8.33am: Prime minister's questions should be the highlight today. It's almost two months since we last heard David Cameron answer questions in the Commons and so there's plenty of catching up to do. The News of the World phone-hacking story is still running - the Guardian reports that a key witness has said that he is going to give evidence to the police for the first time, and Sue Cameron, the Financial Times's Whitehall expert, says top civil servants want Andy Coulson to resign (subscription) - and Cameron is bound to be asked about it. But it's not the only issue that matters in Westminster and Cameron will have the chance to update MPs on a whole range of topics in his in-tray.
PMQs, of course, takes place at 12pm. Here are some of the other items on today's diary.
9am: Vincent Cable, the business secretary, delivers a speech on science.
10am: Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Northern Ireland committee.
10.30am: Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, and Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, give evidence to the Commons culture committee.
12.30pm: Theresa May, the home secretary, publishes details of a well-trailed review of the extradition laws.
2.30pm: William Hague gives evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee.
I'll be keeping an eye on all these events, as well as covering breaking news, filleting the papers and bringing you all the best politics from the web.
8.52am: My colleague Alok Jha has written a story previewing Vince Cable's science speech. Cable is going to tell British scientists that they must improve their links with industry and earn more from the patenting and licensing of their discoveries, Alok reports.
Cable was on the Today programme earlier talking about his speech. He was also asked to comment on Bob Diamond's appointment as the new chief executive at Barclays. This is what he said.
It isn't my job to appoint the head of a private bank. But what this appointment illustrates is the wider policy question about how banks can be made safe, and we are worried about this combination of the casinos and the traditional banks. I think it does illustrate the wisdom of the government's decision to set up this banking commission to look at the structure of banks ... The whole point about that work is the government's worry about the future stability of banks where you have this combination of traditional banking being tied up with investment banks, what people have called 'casinos'.
9.05am: Ed Miliband has been talking about Andy Coulson on Sky. According to PoliticsHome (paywall), he said David Cameron needed to ask Andy Coulson some searching questions.
We need to clear this up as soon as possible. You can't have this cloud hanging over the man at the heart of the Downing Street news machine. If I was David Cameron I'd say to [Mr] Coulson: 'I need answers from you Andy about the reality of this'.
9.45am: Labour MPs are voting on the shadow cabinet today. They are not voting for members of the shadow cabinet - that election is not due to take place until after the new leader has been chosen - but they are voting on a whole series of possible changes to the way the party does (or doesn't) elect its shadow cabinet when it's in opposition. My colleague Allegra Stratton has written a story about this, and she says Harriet Harman may fail to persuade her colleague to back a move saying 50% of the shadow cabinet should be female by the end of this parliament. Voting is going on all day and the results won't be out until after 8pm.
9.59am: There's lots of good stuff in the papers today. I'll post the highlights within the next half an hour.
10.14am: Sky says David Cameron will not be doing PMQs because his father is ill. Nick Clegg will do them instead.
10.14am: David Cameron is flying to France, where his father has fallen ill on holiday.
10.14am: Cameron's father, Ian, has suffered a stroke with some heart complications.
10.15am: Here's some background about Cameron's father – a former stockbroker who has severely disabled legs. Cameron has spoken in the past about how inspired he was by the fact that his father made light of his disability and always sought to live a normal life.
10.23am: Here's the Downing Street statement about Cameron's father.
The prime minister was informed this morning that his father Ian is seriously ill after suffering a stroke and heart complications while on holiday in France. After talking to doctors at the hospital the prime minister has decided to fly to be with his father and mother Mary. The deputy prime minister will stand in for him at PMQs later today.
10.24am: Tony Blair has cancelled a party planned for tonight to celebrate the launch of his book. The Press Association has just filed a story. Here's an excerpt.
Guests invited to the event, at the Tate Modern museum in central London, have been told that it has been postponed, said a spokeswoman for the book's publishers, Random House.
