Party reform

Ed Miliband is to distance Labour from its trade union paymasters by diluting the party’s financial dependence on them and reducing their role in electing the party leader. Labour has proposed introducing a ceiling on donations to any political party which could be as low as £500, The Independent has learnt. The move could break the long-running deadlock between the parties on agreeing a new system of financing politics. Previous attempts to halt big donations have failed, partly because Labour was reluctant to give up its multimillion-pound gifts from the unions. But Mr Miliband is ready to gamble on Labour attracting thousands of small donations from individual supporters as part of a drive to take “big money” out of politics. He also wants to change Labour’s culture by allowing the public a vote when the party chooses its leader. He plans to give 25 per cent of the votes to non-party members who register as Labour supporters. MPs, trade unionists and party members would also each have a quarter of the votes in Labour’s electoral college. At present, MPs, union and party members each have a third of those votes. – The Independent

Gove put back in his box

The proportion of poor teenagers who go to university has been rising at a far higher rate than that of their better-off classmates, a statistical analysis by Labour shows. Between 2005 and 2007 the number of pupils receiving free school meals – a standard measure of poverty – who went to university jumped by 18% compared to a rise of 9% among pupils not entitled to free school meals. Some 10,060 pupils on free school meals started university in 2005. By 2007, the figure had risen to 11,905. Liz Kendall, the Labour MP for Leicester West, obtained the figures from answers to parliamentary questions. Statisticians originally matched data from the National Pupil Database to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency for 19-year-olds at university. The figures for 2007 are the latest available. Kendall said the figures hit back at a claim made by the education secretary, Michael Gove, in the Commons last month. Gove told MPs that “social mobility went backwards under Labour.” Kendall said the figures showed that during the last parliament the number of children from the poorest families who went to university “increased at a much faster rate than those not on free school meals.” – The Guardian

Policy popularity contest

The government is to follow the lead of The X Factor television programme and allow the public to decide on legislation to be put before MPs. In an attempt to reduce what is seen as a disconnection between the public and parliament, ministers will ensure that the most popular petition on the government website Direct.gov.uk will be drafted as a bill. It is also planning to guarantee that petitions which reach a fixed level of support – most likely 100,000 signatures – will be guaranteed a Commons debate. Ministerial sources acknowledge that the proposals have the potential to cause headaches for the coalition because populist causes célèbres – such as a return of capital punishment or withdrawal from the European Union – could come top of the list. – The Guardian (more…)

Support for Tories and Lib Dems drops

Support for Britain’s first peacetime coalition in 70 years has fallen dramatically since David Cameron and Nick Clegg launched the government in the Downing Street rose garden last May, according to the latest Guardian/ICM poll. The poll finds that after six months of Conservative-LibDem rule just 43% think coalition government was the right decision for Britain while 47% now disagree. In May, in answer to a slightly differently worded question, 59% backed the coalition while 32% disagreed with the decision to form it. Rising Labour support has cut into the government’s popularity. Other results from the poll, published earlier this month, put Labour support at a three-year high of 39%. Lib Dem support was at a five-year low of 13%. The Conservatives were on 37%, up one point from November. – The Guardian

Trouble in paradise

Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister, is understood to have ordered his MPs to embrace their Coalition partners amid fears that strains between the two sides could begin to undermine the Government. Last week, a number of ministers were embarrassed after making highly critical remarks about the Tories to reporters from The Daily Telegraph posing as constituents. With both sides said to be bruised by the row, John Redwood, a former Conservative Cabinet minister, rejected angrily suggestions that the role of the Liberal Democrats in government was to “bridle the instincts” of the Conservatives. He accused the party’s MPs of seeking to claim the credit for policies which the Tories had also campaigned for, such as cutting income tax for the low paid, channelling funding to poorer pupils and restoring civil liberties. – The Telegraph

‘Patchy’ results expected from Lansley’s reforms

A “complacent” Department of Health will face an annual £10bn shortfall unless it speeds up efficiency savings across the NHS and considers cuts to social care and cancer research charities, according to a secret Whitehall report leaked to the Guardian. The damning report warns that ministers will face an “unpalatable trade-off” between longer waiting times or a massive increase in the NHS budget unless dramatic savings are found. It also warns that the central reform proposed by health secretary Andrew Lansley – to devolve 80% of the NHS budget to GPs – could have “patchy” results. The findings are outlined in a blunt letter to Danny Alexander, the Treasury chief secretary, from the Independent Challenge Group, which was set up at the time of the budget in June to question Whitehall thinking. – The Guardian

