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| Clegg grilled by MPs on constitutional reform: Politics live blog | Clegg grilled by MPs on constitutional reform: Politics live blog |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 9.55am: You can read all today's Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, are here. | |
| As for the rest of the papers, here are some articles and stories that are particularly interesting. | |
| • Peter Oborne in the Daily Telegraph criticises ConservativeHome. | |
| Conservative Home insists that it speaks for mainstream Conservatives, a claim that I used to be sympathetic to, but which is surely now only believed by BBC television and radio producers, and which needs to be exploded. The lives of most Tory supporters are too interesting, enjoyable and civically engaged for them to read it. The website, as its recent interventions demonstrate, represents a narrow, Right-wing faction. It is given to issuing "alternative manifestos". It has just concluded a disloyal survey of 1,500 Tory party members in an attempt to find out which Conservative politician is favoured to succeed Mr Cameron. It wages a poorly judged campaign against the Tory chairman, Sayeeda Warsi. It was a supporter of the Downing Street director of communications, Andy Coulson, who has since been arrested. | |
| Recently, in an act of spectacular immaturity, the website called for the Health and Social Care Bill to be ditched at the last minute. It is certainly significant that this influential website is controlled by Lord Ashcroft, who has been left out in the cold since the election and is perhaps resentful that no ministerial role has been found for him. | |
| • Steve Richards in the Independent says David Cameron's problem is not that he is doing too little, but that he is doing too much. | |
| It has become fashionable to regard David Cameron as a dilettante Prime Minister. This does not ring true to me. He is a highly intelligent man who became leader of his party and Prime Minister at a young age, arguably too young, but that is not his fault. Even a workaholic like Gordon Brown would not be able to keep up with the details of all the hyper-activity while keeping another party on board at the same time. It is not that Cameron himself does too little, but that his government tries to do too much. The decision to go for hyper-activity was made early. Indeed, it was not so much a decision, but an assumption that the chance had come for the radicals in the upper reaches of the Conservative party to make their moves, even though they had not secured an overall majority. | |
• David Aaronovitch in the Times (paywall) says people should pay tax before they give to charity. | |
| I went on to Eton College's website. The college does, of course, provide scholarships for the sons of the not very wealthy. But they aren't the main reason that Eton wants charitable donations. As the site makes clear: "Nearly 90 per cent of Eton's budget comes from fees. The balance has shifted towards too great a reliance on fee income which is simply not sufficient to protect Eton's overall excellence and independence." | |
| The nature of the threat is not spelt out, but the advantages to the top-rate taxpayer certainly are. If A. Richard Bloke gives £100k to the college, the higher-rate relief for him will be £37.5k and the tax reclaimed by Eton will be £25k. So the value to Eton totals £125k for a net outlay by A. Rich Bloke of £62.5k. And who, you might ask, provides the rest? | |
| In essence what has happened is that A Rich Bloke has substituted his judgment on what to do with part of his taxable income — and part of yours — for that of the Government. He may well argue (and that is exactly the implication of the charities' case) that charitable spending is better targeted and better used by non-government agencies. But he still expects the police to arrive if he's robbed. | |
| • Tim Shipman in the Daily Mail says Tony Blair could be sued by the former Libyan dissident who has started legal proceedings against Jack Straw. | |
| In a move without precedent against an ex-minister, Abdel Hakim Belhadj served legal papers against the former foreign secretary over claims that he authorised the Secret Intelligence Service to hand him over to Gaddafi's government. | |
| The Mail has learned that Mr Belhadj's lawyers are now preparing a case against Mr Blair as well. | |
| 9.14am: As I said earlier, Kenneth Clarke (pictured), the justice secretary, did not sound 100% supportive of Theresa May when he was asked about the Abu Qatada affair on the Today programme earlier. This is what he said when he was asked about the prospect of Theresa May being able to go ahead with her plan to deport Qatada in the light of his latest appeal. | |
| I'm not party and I'm still not party to the Home Office legal advice. If I was the home secretary, I would probably be confident it was right. I know what the home secretary has said. It seems to me quite sound and she could well be proved right. | |
| Clarke also performed his well-practiced "it's all a fuss about nothing" routine. | |
| I'm not quite sure what the big deal is either, because she did say that this whole thing was going to take some months in any event before this whole thing could be resolved. The key thing is when do we get the decision which we want, which is that he should be deported to Jordan to stand trial in a case where torture has not been used to get the evidence. | |
| In his interview, Clarke was also quite robust on why it would not be a good idea to allow parliament to over-rule the European court of human rights. | |
The fact is that we have the separation of powers, the courts and parliament and the executive face each other, in the end we're all subject to the rule of law. So, we certainly can't have the parliament able to cast a vote to reverse a judgment in a court of law. You'd be taking us back to the days of the Tudor monarchs if you start doing that. | |
