"It could happen to anyone," Pickles said.9.00am: MPs are back from their recess today, I'm back from my holiday, the prospects for the economy seem as grim as ever,
marc by marc jacobs bag, but at least David Cameron has done something to contribute to the gaiety of the nation. Downing Street has confirmed that (a couple of months ago) he left his daughter in the pub. The Sun has the story as an exclusive, and here's an extract from our version.David Cameron left his eight-year-old daughter in the pub following a Sunday lunch, after a mix-up with his wife Samantha, Downing Street has admitted.The couple's daughter Nancy wandered off to the toilets while they were arranging lifts and they only realised she was not with them when they got home, the Sun said.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the plans did not go far enough. "Government proposals to increase fines and stop cash payments at scrap yards are welcome, but they are not enough to help police crack down on this damaging crime blighting commuters, churches and communities across the country," she said. Labour would be proposing its own "tougher and more substantial proposals" next week, she added.? The Department for Education has published school performance tables containing an unprecedented amount of information about how pupils with different abilities improve. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said: "Today's figures reveal a shocking waste of talent in many schools across the country.
That said, with his vast experience and earnest internationalism, Brown would have done a better job of managing the international dimension of the crisis than Cameron and George Osborne are doing.In placating their own Eurosceptic backbenchers and party activists – not to mention the dark, sullen group of angry voters who vote Ukip, BNP or not at all – they have marginalised Britain in Europe in all sorts of ways in order to play to the gallery.The issue that matters most to us all, because it's such an important part of the economy, is the EU's determination to load Europe's financial services industry – mostly located in London and other British cities – with new structures, regulation and taxes.
That's fine too, it's just a different way of doing politics. Where I part company with the more idealistic champions of assorted forms of electoral reform – from the wishy-washy AV that voters rejected in last year's barely remembered referendum to full-blooded STV – is in their insistence that reform will make politics more transparent, more accountable, even more noble.It won't. That's all I want to say really, except to point out that the political intrigue in BBC4's Borgen – it means "Castle" and is Denmark's nickname for its parliament building (have I got that right?) – relies on inter-party manoeuvres at the Folketing, where it takes several parties (you need only 2% of votes to get a seat) to put together the 90-seat coalition needed to form a government.
The fact that we export more to Ireland than to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined shows just how reliant we are on Europe.Cameron has actually made this claim repeatedly. At one stage, I think, Nick Robinson even described it as Cameron's "favourite fact".It's a powerful revelation. But there's a problem. It's not true.And how do I know? Jeremy Browne (pictured), a Foreign Office, said so in a speech this afternoon. Here's his quote.Most of our exports go to 'established markets' – such as the European countries,
marc jacobs outlet, America,
marc jacobs wallets, Japan and Australia. That explains the now well-rehearsed fact that we export more to Ireland than we do to the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – combined.
Cameron says he agrees.3.55pm: Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Treasury committee, says a European Commission report said a financial transaction tax would cut European GDP by 1.8%. Shouldn't the idea be dropped?Cameron says Tyrie makes a good point. He would only support the finanancial transaction tax if it were implemented globally. That's "very hard to see happening", he says.3.57pm: David Miliband says Cameron was right to express frustration about EU leadership last week. But isn't now the wrong time to be demanding changes to the way the EU is governed?Cameron says he does not agree. He has established "a coalition for budgetary restraint", he says.4.02pm: Labour's Dennis Skinner accuses Cameron of "sheer affrontery and "hypocrisy by the bucketful" because he is calling for a growth strategy for Europe while discouraging growth in the UK.
From the robust tone of his condemnation of these rascals it was immediately clear that the environment secretary was not talking about bankers.In fact it was the horsemeat racket which was again exercising MPs and ministers, both on the grounds of food hygiene and of cruelty to our four-legged friends. It offends us, but not the French to whom our entire food chain is a criminal conspiracy. As with flood prevention, which also took up a lot of time, the concern was understandable. Yet surely the Commons was in danger of missing the latest media news cycle?Only hours earlier the Daily Mail had revealed that one in 30 of us may die prematurely, not because of eating steak cheval or being operated on by the NHS chief, Sir David Nicholson, but because we eat too much processed meat.
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