It is the second time the former prime minister has called off an event after he cancelled a signing session of his memoir, due to be held at the Waterstone's book store in London's Piccadilly today.
After cancelling the book signing the ex-premier said he did not want to subject the public to the "inevitable hassle" protests would cause or use up police resources keeping order at the event.
Campaigners against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had planned to demonstrate outside Tate Modern and criticised the museum for allowing the party to be held there.
Eggs and shoes were hurled by protesters and one attempted to make a citizen's arrest when Mr Blair signed copies of the book, A Journey, in Dublin last weekend.
10.44am: As I said earlier, there's plenty of good politics in the papers today.
You can read all today's Guardian politics stories here, and all the stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, here.
• Ed Balls gives an interview to the Independent and makes it pretty clear that, if he does not win the Labour leadership, he wants to be shadow chancellor.
It's much better as a leader to get the best people into the jobs they are most suited for. Attempting to balance by keeping people out who should be in never works. Gordon did that. He felt equilibrium mattered more than quality and that was a mistake.
He also criticises Brown for supporting the exchange rate mechanism in the early 1990s, insists that he is more of a risk-taker than Brown and points out that his views about the dangers of a double-dip recession now have wide support.
In London I have the support of Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson. That's quite a big tent.
• Hamish McRae in the Independent says Gordon Brown is to blame for the mistakes that have been made by HM Revenue and Customs.
It is too early to see the detail of what has gone wrong but we know the broad outline of the story. Two departments, the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise, were merged in 2005 by the then chancellor Gordon Brown, ending a separation that goes back to 1909. You can see the argument – that it is illogical to have two departments collecting taxes, not one – but in practice the task of collecting direct taxes is very different from collecting indirect ones.
• Sam Coates in the Times (paywall) says that Jenny Watson, head of the Electoral Commission, has lost her seat on the board of the Audit Commission and that she has been branded "incompetent" by sources in the Department for Communities. (Some ministers were particularly angry with her response to the chaos at some polling stations on election day.)
A source in the communities department said: "She was begging [Eric] Pickles to stay on but we are not having someone who built their career on incompetence continuing to milk the taxpayer. She is not fit for the role. The Audit Commission has lost its way and the last thing we need is someone like her on board. She has no previous experience outside the public sector. We have had a bonfire of the quangos; now are having a bonfire of the quangocrats.
• Sue Cameron in the Financial Times (subscription) says Whitehall mandarins think Andy Coulson should go.
Whitehall's finest have their heads well down as accusations fly over phone-hacking and the role of Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor and now Number 10 press secretary. Did officials have misgivings about him moving to Downing Street? You bet. Did they tell PM David Cameron? No. One insider sounded horrified at the idea.
"You'd have to be suicidal to tell a new PM that the man he's worked with for three years is trouble. Besides, the civil service doesn't operate by telling people they can't do something. It works by wrapping its arms around the, er ... proposition and seeing if they can strangle it."
• Kiran Stacey in the Financial Times (subscription) says the Commons business committee will hold an inquiry into the government's decision to cancel the loan to Sheffield Forgemasters.
The announcement of an inquiry follows an admission by Mr Cable in a letter to Adrian Bailey, the committee's chairman, that advice to the previous government had shown the advantages of the loan were likely to trump the costs.
• Kenneth Clarke is due to decide today whether to publish the results of the post-mortem examination carried out on David Kelly, the Times reports (paywall). (I've called the Ministry of Justice about this, and all they will say is that Clarke is still looking at the papers.)
• Andrew Grice in the Independent says David Cameron cancelled a plan to have a press conference recently because he knew he would be beseiged with questions about Andy Coulson.
• Alice Thomson in the Times (paywall) says Lib Dems are miserable in the coalition.
"I feel like Coleen Rooney, stuck in a faithless marriage, forced to grin and bear it when increasingly the downsides outweigh any of the perks," one junior Lib Dem minister said yesterday.
• The Daily Mail says David Miliband has drawn up plans to allow shadow ministers to jobshare.
