From our UK edition
There are few more useful addendums to Danny Alexander's comments earlier than YouGov's poll for the Sunday Times today. It asks people about individual policies for growth, and the results will be disheartening for the Tory leadership and encouraging for Ed Balls.
From our UK edition
Danny Alexander is usually the very model of collective responsibility: sober, unfussy and diligent, he sets about the coalition's work without ever causing a scene. Which is what makes his televised comments about the 50p tax rate earlier all the more striking. When pressed on the subject by interviewer Sophie Rayworth, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury was forceful in response. The government doesn't necessarily want to cut the rate, he suggested, and those who thought it would are inhabitants of "cloud cuckoo land". He went on: "We set out in the Coalition agreement, and it's something that we as Liberal Democrats pushed very hard for, that the Government's first priority in tax reductions would be tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes.
From our UK edition
Something quite remarkable has happened over the past couple of the days. It started with the launch of the government's new e-petition site, which promises that any petition which secures 100,000 signatures will be "eligible for debate in the House of Commons". And it continued with Guido Fawkes submitting a petition to reinstate the death penalty for "the murder of children and police officers when killed in the line of duty." Now national newspapers and MPs alike are adding their voice to Guido's campaign. And an issue that has huge public resonance, but which is rarely discussed in Westminster, is suddenly getting an airing. Even if — like me — you don't agree with the death penalty, there is still something encouragingly open and democratic about it all.
From our UK edition
Are the seeping knife wounds healing at last? This morning's Guardian reveals that Ed Miliband has offered his older brother a role as Labour's "unofficial ambassador on university and college campuses", and that David Miliband has accepted. Although party sources tell the paper that "this should not be seen as a sign that [MiliD] is being lined up for an early shadow cabinet return," it surely is a sign that the two brothers are repairing their damaged relationship. From barely speaking to each other to mutually preaching the Labour gospel to a bunch of students. It's progress. Putting aside the fraternal aspects of the story, it is also an encouraging political development for Ed Miliband.
From our UK edition
Just the thing to liven up a slow news day: a response from the Tory backbencher Louise Mensch to a series of insinuating points put to her by "David Jones Investigative Journalists". The points were all about her time working at the record company EMI in the 90s; about her drug use, night-clubbing habits, that sort of thing. And she has answered them in marvellously unapologetic fashion. You can — and should — read the whole exchange here, although Mensch's response to the question of whether she "took drugs with Nigel Kennedy at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham, including dancing on a dance floor, whilst drunk, with Mr Kennedy, in front of journalists," is worth pulling out: "Although I do not remember the specific incident, this sounds highly probable.
From our UK edition
A cracking, little story that we arrived at via the Daily Mail website: thanks to an FoI request put in by the Taxpayers' Alliance, the Department for Transport has revealed which websites its staff visited on work computers between January 1st and May 31st this year. The full list is here, and there are some eye-catching entries to say the least. Take the role-play site bearsfaction.org.uk, where you are advised to "conduct yourself as a Bear would" — that got 183 hits per day. Or the infamous sexymp.co.uk on 142 hits per day. Even the website of the website of Page 3 girl Claire Tully got 5 hits per day. And there's more more, much more. The Department's sad cohort of Arsenal fans visits a trio of Gooner sites to the tune of 412 hits a day.
From our UK edition
All of the buccaneering rhetoric has been sucked from the Libyan conflict this week, replaced with words of concession, compromise and caution. A few days ago, it was the news that — contrary to what they might previously have said — the government is prepared to let Gaddafi remain in the country after all. Today, William Hague deploys the same line in an interview with the Times (£), in which he also warns that there are "a lot of problems and even convulsions" to come in northern Africa. As it happens, the depressed mood of our foreign-policymakers reflects the tide of public opinion. Here, for CoffeeHousers' benefit, are a couple of graphs that we've made from YouGov's polling questions on Libya.
From our UK edition
"The News of the World proved is is a force for good." So said Sara Payne, the mother of the murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne, in a column for the final edition of the paper. Its writers and editors had supported her unerringly, she wrote, in her campaign for tighter laws against child molesters. "I shall miss you all and to you I say thank you and good luck." All of which makes the latest phone hacking allegations particularly disquietig. According to the Guardian, Glen Mulcaire, the private investigator hired by the News of the World, had Sara Payne's phone number in his extensive collection.
From our UK edition
Westminster, today, is all a-titter about an anecdote contained within this FT article about Steve Hilton. It is, it must be said, a good 'un: "Mr Hilton’s crusade against employment legislation also saw him suggest that Mr Cameron just ignore European labour regulations on temporary workers, prompting an exasperated exchange with Jeremy Heywood, Downing Street’s permanent secretary. 'Steve asked why the PM had to obey the law,' said one Whitehall insider of a meeting in March to discuss the government’s growth strategy. 'Jeremy had to explain that if David Cameron breaks the law he could be put in prison.
From our UK edition
Remember that merry dance between the government and the unions over public sector pensions, a few weeks ago? Expect a minor reprise today, and much more over the summer. The government today announces how much extra public sector workers will have to pay to maintain their pension levels, and already the Telegraph has the numbers. When it comes to the 40,000 best-paid public sectorees — all on considerably over £100,000 — their contributions will rise by around £3,000 a year. And then it's a sliding scale all the way down to the 750,000 least well-paid workers, who will face no increase at all. The unions, who will rejoin the government in talks soon, are unlikely to respond kindly.
