8.43am: It's a good day for elections. By tonight the Liberal Democrats will have a new deputy leader. The Labour party won't have a new leader, but it will know for certain how many candidates there will be in the contest. And 23 Commons select committees will have new chairs, although the results of those contests will not be announced until tomorrow. We've also got David Cameron's second prime minister's questions, and various government announcements too, including a clampdown on "garden grabbing" and the bringing forward of new rules requiring immigrants to learn English. Here's a timetable of how the day is expected to pan out:
• 10am: MPs start voting in the ballot for select committee chairs.
• 12pm: David Cameron holds his second prime minister's questions.
• 12.30pm: Nominations close for the Labour leadership. By then Andy Burnham is expected to have got the nominations he needs to join David Miliband, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls on the ballot. John McDonnell and Diane Abbott are not expected to make it.
• 12.30pm: MPs debate the identity cards bill.
The Lib Dem election will take place later. Lib Dem MPs are meeting at 5pm and there will be a hustings for the two candidates – Simon Hughes and Tim Farron – before the result is announced at around 7.30pm. I'll be gone by then, although colleagues will be reporting the result at Guardian Politics. But I will be blogging all the political news throughout the rest of the day, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web.
9.13am: Andy Burnham's team say that he will be on the leadership ballot. "We will get another two names before 12.29pm. We are confident about that," an aide told me.
(Incidentally, we owe Burnham – and his new press aide – an apology. As Paul Waugh writes on his blog, Burnham has taken on a professional spin doctor called Jo Tanner. But she's not the same Jo Tanner who did PR for Boris Johnson when he was running for mayor of London in 2008. We got that wrong in the paper today. Sorry.)
9.26am: Lord Myners, the former Labour City minister, delivered a pretty severe rebuke to his former colleagues in government in a debate in the Lords last night. The BBC has been broadcasting some excerpts, and my colleague Patrick Wintour includes the most devastating quote in his story on the spending cuts today, but what Myners had to say about Labour's record is worth reading in full. Here's his verdict.
The government can create jobs but they cannot create the capacity sustainably to support those jobs if they are either imprudent in their fiscal policy or if the public sector begins to bear too heavily on the economy ... We clearly need a policy of fiscal caution. It was right to support the economy during the global recession but there now needs to be fiscal adjustment, as evidenced by the last government in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
There is nothing progressive about a government who consistently spend more than they can raise in taxation, and certainly nothing progressive that endows generations to come with the liabilities incurred by the current generation. There will need to be significant cuts in public expenditure, but there is considerable waste in public expenditure.
I have seen that in my own experience as a government minister. I hope that the government will pursue with vigilance their search for waste and efficiencies without making cuts which are injurious to the provision of public service. The difference between the government and the previous government was on the issue of timing and when those cuts should take place.
There was flawed thinking about job creation in the past. I found it very frustrating to sit in meetings with some of my fellow ministers talking about creating jobs in the green economy and biotechnology. The government cannot create jobs. The government can create an environment that is conducive to the creation of jobs, but they cannot create jobs and we mislead ourselves if we believe they can.
9.33am: Paul Waugh is reporting on his blog that John McDonnell has withdrawn from the Labour leadership race.
He quotes McDonnell as saying:
It is now clear that I am unlikely to secure enough nominations and so I am withdrawing in the hope that we can at least secure a woman on the ballot paper.
9.49am: John McDonnell has withdrawn from the Labour leadership race. He's issued this statement.
I stood for the Labour leadership as the candidate of the left and trade union movement so that there could be a proper debate about Labour's future in which all the wings of the party were fully represented.
It is now clear that I am unlikely to secure enough nominations and so I am withdrawing in the hope that we can at least secure a woman on the ballot paper.
Yesterday I wrote to Harriet Harman to urge her to use her position as acting leader in association with the party's national officers to secure a reduction of the qualifying threshold for candidates to be allowed on to the ballot paper. Regrettably this has not occurred and so I have no other option but to withdraw in the interests of the party.
I know that many Labour activists and trade unionists will be disappointed that their candidate will not be on the ballot. I am urging them to continue the fight for democracy within the party so that in future leadership elections rank and file members will be represented by the candidate of their choice.
But will this mean Diane Abbott will get on to the ballot paper? It doesn't look certain. By last night, Abbott had 11 official nominations and McDonnell had 16. Even if all the McDonnell nominations were to switch, she would still be six short of the 33 nominations required. And there is no certainty that they will all switch. She is not universally popular. But there is a strong feeling in the party that Labour does need more choice on the ballot. At the moment the three candidates who already have the 33 nominations are all white, male, 40-something career politicians who studied PPE at Oxford. The only thing different about Burnham, assuming he gets on the ballot, is that he studied English at Cambridge. That's not what people normally think of as diversity.