• Tom Whitehead in the Daily Telegraph says Theresa May's review of the extradition laws may offend the Americans, who think their extradition treaty with the UK is "fair and balanced".
10.51am: Jack Straw will be leading for Labour at PMQs, it has been confirmed.
11.04am: Almost one household in five in the UK is workless, according new figures from the Office for National Statistics. In the north east of England the proportion is 24%. Chris Grayling, the welfare minister, has put out a statement saying these figures are "a shocking reflection of the scale of worklessness across the UK that this government has inherited".
11.06am: More on David Cameron. This is what he said about his father in an interview before the election.
My father is a huge hero figure for me. He's an amazingly brave man because he was born with no heels - quite a disability. But the glass with him was half-full, normally with something alcoholic. I think I got my sense of optimism from him.
11.14am: Support for the alternative vote continues to go down. YouGov released some polling figures yesterday showing 39% of respondents in favour of keeping first-past-the-post, and only 35% in favour of AV. As this chart shows (pdf), that's the biggest lead that FPTP has had in any YouGov poll this year.
11.18am: The Stop the War Coalition has described the cancellation of Tony Blair's book party as a "big victory" for the anti-war movement. Lindsey German, the coalition's convenor, issued this statement.
It shows he is running scared. The people who say we should not protest are denying us the right to persist in asking questions about the war and denying the rights of Iraqis who are still suffering because of Blair's policies.
11.26am: David Gauke, a Treasury minister, is answering an emergency question about the mistakes made by HM Revenue and Customs in income tax calculations at 12.30pm.
11.37am: More about David Cameron. His brother and sister are also travelling to France to see their father, but Cameron's wife and children are staying in London. Cameron's mother, Mary, called before 7am today to tell him that his father was ill. "He has since spoken to doctors in France about his father's condition and decided that he needs to go and see him," the prime minister's spokesman told journalists at the lobby briefing.
11.59am: This will be Nick Clegg's second appearance at the dispatch box at prime minister's questions. On his first outing he described the Iraq war as "illegal", and was subsequently accused of committing a gaffe after Downing Street had to make it clear that he was speaking in a personal capacity at that point, and not giving the government's considered view.
Today he will almost certainly start with a reference to David Cameron's father's illness, and that might keep the tone subdued for a few moments. But, after that, it could get rumbustious. Labour are almost certain to have some fun by asking Clegg to defend Andy Coulson.
Before the election the Lib Dems were quite critical of Coulson - Alan Johnson reminded MPs what Chris Huhne used to say on the matter in the Commons on Monday - but now Coulson works in Number 10 with a Lib Dem deputy and Clegg will (probably) feel obliged to speak up for him.
12.04pm: Nick Clegg starts, saying that David Cameron's father has been taken "seriously ill". Clegg says he is sure all MPs wish Cameron and his father best wishes.
He names the 12 British soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan since the Commons last met. He says there were all "heroic". And he pays tribute to the two British civilians killed in Afghanistan. The dedication of people working in Afghanistan is "inspiring and humbling".
12.10pm: Jack Straw, speaking for Labour, also offers a tribute to those killed in Afghanistan.
He says he had expected PMQs to start with congratulatoins to the Camerons on the birth of the baby. MPs do offer their congratulations. But they are also sad to hear the "dreadful news" about his father. Cameron has done the right thing going to visit his father, Straw says.
Turning to politics, Straw asks about Andy Coulson. Is Clegg satisfied that Coulson did not know this was going on when he was editor of the News of the World.
Clegg says that phone hacking is very serious. Coulson has said he "refutes" the allegations made against him. That statement speaks for itself, Clegg says.
12.12pm: Straw asks again if he is satisfied that Coulson did not know what was going on.
Clegg says Coulson has made it clear that he had no knowledge of phone hacking. He "refutes" the claim. Clegg says that when Coulson resigned from the News of the World, one of the first people to ring him was Gordon Brown.
