“Police cuts expected to be announced in next week’s Spending Review may ‘reduce very significantly’ the UK’s ability to respond to a Paris-style attack, Home Secretary Theresa May has been warned. … The advisory comes in a restricted document prepared for Mrs May by one of the UK’s most senior police officers. … It says the ability to mobilise large numbers of officers would ‘reduce very significantly across the country’. … The Home Office said it would not comment on a leaked document.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“The Paris terrorist attacks last week have raised the stakes for the five-year strategic defence and security review, with Mr Cameron determined not to repeat some of the mistakes of the last exercise in 2010. … In this review, Russia’s revanchism, turmoil in the Middle East, the threat of Isis and growing cyber insecurity will dominate decision-making. … Mr Cameron will trumpet the 2015 defence review as evidence that his government can maintain national security while cutting the deficit.” – Financial Times
And comment:
> Yesterday: Garvan Walshe’s column – A dispatch from the front lines in the struggle against ISIS
“France’s prime minister has warned his country to be prepared for chemical and biological attacks … Manuel Valls made the ominous prediction while calling on French MPs to extend the country’s state of emergency for another three months, amid fears another attack is imminent. … The warning comes as U.S. security officials report that they have found proof that ISIS is developing bio-weapons with the help of Syrian and Iraqi scientists in the Middle East.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“World powers are poised to forge a single resolution at the United Nations Security Council to declare a common war against Isis and ‘eradicate’ jihadists in Iraq and Syria, The Independent understands. … The attacks in Paris as well as the downing of the Russian jet over the Sinai Peninsula have galvanised a hitherto divided Security Council. And a new reality exists: with its alleged execution this week of a Chinese national, Isis has now slaughtered citizens of all five permanent Security Council members.” – The Independent
“Jeremy Corbyn is poised to offer Labour MPs a free vote on Syria, after whips warned that dozens will rebel if he tries to order them to vote against air strikes. … The Labour leader angered MPs at the weekend by saying a free vote was not ‘on offer’. … But party sources say he is coming under intense pressure from the whips to back down. One source said up to 60 Labour MPs, including some frontbenchers, had indicated they could defy the party whip.” – Daily Mail
“As he criticised the left’s espousal of multiculturalism, Sadiq Khan said the political elite has been guilty of ‘burying their heads in the sand’ over radicalisation. … the London Mayoral candidate said successive governments have ‘tolerated segregation in British society’ – a failing which has ‘allowed the conditions that permit extremism to continue unchecked’. … ‘Extremism isn’t a theoretical risk. Most British Muslims have come across someone with extremist views at some point – and so have I.’” – Daily Mail
“Patients are facing three weeks of disruption after junior doctors voted overwhelmingly to go on strike during the run-up to Christmas. … A total of 28,316 junior doctors took part in the ballot, of whom 99 per cent voted in favour of staging industrial action and 98 per cent for an all-out strike in protest over new contracts being imposed by Jeremy Hunt. He said today the result was ‘very, very disappointing news’.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
> Yesterday:
“NHS trusts in England are expected to declare the worst financial performance in the history of the health service, with fears some hospitals will run out of cash to pay staff. … New figures from NHS regulators, due to be published on Friday, are set to reveal a deficit of £1.5bn, with projections the figure will reach £2bn by the end of the financial year. … Experts told the Telegraph that the situation is now so bleak that there are fears that over the next year, some hospitals will be unable to pay their staff.” – Daily Telegraph
“The Tory party was last night engulfed by extraordinary allegations of sex, drugs and the blackmail of MPs. … A whistleblower has claimed a senior election aide compiled dossiers on four Tory MPs after encouraging young activists to sleep with them. … The aide – disgraced ‘Tatler Tory’ Mark Clarke – had been determined to secure a top political position by keeping ‘dirt’ on everybody to use as leverage in the future, the party campaigner alleged.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
> Today:
> Yesterday: ToryDiary – The Legard inquiry into the Mark Clarke allegations must publish findings
“In a damning report, the Commons home affairs committee will say the Tory peer’s widow went through unnecessary anguish because of the way police handled the case. … Its report criticises Scotland Yard over suggestions it pressed the Crown Prosecution Service to review the Brittan allegations because a decision to take no further action would have resulted in ‘media criticism and public cynicism’.” – Daily Mail
