United Kingdom News

Mr Loophole refuses to fight daughter's fine

A lawyer known as Mr Loophole for helping celebrities evade driving bans has refused to help his own daughter fight a speeding ticket. Related Stories Cole dodges ban after court hears of Carly carjack London's commuters hit by Tube strikes

itn.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:37:07 +0000

Obama attacks plan to burn Qur'an

US president joins worldwide condemnation of plan by US preacher to burn copies of Qur'an to mark 9/11 anniversary Barack Obama today joined mounting worldwide condemnation of the plan by an extremist US preacher to burn copies of the Qur'an , saying the event would be a "recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida". The Rev Terry Jones has vowed to go ahead with the event at his church in Florida on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The US president today pleaded directly to Jones to cancel the event. "If he's listening, I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," Obama said. In a television interview with ABC, Obama said the event was a stunt that would boost support for terrorism. "This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities," Obama said. The president repeated a warning by General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, that the burning would endanger US troops . "And as a very practical matter, I just want him [Jones] to understand that this stunt could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," Obama said. David Cameron's spokesman said earlier that the prime minister strongly opposed any attempt to offend members of a religious group. Religious leaders of all faiths have warned against the event, with statements of protest having come from both the Vatican and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Earlier this week protests took place in the Afghanistan capital of Kabul where effigies of Jones were burned alongside the American flag. Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the banned Islamist organisation Islam4UK, told Reuters he was calling on radical Muslim groups around the world to burn American flags outside US embassies in retaliation. Today about 200 lawyers and civilians marched and burned a US flag in the central Pakistani city of Multan, demanding that Washington prevent the book burning. The foreign ministries of Pakistan and Bahrain issued some of the first official denunciations in the Muslim world, with the latter calling it a "shameful act which is incompatible with the principles of tolerance and co-existence". The president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has written to Obama asking him to stop the bonfire. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said images of the Qur'an in flames could "threaten world peace", according to his special adviser Heru Lelono. India's Home Office has asked its country's media to exercise restraint in reporting on the planned burning. The rightwing US presidential hopeful Sarah Palin urged Jones and his supporters to reconsider. Writing on her Facebook page she said: " People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation - much like building a mosque at Ground Zero." In a statement on his faith foundation website, Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair, said: "Rather than burn the Koran, I would encourage people to read it" . Barack Obama United States Islam Christianity Global terrorism Religion September 11 2001 The far right Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

guardian.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:24:25 +0000

No 10 condemns Koran burning plan

Downing Street joins a chorus of international condemnation over a small US church's plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11.

news.bbc.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:24:13 +0000

Toshack stands down as Wales boss

John Toshack has stood down as Wales manager after a six-year reign, the Welsh FA have confirmed.

news.bbc.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:24:13 +0000

MPs back new phone hacking probe

MPs back calls for a fresh parliamentary investigation into allegations of phone hacking by journalists at the News of the World.

news.bbc.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:24:13 +0000

Clegg: 'Pain' Now Will Help Us Gain Long-Term

Nick Clegg has called for a greater emphasis on long-term decisions as he warns the Government will announce "painful" cuts in its Spending Review.

