Mayor of village beloved by Jewish Israelis says towering new place of worship — built with a little funding from Israel, and a lot from Chechnya — will espouse ‘only peace and tolerance’
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Good morning. Cast your eyes along the waterfront this morning after the night before and you might conclude that things are fairly dire for Dave. He’s suffered another major rebellion (I know, I know it was a free vote, but he still failed to persuade his colleagues to follow his lead), there’s lashings of backbiting, and he’s been reduced to sending a pleading ‘Dear Mr Loon, I still love you’ letter to his members, something even American commentators have picked up on as a bad look. Nick Watt, a keen reader of Tory runes, spots a sea-change in attitudes to Dave among MPs and raises the prospect of a move against him in The Guardian, with more letters going in to Graham Brady. As I mention in my column, grown ups inside No10 realise that they are stuck with a number of what they refer to as ‘legacy issues’, from not winning the 2010 election to the gay marriage idea. But there is no reason why the situation should not improve. Much of what has excited us in recent weeks will have passed the voters by, and after tonight’s vote gay marriage will be on its way to becoming law, and passing out of the current political debate. With the economy slowly improving and Labour wallowing, the Tories surely should be able to claw themselves off the rocks. This will require a fair wind, and a commitment by Mr Cameron and those around him to sharpen up. It also means not surrendering to the bullying disguised as advice from those agitating against Dave, whether it’s David Davis or Lord Ashcroft. The recess starts today, a good opportunity for everyone to calm down and for the PM to have a think about how he organises himself from now on. That “personal message”, here in all its glory, might not be a bad start. Sure, many will feel it’s more than a little late – there has been a chasm apparent between the leadership and the grassroots since the grammar school row five years ago – but that doesn’t mean it’s too late. The fightback could just start here. Though from a low base if you believe a new Survation poll in The Guardian. It has the Tories down to 24 pc – just two points above Ukip. Gay marriage served as a stark reminder of just how far removed Dave’s world view often seems from his troops. As The Guardian notes, the inter-generational divisions in the Tory party were particularly stark . Sir Gerald Howarth, the former defence minister last year knighted on the PM’s advice, warned in yesterday’s debate of an “aggressive homosexual community” in the country. Edward Leigh lamented that the “outlandish views of the loony left of the 1980s” had become “embedded in high places”. Yes, it passed easily. Tim Loughton’s “wrecking” amendment was defeated 375 to 70. But passage of the Bill really owed to the deal passed with Labour, including on an immediate civil partnership review. No wonder the Mail describes it all as a “humiliation”. It’s not too late for a Tory electoral recovery but, as I highlight in my column, a little more brutal self-assessment certainly wouldn’t go amiss: At times his operation shows insufficient guile, at others a lack of interest in the mechanics – and in the people on whom his leadership should depend, notably his MPs. It is a fundamental weakness at the heart of Mr Cameron’s leadership, and one which his skills as a statesman and his undoubted sincerity as a public servant struggle to counterbalance. To Janan Ganesh in the FT (£), all this squabbling only reinforces a truth: The people who should have been vindicated by the Tories’ failure to win in 2010 were the Cameron modernisers A RATHER BETTER DAY FOR ED Meanwhile it was a rather better day for Ed Miliband. It was the perfect opportunity for him to take a cute and clever line on gay marriage, supporting the Loughton wrecking amendment for the sake of a little short-term tactical gain. Instead, as Dan Hodges blogs for us, Ed took a position that seems dangerously close to