10.00am: I've just spoken to Diane Abbott. She thinks the chances of her getting on to the ballot are now "more than 50/50".
I think it can be done because there are a number of people – about half a dozen – who are not on the left who have said to me that, if I get close [to 33 nominations] they will nominate me. With John McDonnell's 16 nominations, or almost all of them, then I am very close. I'm just contacting people now to tell them about John's statement and to encourage them to come forward.
10.18am: I've been focusing on John McDonnell and Diane Abbott for the last half an hour or so, but there's what may turn out to be a much more important Labour leadership story in the Daily Mirror today: Ed Miliband is saying that he would keep the 50% tax rate for good.
Labour introduced a 50% tax rate for people earning more than £150,000 as a temporary measure to raise money to deal with the deficit. Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown always made it clear that their eventual aim was to abolish it, and David Cameron has signalled that he would like to get rid of it too. Ed Miliband has said that it should stay.
There is a risk that the government will seek to remove the top rate too soon. I would keep it in place because it ensures a fair contribution from people who earn in a year what many people earn in a decade.
(Miliband made the comment in an article he wrote for the Mirror. Confusingly, the quote is in the Mirror's story about Miliband's article, but not in the article itself. But I've checked with Miliband's office and the quote is genuine. It just seems to have been left out for space reasons.)
Why is this significant? Because it's likely to be very popular with Labour members. Watching Ed Miliband at the GMB hustings on Monday, I thought he was surprisingly lacklustre. Thinking about it later, I began to wonder whether his heart was really in it, and whether he was just going through the motions but resigned to his brother David winning. But I've ditched that theory. Today Ed Miliband looks like someone who is very serious about winning.
10.24am: Andy Burnham is on the ballot. I've just been told by his team that he's got his 33 nominations.
10.40am: More on the Labour leadership. Ann Black, the chair of Labour's national executive committee, has written to Tony Lloyd, the chair of the parliamentary Labour party, saying there is "widespread concern among party members that this leadership election should allow the broadest possible debate". Lloyd sent the letter to all Labour MPs. The full text is on the Labour Uncut website, but here's an extract:
If the choice is between three or four white, male ex-ministers in their 40s, however able, it will be seen as lacking the full range of diversity which Labour seeks to reflect. If, however, it is extended in terms of gender, race, political perspective, the hustings through the summer will generate greater interest and engagement from party members, supporters and voters. And whoever emerges as the winner will have a far stronger mandate to lead than if the system can be portrayed as rigged in their favour.
Black said Labour MPs should give "serious consideration to the groundswell of feeling from members and affiliates" and consider extending the choice of candidates. Given that McDonnell has withdrawn, that now suggests she wants them to back Abbott.
10.56am: Liam Byrne, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, has backed David Miliband. "David is not only ready to lead Labour's renewal, but ready to lead Britain," Byrne has written on his blog. But he also has glowing words for the other main leadership candidates:
It will take all the talents of our party to forge this new vision and this new politics, and none more so than Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Andy Burnham.
10.57am: David Miliband is nominating Diane Abbott this morning. He's just put this on Twitter:
Gather John McDonnell pulled out. I'm going now to nominate Diane myself. Encourage others to do the same.
11.10am: In an interview on the Andrew Marr show at the weekend David Miliband said he would be willing to nominate another candidate. But when I read his words, I got the impression that he was thinking about Andy Burnham, not Diane Abbott. This is what he said:
Well we have a system in the Labour party where you need 30, 33 Labour MPs to get a nomination, and every Labour MP has to make their own choice. I've said that I haven't nominated anyone yet, and the one vote I do control, the one nomination I control is my own. So if another candidate gets to 30, 32 nominations and needs one extra to get onto the ballot paper, I'll give them mine.
But is it sensible to nominate someone if you don't want them to win? Paul Richards, a former Labour special adviser, thinks that's "patronising".
11.28am: Someone has been listening to David Miliband (see 10.57am) and Ann Black (see 10.40am). Chris Bryant, the former Europe minister, has just tweeted to say he's nominating Diane Abbott too.
Just nominated diane Abbott for a better range in the leadership raceChris Bryant
ChrisBryantMP
11.33am: Members of the public don't seem to be rushing forward to contribute to the Treasury's consultation on spending cuts, but Alastair Campbell is trying to be helpful. He's written an open letter to George Osborne and Danny Alexander on his blog saying the new government could save £100m by ending charitable status for private schools.