“More than seven years after the failure of Halifax Bank of Scotland, regulators published the results of a £7million inquiry into what went wrong and who was to blame. … Chancellor George Osborne claimed the failings highlighted in the reports demonstrated that ‘the system of regulation created by the last Labour government failed’. … He added: ‘In the end, this led to a £20 billion bailout of Lloyds Banking Group, funded by the taxpayer.'” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“The Chancellor’s tax credit reforms could encourage almost two million more people to work, a report claims. … In couples where only one partner worked, the move would on average ‘strengthen incentives’ for the other to find a job too, said the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies. … The findings come despite campaigners warning that George Osborne’s reforms could plunge working families into poverty.” – Daily Mail
> Yesterday:
“Councils have been accused of sitting on cash that could be used to help them cope with budget cuts, after official figures showed their reserves grew in the past year. … Communities secretary Greg Clark said he recognised councils’ need to save for the future but they should also use their resources to meet local needs. … Councils are ‘well placed’ to ‘play their part in dealing with the deficit’, Mr Clark said.” – Financial Times
> Today: Cllr David Hodge on Local Government – For councils the well of efficiencies is drying up while the pressures on us continue to rise
“Cyprus has reached a ‘critical point’ in its search for an end to four decades of partition, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said yesterday as he urged Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to move towards an historic compromise over the island’s future. … ‘The stars are beginning to align,’ Mr Hammond said on a visit taking in both sides of the divided island, amid talks hailed as the best chance in a decade for ending one of the world’s oldest frozen conflicts.” – The Times (£)
“Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin has said he does not regret giving £3m to the charity Kids Company just days before it collapsed, despite subsequent allegations of financial mismanagement. … The charity, run by Camila Batmanghelidjh, would have been able to improve its management and governance if it had not gone bust first, Mr Letwin told a committee of MPs.” – Financial Times
“Former Tory party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas is to donate £1m to the Vote Leave campaign in the EU referendum – the highest donation yet to the Out cause. … In the last European referendum in 1975, the In campaign spent 11 times as much as its opponents – but this time around, the Out campaign is convinced it will have far greater financial clout.” – Daily Mail
> Today: Isabel Oakeshott on Comment – Brexit campaigners don’t know friend from enemy
“The UK Independence Party has suffered a devastating collapse in funding since its failure to secure an election breakthrough. … In the last three months Nigel Farage’s party received less than £50,000, dramatically down on the £2million donated in the run up to the election and half of the amount given in the period last year.” – Daily Mail
“To understand Jeremy Corbyn and his cohorts, you have to appreciate their obsession with the history of Marxist revolutions. They take their cues not from dead presidents, but Ho Chi Minh, Samora Machel and Fidel Castro. … it explains why – for all the indifference that Corbyn and co appear to be showing to the need to persuade the public to vote for them in five years’ time – they are operating with relentless and at times brutal efficiency in their efforts to seize control of the Labour party’s internal machinery.” – Damian McBride, The Guardian
“John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, will promise ‘socialism with an iPad’ as he promises Labour will make the UK one of the world’s great technology centres but also provide security for the army of new workers, many self-employed, who have been casualised by the internet. … He will also set an objective that 3.5% of UK gross domestic product is spent on infrastructure, part of a move to what he describes a new strategic state.” – The Guardian
“Labour is to set up its own review of the Freedom of Information Act in an attempt to head off a controversial move by the Government to water down the public’s right to know. … Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, is to invite Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs to join a cross-party commission that will take evidence on the working of the 2000 Act passed by the Blair Government. It is likely to propose that the legislation be strengthened amid fears that Conservative ministers will use their review as cover to dilute the Act.” – The Independent
“Peers have called for a halt to what they called the ‘rushed through’ devolution of powers to Scotland after expressing fears the plans could put the Union at risk. … A House of Lords committee has called for a halt to the Scotland Bill until key issues are addressed, including details of the funding package which will accompany it. … The Economic Affairs Committee has set out its concerns in a report on the legislation which hands a raft of new powers to Holyrood.” – Daily Mail
“Peter Robinson is to step down as Northern Ireland’s First Minister and leader of his Democratic Unionist Party. … The 66-year-old, who made the announcement ahead of the DUP conference, said he will not contest May’s Assembly election and is likely to leave office in the coming weeks. … Mr Robinson suffered a heart attack this year but insists he had made his mind up to leave before the health scare.” – Daily Mail