principled. Rather than win a few cheap political points, he’s got what he wanted: gay marriage. APPEAL COURT OUTS BORIS The Appeal Court yesterday said that the public does have a right to know about Boris Johnson’s extra-marital lovechild, who was born in November 2009, as the Daily Mail reports. PROGRAMMES NOT WORKING The government’s flagship Work Programme isn’t helping the most difficult cases, the Work and Pensions Select Commons committee has found. As The Independent reports, there is “growing evidence” that disadvantaged jobseekers are being ignored, and that Work Programme advisers had to deal with up to 180 jobseekers at a time. The one perk? In a payment-by-results scheme in which all 18 providers failed to meet their targets in the first year, the Government has spent £248 million less than anticipated. Meanwhile, Jonathan Aitken has attacked the “big yawning gaps” in plans to get former criminals to take on probation work – an idea that uses similar outsourcing methods to the Work Programme, as we note. HUNT ATTACKS SURGERIES In a speech to the King’s Fund health think-tank on Thursday, Jeremy Hunt will call for a new chief inspector of GPs to increase their quality. As the Daily Mail reports, Mr Hunt will attack “out-of-hours services where you speak to a doctor who doesn’t know you from Adam and has no access to your medical record” and complain that surgeries have become “mini A & E units” in which doctors cannot cope. Under his plans, there would be one GP per family who the “buck stops” with. BERLIN PLANS EU TREATY CHANGE More bad news for Dave comes from Berlin. The FT (£) reports that Angela Merkel is drawing up plans to streamline decision making in the eurozone but not going as far as a wholesale renegotiation. Two recently adopted standalone treaties – one enshrining fiscal discipline in a “fiscal compound”; another creating the €500 billion eurozone rescue fund – would be the models. DAVE’S GOOGLE GO-SLOW Dave has also faced criticism after treading very softly around Google during his meeting with Eric Schmidt and other business leaders yesterday at No 10. As The Times (£) reports, Dave did not seek a one-on-one meeting with Mr Schmidt despite making the case for tax transparency to the council. UKIP BLAMED FOR CLIMATE CHANGE Ed Davey has warned that the rise of Ukip risks populist “saloon bar” politics extending to climate change scepticism. Davey told The Independent of the dangers of the Conservatives pandering to a party that “don’t want to say that things here have to change”. SCHOOLS – MORE BUCK BUT NOT MORE BANG There is “no correlation at all between spending and outcomes”, according to new research from Reform, as we report. Some schools spend twice as much as others to receive the same “value-added” scores. Cue the carping from ministers of non-protected departments to begin again – that’s if it ever stopped. Reform have already argued for an end to the ring-fence in the education budget. TWEETS AND TWITS Apparently Diana Abbott doesn’t do subtlety: @steve_mccabe: One of our lighter moments Diane Abbott caught tweeting about being in same lobby as David Cameron by PM who was reading over her shoulder TOP COMMENT In the Telegraph Ben Brogan – Cameron shouldn’t blame our rowdy press for his own failings Iain Martin – It feels like the Right has split irrevocably Gillian Guy – Redemption awaits Britain’s battered banks Telegraph View – A belated olive branch – but will it be enough? Best of the rest Rachel Sylvester in The Times (£) – Those aren’t loons, they’re just the over-60s Jenni Russell in The Guardian – Politics needs mavericks, not just the same old chumocracy and groupthink Dominic Lawson in The Independent – Hide behind the EU and the electorate will flush you out Janan Gamesh in the FT (£) – Tories misunderstand the last election THE AGENDA
09:30 am: Latest inflation figures for April released by ONS.
10:00 am London: Lord Deighton at Treasury Select Committee. Commercial Secretary Lord Deighton and Geoffrey Spence, Chief Executive, Infrastructure UK, HM Treasury will give evidence as part of the committee’s review of private finance.