Straw quotes Chris Huhne saying that either Coulson did know, or he was the most incompetent editor in Fleet Street.
Clegg says it is up to the police to look at new evidence.
12.15pm: Straw says the culture select committee concluded that it was "inconceivable" that the only person at the News of the World who knew about phone hacking was Clive Goodman, the reporter who was convicted.
Clegg says the police are looking into this. But he won't take any lectures about this from the party of Damian McBride and the dodgy dossier.
Straw asks why MPs should believe that Coulson knew nothing about phone hacking.
Clegg again says it is for the police to investigate this. Straw should not be asking the government to "second-guess" the work of the police.
12.18pm: Instant verdict: Clegg does not know the difference between rebut and refute. Andy Coulson has rebutted the allegations made against him, but he has not refuted them (ie, proved them to be untrue). But, apart from that, Clegg put up a combative, spiky, in-your-face performance in this exchange. Clegg said that Coulson has issued his denials, but Clegg pointedly did not commit himself to saying that he believed this. Straw identified the key weakness in the government's position - ministers seem reluctant to say they believe Coulson - but he didn't turn this into a knock-out blow. And Clegg's anecdote about Gordon Brown calling Coulson was a hoot.
12.21pm: I'll post some of the best quotes from the Clegg/Straw exchange shortly.
12.26pm: Here's one of Clegg's best comments on Coulson.
Mr Coulson has made it quite clear that he had no knowledge, and he refutes all the allegations. While I, in a slightly rushed manner, was preparing for today, suspecting this issue might come up, I read in my briefing notes I receive that when Andy Coulson resigned from the News of the World, the first person to call to commiserate was Gordon Brown. He told him not to worry, that he had done the honourable thing and that he knew he would go on to do a worthwhile job.
12.27pm: And here is one of Straw's best questions.
In May of this year [Chris Huhne, the energy secretary] said that "Mr Coulson was either complicit in criminal activity or the most incompetent editor in Fleet Street". Which is it?
12.33pm: Ian Davidson, the Eurosceptic Labour MP for Glasgow South West, asked the funniest question of the day. He said it was his birthday, and he would like to put a question to Clegg.
Would he agree to give me a present of a couple of aircraft carriers, none of your foreign rubbish, I want British ones. I don't want to have to share them with some French bloke. If he has it Monday to Wednesdays, and I have it Thursday to Saturday, and we share weekends, then we will have to get the permission of the Child Support Agency if we want to change that. All of this could be paid by cutting our contribution to the European Union.
12.37pm: John Bercow says he has had a letter from Chris Bryant about the hacking of MPs' phones. He has decided that it is a matter for precedence. That means that if Bryant tables a motion on this – as he surely will – it will come before any other matter, because it is to do with the privileges of the House of Commons.
So, MPs will debate Andy Coulson tomorrow.
12.59pm: Here are some of the other points that Clegg made at PMQs.
• Clegg said the Lib Dems would not walk out of the coalition if the alternative vote referendum bill gets defeated. In response to a question from the Tory MP Christopher Chope, he said: "I am not sure if he will be pleased or disappointed when I say to him that the resilience ... of this coalition is not dependent on one piece of legislation."
• He refused to say the government had been wrong to cancel the loan to Sheffield Forgemasters. When Labour's Kevin Brennan suggested Clegg should apologise, and that Clegg was "famous for his humility", Clegg said the Labour government had approved the loan 11 working days before the general election even though it was "a promise made where money was not available".
• He accused Labour of being in denial over the deficit. Around 100,000 people contributed money-saving ideas to a government website, Clegg said. But Labour had not contributed a single idea. "Until the Labour party catches up with reality, they will not be taken seriously," he said.
• He said Tony Blair backed the coalition's deficit reduction plans. "The challenge of balancing the budget and filling the huge black hole left by Labour is indeed a very very difficult challenge, one of course which has been recognised by Tony Blair in his recent book," Clegg said.
