Liberal Pierre Trudeau, only to be cast down a decade later by Trudeau’s son, Justin. What should British Conservatives learn from the fall of Mr Harper, who first governed without a parliamentary majority, only later winning a full mandate?…The first lesson is not to be distracted from the eternal job of Conservatives, securing a sound economy.’ – Daily Telegraph Leader
>Yesterday:
‘This is the nub of it: the particular stigma of rape. In the real world when it comes to rape, innocent until proven guilty does not mean anything. We are not dry, legalistic automatons whose attitudes switch cleanly from open-minded neutrality to condemnation on the delivery of a guilty verdict. The damning starts long before then, especially with a sexual crime: “Yes, I always did think there was something creepy about that man…” This is understandable. False rape accusations are rare. The trouble is, sometimes there is smoke without fire – black, toxic gales of the stuff surrounding men who have not committed rape, but whose reputations are soiled forever. That acrid smell won’t come out in the wash.’ – Clare Foges, Daily Telegraph