12:00 am London: The London boroughs of Richmond and Hillingdon are announcing the Heathrow referendum results. Boris Johnson the Mayor of London, Lord True the Leader of Richmond Council and Cllr Ray Puddifoot the Leader of Hillingdon Council are due to attend. City Hall. |
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Good morning. Cast your eyes along the waterfront this morning after the night before and you might conclude that things are fairly dire for Dave. He’s suffered another major rebellion (I know, I know it was a free vote, but he still failed to persuade his colleagues to follow his lead), there’s lashings of backbiting, and he’s been reduced to sending a pleading ‘Dear Mr Loon, I still love you’ letter to his members, something even American commentators have picked up on as a bad look. Nick Watt, a keen reader of Tory runes, spots a sea-change in attitudes to Dave among MPs and raises the prospect of a move against him in The Guardian, with more letters going in to Graham Brady. As I mention in my column, grown ups inside No10 realise that they are stuck with a number of what they refer to as ‘legacy issues’, from not winning the 2010 election to the gay marriage idea. But there is no reason why the situation should not improve. Much of what has excited us in recent weeks will have passed the voters by, and after tonight’s vote gay marriage will be on its way to becoming law, and passing out of the current political debate. With the economy slowly improving and Labour wallowing, the Tories surely should be able to claw themselves off the rocks. This will require a fair wind, and a commitment by Mr Cameron and those around him to sharpen up. It also means not surrendering to the bullying disguised as advice from those agitating against Dave, whether it’s David Davis or Lord Ashcroft. The recess starts today, a good opportunity for everyone to calm down and for the PM to have a think about how he organises himself from now on. That “personal message”, here in all its glory, might not be a bad start. Sure, many will feel it’s more than a little late – there has been a chasm apparent between the leadership and the grassroots since the grammar school row five years ago – but that doesn’t mean it’s too late. The fightback could just start here. Though from a low base if you believe a new Survation poll in The Guardian. It has the Tories down to 24 pc – just two points above Ukip. Gay marriage served as a stark reminder of just how far removed Dave’s world view often seems from his troops. As The Guardian notes, the inter-generational divisions in the Tory party were particularly stark . Sir Gerald Howarth, the former defence minister last year knighted on the PM’s advice, warned in yesterday’s debate of an “aggressive homosexual community” in the country. Edward Leigh lamented that the “outlandish views of the loony left of the 1980s” had become “embedded in high places”. Yes, it passed easily. Tim Loughton’s “wrecking” amendment was defeated 375 to 70. But passage of the Bill really owed to the deal passed with Labour, including on an immediate civil partnership review. No wonder the Mail describes it all as a “humiliation”. It’s not too late for a Tory electoral recovery but, as I highlight in my column, a little more brutal self-assessment certainly wouldn’t go amiss: At times his operation shows insufficient guile, at others a lack of interest in the mechanics – and in the people on whom his leadership should depend, notably his MPs. It is a fundamental weakness at the heart of Mr Cameron’s leadership, and one which his skills as a statesman and his undoubted sincerity as a public servant struggle to counterbalance. To Janan Ganesh in the FT (£), all this squabbling only reinforces a truth: The people who should have been vindicated by the Tories’ failure to win in 2010 were the Cameron modernisers A RATHER BETTER DAY FOR ED Meanwhile it was a rather better day for Ed Miliband. It was the perfect opportunity for him to take a cute and clever line on gay marriage, supporting the Loughton wrecking amendment for the sake of a little short-term tactical gain. Instead, as Dan Hodges blogs for us, Ed took a position that seems dangerously close to principled. Rather than win a few cheap political points, he’s got what he wanted: gay marriage. APPEAL COURT OUTS BORIS The Appeal Court yesterday said that the public does have a right to know about Boris Johnson’s extra-marital lovechild, who was born in November 2009, as the Daily Mail reports. PROGRAMMES NOT WORKING The government’s flagship Work Programme isn’t helping the most difficult cases, the Work and Pensions Select Commons committee has found. As The Independent reports, there is “growing evidence” that disadvantaged jobseekers are being ignored, and that Work Programme advisers had to deal with up to 180 jobseekers at a time. The one perk? In a payment-by-results scheme in which all 18 providers failed to meet their targets in the first year, the Government has spent £248 million less than anticipated. Meanwhile, Jonathan Aitken has attacked the “big yawning gaps” in plans to get former criminals to take on probation work – an idea that uses similar outsourcing methods to the Work Programme, as we note. HUNT ATTACKS SURGERIES In a speech to the King’s Fund health think-tank on Thursday, Jeremy Hunt will call for a new chief inspector of GPs to increase their