"'If governments don't tackle deficits, this then increases the risk of a prolonged slump. If we fail to offer a convincing path out of debt, that will itself plunge us into stagnation' - I agree."
1.01pm: Chris Bryant's motion will call for this matter to be referred to the Commons standards and privileges committee. It is hard to imagine that this will not be approved. That means we're almost certainly going to get another inquiry into the phone-hacking allegations (the Commons home affairs committee has already launched one).
1.53pm: Here's a lunchtime summary.
• MPs have been given the chance to debate the phone-hacking affair tomorrow. John Bercow, the Speaker, has said that he will allow a debate on this issue on the grounds that it is a "matter for precedence" because it relates to how MPs do their job. The debate will almost certainly lead to another inquiry into the phone-hacking affair because Chris Bryant (the Labour MP who requested the debate) is tabling a motion saying that matter should be investigated by the Commons standards and privileges committee and it's hard to imagine the government voting against this. Bercow made the announcement after a PMQs that saw Nick Clegg sidestep questions about whether he believed Andy Coulson when he said he had no knowledge of phone hacking by his staff when he was editor of the the News of the World. Clegg said Coulson had issued a denial and that this statement "speaks for itself".
• David Cameron has flown to France to be with his father, who is seriously ill. Downing Street said that Cameron's father, Ian, was "seriously ill after suffering a stroke and heart complications while on holiday in France".
• Theresa May, the home secretary, has announced a review of extradition arrangements with other countries. "I am fully aware that there are a number of areas of the UK's extradition arrangements which have attracted controversy in recent years," she said in a statement. "This government is committed to reviewing those arrangements to ensure they work both efficiently and in the interests of justice." A panel will be appointed to review the rules, but the Home Office has not named the members of that panel yet.
• Tony Blair has cancelled plans to hold a party to celebrate the launch of his autobiography at the Tate Modern this evening. The Stop the War Coalition claimed this was a "big victory" for them. But there was some good news for Blair. Figures from the publishing industry show that his memoir has sold 92,060 copies in its first four days – the best ever opening week sale for an autobiography since Nielsen BookScan starting monitoring these figures in 1998. (See 10.24am and 11.18am)
2.42pm: David Miliband's promise to promote jobsharing in his shadow ministerial team if he becomes Labour leader has already been reported in the Daily Mail (see 10.44am). Miliband has now posted more on this on his website.
As many successful British businesses know well, job sharing is a great way to attract women, and men, with young children to roles they may not otherwise be able to do. That's why I wanted to set out today my plans to create the most 'family-friendly' ministerial team ever with an open offer to colleagues to come forward for job sharing.
2.50pm: I wasn't paying attention to the culture committee's BBC hearing this morning (see 8.33am) but here's the top of the story the Press Association have filed about it.
BBC boss Mark Thompson said today that a proposal by a member of the corporation's staff to disguise pay rates for top stars and managers was "totally unacceptable".The director general was speaking at a meeting of the culture, media and sport select committee in central London.
Earlier this year the BBC's reward director, Robert Johnston, suggested those responsible for releasing data on how many staff earn above £100,000 should "deliberately disguise" the number of bosses on six-figure salaries by putting them in a pay bracket between £80,000 and £110,000.
Thompson said: "It was made quite clear to the individual involved it was totally unacceptable."
Johnston, who earns £196,550, later apologised for the proposal which he wrote in an email.
3.09pm: There will be Commons standards and privileges committee inquiry into phone hacking. The government is not going to oppose Chris Bryant's motion - it would have been extraordinary if it had tried - and there probably won't even be a vote on the proposal to refer the matter to the standards and privileges committee because it will be agreed unanimously. Commons officials expect the debate to be over within half an hour.
Then it will be up to the committee to decide how to proceed. It's got a new chairman, the Labour MP Kevin Barron, and you can read the full list of its members here.
