Government
- Renewables firms are laying off staff because the government has shut its grant scheme that helps households adopt green energy technologies such as solar panels. The grant suspension means not a penny has been committed to any household since March 1, leading to accusations that it has made a mockery of the government's green credentials. The Department of Trade and Industry has tried to support the fledgling renewables industry in recent years with a series of grant schemes designed to make technologies such as solar, wind and ground source heat pumps cheap enough to appeal to domestic users. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2061739,00.html
- One of the UK's most senior police officers has called for new laws that would compel the public to give information to the police about gun crime - whether they want to or not. In an interview with the Guardian, Bernard Hogan-Howe, the chief constable of Merseyside police and a contender to be next commissioner of the Met, said it was clear that more and more young people were getting involved in gun crime and that they were being protected by a wall of silence. He said the only way to address this was to adopt laws similar to those in Australia "where people have a duty to report information about gun crime to the police". He also believes the laws should extend to victims of gun crime who survive being shot but refuse to make a complaint because of fears of reprisals. http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2061735,00.html
- Some of Tony Blair's most radical plans for privatising welfare services will not be implemented in the short term, a confidential leaked letter from the Treasury shows. The schemes have been hailed by the prime minister as a way of getting single parents and the long-term unemployed back into work, included a controversial proposal for the private, voluntary and charitable sector to be given state contracts to find such people jobs. However, a Treasury memo leaked to the Guardian shows that it has no "immediate plans" to work up the initiative, which were outlined on behalf of the government by the businessman David Freud. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2061863,00.html
- David Miliband's ambitious target for a "carbon neutral" Whitehall by 2012 and to cut emissions by 30% by 2020 will be impossible to achieve unless changes are made to the £3bn a year spent building and refurbishing government offices, to make them more environmentally sustainable, the National Audit Office warns today. The report says that fewer than one in every 10 Whitehall projects commissioned in the last financial year met all the required new environmental standards, and departments did not commission environmental assessments for two out of three new buildings or five out of six refurbishments. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,2061654,00.html
- Bernard Matthews will be paid almost £600,000 compensation for the compulsory slaughter of turkey chicks after the avian flu outbreak. The figure, published yesterday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, angered MPs of all parties after official veterinary reports identified flagrant breaches of biosecurity on the poultry company's premises at Holton, Suffolk. Jack Straw, the Leader of the House, showed sympathy with MPs when he told the Commons: "All of us are uncomfortable about the reports of high levels of compensation to Mr Matthews's firm." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1680187.ece
- Tony Blair will mount a strong attack on David Cameron today in which he will dismiss the idea that the Tory leader is his natural successor. In a speech in his Sedgefield constituency, the Prime Minister will admit the Conservatives have "learnt the tactics of opposition" but insist they do not have a "strategy for government". He will try to steady Labour's nerves by arguing that the Tories are "beatable" at the next general election. Mr Blair will make Labour's most detailed analysis of "the Cameron effect" in an attempt to halt the Tory leader's bandwagon ahead of next month's elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and English councils. His assault follows criticism by Gordon Brown's allies that Labour has let Mr Cameron off the hook during Mr Blair's "long goodbye". Blair aides are frustrated by sniping from the Brown camp and claim the Chancellor's allies have not pulled their weight in mid-term elections campaign. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2465955.ece
- Plans for the local elections in two weeks have been thrown into chaos and the results could be delayed for days because of widespread problems with new postal voting software. Up to 100 councils are experiencing difficulties with software to scan millions of postal votes after new anti-fraud legislation. In some areas the systems have not even arrived. The problems could lead to votes being discarded in error or false votes counted because the scanning equipment failed to work properly. Most town halls are sending out postal ballot forms today. Electoral staff said they were crossing their fingers that they could read them electronically when the results start coming in after the ballot on May 3. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1680426.ece
EU
- Condoning or "grossly trivialising" genocide will become a crime punishable by up to three years in prison across Europe, although justice ministers failed to agree a specific ban on denying the Holocaust yesterday. Germany used its presidency of the EU to push through the first Europe-wide race-hate laws, regarded by Berlin as an historic obligation in the 50th anniversary year of the union created to preserve peace and prosperity after the Second World War. Under pressure from nations worried about freedom of speech, led by Britain, Germany scaled back ambitions to replicate its strict laws of Holocaust denial and dropped plans to outlaw the display of Nazi symbols at an EU level. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article1680192.ece
- Tony Blair has ditched plans to hold a British referendum on a new European Union treaty, and wants an agreement on a scaled-back version of the EU constitution at a Brussels summit in the days before he leaves office. The British prime minister is likely to be pilloried by the domestic media and his political rivals and accused of performing a U-turn. He told the FT, however, that a limited new treaty, focused on updating the EU's rules and institutions, did not require a referendum. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/28c708de-ee94-11db-8f38-000b5df10621.html