quality. As the Daily Mail reports, Mr Hunt will attack “out-of-hours services where you speak to a doctor who doesn’t know you from Adam and has no access to your medical record” and complain that surgeries have become “mini A & E units” in which doctors cannot cope. Under his plans, there would be one GP per family who the “buck stops” with. BERLIN PLANS EU TREATY CHANGE More bad news for Dave comes from Berlin. The FT (£) reports that Angela Merkel is drawing up plans to streamline decision making in the eurozone but not going as far as a wholesale renegotiation. Two recently adopted standalone treaties – one enshrining fiscal discipline in a “fiscal compound”; another creating the €500 billion eurozone rescue fund – would be the models. DAVE’S GOOGLE GO-SLOW Dave has also faced criticism after treading very softly around Google during his meeting with Eric Schmidt and other business leaders yesterday at No 10. As The Times (£) reports, Dave did not seek a one-on-one meeting with Mr Schmidt despite making the case for tax transparency to the council. UKIP BLAMED FOR CLIMATE CHANGE Ed Davey has warned that the rise of Ukip risks populist “saloon bar” politics extending to climate change scepticism. Davey told The Independent of the dangers of the Conservatives pandering to a party that “don’t want to say that things here have to change”. SCHOOLS – MORE BUCK BUT NOT MORE BANG There is “no correlation at all between spending and outcomes”, according to new research from Reform, as we report. Some schools spend twice as much as others to receive the same “value-added” scores. Cue the carping from ministers of non-protected departments to begin again – that’s if it ever stopped. Reform have already argued for an end to the ring-fence in the education budget. TWEETS AND TWITS Apparently Diana Abbott doesn’t do subtlety: @steve_mccabe: One of our lighter moments Diane Abbott caught tweeting about being in same lobby as David Cameron by PM who was reading over her shoulder TOP COMMENT In the Telegraph
Ben Brogan – Cameron shouldn’t blame our rowdy press for his own failings Iain Martin – It feels like the Right has split irrevocably Gillian Guy – Redemption awaits Britain’s battered banks Telegraph View – A belated olive branch – but will it be enough? Best of the rest Rachel Sylvester in The Times (£) – Those aren’t loons, they’re just the over-60s Jenni Russell in The Guardian – Politics needs mavericks, not just the same old chumocracy and groupthink Dominic Lawson in The Independent – Hide behind the EU and the electorate will flush you out Janan Gamesh in the FT (£) – Tories misunderstand the last election THE AGENDA
09:30 am: Latest inflation figures for April released by ONS.
10:00 am London: Lord Deighton at Treasury Select Committee. Commercial Secretary Lord Deighton and Geoffrey Spence, Chief Executive, Infrastructure UK, HM Treasury will give evidence as part of the committee’s review of private finance.
12:00 am London: The London boroughs of Richmond and Hillingdon are announcing the Heathrow referendum results. Boris Johnson the Mayor of London, Lord True the Leader of Richmond Council and Cllr Ray Puddifoot the Leader of Hillingdon Council are due to attend. City Hall. |
The Prime Minister tonight sent a “personal message” to thousands of party volunteers, insisting that despite their differences over Europe and gay marriage, the leadership and the party had “a deep and lasting friendship”.
Mr Cameron’s email was his first comment since The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers disclosed on Saturday that a member of his inner circle had described Conservative association members as “mad, swivel-eyed loons”.
The Prime Minister did not refer explicitly to the remark, but insisted that he admired and respected his party’s activists.
“I am proud to lead this party. I am proud of what you do,” he said. “I would never have around me those who sneered or thought otherwise. We are a team, from the parish council to the local association to Parliament, and I never forget it.”
Good Morning. It’s all shaping up into another unseemly – and largely avoidable – mess for Dave and co. His control over the Tory infantry – which was always based on the premise that he represented the Tories’ best path to a Commons majority – seems more tenuous than ever.
As if last week’s fights over Europe and loonygate weren’t enough, the party is in particularly rebellious mood over gay marriage, the Bill for which reaches Report stage in the Commons today. An amendment to allow straight couples to enter into civil partnerships is seen as a wrecker. As the FT (£) reports, Maria Miller claims it would delay the introduction of same-sex marriages before the next election due to changes in IT systems. And it would cost an extra £4 billion too, in state pensions for straight couples.
Of course, officially none of this counts as a rebellion. That may be true but if, as seems likely, 150 Tory MPs oppose the PM during today’s votes – including Owen Paterson and David Jones – then it rather amounts to a primal scream against the direction of travel Dave is dragging his party in. So he is now left relying on Labour and Lib Dem support to drag the measure through. And he should be nervous: as we report, many Labour MPs plan to back the amendment, apparently unconvinced by claims of the difficulties it would cause the same-sex marriage Bill.