sky.com Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:46:40 +0000

Government backs new inquiry into phone hacking

- Government backs new investigation into phone hacking - Anti-war protesters scale scaffolding outside Commons - Nick Clegg says ministers should be reshuffled less often - Follow the latest developments in Westminster here 1.13pm: Paul Farrelly has just accused Tom Crone, a News International lawyer, of misleading the culture committee when he gave evidence to its inquiry about phone hacking. He said Crone "misled our committee about the identity of a junior reporter". 1.09pm: Keith Vaz and John Hemming have backed the call for a new inquiry. And Paul Farrelly, a member of the culture committee at the time it investigated the affair, is speaking now, strongly criticising the original police investigation. While they speak, I've been looking for the best quotes. This is from the end of the Chris Bryant speech. This is not about one man. This is not about the one honourable member whose case has already been to court. It is, however, about what kind of investigative journalism we want in this country. Searching, yes. Critical, caustic, aggressive and cyncial, maybe, but not illegal. And it is about whether this House will be supine when its members phones are hacked, or about whether it will take action when the democratic right of MPs to do their job without illegal let, hindrance or interception has been traduced. We have taken action before as a House. We should take action today. 12.58pm: Simon Hughes is speaking now. He says he gave evidence that helped to secure the conviction of Glenn Mulcaire. At the time he asked if there were other people who had had their phones hacked. He says that he believes some people declined to give evidence against Mulcaire because they were "afraid" of how newspapers might retaliate. After a serious start, Hughes tells a story designed to show that phone messages can be misinterpreted. A message was left on his phone recently by a woman saying that if she could not have a conversation, "our marriage will be at an end". That message was clearly not intended for him, Hughes says. He calls for a commission to investigate broadcasting and the media. The Press Complaints Commission has not done its job, he says. Abuse and illegality has to end. "We need to be robust about it," he says. 12.55pm: Tom Watson, a Labour former minister, says that since he raised this matter in the Commons on Monday he has been learnt that two MPs have discovered that they have had their phones hacked. He says he also knows of three former ministers who have "serious concerns" that they have not so far discussed publicly about their phones being hacked. Something "very dark" lurks in the police files on the Muclaire case, he says. But "dark and mysterious forces are keeping it that way". He says the standards and privileges committee should interview the witnesses who refused to give evidence about this to the culture committee inquiry. Watson, a member of that committee, says that Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, refused three invitations to appear. She should be called, he suggests. He also suggests that Rupert Murdoch should be called. Watson concludes with a peroration about a "tawdry secret" - the fact that MPs are scared of powerful newspapers. 12.43pm: Sir George Young, the leader of the Commons, gave a very short speech on behalf of the government accepting that the issue was a matter for the Commons. He said the government would support an investigation by the standards and privileges committee. Rosie Winterton, his Labour opposite number, was equally brief, but she said the opposition agreed. John Whittingdale, the Tory chairman of the culture committee, is speaking now. His committee published a report on the affair earlier this year. But his committee had difficulty getting evidence from some witnesses, and some of the evidence that has emerged recently contradicts what the committee was told. But Whittingdale says he has a "small concern". He is worried the affair has been "mired in politics". He hopes that the new inquiry will not be used for political ends. 12.37pm: Bryant says he wants the standards and privileges committee to investigate this business because it has the power to require witnesses to attend. It should use that power, he says. And it should refuse to let witnesses get away without answering questions. Bryant lists some of the questions the committee's inquiry should consider. He says he has "no confidence" that the police are carrying out a full investigation. The police have developed a "new theology" whereby it seems to be up to victims, not the police, to produce the evidence showing that they have been targeted. He winds up with a powerful peroration about the Commons standing up for its rights. I'll post the best quotes from Bryant's speech later. 12.34pm: Nicholas Soames, a Tory MP, says that the report from the information commissioner into the hacking of phones showed that hundreds of journalists had been involved in this activity, but the Press Complaints Commission failed to investigate it properly. Bryant says the report highlights the extent of the problem. He says many MPs are likely to have been targeted. I suspect so far we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in relation to honourable and right honourable members. Bryant says he thinks "a large number of Conservative members" were victims, as well as Labour and Lib Dem MPs. I would urge every honourable and right honourable member who has or suspects they have been a person of interest to Mr [Glenn] Mulcaire to write to the [Metropolitan Police] asking whether they were included. 