3.20pm: This could be interesting: the political and constitutional reform committee is holding an inquiry into how the coalition government was formed after the 2010 election. The inquiry will take evidence from the three main political parties as well as from civil servants, so we should learn more about the coalition negotiations.
3.44pm: The BBC's World Service will not stop broadcasting to Burma, William Hague has signalled. The foreign secretary is giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee and he has just taken the chance to have a go at today's front-page story in the Guardian. Hague admitted that the World Service would face cuts. He said no decisions had been taken, but that he would be putting proposals to the World Service soon. But he made it clear that the Burmese service is safe.
I read this morning that the "Burma office" [of the World Service] is to be closed. But there is no Burma office of the BBC. There is not such a thing. There is a service that is broadcast into Burma. But that does not cost very much. And ... [closing it] probably wouldn't be a very good way of saving money.
Here am I as someone who in opposition has appeared on platforms with Burmese human rights activists, launched books with Burmese human rights activists and been on the World Service talking about Burma and the importance of communicating into it. The chances that I'm then going to sit in my office and say 'let's close the World Service into Burma' are correspondingly small.
3.55pm: David Cameron's father has died, Downing Street has said.
Cameron's father died shortly after the prime minister arrived at the hospital.
Here's the full statement from Downing Street.
It is with deep regret we can confirm that Ian Cameron died earlier this afternoon. He passed away shortly after the prime minister arrived at the hospital in France where he was undergoing treatment.
4.07pm: We've had a few more details about the death of David Cameron's father, Ian, from Downing Street. Cameron and his brother took a flight to Nice this morning from London. When they arrived they were taken to the hospital at Toulon by a helicopter laid on by President Sarkozy. Cameron's father, who was 77, died soon after they arrived.
4.20pm: I'm about to finish for the day. First, here's an afternoon summary.
• David Cameron's father, Ian, has died from a stroke. Cameron has in the past described his father as a "huge hero figure" (see 11.06am) and at Westminster people are already expressing their condolences.
• William Hague has signalled that he is not going to close the Burmese arm of the World Service. But, in evidence to a Commons committee, he has admitted that the World Service does face cuts. (See 3.44pm)
That's it for today. Thanks for the comments.
Comments in chronological order (Total 134 comments)
Post a comment8 September 2010 9:10AM
Good morning Andrew.
Did the Lib Dems ever get back to you with a response to the question you asked them yesterday about Clegg's current* views of Coulson and the threat to our civil liberties posed by having someone like Coulson as Coalition Communication's Director ?
[As Clegg's views seem to change from moment to moment according to who he's trying to fool].
8 September 2010 9:11AM
What is David Cameron's problem? He never asked Lord Ashcroft about his peerage and Tax Status and it seems that he has never asked Andy Coulson about what happened at the News of The World. Is he scared of confrontation or does he just prefer to be in a state of blissful ignorance. Either way it suggests that as a Prime Minister he is not fit for purpose.
8 September 2010 9:16AM
Morning,
Interesting day ahead.
PMQ will be highlight.
yahyah the Lib Dems are distancing themselves from this affair with aplomb. However their thoughts on the matter would be appreciated?
8 September 2010 9:22AM
old teacher
Cameron probably doesn't see anything wrong with either Ashcroft or what went on at the News of the World. Its all part of that entrepreneur worshipping that the Coalition go in for.
One thing puzzles me though. Anyone got any blog links that may help illuminate it ?
Some of the voice mail interception went on while Murdoch was still supporting Labour. Labour and Liberal politicians seem to have been targeted.
Why does it appear that no Tories were hacked ?
Puzzling as its usually Tories who are caught shagging sheep dressed in bondage gear.
8 September 2010 9:24AM
Hi Tea & Choc
Do you have any theories on why no Tories appear to have been targeted ?
You posted on another thread you'll bake a cake if the Guardian manage to bring the whole NOW/Coulson edifice crashing down.
We could have a CIF party. No trolls allowed.
8 September 2010 9:39AM
I have my theories.