It all couldn’t have come at a much worse time for Dave, following on from the “loons” comment which Lord Feldman denies. Inevitably, this is being used as cover for wider attacks on Cameron and his project. As the Times (£) notes, the Bow Group have complained of the “lack of a Conservative vision and narrative in leadership and Government”. Meanwhile, over 30 current and former Conservative association chairmen yesterday handed a letter to No 10 accusing Dave of “treating the membership with contempt” over his support for gay marriage. One minister also told the Times (£), MPs are glimpsing an opportunity “to break the gang of chums”. Brian Binley, an MP and member of the party’s board, said “There is a feeling that a group of people feel that they have taken over the party.”
WATCH OUT DAVE, NIGE IS COMING FOR YA
Never one to miss the opportunity for a skirmish with Dave and co, Nige has taken out a full-page advert in today’s Daily Telegraph in which he describes the “loons” comment as “the ultimate insult” and pleads Tories sick of the “contempt” with which they’re treated to “Come and join Ukip today and together we will get out country back.”
And in truth Nige has rather a lot of material to work with as he tries to pick off a Tory base who feel, more than ever, that their party now speaks for Notting Hill and little else. As we report, one acting Tory chairman has described the loons comment as “the final straw” and is defecting to Ukip. He won’t be the only one either, especially as the feeling grows that Ukip could well win next year’s European elections – even a senior No 10 figure admits that is is a “reasonable assumption”, according to the Times (£). The latest ComRes poll puts Ukip on 19 pc.
As Tory party historian Tim Bale writes for us, the whole unfortunate charade is emblematic of the wider disenfranchisement of activists over many years – leaving only those “more ideological or careerist” left.
“To attend party conference nowadays is to see this split manifest. A few members of the silent majority still gamely turn up, but many more who might have gone before are absent – priced out of the event by the lobbyists and wannabes, or else convinced that it’s all got a bit too serious”.
Lord Feldman can expect plenty of questions at the Conservative Party’s monthly board meeting in London this afternoon. If nothing else, his party leader should be able to empathise. He is, as Tim Montgomerie writes in the Times (£), now “a man caught in the middle of a political tug-of-war.” For Steve Richards in the Guardian, the time has already arrived to evaluate where it all went wrong for Dave:
“It is too late for Cameron to change tack. He can only busk it and hope for the best. The next leader of the Conservative party must decide, without ambiguity or qualification, whether he or she wants to update their party substantially or give reheated Thatcherism one more throw of the dice. We know what happens when a young, untested leader tries to do both.”
GOVE DIGS IN SOME MORE
Michael Gove is having a spat with head teachers – whatever next? Following criticism from Bernadette Hunter, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, on Saturday, Gove has responded in today’s Times (£). He declares her reaction “so depressing” and refuses to “compromise on standards to appease the defeatists”. With not many friends in the education unions left to lose, Gove will increase his efforts to deal directly with academy heads and training schools.
NOT IN OUR BACKYARD
Tory MPs may have loved the idea of fracking in abstract, but when they face the prospect of it being in their own backyards it doesn’t seem quite so appealing. As reported in the FT (£), one Tory says “It’s a whole different matter when people will see gas production in the rolling hills of Surrey”. As the government looks to accelerate plans, 38 of the 62 MPs in the southeast – 35 of them Conservatives – are in constituencies with existing oil and gas reserves.
BUSINESS WANTS BRITAIN IN
19 senior businessmen, including Sir Richard Branson, have signed a letter to The Independent accusing Eurosceptic MPs of putting “politics before business” and warning that EU membership is worth £31 billion – £92 billion a year in income gains. They call to “strengthen and deepen the Single Market” to boost British GDP.
MPS FEEL AUSTERITY BITE
Tough work if you can get it, eh? As we report, parliamentary authorities are considering whether to give MPs a salary rise – around £10,000 is likely – in exchange for relinquishing some pension entitlements. Nothing like some shared cost-of-living concerns to help bonding with constituents.