Campbell also has some rather harsh media advice for Alexander.
Danny, I imagine any media-related budgets will be close to the top of the cuts-list, but I think you should spare a few bob for media training. Your predecessor, David Laws, may have overdone the Bond villain, "show me a programme and I'll show you a sharp axe" body language, but he did at least look like a man with a plan and the balls to see it through. I caught a couple of your interviews yesterday and they were a bit "um ... er ... kind of .... um .... er" ish, added to which you repeat subordinate clauses which weakens any point you are making. These problems are easily ironed out provided you are conscious of them. George is clearly setting you up to do a lot of the media dirty work, so I think early remedy on this is the order of the day.
11.49am: Apart from Ed Miliband's article about the 50p tax rate (see 10.18am), there does not seem to be anything unmissable in the papers. For those who follow News International politics, it's quite interesting to see that the Sun is enthusiastically backing George Osborne's campaign to cut spending. It has launched a war on waste campaign. The headline that intrigued me the most was the one in the Daily Telegraph saying: "What has become of Gordon Brown?" But when I turned to the article, by Iain Hollingshead, it turned out that Hollingshead doesn't really seem to know, although intriguingly he claims that "both Gordon and Sarah are said to be having trouble interesting publishers in their memoirs of Downing Street."
11.56am: Here's a midday summary:
• Andy Burnham is on the Labour leadership ballot. The former health secretary has announced that he has got the 33 nominations he needs. That means Burnham, the two Milibands (Ed and David) and Ed Balls will definitely be in the contest.
• Diane Abbott thinks she can make it. John McDonnell has dropped out of the race, and urged his supporters to back Abbott before nominations close at 12.30pm. There is pressure on Labour MPs to ensure that there is a woman on the ballot and David Miliband and Chris Bryant have announced they are nominating her. (MPs can nominate a candidate without having to vote for them.) We'll find out if Abbott has got the numbers shortly after 12.30pm.
• Ed Miliband has come out in favour of keeping the 50% income tax rate for people earning more than £150,000. In other words, he has come out in favour of high marginal tax rates for high earners.
12.01pm: John Bercow asks MPs to stand to observe a minute's silence in honour of those killed in west Cumbria last week.
12.04pm: David Cameron starts with tributes to those killed in Cumbria and to four soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Labour's Albert Owen asks if the government will hold the referendum on greater powers for the Welsh assembly this autumn. And will Cameron support the assembly having more powers?
Cameron says he wants the referendum to take place next year.
It will be a matter for people in Wales to decide.
Cameron does not say which side he would support.
12.09pm: Tim Farron - the Lib Dem standing in his party's deputy leadership contest later today - asks if Cameron will support a new cancer unit in his constituency. (I think Farron may have missed an opportunity there. It was a question that will not interest most of his Lib Dem colleagues, and he started to waffle too.)
Cameron says he will agree to a meeting on this.
12.09pm: Harriet Harman, Labour's interim leader, starts with her own tribute to the dead soldiers. She asks Cameron to update MPs on the investigation in west Cumbria and to explain what will happen to gun laws.
On gun laws, Cameron says the government needs the full facts. "Of course the Home Office will look again at the gun laws." The Association of Chief Police Officers has been asked to hold a review. (It is not clear whether that is a review of what happened in Cumbria, or a review of legislation.) But Cameron says he does not support knee-jerk legislation.
12.12pm: Harman asks about the 3.5 million people not on the electoral register. Will the government agree not to press ahead with individual registration too quickly? (There are concerns this will discourage registration.)
Cameron says there is nothing unfair about the government's plans to make the size of constituencies more even.
Harman returns to the issue of the electoral register. A third of all black people are not on the register, as well as a half of all young people and half of all private tenants, she says.
Cameron says Harman's government had 13 years to sort out the electoral register. He says the government will press ahead to get people on the register. And he asks "what on earth is unfair" about having constituencies the same size.
12.15pm: Harman says Cameron is not listening to the arguments.
That is not new politics. That is quite unfair.
Harman says the coalition parties said they would end the surveillance society. What will the government do about CCTV?
Cameron says he has one more point to make about the electoral register. He says Harman should not complain about the boundaries being withdrawn because the last election was fought on redrawn boundaries.
On CCTV, he says he supports CCTV. And he supports civil liberties too.