12.24pm: Chris Byrant is speaking now. He says many people have had their phones hacked, and most of them were not MPs. Today he is just talking about the hacking of MPs' phones. He is not saying MPs are more important than other people. But those other cases are not relevant. He says he considers the hacking of an MP's phone to be a breach of parliamentary privilege. Think about the last message left on your phone, he tells his colleagues. It might have been a message from a spouse. But it might have been a message from the home secretary. MPs have had their phones hacked, he says. But the police have investigated few, if any, of these cases. 12.21pm: Lindsay Hoyle, the deputy speaker, starts by telling MPs that they are debating a narrow motion. He does not want MPs to start speaking about matters that are not relevant. 12.18pm: The phone hacking debate is about to start. It probably won't last long. MPs will be debating a privilege motion, tabled by the Labour former minister Chris Bryant, saying that matter of the hacking of MPs' phones should be referred to the Commons standards and privileges committee. 12.15pm: When someone showed me the two anti-war protesters sleeping on the House of Commons scaffolding this morning, I took a picture of them with me phone. (See 9.15am) But the Tory MP Tobias Ellwood is made of sterner stuff. In business questions just now, he said that when he asked a police officer why the protesters had not been removed, he was told it was because of "health and safety". Ellwood then said he would be willing to climb the scaffolding himself to affect a citizen's arrest. At that point he was told that, if he did, he would be arrested. He went on: It's a very strange day indeed in parliament when an MP is threatened with arrest, while protesters stay on our roof having breached our security. 12.05pm: At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the prime minister's spokesman said David Cameron strongly condemned the proposal by Terry Jones in Florida to burn copies of the Qur'an. "We would strongly oppose any attempt to offend any member of any religious or ethnic group. We are committed to religious tolerance," the spokesman said. Sir George Young, the leader of the Commons, was more pithy in the Commons just now. Asked about Jones, a Pentecostal preacher, Young described him a "stupid bigot". 11.56am: There has been a lot of reaction this morning to the BBC-commissioned research showing that industrial areas in the Midlands and the North East are most vulnerable to economic shocks. Larry Elliott has written about it in the Guardian , the BBC version of the story is here and the BBC's Mark Easton has also written about it on his blog . Pat McFadden, Labour's business spokesman, has put out a statement calling it a "wake-up call" for the coalition. The government's reckless approach to the economy is a gamble with growth and jobs. We already knew they had turned their backs on supporting regional growth, with decisions like the scrapping of the RDAs. Today we have further evidence that their approach will hit the poorest areas hardest. And Paul Kenny, the GMB's general secretary, said much the same. The economic recessions of the 80's and 90's, made far worse by the monetarist ideology of the then Tory government, ripped the heart out of the UK's manufacturing industry. The destruction of jobs left a legacy of high unemployment and high levels of incapacity benefit claimants in the old industrial areas. This survey shows that this new Tory Lib government public spending cuts will leave these areas reeling in terms of job cuts and yet again single them out as the main victims of public services cuts. 11.36am: Do read the Nick Clegg speech if you've got time. It's more thoughtful than the usual ministerial speech - Clegg quotes John Stuart Mill, Oscar Wilde, David Willetts, John Rawls, Benjamin Disraeli and Chris Mullin - and his analysis of "short-termism" is good. Clegg says the government wants to introduce a "horizon shift". In other words, it wants to replace taking decisions for the short term with taking decisisions for the long term. Clegg's attempt towards the end to show that is already happening is not particularly convincing. He says, for example, that the government is taking long-term decisions about the economy, but Gordon Brown would have said the same. But his description of the problems of "contemporary political myopia" is spot on. Here are the points of interest. - Clegg says that short-termism is a "generational failure" . He says that all politicians of his age have got it wrong. The prime minister and I are from the same generation. And frankly, we know that both our generation - and the one before us - got it wrong. We have run up debts, despoiled the planet and allowed too many of our institutions to wither. For us, the longer-term view we are adopting in government will help to wipe the slate clean, and ensure that future generations can thrive, without being burdened with the dead weight of our debt, and our failings. Ware absolutely determined that we will be able to look our children and grandchildren in the eye and say we did the best we could for them, even if this means taking some difficult, unpopular decisions today. - He says ministers will not get reshuffled quite so often as they have been in the past . The average tenure of a government minister in the last Labour government has been calculated as being just 1.3 years. Junior ministers were moved on a virtually annual basis. Particularly among junior ministers, the level of churn has been so great in recent years that very often, by the time the minister has got close to understanding their subject, they are moved on. Chris Mullin, in his excellent diaries, records the view of Janet Andersen, a former Labour whip and minister, on Tony Blair's attitude to junior ministerial posts: "He regards them as sweeties to be handed out to keep the children happy," she said. Of course, it is dangerous just four months into government to raise the question of the rate of ministerial