TWEETS AND TWITS
Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders tries to do his bit for Tory unity:
@adriansandersmp: There’s a Conservative Councillor, Neil Wilson, in Newton Abbot who tweets under the name Swivel Eyed Loon – You couldn’t make it up
TOP COMMENT
In the Telegraph
Boris Johnson – Hop on and off the bus for a ride to freedom and growth
Tim Bale – Swivel-eyed, or seeing clearly?
Francis Maude – Why I am convinced the same-sex marriage bill is the right thing to do
Telegraph View – The Tories must water these green shoots
Best of the rest
Steve Richards in The Guardian – Cameron had the chance to defy the ‘swivel-eyed loons’ and remake his party. He failed
Tim Montgomerie in The Times (£) – Here’s the speech Cameron should give now
Michael Gove in The Times (£) – Apologise for expecting the best? No chance
Paul Johnson in the FT (£) – Britain needs a broader debate over cuts
THE AGENDA
10:00 am London: Nick Clegg speech to Nacro on crime and rehabilitation.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — It was hardly the look of the victorious. Wearing a bright blue shirt and a grim expression, Prime Minister Najib Razak appeared before the media on Monday to somberly acknowledge that his coalition had won general elections for the 13th time in a row.
He had reason to be cheerless. The National Front coalition’s victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections despite losing the popular vote has not only exposed the entrenched racial divide in the country but also a new schism — between the rural poor who preferred the status quo and the urban middle-class who wanted change.
A new analysis of the 2011 census shows that a decade of mass immigration helped mask the scale of decline in Christian affiliation among the British-born population – while driving a dramatic increase in Islam, particularly among the young.
It suggests that only a minority of people will describe themselves as Christians within the next decade, for first time.
Meanwhile almost one in 10 under 25s in Britain is now a Muslim.
The proportion of young people who describe themselves as even nominal Christians has dropped below half for the first time.
Initial results from the 2011 census published last year showed that the total number of people in England and Wales who described themselves as Christian fell by 4.1 million – a decline of 10 per cent.
MORNING BRIEFING – By Benedict Brogan (Daily Telegraph).
Good morning. The Times (£) report that Dave’s aides are discussing the possibility of the Lib Dems leaving coalition before 2015. The favoured option is an “amicable divorce” whereby the Lib Dems support next year’s budget before returning to opposition for the last six to ten months of the Parliament. There will be curiosity about the sourcing: is it a Lib Dem operation to rattle the Tories? Or are the Tories feeling emboldened and frustrated enough to start muttering threats. It’s worth recalling that the Coalition relies for its existence, above all things, on the personal relationship between David Cameron and Nick Clegg. The evidence remains that they both remain committed to the idea. Certainly, until very recently Tories closest to Dave expected the Coalition to last until the day the election is called, even if political distancing starts well before then.
I reckon the Times story is more mischief than likely, but put it alongside the spending review tensions the FT (£) reports, and there’s every reason to worry that what looks stable now could quickly get messy. The Coalition has suffered a series of shocks which have – until now – been absorbed by the dampeners of Dave and Nick’s equanimity. The Europe row is of a different order altogether. The Lib Dems in the centre, I am told, are fizzing over the way Mr Cameron has allowed a referendum vote this Parliament, when the Coalition deal was that there wouldn’t be one.
Mr Clegg’s complaint is largely political – he hates the idea of being seen by voters opposing giving them a say. But there is also a principled point: when is a deal not a deal? To which his Tory critics might say – boundaries. Or child care. Note though how Mr Cameron is making nice with Nick on child care: it suggests the PM can see the strain cause by the EU issue, and is trying to compensate. Again, it’s how Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg choose to play it that will decide the longevity of the Coalition.
TOO MUCH BANGING ON?
Chance always plays an important role in politics. And so it may prove with yesterday’s Private Members’ Bill ballot. James Wharton, born nine years after the last European referendum, will use his slot to push for a vote on British membership by 2017. As we report, George Osborne says it will have “the full support of the Conservative Party, David Cameron and myself”.