The following post from a certain WoodwardRobert, got me thinking:
Robert Woodward... hmmm.... now where have I heard that name before?
I think celebrating the Guardian's efforts should they be proved right would be appropriate. See you there........
8 September 2010 9:48AM
Exactly how much info taken from phone hacks ever made the NotW?
Do you really expect any Tories to be complaining now.
I expect most messages went along the lines of... Your tea will be ready at 9, its steak & chips.
8 September 2010 9:51AM
@oldteacher
How do you know what Cameron has or has not asked Coulson? Are you privy to all their conversations? Are you tapping their phones?
8 September 2010 10:00AM
Coulson is looking more and more bomb proof.
After days and days of intense pressure and speculation the best that anyone can come up with is an employee who was sacked for drink & drug problems.
Neither the NYT or the Guardian could even get any of the anonymous people to say Coulson was involved in or ordered any criminal activities.
That is what is called drawing a blank.
8 September 2010 10:01AM
Prime minister's questions should be the highlight today. It's almost two months since we last heard David Cameron answer questions in the Commons and so there's plenty of catching up to do
If defending the indefensible is now the hallmark of a great PM
Today's question-time should be an absolute gem.......
8 September 2010 10:22AM
LOL talk about using Clegg as a body shield
8 September 2010 10:24AM
@TraceyBlow
If you are referring to the fact that David Cameron has gone to see his father, who has suffered a stroke, then that is a disgusting comment.
8 September 2010 10:27AM
Oh yeah sure.
8 September 2010 10:31AM
I hope Mr Cameron Snr recovers fully. TraceyBlow, that comment is sickening in any context. Whatever you think of people's politics, views like that have no place in a decent society. Having had much experience of the French health system, I can say Mr Cameron Snr will be in expert hands. I wish him, and his family, all the very best at this difficult time
8 September 2010 10:35AM
Thoughts are with David Cameron. Dislike the guy because of his politics, but would never wish ill on him or his family. I hope that his father has a swift recovery.
8 September 2010 10:42AM
@traceyBlow
I see you put "LOL" at the start of your comment. Does that mean you are laughing at someone else's misfortune, or at your own stupidity and crassness?
8 September 2010 10:52AM
Murdoch was supporting the Labour Government at the time.
8 September 2010 10:53AM
I have to believe TraceyBlow is recommending her own comments. I don't want to believe anyone else would
8 September 2010 11:05AM
I think it's more likely that any Tories that were targetted have been informed and told to keep their schtum.
No-one was going to rock the boat on their way back to government and no-one will do so now they are. Especially not if the NOTW has a story it could break on them at any given time.
8 September 2010 11:08AM
Murdoch is himself a conservative. His publications back whoever is popular at the time in order to increase sales. Dishing dirt on the current government will get far more notice than anything you have on the opposition . If the Sun or NoTW could get an article which generated serious attention (increasing sales) and caused embarrassment to the government then they would do it, irrespective of who they "supported".
8 September 2010 11:14AM
Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...
8 September 2010 11:21AM
Holy frijoles.. Your government's solution to this is throwing thousands of people out of work, as well as cancelling infrastructure projects and business loans?
I feel a bit ill. All this double-thinking is starting to hurt.
8 September 2010 11:23AM
when the austerity cuts come into force it'll be just
8 September 2010 11:31AM
Chris Grayling may wish to read the press release from the ONS before talking about the 3.9 million household statistic as "a shocking reflection of the scale of worklessness across the UK that this government has inherited".
Here are a few quotes from the report:
So nearly one in five households have no one in work not because of " intergenerational worklessness" as Grayling suggests but predominantly because people are unfit for work, retired or having to look after the family. Look to help these people back into work where possible and when there are jobs available, don't go around tarring them with the brush of being work shy.
8 September 2010 11:36AM
The lack of any sense of humour on CiF is very worrying.
8 September 2010 11:42AM
To yahyah
Not directly, but I got a response of sorts. See the 2.57pm post on the blog yesterday.
