12.31pm: Labour's David Winnick goes next.Q: Isn't it hard to believe that a civil servant of Brodie Clark's experience would have defied ministerial instruction on his own initiative?Ghosh says the internal inquiry is looking into why Clark did what he did. But if he was using the 2007 guidance to justify what he did,
kate spade wallet sale, he was being disingenuous because it was clear that the 2007 guidance did not cover the relaxation of fingerprint checks.Q: Did Theresa May know about the 2007 guidance?No, says Ghosh.Q: Why wasn't May told about this?Ghosh says all relevant facts should be put before ministers. But May was not aware of this guidance.12.29pm: Labour's Alun Michael is asking the questions now.
6.58pm: Here's an evening summary.? MPs are going to get the chance to question a minister about the Liam Fox affair tomorrow following the publication of a 10-page report that criticised Fox for falling "short of the standards of conduct required in the ministerial code" but failed to explain why donors were so willing to pay for his friend Adam Werritty to travel with him abroad. In response, Fox said: "I accept that it was a mistake to allow the distinctions between government and private roles to become blurred." But Labour's Jim Murphy said: "This report only scratches the surface of potential wrongdoing. This is a murky business and it has not yet been resolved." My colleague Rupert Neate has identified the key questions that remain unanswered.
But it can't be done while you're nicking trainers, let alone laptops. In Clapham Junction,
marc jacobs wallets, the only shop left untouched was Waterstone's,
cnnhkids, and the looters of Boots had, unaccountably, stolen a load of Imodium. So this kept Twitter alive all night with tweets about how uneducated these people must be and the condition of their digestive systems. While that palled after a bit, it remains the case that these are shopping riots, characterised by their consumer choices: that's the bit we've never seen before. A violent act by the authorities, triggering a howl of protest – that bit is as old as time. But crowds moving from shopping centre to shopping centre? Actively trying to avoid a confrontation with police, trying to get in and out of JD Sports before the "feds" arrive? That bit is new.
Big play by Clegg. Has virtually made his revised health bill an issue of confidence in his leadership. V diffic. for conference to demur Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA 3.32pm: Andy Burnham (left), the shadow health secretary, has put out a statement saying the concessions being demanded by Lib Dems on the health bill are "too little, too late".Today's talk from the Lib Dems of minor amendments is too little, too late. They will only serve to further complicate a bill already described as a "confused mess" by a former NHS chief executive.Last week, the president of the Liberal Democrats said the bill should have been dropped. If that's what the majority of Lib Dems believe, NHS staff will be entitled to ask why they haven't they had the guts to say that to Mr Cameron's face.
They should take Cameron's advice, he says. Can Cameron confirm that firms will have to publish pay ratios?Cameron says he won't take lectures from a party that said it was "intensely relaxed" about people being rich.Miliband says Cameron has failed to act on the Will Hutton report. People are saying "this is a prime minister totally out of touch with people's lives".Cameron says Labour has hired a tax exile to run its election campaign. Miliband has a nerve to raise this issue.12.12pm: Snap verdict: Maybe Cameron should worry less about looking aggressive. (See 11.54am.) That was an easy win for Miliband.12.13pm: Alun Cairns, a Conservative, says it is irresponsible for any politician to support strike action while negotiations are ongoing.
"The idea that 50 million people are waiting to find out what Cameron really thinks is so ridiculous and fundamentally unconservative I don't know how people can call for it." He called this "mad".An activist from Cleethorpes agreed, telling the meeting: "People in Cleethorpes couldn't give a toss about what my vision is or David Cameron's vision is. They want a decent, competent government."Shakespeare said there were three preconditions for the Tories to get a majority at the next election: the collapse of the Lib Dems, a strong economy or being most trusted on the economy, and for Ed Miliband "to continue as he's going now".But he warned against complacency on these issues. "It's an unsafe assumption that Labour will stay as weak as they are now.
If the culture doesn't change, if relations don't improve, the capital could see more riots on the street.Paxman moves on to community harmony, pointing to Ken's recent difficulties with members of the London Jewish community. Antisemitic attacks went down under his watch, he points out. He says he never said, as claimed, that Jewish voters wouldn't vote for him because they were rich. "That's completely untrue", he says. Paddick tells him he panders to whichever audience he's talking to. Paddick says he was offended by his "riddled"with homosexuals comment to the New Statesman. Ken quips he doesn't remember Paddick being out there campaigning with him three decades ago when he was campaigning for gay rights.
Ministers are aware that the Bank must remain constitutional independent in setting interest rates, but believe the invention of quantitative easing as a means of stimulating the economy has broken down the distinctions between the Bank and government.The ministers recognise that the government cannot be seen to be straying openly from the deficit reduction strategy, and if they did so it would only lead to a self-defeating reaction in the bond markets that drive up interest rates. "We cannot be seen to do anything dodgy or use bogus Labour schemes like the Private Finance Initiative," one said.But they are starting to argue in private for the first time that it may be possible to bring forward capital spending from the timetable set out in the initial spending review in 2010, or that the overall level of capital spending could be increased by a couple of billion in a bid to keep the economy sliding back into recession and unemployment spiralling.
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