| The only country in Europe like this is Belarus, he said, which has not signed up to the European convention on human rights. | |
| The only country that doesn't go though this process is Belarus. It doesn't belong to the convention. The government never loses cases there. Their president signs a piece of paper. They've got some very good gulags. They'd probably prefer to be deported from Belarus, because the way they're treated in Belarus is very bad. | |
I've taken the quotes from PoliticsHome. | |
| 8.45am: Nick Clegg is giving evidence to the Commons political and constitutional reform committee this morning. He will be talking about his plans to allow for the recall of MPs, as well as Lords reform and constitutional reform generally, but hopefully he will be asked about Lord Adonis's splendid idea to move the Lords to somewhere like Manchester. Adonis, the former Labour transport secretary, has set out the idea in a letter to the Spectator. | 8.45am: Nick Clegg is giving evidence to the Commons political and constitutional reform committee this morning. He will be talking about his plans to allow for the recall of MPs, as well as Lords reform and constitutional reform generally, but hopefully he will be asked about Lord Adonis's splendid idea to move the Lords to somewhere like Manchester. Adonis, the former Labour transport secretary, has set out the idea in a letter to the Spectator. |
| As Neil O'Brien rightly says, London is New York, Washington and LA rolled into one, which is unhealthy for our national politics. So I have a serious suggestion. If the House of Lords is going to be reformed next year, part of the reform should be to move it out of London to a city in the Midlands or the north, perhaps next to the relocated BBC in MediaCity in Salford Quays. | As Neil O'Brien rightly says, London is New York, Washington and LA rolled into one, which is unhealthy for our national politics. So I have a serious suggestion. If the House of Lords is going to be reformed next year, part of the reform should be to move it out of London to a city in the Midlands or the north, perhaps next to the relocated BBC in MediaCity in Salford Quays. |
| Half of our national politicians would then assemble well away from 'Planet London'. The public purse would make a net saving by selling the vast and expensive property portfolio the Lords has been acquiring to house its 850 members along Millbank and the surrounding streets. And yes, yours truly — a Londoner and proud of it — would be happy to lead the way, if by then I am still a member. | Half of our national politicians would then assemble well away from 'Planet London'. The public purse would make a net saving by selling the vast and expensive property portfolio the Lords has been acquiring to house its 850 members along Millbank and the surrounding streets. And yes, yours truly — a Londoner and proud of it — would be happy to lead the way, if by then I am still a member. |
| Adonis expanded on his proposal on the Today programme earlier this morning. He said London was not close to the heart of the country. I've taken the quote from PoliticsHome. | Adonis expanded on his proposal on the Today programme earlier this morning. He said London was not close to the heart of the country. I've taken the quote from PoliticsHome. |
| London is not central to the United Kingdom. Birmingham or Manchester or indeed any of the other great cities of the Midlands or the nort would be much closer to those who elect the second chamber than London and in the modern age. There's absolutely no need for both houses of Parliament to be in the same place. | London is not central to the United Kingdom. Birmingham or Manchester or indeed any of the other great cities of the Midlands or the nort would be much closer to those who elect the second chamber than London and in the modern age. There's absolutely no need for both houses of Parliament to be in the same place. |
| Let's see what Clegg has to say about that. I'll be covering the hearing in detail. | Let's see what Clegg has to say about that. I'll be covering the hearing in detail. |
| Otherwise, the Abu Qatada controversy rumbles on. Kenneth Clarke was on the Today programme too, sounding not 100% supportive of Theresa May. I'll post more quotes from that soon. Here's the agenda for the day. | Otherwise, the Abu Qatada controversy rumbles on. Kenneth Clarke was on the Today programme too, sounding not 100% supportive of Theresa May. I'll post more quotes from that soon. Here's the agenda for the day. |
| 9.30am: Crime figures are published. 10am: Tom Watson holds a press conference to mark the publication of his book on phone hacking. | 9.30am: Crime figures are published. 10am: Tom Watson holds a press conference to mark the publication of his book on phone hacking. |
| 10am: Nick Clegg gives evidence to the Commons political and constitutional reform committee about the recall of MPs and constitutional reform generally. | 10am: Nick Clegg gives evidence to the Commons political and constitutional reform committee about the recall of MPs and constitutional reform generally. |
| Around 12.30pm: MPs resume their debate on the finance bill. They will be voting on the "granny tax" proposal. Pensioners will be holding a rally at Westminster to protest about it. | Around 12.30pm: MPs resume their debate on the finance bill. They will be voting on the "granny tax" proposal. Pensioners will be holding a rally at Westminster to protest about it. |
| 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 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 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. |