Jonathan Jones

The Legal Aid Bill limps back to the Commons this afternoon, having had a rough ride through the upper chamber where the Lords inflicted 11 defeats on the government. And it looks like its next stint in the lower chamber might not be much smoother. As Paul Waugh reports, a group of MPs have tabled a new amendment to the Bill (actually, an amendment to an amendment tabled by the government on Friday) to continue to provide legal aid advice (but not representation) for reviews and appeals of benefit cases. What’s significant is that the amendment is signed by seven Lib Dem MPs, including party president Tim Farron, and four of Labour’s frontbench Justice spokespeople, including shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan.

There aren't many countries where meeting the leader of the opposition would rank above meeting the head of government — certainly this country isn't one of them. But Burma is, because the leader of the opposition is pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and November 2010. And Suu Kyi's stature is now higher than ever, with her National League of Democracy party having won 43 of the 44 seats they contested in the by-elections a fortnight ago. As Clarissa reported then, there's even speculation that she may be offered a position in President Thein Sein's new Cabinet.

In his cover piece for this week's magazine, Neil O'Brien describes the great divide between London and the rest of the UK. One of the main differences he highlights is in their economies. He says: 'In inner west London, economic output per head is £110,000 a year. In an important sense, these people are not living in the same country as the inhabitants of Gwent or the Wirral, whose output is just a tenth of this.' In fact, London is set apart not just from those two poorest areas, but every other area in the country. You see, the second richest area — Edinburgh — has an output per head of £35,000 — just a third of inner west London's. And the third richest area? Inner east London.

So, Ken has now released his tax details. He hasn't gone as far as Lib Dem candidate Brian Paddick, who's published his full tax returns for the past three years. And there are also questions about what income Ken might not have included in his release. It's also not clear whether or not he's including National Insurance contributions, as the other two candidates are. But, based just on the figures each candidate has declared, here are the effective tax rates they've been paying: UPDATE: It seems Ken's campaign is trying to use our chart as proof that he isn't avoiding tax. But our figures for Ken are simply the amount he's declared he pays in tax divided by his declared personal income. It's what he claims his effective tax rate is, not what we claim it is.

You certainly don’t need polls to tell you that it’s been a bad couple of weeks for the coalition – but we’ve got them anyway. Pete noted on Sunday that the government’s approval rating was at its lowest since the start of this Parliament, and it’s actually dropped another three points since. Today’s YouGov poll finds just 21 per cent giving the coalition the thumbs up, against 64 per cent who disapprove. That’s almost identical to the 20-64 split YouGov found for Gordon Brown’s Labour government back in January 2010. The below graph shows how public opinion has turned against the coalition over the past two years: Today’s poll also updates another important indicator: whom the public blames for the cuts we face.

The bad headlines continue for Downing Street this morning, with the Telegraph front page declaring ‘Tory MPs round on Cameron and Osborne’. Of course, Tory backbenchers griping about their leadership is nothing new and, usually, ‘concern that Government policies are being poorly explained to voters’ or a suggestion that ‘a senior MP should be appointed as full-time Conservative Party chairman’ wouldn’t make the front page. But after the two week onslaught Downing Street has just suffered — from granny tax to cash for access to petrol panic to pasties — the disgruntled chattering reverberates that bit louder.