From our UK edition
Boris may think next year's London Olympics will be "the most exciting thing that's happened in the eastern part of the city since the Great Fire", but - according to a slew of new polls - he's got some way to go to persuade the rest of the country. Here's an opener from YouGov: In the same poll, there's also widespread scepticism over what benefit the Olympics the bring to Britain: The clearest perceived benefit is for London's sporting facilities, with 54 per cent agreeing that they will be much better "not just for the games themselves but for years afterwards". However, when it comes to London's public transport, only 32 per cent think it will see significant improvement, while 41 per cent disagree.
From our UK edition
Aside from Boris's exhortations to George Osborne, one of the most ear-catching lines of the day has been uttered by Jeremy Hunt. "I think the relationships between politicians and the media got too cosy," said the culture secretary on Radio 5 this morning. He's certainly not the first to make the point, but he is one of the most prominent Conservatives to do so. The words, I suspect, were chosen to cool the heat rising from yesterday's lists of meetings between ministers and media organisations. Hunt himself, it was revealed, has met seven times with News Corp types since the general election. Hunt's admission also opens the prospect of a fevered struggle between the Tories and the Lib Dems to appear less cosy with the media establishment.
From our UK edition
As Paul Waugh notes, James Purnell's article for the Times today (£) is striking for its attack on universal benefits. "I have never bought the argument," writes the former welfare secretary, "that universal benefits bind the middle classes in. It feels too much like taxing with one hand to give back with another." Although this is, in truth, a point that he has been making for some time. He said something similar in a speech back in April. The question, really, is how much Purnell's viewpoint will percolate down through Labour circles.
From our UK edition
Politics has a big, blond hair-do today, with Boris wiff-waffing all across the airwaves. The Mayor of London has already, this morning, called on George Osborne to do more to cut taxes, specifically the 50p rate and national insurance. And he will be leading a series of events, throughout the day, to mark the fact that the Olympic Games are exactly one year away. The Aquatic Centre will be baptised, the medal designs revealed, and general celebration staged across the city. It's difficult not to see all this as part of Boris's re-election bid, and perhaps as a marker for his wider ambitions. Although London's Olympics have not been an unambiguous positive so far, they still give him a bigger and friendlier platform than most politicians will enjoy over the coming year.
From our UK edition
All eyes were on Greece at last week’s crisis summit in Brussels, but other indebted countries took advantage of Angela Merkel’s generous mood. In line with concessions made to Greece, the Irish secured a substantial cut in interest repayments on its bailout loan: the rate has fallen from 6 per cent to somewhere between 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent, and the loan period has been extended from seven to 15 years. This was a long-term goal of Enda Kenny’s government and the renegotiations are being heralded as a major victory. But the matter does not end there.
From our UK edition
What a difference four months of air sorties make. Back in the early days of the Libya intervention, David Cameron was unequivocal when it came to Muammar Gaddafi remaining in the country: there was "no future" for the dictator within its borders, he said. But now, on top of comments by William Hague yesterday, the Prime Minister is thought to be softening his stance. As the Independent says today, he has decided that "the time has come to find a way out of the conflict and back a French proposal to allow Gaddafi to stay in the country as part of a negotiated settlement with rebel forces." So, from no future for Gaddafi to some sort of future, and all while the bombs have been dropping. But France and Britain's change in tack is unlikely to have much effect on the ground.
From our UK edition
There's been a lot of fuss about this morning's GDP numbers, but if David Cameron has his way we'll soon be fretting about an entirely different set of statistics. The Prime Minister has given the data-crunchers at the Office for National Statistics a new mission: measure the nation's well-being. The idea is to create new stats to accompany economic figures like the Gross Domestic Product as an additional gauge of how well things are going in the UK. It's an idea that makes a great deal of sense. After all, the shortcomings of GDP are well-known. As Bobby Kennedy put it back in 1968: "It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country.
From our UK edition
Growth in the 2nd quarter was an anaemic 0.2 per cent, in line with recent predictions. Another headline is that manufacturing fell by 0.4 per cent, in line with global slowdown in the sector. Also, the ONS says that growth would have been 0.7 per cent if it weren't for the Bank Holidays, the fine weather and external economic factors. Now the political fun starts.
From our UK edition
The release of the Q2 growth figures is still half-an-hour away, but Westminster is already on the boil. Much of the fuss and froth is because it's expected that the economy barely grew at all between April and June, or perhaps even shrank. But some of it is down to this Telegraph story, which suggests not just that "Downing Street aides [have] become increasingly impatient with a lack of growth," but that David Cameron's permanent secretary, Jeremy Heywood, recently held a meeting with Treasury and Business officials, and "read them them Riot Act". So is the longstanding friendship between Dave and George fraying at the edges? Benedict Brogan says not, but adds that things are far from rosy when it comes to their respective teams.
From our UK edition
Terrible events in Norway and the ongoing phone hacking scandal have kept the economy out of the media in the last couple of weeks. Coverage of the latest bail-out of Greece last week was comparatively muted, especially considering how important it is for the eurozone and, by implication, the UK. However, if the soothsayers are correct, it is unlikely that the release of the Q2 GDP figures tomorrow will fail to hit the headlines. When the Office for Budget Responsibility published their forecast for the UK economy in April they had forecast growth of 1.7 per cent this year, but signs are that tomorrow's Q2 data will raise stark questions about the likelihood of that level of growth. Indeed, many commentators have revised their UK GDP forecasts down in recent weeks.