turnover. Just to be clear, I am not making any commitment today for a target average ministerial tenure. But I can say that this government recognises that constant reshuffling of the ministerial deck - often to generate the headlines I mentioned a moment ago - is not conducive to good government, and that we will aspire to greater stability in the way ministers are allowed to govern. - He says the Lib Dems were the first to advocate Bank of England independence . Labour politicians have been squabbling over who should take credit for this. In his memoirs, Tony Blair suggests it was his idea. Gordon Brown's allies scoffed at this, suggesting it was Brown's. At the weekend Ed Balls says he wrote a paper adovocating this proposal in 1992. But today Clegg says the Lib Dems beat them all too it. Bank of England independence was an idea "first advocated by the Liberal Democrats", he says. - Clegg praises marriage . Maybe he has praised marriage before, but I don't recall it. This sentence struck me because it sounds like an excerpt from a Cameron speech. "Institutions like marriage and civil partnerships are profoundly important commitment devices: a way of pledging to work at a relationship through thick and thin, and make a life together," Clegg says 10.35am: You can read today's politics stories from the Guardian here . And the Guardian politics stories filed yesterday, including some that have gone into today's paper, are here . And here are the most interesting political stories and articles from the rest of today's papers. - Andrew Grice in the Independent says Nick Clegg will today propose an extension of state funding for political parties. Mr Clegg hopes that a new deal on party funding will be part of a "second wave" of constitutional reforms in the second parliamentary year of the Government, after Bills on electoral reform and fixed-term five-year parliaments in the current session. Turning the House of Lords into an elected chamber could also be part of phase two, although it could take years to implement. Mr Clegg will say [when he addresses a committee on standards in public life event this afternoon] that changes to the funding system should include greater transparency and new rules on spending and donations, with parties relying on more small donations rather than on a few rich backers. One option would be for the state to match pound for pound the amounts raised by parties in small donations - of perhaps up to £10 - to encourage them to recruit new members and supporters. - Chris Cook in the Financial Times (subscription) say ministers are considering a charge for graduates that would "feel like a graduate tax" without actually being one. The plan has been floated by Tories as a means of appeasing the Lib Dems, who are opposed to higher tuition fees, Cook reports. Under the policies floated by the Tories, undergraduates would pledge to pay a share of their future income to the universities they attended as part of their fees. Civil servants have discussed a 1 per cent lifetime income contribution. When added to the current system, that would more than double the £9,870 that UK universities now receive on average in fees from a student taking a three-year degree. - Jason Groves in the Daily Mail says Sinn Féin MPs have been invited to "write their own oath" by the government in an attempt to get them to take their seats in the Commons. Groves reports what Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland secretary, told a Commons committee yesterday. There is no reason for them to stay away. I have said if the oath is an obstacle, come to me with an alternative text, we already do it for people who are not Christians. So far they have not, the ball is in their court. - Bendedict Brogan in the Daily Telegraph says ministers are worried that they have not done enough to prepare the public for the scale of the public spending cuts. "We are in a canoe paddling down the Zambezi, and Victoria Falls lie dead ahead. Once we've gone over the edge, none of this [Andy Coulson etc] will matter," one leading Cameroon told me. The edge, for those at Westminster who worry about it, is the moment we discover just how bad the cuts are going to be. To judge by what Cabinet ministers and officials are saying, many worry that the Coalition has not done nearly enough to warn the public of the abyss into which the country is about to plunge. "If we have had a collective failure," one Cabinet minister says, "it is that we have underplayed the scale of the problem." - The Sun says unions have spent £500,000 trying to help "Red" Ed Miliband win the Labour leadership. - The Daily Telegraph says that taxpayers who have to repay tax to HM Revenue and Customs will be charged interest at six times the Bank of England base rate. - The Independent says Bonnie Greer has written an opera based on her Question Time appearance with Nick Griffin. 10.14am: The Lib Dems have now posted a full text of Nick Clegg's speech on their website. I'll read it soon and post the key excerpts. 9.46am: David Cameron and his family have issued a statement about his father. Our dad was an amazing man - a real life-enhancer. He never let the disability he was born with or the complications in later life get in the way of his incredible sense of fun and enjoyment. He touched a lot of lives in lots of different ways and was a brilliant husband and father. You could never be down for long when he was around. We will miss him terribly but have a bank of memories that can never be exhausted. This was unexpected and sudden, but he was having a wonderful holiday and was with great friends. Above all he was with mum, to whom he was devoted, and he was happy - and the end came quickly. We will treasure all the joy he brought us. Cameron has also thanked President Sakozy for helping him to get to the hospital before his father died. (Sarkozy provided a helicopter to take Cameron from Nice airport to the hospital at Toulon.) I am extremely grateful to President Sarkozy who helped me get to the hospital while dad was still with us so I could say goodbye. We would like to thank Nicolas and everyone at the hospital who worked so hard to look after dad. 9.42am: Clegg is taking questions at the end of his speech. The first came from the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, and it was about Andy Coulson. She asked Clegg if he believed Coulson when he said he did not know anything about phone hacking at the News of the World when he was editor. Clegg gave much the same answer that he gave to Jack Straw at PMQs yesterday, and to John Humphrys on the Today programme this morning. He said that Coulson's statement speaks for itself, and that the new allegations should be investigated by the police. 