8 September 2010 11:43AM
Why is The Times (paywall) & The Financial Times (subscription)?
8 September 2010 11:47AM
Do you actually understand what civil liberties are? There are any number of charges you can level at Coulson, but the one thing he assuredly isn't guilty of is threatening civil liberties.
8 September 2010 11:50AM
Sadly, it's pretty typical of the level of stupidity on here. The Guardian is the leftwing version of the Daily Mail - all screeching, bigotry and unpleasantries.
8 September 2010 11:55AM
Yes and this from readers of the newspaper that bring us two of the most vicious (and funny) commentators on Britain today - Charlie Brooker & Steve Bell.
Sad init?
8 September 2010 12:00PM
Cognicus
In as much as most of the "screeching, bigotry and unpleasantries" seem to come from exiles from the Daily Mail, you are indeed correct.
8 September 2010 12:03PM
And still we read out the names of those who have died in Tony wars.
8 September 2010 12:06PM
Actually the observation is apposite. Charlie Brooker chooses his targets selectively and the nuance of his attacks is lost on many of his readers. I can't find the article - it was a year or two ago - in which he parodies the fan emails he receives, aping his style but entirely missing the point or the humour. Instead they comprise nothing more than misanthropic, bigoted rants against the defenceless. It's these fans who seem to post here.
8 September 2010 12:07PM
Clegg v Straw - talk about clash of the titans!
8 September 2010 12:11PM
As much bile is spat from all sides, left and right, tribalists of every hue. And they always stand behind a wall of self-righteousness. Labour supporters here are every bit as blind to their own bigotry as Daily Mail readers are to theirs. TraceyBlow's tasteless barb about Cameron's absence above is proof enough.
8 September 2010 12:18PM
Suitably evasive from Clegg for me to assume that he has been briefed well ahead.
Typical Parliamentary legal blustering. No clear answers but the AC is still tin his role.
Not filled with comfort by that knowledge
8 September 2010 12:19PM
It was meant to be tasteless.
8 September 2010 12:23PM
You should have tried for 'funny'.
8 September 2010 12:25PM
But it wasn't funny. It was just nasty.
8 September 2010 12:28PM
So the idea of a Conservative PM ducking out of PMQs and leaving his Liberal deputy to field questions about the possible criminal activities of his Press officer, a former Murdoch editor isn't funny?
8 September 2010 12:32PM
If he was a policeman, a teacher, a nurse or any other member of any public body he would be suspended now.
8 September 2010 12:32PM
If PMQ's is the best we can do to hold a Prime Minister to account we really are screwed.
It's so childish. Occassionally something important gets revealed but most of the time it's like kids in the play ground.
8 September 2010 12:35PM
OOer Andrew
8 September 2010 12:36PM
Looks like you busy tomorrow morning. Bercow slipped that in at the end didn't he?
8 September 2010 12:37PM
Funny ha-ha? No.
8 September 2010 12:38PM
Maybe he thought we wouldn't notice!
8 September 2010 12:42PM
What is in it for labour to get coulson sacked? seems like they have more to lose if he is, no? he doesnt seem very effective compared to campbell. and surely this is opening up a can of worms for all journos? i really cant see what the motive is...apart from coulson lying his pants off course. however that goes for quite a lot of people i think.
8 September 2010 12:43PM
Andrew, I have long been as pedantic as you on the 'refute' question - but definition 2 in my concise OED is 'deny (a statement or accusation)'.
That this contradicts all my favourite style guides saddens me - and I still refuse to use the word in that sense when 'rebut' or 'deny' are better - but I don't think it's fair to mock Clegg when his usage is in the OED.
8 September 2010 12:43PM
For those that have missed it, there's quotes from Glenn Mulcaire's unpublished bookover in The Independent covering his NOTW tapping.
8 September 2010 12:45PM
Typical Tories, briefing Ministers before PMQs. The conniving bastards. G. Brown was never briefed, you could tell.