Britain's first written constitution should be drafted by a convention whose membership has been partly chosen by random lot, the Liberal Democrats propose today. Half of those involved should be members of the public, with the others drawn from parliament, and the final draft subject to a national referendum.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2163001,00.html
The handling of a £1.5bn computerised farm payments scheme by two senior civil servants is condemned by MPs today as "a masterclass in bad decision-making" which could land taxpayers with a £500m extra bill. A highly critical report from the Commons public accounts committee accuses Sir Brian Bender, then permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, of being "largely responsible" for the fiasco, which left tens of thousands of farmers without any cash from the European Union.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,,2162996,00.html
Almost £500 million of taxpayers’ money will be spent on covering the costs of the bungled implementation of a new payment system to English farmers, a parliamentary inquiry reports today. The Single Farm Payment Scheme, introduced two years ago, aimed to pay farmers for their stewardship of the land rather than the number of animals they reared for meat.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2395303.ece
David Cameron's decision to campaign on traditional Tory issues appears to have boosted his party's ratings, according to the latest "poll of polls" for The Independent.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2934328.ece
Gordon Brown launched a pact on Wednesday to co-ordinate rich countries’ overlapping programmes of health assistance to developing countries, although several of the biggest donors have so far declined to join.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f48b7c02-5c03-11dc-bc97-0000779fd2ac.html
Gordon Brown has been accused of starving the suburbs of up to £1 billion every year and diverting the money to inner cities. The news comes as the leaders from some of the biggest suburban councils meet today to discuss a "State of the Suburbs" report, which warns that some middle-class boroughs are being neglected.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/06/nsuburb106.xml