Q: Would you be happy with cutting the number of bishops in the Lords to 12? Or would you go further?Clegg says if Britain ends up with a hybrid house, there would have to be reduction in the number of bishops in the Lords. He indicates that he would be happy with 12.11.15am: Andrew Griffiths, a Conservative,
ytcgzx.net, goes next.Q: Do you think former MPs do a better job in the Lords scrutinising legislation than peers have not been MPs?Clegg says he will not get involved in a beauty contest. But more than 70% of peers are there as a result of patronage. He says this is wrong.Q: Won't having an elected Lords lead to a loss of expertise?Clegg says a hybrid Lords would allow appointed experts to continue to serve in it.
This has prompted speculation about whether News International is sacrificing Coulson to put protect Rebekah Brooks. (See 9.00am, 9.13am and 10.35am.)? Downing Street has said that it welcomes the fact that MPs will debate calls for a public inquiry into the affair this afternoon. But MPs will not actually get the chance to vote for a public inquiry, and it is not clear yet whether Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, who will be speaking for the government in the debate, will give a commitment to set one up. ? Downing Street has said that David Cameron "stands by" the statement he made about Coulson when Coulson quit his Number 10 job in January. At the time Cameron said Coulson could be "extremely proud" of what he had done for Cameron.
2m.The figures reveal a small irony of recent UK politics. London's highly successful hedge fund industry prospered under the previous centre-left Labour government, which showered it with praise and eased regulation. But the Tories won the resulting dividends: the sector is now the biggest single contributor to party coffers ....The industry's largesse also risks skewing the party's priorities, say some. "The City's influence is that top Tories spend a lot of time in the company of people to whom the City matters," says Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome. "If the party was reliant on northern industrialists, it would be a different party." ? The Times (paywall) says taxpayers are going to have to spend another ￡2bn on the NHS IT project even though the government has decided to scrap it.
As a mirror to Case 1, it is at least arguable that the Sunday Times report suggests that Peter Cruddas had the necessary intention, and so could fall within Case 3 if influencing a change in policy is determined by a court to be within the meaning of 'a relevant function or activity...performed improperly'.It is much more difficult to argue that the Prime Minister himself is caught by the Bribery Act, but not impossible. Case 5 creates a criminal offence where R requests, agrees to receive or accepts a financial or other advantage as a reward for improper performance. It does not matter if the advantage is for another person (e.g. a political party donation and not a direct payment) or whether the request etc is made through a third party.
Did that have anything to do with the government?Cameron says unemployment is related to the economy and the government is responsible for that. There has been a small increase in long-term unemployment, he says. There is not "one ounce of complacency" in the government.Miliaband says Cameron's answer shows how out of touch he is. Can Cameron confirm that unemployment will rise to 2.8m?Cameron says forecasts are set out by the OBR, and they are not "fixed and fiddled" by ministers. He outlines some of the steps the government is taking to address unemployment. The work programme is 20 times better value than the future jobs fund,
kate spade outlet, he says.12.04pm: Miliband says the OBR figures show unemployment will get worse.
Harriet Harman speaking in the debate on Jeremy Hunt. Photograph: BBC Parliament She says there should be an inquiry so that Sir Alex Allan can establish whether the facts show that the ministerial code has been broken.Invited to criticise Sir Alex Allan for not being sufficiently independent, Harman says the exchange of letters is "nothing more than an attempt to distract and create a smokescreen".She says ministers are under an obligation to tell the truth to the Commons. They should correct an error at the earliest opportunity.Ministers who knowingly mislead parliament should resign, the ministerial code says. This is not just "some old-fashioned relic of pomposity". It matters, she says.
Oh dear, these are not wise words from head-in-the-noose romantics who want nothing better than to cut Europe adrift.Who comes out worse from Wednesday night's defeat of the government in a rebels-plus-Labour format, David Cameron – or Ed Miliband? You can catch the bad-tempered debate here, Simon Hoggart's take here,
marc jacobs wallets, tireless Andy Sparrow's live blog here, Paul Owen's update here, while Nottingham University's revolts unit provides some background here.I'm not sure who's the bigger loser, but my hunch is that the short-term satisfaction the Labour leader gets from helping to humiliate the PM will be outweighed in the long term by the charge of shabby opportunism which fails to impress voters.
Chat Sentinela
