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| Politics live blog: Monday 5 March | Politics live blog: Monday 5 March |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 9.53am: The legal aid bill is back in the Lords today. Lord Bach, a Labour justice spokesman, has written an article for PoliticsHome saying that the government should be cutting criminal legal aid, not civil legal aid. | |
| When I was legal aid minister, we had to take a really tough look at legal aid, especially towards the end of the last Parliament. Criminal legal aid has, for years, been chewing up a growing proportion of the Legal Aid budget. Nearly £1.2bn was being spent just on that area. In comparison, social welfare Legal Aid costs less than £200m. The government has left criminal legal aid alone. And yet he has absolutely slashed social welfare legal aid to the bone. | |
| At the end of the last Parliament Jack Straw and I put together plans to restructure the delivery of criminal Legal Aid by changing our tendering processes. It would have been controversial. But I believed then and believe now that there is fat in the criminal legal aid budget – especially when it comes to very high cost cases which consume 49% of the budget while representing only 1% of cases – to be cut. | |
| But there isn't in social welfare legal aid. Advice on debt, housing law, welfare benefits is delivered by lawyers in advice centres on extremely modest salaries. Not only are these lawyers paid modestly, but their core expertise in these areas of law allows them to direct the work of volunteers and help pro bono lawyers – who have legal knowhow but may not know the statutes and regulations on a particular area of social welfare law – to do their jobs. It's immensely good value for money. And if you try to cut too far and too fast you threaten to collapse this delicate ecosystem of some of the most worthy members of our communities. | |
| But on the Today programme Kenneth Clarke (pictured), the justice secretary, claimed that no one would lose access to justice under his plans, which will promote more use of mediation. | |
| It doesn't close anybody's access to justice, at all. For those who don't get legal aid, the courts are already too expensive, so they're normally only accessible to the very rich or the very poor but access to justice will still be there. | |
| 9.36am: In his controversial Fabian Society speech in January, Ed Balls (left) said that if Labour won the election in 2015, it would start from the assumption that it would have to accept all the government's cuts. But he did not sound minded to accept the child benefit cut when he was talking about it on ITV's Daybreak this morning. This is what he said. | |
| What's particularly unfair though is that it was so damaging the way this was being done. On child benefit what the government was saying is that if you were a two earner family earning £84,000 - £42,000 each - you keep your child benefit but a one earner family where the mum or dad stays at home to look after the kids on £43,000 would lose it entirely. That is a huge hit to income. | |
| The Labour motion on living standards being debated in the Commons this evening says the child benefit cut will cost a higher-earner with three children £2,450 a year. | |
| In his interview Balls also highlighted the fact that tax credit cuts will cost up to 200,000 low-income families nearly £4,000 a year from April. | |
| 9.13am: Since I know how fond some of the readers of this blog are of Nick Clegg, I thought I would share with you the news that a former Lib Dem MP is saying today that Clegg should resign before the election. | 9.13am: Since I know how fond some of the readers of this blog are of Nick Clegg, I thought I would share with you the news that a former Lib Dem MP is saying today that Clegg should resign before the election. |
| There's no point in pulling our punches. After a year of research, [we] have concluded that Nick cannot realistically lead the party into the next election without incurring an additional contraction in the number of MPs - directly as a result of his leadership. We have also identified the lack of a political narrrative which was left the party drifting in an identity vacuum while, by contrast, the Conservatives have been remarkably effective at maintaining their focus and image. | There's no point in pulling our punches. After a year of research, [we] have concluded that Nick cannot realistically lead the party into the next election without incurring an additional contraction in the number of MPs - directly as a result of his leadership. We have also identified the lack of a political narrrative which was left the party drifting in an identity vacuum while, by contrast, the Conservatives have been remarkably effective at maintaining their focus and image. |
| The good news for Clegg is that the former MP is Lembit Opik, who is publishing a book, The Alternative View, that he has written with Ed Joyce. Opik's credibility as a political figure has shrunk to zilch in recent years because of his cringe-inducing publicity seeking (although, of course, that doesn't mean that he's wrong about everything). | The good news for Clegg is that the former MP is Lembit Opik, who is publishing a book, The Alternative View, that he has written with Ed Joyce. Opik's credibility as a political figure has shrunk to zilch in recent years because of his cringe-inducing publicity seeking (although, of course, that doesn't mean that he's wrong about everything). |
| 9.04am: Yesterday Cardinal Keith O'Brien, president of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland and Britain's most senior Catholic, had an article in the Sunday Telegraph saying that the government's plan to allow gay marriage was "madness". He was on the Today programme this morning making his case again. He said David Cameron's proposal was "shaming" for Britain. I've taken the quote from PoliticsHome. | 9.04am: Yesterday Cardinal Keith O'Brien, president of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland and Britain's most senior Catholic, had an article in the Sunday Telegraph saying that the government's plan to allow gay marriage was "madness". He was on the Today programme this morning making his case again. He said David Cameron's proposal was "shaming" for Britain. I've taken the quote from PoliticsHome. |