12.18pm: Back to the Labour leadership contest. James Macintyre at the New Statesman says Diane Abbott has got the 33 nominations she needs.
David Miliband has in the past hour nominated her, joining other big party figures such as Harriet Harman and, before her, David Lammy. The remaining MPs required are signing her nominations during prime minister's questions.
"This is about the party coming together," said one MP inside the Abbott camp. "This is a historic moment less because she is a woman and more because she is the first black contender for the leadership."
Denis MacShane has also nominated Abbott.
12.22pm: We'll have confirmation of the Labour leadership numbers just after 12.30pm, but back in the Commons chamber, David Cameron has been asked about Lord Myners's speech (see 9.26am). "What a pity he didn't say it when he was in office," Cameron says.
12.23pm: Cameron says that before the election Lord Mandelson approved 200 projects, of which two thirds were in Labour marginal seats.
12.24pm: Cameron says there will be a public inquiry into the deaths at the Mid Staffordshire hospital.
12.25pm: Caroline Flint, the Labour former minister, asks about the coalition plan to give anonymity to men accused of rape. Why should they get anonymity, but not people accused of other serious crimes?
Cameron compliments Flint on the speech she made on this in an adjournment debate on Monday. He says that he, like Flint, wants to increase rape convictions. He says he will bring forward proposals and see how the debate goes. (On Monday Nick Clegg went further, saying that if the proposals did not stand up to scrutiny, they would be dropped.)
12.28pm: The Lib Dem Greg Mulholland asks Cameron to reconsider the government's policy of returning asylum seekers to Iraq. Mulholland refers to the Guardian story about this today.
Cameron says that British soldiers have died in Iraq to make the country a safe place.
12.30pm: Gavin Barwell, a Tory, asks about the rule requiring asylum seekers to apply for asylum in person in Croydon (his constituency). Cameron says he will look at the issue.
12.40pm: I was going to say that PMQs was a bit dull, but in "extra time" Cameron gave us a story. He's going to fly the England flag over Downing Street for the duration of the World Cup. He made the announcement in response to a question from Nadhim Zahawi, the new Tory MP for Stratford-upon-Avon.
(That will disappoint Benedict Brogan, who wrote a lovely blog after the election saying how pleased he was to at last have a government that was not determined to "elevate football and its most tiresome aspects into a quasi religion".)
12.45pm: Andrew Lansley is now making a statement about the new Mid Staffordshire inquiry. He says that previous inquiries were not adequate.
12.50pm: Back to the Labour leadership contest. My colleague Patrick Wintour tells me that two of the last people to nominate Diane Abbott were Jack Straw and Phil Woolas. Woolas was asked to nominate her by David Miliband. Straw and Woolas were keen to get her on their ballot even though she has condemned the Labour policy on immigration they strongly supported.
12.56pm: My colleague Alan Travis was intrigued by something Cameron said at the end of PMQs. He has sent me this.
At the end of PMQs today Cameron recalled hearing evidence from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) on the leakage of legal weapons into the illegal market when he was on the home affairs select committee. This is a little odd as I have just checked and he wasn't a member of the committee when it carried out its inquiry into firearms in March 2000. He didn't joint it until after he was elected at the 2001 general election. I guess there may have been another evidence session with Acpo which he was at but it is odd.
1.03pm: The Labour party has now confirmed that Diane Abbott is on the ballot.
"Andy Burnham, Ed Balls, David Miliband and Ed Miliband and Diane Abbott have all received the necessary minimum of 33 nominations from Labour MPs by the deadline of 12.30pm on 9 June," the party said in a statement.
"Over the next few months, millions of people who care about Britain's progressive future will have the opportunity to listen and quiz the nominated candidates at hustings events across the country."
Harriet Harman, Labour's interim leader, has issued this statement.
This will be the biggest and most widespread election of any political party or any organisation in this country.The contest will be open engaging and energising. It will be a chance to invite supporters to join the party to have a vote.
This debate will involve Labour party members, supporters in our affiliated trade unions and the wider public. This leadership contest is Labour's opportunity to take forward the rebuilding for our party for the future challenges ahead.
When I looked at Labour's website a couple of minutes ago, Abbott only seemed to have 32 nominations. But I've just checked again, and someone has now changed it. Those nominating her include Tony Lloyd, chair of the PLP, and Stephen Twigg, the former minister who returned to parliament at the election.
1.17pm: David Miliband's support for Diane Abbott does not extend to spelling her name correctly. He has been writing "Dianne". He did so in his first tweet today...