9.29am: Nick Clegg is delivering his speech to the Institute for Government now. I billed it earlier as a speech about public spending, but it really seems to be about governance. According to the Cabinet Office, it is designed to "emphasise the importance being placed on governing for the long-term as a guiding purpose for the government". The Press Association has had a briefing on the speech and it has written a story saying Clegg is promising that ministers will be given "more time to prove themselves in their jobs without fear of being reshuffled". The PA story quotes this extract from the speech. This government recognises that constant reshuffling of the ministerial deck... is not conducive to good government, and that we will aspire to greater stability in the way ministers are allowed to govern. I'll post a full summary of the speech once I've read the whole text for myself. 9.15am: Anti-war protesters have got onto the scaffolding at the House of Commons to put up "Troops Home" banners. The protest has been timed to coincide with today's debate, which is significant because it is the first Commons debate on Afghanistan on a substantive motion ("that this house supports the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan"). In the past MPs have only debated this issue "on the adjournment", meaning that they have not had the chance to vote for or against a specific position relating to the war. Here's what it looked like The protesters didn't just put the banners up. They've been sleeping on the scaffolding all night too. They're just outside an office used by some of my colleagues, not far from where I sit, and I managed to grab a picture . Apparently they're planning to stay there until after the debate is over early this evening. 8.58am: Nick Clegg was on the Today programme this morning doing his best to play down the impact of the spending cuts. He said that although the government is talking about cuts in some departments of 25%, these would be spread over four years and that meant spending reductions of 6% per year. About 80% of these cuts would have taken place under Labour's plans anyway, he said. A misapprehension has arisen that somehow the cuts that we're going to announce on 20 October are going to happen the following Tuesday. What we will actually be setting out is a plan which starts from April of next year and goes on for four years ... I don't think we should aggravate that anxiety and fear by pretending that there's a sword of Damacles which is going to come down straight away. 8.21am: MPs will - briefly - debate the News of the World phone hacking affair today and there are two stories in this morning's papers that will make uncomfortable reading for Andy Coulson. In the Guardian Nick Davies says another former News of the World journalist has come forward to say that phone hacking was rife at the paper when Coulson was editor. Paul McMullan, a former features executive and then member of the newspaper's investigations team, says that he personally commissioned private investigators to commit several hundred acts which could be regarded as unlawful, that use of illegal techniques was no secret at the paper, and that senior editors, including Coulson, were aware this was going on. And a YouGov poll (pdf) suggests that more than 50% of voters think Coulson should lose his job. But there are other important stories in the diary too. Here's a full agenda for the day. 9am: Nick Clegg delivers a speech on public spending. 11am: Michael Gove gives a speech on vocational education. 12.15pm: MPs debate a motion saying the standards and privileges committee should investigate the phone hacking affair. 1pm: MPs start a debate on Afghanistan. The Commons has debated Afghanistan many times before, but for the first time MPs will get the chance to vote on whether they are in favour or against the deployment of British troops in the country. The votes are expected at 6pm. 2.30pm: The committee on standards in public life holds its annual public meeting. It is publishing a "key issues" paper on party funding. As usual, I'll be looking at all these stories, as well as flagging up the best stories in the papers, covering breaking political news and bringing you all the best politics from the web. News of the World phone-hacking scandal Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

guardian.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:24:47 +0000

Cameron tribute to 'amazing dad'

David Cameron and his family pay tribute to their late father, describing him as a "amazing man" who had "touched a lot of lives".

news.bbc.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:24:34 +0000

Chote set to head Budget office

Economist and former journalist Robert Chote is to become the new head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

news.bbc.co.uk Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:24:34 +0000

Woman charged after boy stabbed

A woman appears in court charged with the attempted murder of a 12-year-old boy on Merseyside.