| If the United Kingdom does go for and support same sex marriage it is indeed shaming the country. We're taking standards which are not just our own but taking standards from the UN Declaration on Human Rights, where marriage is defined as a relationship between men and women, and turning that on its head and saying 'marriage is no longer marriage'. We're trying to redefine something which has been known for centuries and making it something it is not. | If the United Kingdom does go for and support same sex marriage it is indeed shaming the country. We're taking standards which are not just our own but taking standards from the UN Declaration on Human Rights, where marriage is defined as a relationship between men and women, and turning that on its head and saying 'marriage is no longer marriage'. We're trying to redefine something which has been known for centuries and making it something it is not. |
| I would say that countries where this is legal are indeed violating human rights. We know what the United Nations declaration states and we know what follows on from something like this. It seems to me to be the thin edge of the wedge and it redefines what a family is. I think it affects children who are born. Children have the right to have a mother and a father. | I would say that countries where this is legal are indeed violating human rights. We know what the United Nations declaration states and we know what follows on from something like this. It seems to me to be the thin edge of the wedge and it redefines what a family is. I think it affects children who are born. Children have the right to have a mother and a father. |
| 9.00am: Child benefit is back in the news this morning. Inspired probably by James Forsyth's column in the Mail on Sunday yesterday, the Daily Telegraph is splashing on a story saying George Osborne is preparing to water down his plans to take child benefit away from higher-rate tax payers. Nick Clegg has now given the story fresh legs by telling the BBC this morning that the government is looking at the possibility of amending its plans. | 9.00am: Child benefit is back in the news this morning. Inspired probably by James Forsyth's column in the Mail on Sunday yesterday, the Daily Telegraph is splashing on a story saying George Osborne is preparing to water down his plans to take child benefit away from higher-rate tax payers. Nick Clegg has now given the story fresh legs by telling the BBC this morning that the government is looking at the possibility of amending its plans. |
| We all accept that what you do when you create these cut-offs is you create some sort of bigger anomalies where one family with one earner doesn't get child benefit, and one with two earners who earn slightly less but together more [does get child benefit], and that's the kind of thing that we've always said we're prepared to look at. | We all accept that what you do when you create these cut-offs is you create some sort of bigger anomalies where one family with one earner doesn't get child benefit, and one with two earners who earn slightly less but together more [does get child benefit], and that's the kind of thing that we've always said we're prepared to look at. |
| Clegg was giving an interview because he is publicising a campaign to make teenagers more aware of the nature of sexual abuse and his comments about child benefit are no more than what ministers have said before. But the BBC have picked up on them, partly because Labour are doing their best to get this issue onto the agenda by holding a debate on living standards later this evening. | Clegg was giving an interview because he is publicising a campaign to make teenagers more aware of the nature of sexual abuse and his comments about child benefit are no more than what ministers have said before. But the BBC have picked up on them, partly because Labour are doing their best to get this issue onto the agenda by holding a debate on living standards later this evening. |
| I'll be covering any further developments throughout the day, but there are plenty of other stories on the go. Here's the full agenda. | I'll be covering any further developments throughout the day, but there are plenty of other stories on the go. Here's the full agenda. |
| 9.30am: The Home Office is announcing details of a pilot scheme that will allow people to find out if their partner has a history of domestic violence. 10am: Sir Paul Stephenson, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Elizabeth Filkin, who caried out a review into relations between the Met and the media, and Roger Baker from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary give evidence to the Leveson inquiry. | 9.30am: The Home Office is announcing details of a pilot scheme that will allow people to find out if their partner has a history of domestic violence. 10am: Sir Paul Stephenson, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Elizabeth Filkin, who caried out a review into relations between the Met and the media, and Roger Baker from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary give evidence to the Leveson inquiry. |
| 10am: The Information Tribunal begins a two-day hearing into whether the government should have to publish the NHS risk register. | 10am: The Information Tribunal begins a two-day hearing into whether the government should have to publish the NHS risk register. |
| 11am: Diane Abbott, the shadow minister for public health, gives a speech to the IPPR thinktank. 11.30am: David Cameron visits a Tesco store to welcome its announcement that it will create 20,000 jobs over the next two years. | 11am: Diane Abbott, the shadow minister for public health, gives a speech to the IPPR thinktank. 11.30am: David Cameron visits a Tesco store to welcome its announcement that it will create 20,000 jobs over the next two years. |
| 2.30pm: Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, gives a speech on funding local infrastructure. | 2.30pm: Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, gives a speech on funding local infrastructure. |
| Around 3pm: Peers debate the legal aid bill. | Around 3pm: Peers debate the legal aid bill. |
| 3.30pm: David Cameron makes a statement in the Commons on last week's EU summit. | 3.30pm: David Cameron makes a statement in the Commons on last week's EU summit. |
| As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and another in the afternoon. | As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and another in the afternoon. |
| If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm on @AndrewSparrow. | If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm on @AndrewSparrow. |
| And if you're a hardcore fan, you can follow @gdnpoliticslive. It's an automated feed that tweets the start of every new post that I put on the blog. | And if you're a hardcore fan, you can follow @gdnpoliticslive. It's an automated feed that tweets the start of every new post that I put on the blog. |