But rather than waiting for things to get even worse, George Osborne should take urgent action in next month's Budget. Years of slow growth and high unemployment are not just bad for families and for the deficit, but also risk permanent damage to our economy. We agree with the IFS that the best form of stimulus would be a temporary cut in VAT, a cut in national insurance contributions for employers and additional infrastructure spending, which are three of the five elements in Labour's plan for jobs and growth.2.38pm: MPs are now voting on the first amendment in the welfare bill debate. My colleague Patrick Butler is covering it all in detail on his welfare reform bill live blog.2.53pm: Here's the Guardian audio of PMQs.
12.32pm: The Q&A is over. Cameron did not take any questions on cash-for-access.Cameron is generally quite good in a crisis. With his back against the wall, he responds quickly - even if a blatant U-turn is required. Yesterday Downing street said Cameron would not be naming the Tory donors who have dined at Number 10. Today, without any qualms, Cameron is doing exactly that.This certainly takes some of the sting out of the scandal, although it won't defuse it entirely. Now much will depend on what Labour can do to keep the controversy on the boil.12.41pm: The Tories have now released the names of four donors who were entertained at the Number 10- flat.They were: Michael Spencer; David Rowland; Ian Taylor and Henry Angest.
The higher education portfolio, however, was something of a pyrrhic victory. Johnson was forced to resign from the editorship of the Spectator – thus surrendering a handsome salary and stock-option package.In public, Johnson maintained his usual act of cheery buffoonery. But in private he was fuming at the injustice of a man two years his junior becoming leader and omitting to give him a "proper" job. After all, Johnson had been one of the first MPs to back Cameron for the leadership and he had done so, in his own words,
cnnhkids.com, "out of pure, cynical self-interest". He expected greater pay-back than third fiddle on education.Perhaps these feelings of resentment were in his mind when canvassing ideas from his staff one Wednesday afternoon for one of his Telegraph columns.
Osborne said that the idea that a government could distinguish between good "producer" companies and bad "predator" ones was absurd.Imagine a Labour Chancellor sitting there in Number 11 every morning, with a copy of the Financial Times in one hand and the Guardian in the other, weighing up corporate Britain on some homemade scales of justice.What a completely unworkable idea.I think it's the moment when, as an opposition, Labour ceased to be either a producer or a predator.You know, there was a time when Labour seemed briefly to realise that to win elections it had to accommodate itself to the real world, stop being anti-business, make peace with middle Britain.Not now. It's over. Osborne also claimed that the fact that some delegates booed Tony Blair's name when Miliband mentioned him in his speech last week was telling.
That's a reference to the recommendations we'll be getting from the committee on standards in public life, which is publishing a report on party funding later this autumn.3.35pm: Clegg turns to the Conservatives. He does not mention them by name, but he criticises their stance on the NHS and on the Human Rights Act.We were absolutely right to stop the NHS bill in its tracks. To ensure change on our terms. No arbitrary deadlines. No backdoor privatization. No threat to the basic principles at the heart of our NHS.We are right to stand up for civil liberties. No retreat to the illiberal populism of the Labour years. We are right to insist on keeping the tax system fair. Asking the most of the people who have the most.
The thought that these guys may have been listening to that is just horrendous ... It kind of fills you with horror really because we were in a very dark place,
www.cnnhkids.com, and you think that its about as dark as it can get, and then you realise that there's somebody out there that can make it even darker.Later on the programme Simon Greenberg, director of corporate affairs at News International,
marc jacobs wallets, said that Foulkes's call for a personal meeting with Murdoch was "something that we would consider".8.48am: Huffington Post have launched in the UK today. They've chosen a good day to jump in. Their phone hacking coverage includes a blog from the Guardian's own Roy Greenslade, who says that if the advertising boycott of News of the World escalates, Rebekah Brooks will be forced to quit.
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