Government
- Plans to mark the 60th birthday of the NHS next year by formalising its core values in a written constitution are to be put to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown by Andy Burnham, the health minister responsible for NHS reform. In an interview in Society Guardian today, he said patients and staff were nervous of change and needed reassurance that reorganisation of the NHS will not erode its enduring values. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2012364,00.html
- Congestion in central London is almost as bad as it was before the daily charge was introduced four years ago, according to official figures. Traffic delays have risen sharply in the past two years and will rise further next week when the zone doubles in size with a westwards extension into Kensington and Chelsea, Transport for London said. http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article1381522.ece
- A greatly increased role for the private and voluntary sector in delivering welfare-to-work programmes was all but promised yesterday by John Hutton, the work and pensions secretary. His declaration that the government "will need to create opportunities [to run such programmes] on a scale that will be attractive tothe best companies in the world" was made as Ruth Kelly, the communities secretary, acknowledged that social housing was creating barriers to the economically inactive moving into work. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8bf51726-bbd0-11db-afe4-0000779e2340.html
- Locking up teenage offenders is largely a waste of money with only a small proportion of the 3,350 currently held needing to be imprisoned to protect the public, according to a leading figure on the government's own Youth Justice Board. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2012362,00.html
- More than a third of Scotland's local councillors, mostly from the Labour party, are to receive "golden handshake" payoffs of up to £20,000 from the taxpayer as part of a £7m package to persuade old and long-serving councillors to retire. The unprecedented measure is designed to "refresh" local government in Scotland before May's council elections, the first council elections to be fought there using proportional representation, by removing scores of mainly middle-aged "old Labour" stalwarts who dominate many councils in the central belt. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2012442,00.html
- Tony Blair is to write to everyone who has signed the petition against road pricing in an attempt to dispel the “myths” about the proposed charging system. Next week he will send all the signatories an e-mail defending the plan to hold regional trials of the pay-by-the-mile scheme. More than 1.3 million people have now signed the petition on Downing Street’s website and the total could reach two million by next Tuesday, when the petition closes. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1381521.ece
- Tony Blair last night staked his legacy on achieving a post-Kyoto climate change agreement, saying he would do "as much as I can" in the few remaining months of his leadership to deal with what was a "greater challenge" than solving the crisis in the Middle East. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2012663,00.html
- The media watchdog Ofcom yesterday launched a review of children's programming amid growing concern that the production line of homegrown shows providing an alternative to the BBC, from Rainbow to Children's Ward, is coming to a juddering halt. ITV has not shown any children's programmes in its traditional afternoon slot since the beginning of this year, preferring instead to screen quiz shows such as Dale's Supermarket Sweep and repeats of classic dramas Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC, and is continuing to lobby Ofcom for a reduction in its regulatory commitment to the genre on its main ITV1 channel. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2012439,00.html
- Shorelines that people have been barred from for centuries or which are only accessible when landowners choose to allow walkers onto them should be designated as part of a coastal corridor open to all, the government will be advised today. Natural England, the government's statutory adviser on the environment, has spent two years considering the best way to improve access to cliffs, beaches, dunes and shorelines. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2012460,00.html
Liberal Democrats
- Liberal Democrat Norman Baker published a breakdown of MPs' £5m annual travel bill in what he described as "an important victory in the battle to make parliament and the use of public money more accountable to the people". The figures were released to him after a freedom of information tussle with the Commons authorities. A former Labour minister claimed more than £16,000 in mileage and a Tory backbencher over £5,000 in taxi fares, figures released last night showed, putting MPs' travel expenses under detailed scrutiny for the first time. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/travel/story/0,,2012682,00.html
Conservatives
- The row between business and the Tories over identity cards intensified yesterday, after the opposition party asked a parliamentary watch--dog to vet suppliers' contracts for the multi-billion pound scheme. The Conservatives are furious about the hostile industry reaction to their formal pledge earlier this month to scrap ID cards "immediately" on gaining power. Intellect, the information technology industry trade body, warned that the Tory stance could result in suppliers "seeking stronger break clauses" in contracts, at taxpayers' expense, to protect themselves against potential future cancellation. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/af74aaa0-bbcf-11db-afe4-0000779e2340.html