Labour's John Healey said the 180 amendments tabled by the government would not fundamentally alter the pro-market bias in the bill. (See 12.06pm.)? Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has renewed his call for a temporary VAT cut to stimulate growth. He was speaking after the revised figures from the Office for National Statistics confirmed that a dramatic fall in construction activity restricted UK economic growth to 0.5% in the first quarter of the year. "We will need to see growth of 0.8% in the second quarter of this year simply to get back on track to the OBR's recent three times downgraded forecast of 1.7% growth this year - let alone to see growth of 2.6% this year, which was forecast before George Osborne's first budget," Balls said.
They don't get out much, these people. That's why it might be healthy if Santorum's views got a real airing between now and November and he then got thrashed.He has strong views on evolution and homosexuality (he has equated it with incest and paedophilia), is ardently pro-Israel and a hardliner on the "Islamic fascists" running Iran, and he tried to blame liberalism for the Catholic priesthood scandal because it broke in leftie Boston (where Romney was governor). And he believes in small government as the answer to everything, of course.Some of these views may not be to your taste or mine, but they are recognisably conservative in a mainstream sense, if not today then not so long ago.But American conservatism is changing to the point where it's not really conservatism in the sense that Goldwater – let alone Edmund Burke – would understand it.
But Ukip, like many insurgent parties, is about grievances. The politicians don't listen to ordinary people, he said, when actually they listen all the time but struggle to reconcile what people "want" with the reality of hard choices in public policy. Immigration is a classic example, as you may notice next time you visit a hospital.Apart from Cameron and Peter Kellner,
www.cnnhkids.com, president of the YouGov polling organisation, whom Farage accuses of deliberately marginalising Ukip's impact in polling questions – Kellner is also married to the EU foreign minister, Cathy Ashton, which doesn't help – Farage's most conspicuous target yesterday seemed to be the SNP leader.This struck me as interesting because both men strike me as similar kinds of operators: fast-talking populists cheerfully exploiting grievances in order to assert an "ourselves alone" message: break Scotland/Britain off from England/Europe and things will be much better.
She insisted that Qatada had no right to appeal to the grand chamber of the European court of human rights because he had missed the deadline. But the ECHR has not accepted this, and May was accused of presiding over a "farce" by her Labour shadow, Yvette Cooper. The BBC has got more on the proceedings here. Photograph: John Giles / Pa 12.17pm: David Davis (pictured), the Conservative MP,
kate spade outlet, has tabled a Commons early day motion urging the Northern Ireland attorney general, John Larkin, to drop his plan to prosecute Peter Hain for criticising a judge in his memoirs. Davis has already got more than 120 MPs to sign it. Here's the full text.That this House, noting the deeply disturbing use of the ancient offence of 'scandalising a judge', considered obsolete since the end of the nineteenth century, by the Northern Ireland attorney general against the former secretary of state for Northern Ireland the Right Honourable Member for Neath and Biteback Publishing, over a passage in his memoir describing an episode in 2005-6 leading up to the historic 2007 political settlement, calls upon the Northern Ireland attorney general to end this serious attack on free speech by withdrawing the proceedings for contempt, further asserts the fundamental right of members of this House to express their views responsibly without fear of judicial censorship, and invites Mr Speaker to consider what action the House might take to defend its rights against such attacks.
That's why it is important for an inquiry to start now. It does not have to take evidence in public while the criminal investigation is still ongoing.David Cameron asked Sir Peter Gibson to hold an inquiry into British collusion in torture last year, even though criminal proceedings were still active. Bryant says the Gibson inquiry has started work.Jack Straw intervenes to say that he knows Gibson has done "a huge amount of work" in private already.Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, says he agrees that an inquiry could be set up now. But it would be extremely difficult for it to take evidence while criminal investigations are still going ahead. Bryant says this is a "big concession".
Even then, though, I realised that girls were thin on the ground. The dedication at the beginning of King Solomon's Mines is to "all the big and little boys who read it." But what about the girls? And where were the female adventure heroes?There are certain characteristics common to the best adventure stories, not least of all a "hero" – the protagonist who carries the story (and the readers' affections). There'll be danger and jeopardy, an unequivocal sense of right and wrong, a compelling sense of place. For me, the word "heroine" always implied a supporting or secondary character, not the lead. Someone waiting to be rescued rather than the person doing the rescuing. But once we define the hero, simply, as the purposeful and dynamic protagonist who carries the story – someone who exhibits certain patterns of behaviour or characteristics – then there's no reason the hero can't be a woman.
In his maiden speech in the Lords this week – you'll find it here at column 1174 – Gus O'Donnell, the ex-cabinet secretary,
marc by marc jacobs tote, suggested that rich City firms should subsidise the salaries of senior Treasury officials (as he once was) because it's in their interest to deal with high-quality officials. The Bank of England and Financial Services Authority (FSA) are already supported in this way, said Lord GO'D without a trace of irony.But mockery is also a useful weapon. Sorrell, for example, is a workaholic and obsessive micro-manager, famous for answering text messages at all hours of the day or night. Knowing Sir Martin was in a different timezone and meant to be asleep, an ex-colleague once sent him a blank text, only to receive a near-instant reply of: "Delighted to hear from you, how can I help?"That sort of behaviour from someone who is 66 and worth ￡174m is crazy and deserves to be more widely seen as such.
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