Shapps has also confirmed an extension of the right-to-buy scheme for people in social housing. Simon Walker,
cnnhkids, the director general of the Institute of Directors, welcomed the indemnity scheme, but said planning reform would do far more to help the housing industry.Real planning reform would kick-start the construction industry and make prices more affordable for young couples looking to own their first home. The government must ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework is not watered down by the efforts of Nimbys to protect the value of their properties. Subsidising 95 per cent mortgages through the NewBuy Guarantee won't do any harm, but the best way to help house-builders and aspirant homeowners is to allow more houses to be built.
That's a big, big deal." (See 11.57am.)? Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, Britain's biggest union, has challenged Miliband to back the public sector strike planned for November. McCluskey told Sky: "If negotiations break down it will be interesting to pose the question then to Ed. If negotiations have finished, do you now support the strikes? I think what Ed has to do is, and what we have to do, is lay the blame for these strikes where it belongs, which is squarely at the feet of the Government, who have been intransigent, and are locked in to an ideological attack on ordinary decent men and women." In his interviews, Miliband said that he hoped the strike would be avoided and he refused to say if he would endorse it if it went ahead.
Worse, when Blair was beaten back over his foolish demand for terrorist suspects to be held for up to 90 days without charge he did so in a statement on TV from Downing Street, even though parliament was in session as he spoke. I watched it at the Paris embassy (an Anglo-French seminar was being held there) and was genuinely shocked by its presidential implications.All that was then. This is now and Cam-Clegg have done the same. But, as today's Guardian editorial points out, there is less liberal talk of restoring civil liberties in the 52-page accompanying (taxpayer-funded) progress report – which Simon Hoggart mocks here – just as there is less than there was in 2010 about ending the structural deficit by 2015 (it won't happen) or restoring EU powers to Britain.
And all the politics stories filed yesterday,
marc by marc jacobs tote, including some in today's papers, are here.As for the rest of the papers, here are some stories and articles that are particularly interesting.? Tony Blair tells the Financial Times in an interview (subscription) that Germany should rescue the euro.Tony Blair has delivered a stark warning of a popular backlash against austerity policies in the eurozone ahead of this Sunday's re-run election in Greece."You look at what the Greeks are being asked to accept: it's beyond tough," Mr Blair said in an interview with the Financial Times in Jerusalem.The former long-standing UK prime minister, a self-professed pro-European, said the risk of unrest applied to Europe as a whole.
And if Obama doesn't use Europe as a warning sign for what Romney would bring to America,
marc jacobs wallets, he'd be missing out on an important opportunity.(Thanks to Ian70 in the comments for flagging this up.)? Alastair Campbell on his blog thinks David Cameron's media blitz yesterday was a mistake.Being on telly from PMQs. Fine. Being on telly from summits and big speeches with big points to make. Good. But stop being your own spokesman on running stories of the day.Nadine Dorries has said all that before, about you and George being posh boys who don't get people's lives. That's the other thing that happens when the mood changes – things people ignored in good mood times suddenly gain traction in bad mood times.
I don't think people are going to trust Nick Clegg or this government to help the squeezed middle.From Owen Smith, a shadow Treasury ministerNick Clegg has got a cheek preaching about fairness and tax. This is the man who campaigned against a rise in VAT and then introduced it just after he got elected. And his government's autumn statement took three times more from families with children than from the banks. For the last year Labour has been arguing for fair tax cuts, such as a temporary cut in VAT, to help hard-pressed families and pensioners and kickstart our stalled economy. And we want to see a tax on bank bonuses at the top to fund 100,000 jobs for young people. Now that the economy has gone into reverse, these measures should be part of a real plan for jobs and growth in the next budget.
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