Gather John McDonnell pulled out. I'm going now to nominate Dianne myself. Encourage others to do the same.David Miliband
DMiliband
... and in welcoming her appearance on the ballot.
1.50pm: During PMQs I got distracted by the news about Abbott's nomination, and so I was not giving it my full attention. Scoring it doesn't seem particularly appropriate, because it did not feel as if Harriet Harman trying particularly hard. (And why should she? Cameron has just been elected, she won't be leader for much longer, and the election could be five years away.) Cameron seemed fine, although I think my colleague Michael White was right to point out that holding another inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire hospital deaths will cost money.
From Tim Montgomerie at ConservativeHome:
Another solid performance from David Cameron. He reaffirmed Coalition policy on ringfencing the NHS budget and equalisation of constituency size. His promise to fly the Cross of St George over 10 Downing Street during the World Cup will get a good show in tomorrow's tabloids.
From James Forsyth at Coffee House:
The PMQs attack No 10 was expecting from Labour on the coalition's planned spending cuts did not materialise and today's was another relatively quiet affair. It started with a minute's silence in memory of those who died in the shootings in Cumbria. Harman asked one question on gun laws before moving on to the electoral roll and whether it is fair to redraw the boundaries on a roll that does not include three and a half million people. Harman would be on quite strong ground here except for the fact that the boundaries were redrawn under the last government using this electoral register, a point Cameron made.
Harriet Harman struggled to land a blow. The prime minister swept aside her concerns about problems with the electoral register. Then he used her question about CCTV cameras to counter-attack, accusing the Labour party of becoming increasing authoritarian. The fact that he had not been asked about immigration did not stop him firing off an apparently prepared jibe at Labour leadership contender Ed Balls whom he labelled the new Alf Garnett of British politics.
1.58pm: Paul Waugh has got a good account on his blog of how Abbott managed to get the nominations she needed:
It was all a darned close-run thing ... I understand that at 12.15, Abbot was eight short. At 12.30, she was two short. The 12.30pm nominations deadline was extended because PMQs overran and because some MPs were texting the PLP office that they would nominate Abbott but were stuck in the chamber.
With seconds to go, she came into the chamber to try to persuade Dennis Skinner to back her. After PMQs, he looked like a man who was reluctantly going to back her.
2.26pm: Diane Abbott has just been speaking to BBC News. When it was put to her that it was "patronising" for David Miliband to nominate her even though he does not want her to win, she denied it.
You have not seen the hundreds of letters that have flooded in from party members. David Miliband was only recognising that there was a really strong feeling that wanted a wide range of candidates on the ballot.
She also said that two polls had made her the second most popular candidate amongst Labour voters to be leader of the party. And a PoliticsHome poll put her top amongst the public as a whole, she said.
2.50pm: Back to PMQs. Here are some of the quotes from David Cameron.
On the shootings in Cumbria:
It is right to reflect on this appalling tragedy and think how best we go forward. Specifically on the gun laws, we need to be clear first about the full facts of the case. We also need to determine the type and the scope of reviews that will take place after this tragedy. Of course the Home Office will look again at the gun laws in the light of that.
And I can announce today that the chief constable of Cumbria has already written to the Acpo president asking him to support a peer review to be conducted by national police experts on firearms licensing, the police firearms response and firearms tactics. I do believe we shouldn't leap to conclusions. I don't believe in knee-jerk legislation. We do have some of the tightest gun laws in this country. But of course we should look again in terms of this issue at what sort of review is right for people in west Cumbrian.
On spending by Lord Mandelson before the election:
Before the last election Lord Mandelson had a giant chequebook which he went round opening up all over the country, spending tens of billions of pounds he promised to 200 projects, two thirds of which were conveniently located in Labour marginal seats. Given that so much money was spent it is only right for a responsible incoming government to review those decisions one by one and make sure the money was well spent. Fortunately for Lord Mandelson someone else is now getting their chequebook out to pay for his memoirs.
On CCTV and civil liberties:
I support closed circuit television cameras. I have them in my constituency; they are very effective. When I worked in the Home Office many years ago I championed those schemes. But I think everyone understands that the level of surveillance has got very great in our country.
As well as the issue of CCTV there's also the issue of how many different sorts of officials are allowed to enter your house without permission. We will be bringing forward legislation to deal with this issue. I know that the Labour party has given up on civil liberties ... but on this side of the house we think civil liberties are important.
On Ed Balls complaining about immigration:
We have got the new Alf Garnett of British politics ... It's one of the biggest U-turns that any of us can remember. For 13 years not a word about immigration, not a word about our borders and now they are all in a race.