For the Tories it’s not quite clear what sort of luck this amounts to. With the Lib Dems opposed to giving the Bill any government time and Labour also trying to obfuscate to prevent a parliamentary vote, the Conservatives are marked out as the one unambiguously pro-referendum party. Yet, while the public shares its views on Europe, they risk banging on about Europe in an empty room.
As one MP put it: “we’re at risk of not being seen to talk about the things that matter because we’re just talking about Europe”. That was Mr Wharton on Wednesday.
There is also the risk that, even as Vince Cable says that Dave is “in the right place” on Europe, the public see only opportunism. As The Times (£) reports, only 17 pc think he feels strongly about his European strategy; 64 pc think that he is motivated by tactics.
Meanwhile, Peter Mandelson writes for us on the risks for Dave of being seen to follow his backbenchers. “Labour in the Eighties paid the price for indulging its own hard Left for too long before Neil Kinnock, realising that his party’s future was threatened, fought back against them and won. Similarly, the Republicans allowed the Tea Party to grow in influence, with fatal electoral consequences.”
BRITAIN’S BLACK HOLE
George Osborne is facing a cool £9 billion budget shortfall, with the National Union of Ministers having so far identified only £2.5 billion of the net £11 billion planned budget cuts, according to the FT (£). One said that the “low-hanging fruit” in savings had now all gone, but there are Whitehall murmurs of “black ops” at the Treasury to be deployed against reluctant cutters.Philip Hammond and Owen Paterson, they’re coming for you.
GOVE PLAYS IT STRAIGHT
Michael Gove knew his Sir Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture would be scanned for any subtext of blood lust, especially after Nick Clegg’s comments that “he knows a thing or two about leadership ambitions”. But, as we report, it was a speech which marked him out as a government loyalist. Opponents of countryside planning laws were criticised as impediments to social mobility; the city was defended as a source of “wealth and opportunity for our nation”.
SUPPORT FOR STAY-AT-HOME PARENTS
As reported in the Mail, Dave is planning to make life easier for stay-at-home parents, addressing his problem of being seen as speaking only for metropolitan mothers, with support for marriage in the tax system mooted. Plans to increase the number of children a childminder can look after could also be diluted following Lib Dem opposition.
LETS BE CIVIL ABOUT MARRIAGE
Under Tory MP Tim Loughton’s amendment to the gay marriage Bill that we report, all couples could be allowed to choose whether to enter a civil or traditional marriage. But the Guardian reports that the government will reject the amendment, commit to passing the Bill in its current form and instead agree to a review of civil partnerships five years after gay marriage legislation is passed.
REMEMBER SCOTLAND?
With all the talk of Britain leaving the EU, Scotland’s future has been left on the back burner. But Canada’s former PM, Jean Chrétien (who led his country through two independence referenda) yesterday argued that Scottish independence should only be granted if a “clear majority” of the people supported it, as the FT reports. It’s a reminder that not only Europe is a fragile union.
POOR OLD NIGE, STUCK IN A PUB
Nigel Farage found himself locked in a pub yesterday – not normally a problem. As we report, after he was barracked as racist by hard-Left Scottish independence campaigners, Farage had to enter an Edinburgh pub for his own safety before a vehicle wisted him away from the scene. And this came as The Times (£) revealed that Ukip has been appealing for donations and admitted “we have got to improve our policy production”. Nige won’t drink to that.
TWEETS AND TWITS
Margot James wants British companies to get out more:
@margotjamesmp: Recession in Eurozone now 18 months old, even Germany at zero growth, all the more reason for Britain’s exporters to get out beyond Europe
TOP COMMENT
In the Telegraph
Fraser Nelson – The truth is, we can’t afford a shiny new transport system like HS2
Peter Mandelson – Cameron must not cave in to the Ukip threat
Isabel Hardman – Why are so many MPs making fools of themselves?
Telegraph View – The state should help families, not judge them
Best of the rest
Philip Collins in The Times (£) – History is more than one thing after another
Philip Stephens in the FT (£) – Britain is hurtling to the exit from Europe
Simon Jenkins in The Guardian – Now we know HS2′s a fiasco. But can George Osborne admit it?
John Rentoul in The Independent – Cameron’s position has the support of most voters – but then so did Major’s