Cameron also confirmed that a £20m grant to Nissan to support the production of electric cars in Sunderland would be going ahead.
2.54pm: More on the Jo Tanner mix-up (see 9.13am). The other Jo Tanner – the one who worked on the Boris Johnson campaign, not the one now working for Andy Burnham – has been in touch to say that we owe her an apology too. She's right. Sorry. For the record, the "Boris" Jo Tanner is the Jo Tanner who runs InHouse Communications with Katie Perrior.
3.34pm: I'll have gone home by the time the Lib Dems announce the winner of their deputy leadership contest. But Simon Hughes should win. There are 57 Lib Dem MPs and Hughes has been told that he has the support of 29 of them, which is enough to win. Mark Pack at Lib Dem Voice has a list of Lib Dem MPs who have publicly endorsed Hughes or his rival, Tim Farron. There are 21 names in the Hughes column and 11 in the Farron column.
My colleague Patrick Wintour has written more about this on his blog.
Hughes has the support of Vince Cable, and Farron the backing of Chris Huhne. Both candidates are wrestling with how the party retains its independence from the Conservatives while remaining loyal to the coalition.Farron, a coalition supporter, has admitted that as a kid from a comprehensive, he is struggling going through the lobbies with privileged Tories.
Farron is aware of the dangers in the coalition, writing: "I have absolutely no desire to see the Liberal Democrats becoming the British equivalent of the FDP, an inoffensive minor party, propping up a series of administrations, constantly in government, but effectively neutered, and relegated to tiny party status as a campaigning and independent force."
The worry, he says, is that the party ends up eclipsed by the coalition's larger partners, but is blamed equally for any perceived failings.
3.54pm: Here's an afternoon reading list.
• Hopi Sen on his blog says putting Diane Abbott on the leadership ballot is a mistake.
Diane Abbott and the Grassroots alliance will work to ensure that the composition of the NEC is significantly more left wing than previously, using the bully pulpit of the campaign to get a couple more of the hard-left elected ... This process will be used to push forward a policy agenda that will be massively out of sync with the vast majority of the Labour party, and although it will be heavily defeated, it will have an imprint on the party that will last.
• But Craig Murray on his blog cannot understand why her candidature is seen as a joke.
Diane Abbott is the only possible candidate left who was against the Iraq war, against Trident and for civil liberties. All the other candidates are deeply steeped in Iraqi blood and strongly associated with New Labour's viciously authoritarian agenda. The frontrunner, David Miliband, spent most of his tenure as foreign secretary engaged in numerous legal attempts both to keep secret and to justify Britain's complicity in torture under New Labour.
• Michael Crick on the Newsnight blog suggests the country is being run by former journalists.
• John Redwood on his blog considers spending cuts and says free libraries could be provided at a lower cost.
Why do we have a university library, secondary school libraries, specialist public sector libraries and municipal free libraries all in the same urban or suburban area? Could there be more pooling and joint use? Why is the LEA overhead so high? Why does it cost so much to borrow each book? Can more be delivered online? Have libraries diversified to offer too much free? What if we split the LEA library monopoly? Would librarians like to turn their lilbraries into not for profit charities or social enterprises? Could commercial organisations manage or provide the library facility for less? There must be enormous scope here for innovation and lower cost.
Here's an afternoon summary.
• Diane Abbott, a leftwinger and a serial rebel, will contest the Labour leadership. She made it onto the ballot at the last minute, after David Miliband and other mainstream party figures who have no intention of voting for her nominated her in the interests of getting a diverse range of candidates into the contest. She is being described as the first black person to stand for the leadership of a British political party. She joins Andy Burnham - who only got 33 nominations shortly before today's deadline, David Miliband, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls in the contest. David Miliband said the decision to include her was "not tokenistic". He told BBC News just now: "She's got 20 years of experience and commitment." But some in the party are worried that the decision could backfire. (See 1.58pm, 2.26pm and 3.54pm)
• Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, announced a full public inquiry into the deaths at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. "We know only too well what happened at this hospital – what we need to know is how and why. A full public inquiry will shed light on uninvestigated areas and help us to understand and learn from them," he said as he unveiled his plan in a statement to the Commons.
• David Cameron said he would fly the England flag over Downing Street for the duration of the World Cup. It remains to be seen how well this will go down in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Theresa May, the home secretary, condemned identity cards as "un-British". Speaking in the debate on the bill abolishing them, she said they represented "the worst of government".
That's it for today. Thanks for the comments.
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