The letter, sent to Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander, questioned whether efficiency savings from quality, innovation, productivity and prevention (QIPP) would be achieved. It also raised concerns about the cost of the switchover to the government’s flagship policy of GP commissioning. The letter said: “Taken together, the NHS could therefore face a significant budget shortfall by the end of the SP [spending] period. “The NHS typically deals with such shortfalls by limiting treatments, leading to increased waiting times. “The government will be faced with a choice between dealing with the fallout from increased waiting times or increasing the DH’s budget, perhaps by as much as £10bn per year.” – BBC

Axing of free books is ‘gross cultural vandalism’

Philip Pullman, the children’s writer and author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, and Sir Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate, are among a number of figures in the arts’ world to condemn the Government’s decision to withdraw funding from the Bookstart scheme. The charity, which has run since 1992 and been Government-funded since 2004, was told a week before Christmas that it would lose its entire £13 million grant in England. Booktrust, which runs Bookstart and whose co-founder Wendy Cooling was awarded the MBE in 2008 for services to children’s literacy, provides a pack of books to parents when their babies are born, and more books as they get older. Describing the cuts as “wanton destruction,” Mr Pullman said that ministers were guilty of: “…sheer stupid vandalism, like smashing Champagne bottles as a drunken undergraduate”. He went on: “If you miss the first years of a child’s development, nothing can clear it up. It’s gone. It won’t happen. A whole generation will lose out. “Bookstart is one of the most imaginative and generous schemes ever conceived.” – The Telegraph

Decision on Bookstart “repugnant, foolish and pointlessly destructive”

Leading writers today rounded on the government for its “repugnant, foolish and pointlessly destructive” decision to axe all funding for a free book scheme that benefits 3.3 million youngsters a year. Children’s author Philip Pullman attacked the move as an “unforgivable disgrace”, while the former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion described the cut as “an act of gross cultural vandalism”. These uncompromising views were echoed by Viv Bird, chief executive of the Booktrust charity, who said she was “astounded and appalled” when told all government support for their work was going to be scrapped. “There was no dialogue. It was completely devastating,” she said. – The Observer

It is impossible to know what return the state might be getting on its investment in Booktrust. The system hasn’t been running long enough to tell whether the beneficiaries are more literate than they otherwise might have been, or whether they have more vivid imaginations, or whether they love books more. Only a minister inspired by Thomas Gradgrind, the crudely utilitarian headmaster in Dickens’s Hard Times, would attempt such a calculation. In fact, the decision to axe Bookstart over Christmas suggests education secretary Michael Gove gets his inspiration from a different Dickens character… Free books for children? Humbug! – The Observer

Tories and Lib Dems attempt to paper over cracks

A senior Conservative minister has become the first member of the government to back proposals to field coalition candidates at the next general election.His comments to The Sunday Telegraph came as both parties began a battle to bolster the coalition in the wake of a week of damaging revelations made by Vince Cable and other Lib Dem ministers to undercover reporters. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister, signalled his “irritation” over remarks made by his party colleagues, several of whom hit out both personally at Tory ministers and politically at Conservative-inspired policies, including removing child benefit from higher earners. Amid efforts to mend broken fences, the minister, often seen as one of a tight inner-circle of “Cameroons”, went further than any member of the government yet has in endorsing joint candidates. He said: “I’m sure you can find plenty of Tories who would say similar things to what the Lib Dems have been saying. People say this is a sign that things are falling apart, but the amazing thing is how well the Coalition has worked together. – Sunday Telegraph

With tricky political challenges ahead – the Oldham and Saddleworth by-election on 13 January; votes on control orders, the scrapping of which was a Lib Dem priority; the local and Scottish and Welsh elections; the referendum on the alternative vote in May – do they make a merit of creative tension and disagreement from now on, because it is impossible to cover up, or do they seek to put a lid on it? Clegg, who wants Lib Dems to “own the coalition” and not endlessly list their own victories and “trophies”, clearly believes they must do the latter. Paul Goodman, a former Tory frontbencher now working for the ConservativeHome website, agrees: “I think that with the modern media, trying to have a public conversation would lead to endless reports about splits and it would become impossible.” But many in Clegg’s party disagree. The coalition’s real difficulty is that even on the issue of how to manage their own division, they are split. – The Observer

Jeremy Hunt’s links with Murdoch

Labour MP Tom Watson said: “It seems unprecedented that such a high level and legally significant meeting would not have civil servants present taking notes. I will be asking the chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee to ask Jeremy Hunt to explain himself to us as soon as possible”. Mr Hunt also attended a dinner hosted by News Corp on May 20, within weeks of coming into office, with his aide Adam Smith. Labour has questioned whether Mr Hunt’s relationship with News Corp and BSkyB made him a “fit and proper person” to take over Vince Cable’s powers to approve the £8billion bid which was made on June 10. – The Telegraph

Tories in Europe “nutty”

Jeremy Browne described some of the Conservatives’ partners in the European Parliament as “nutty”. He said foreign diplomats were delighted that the Lib Dems had ensured the Government was “far more amenable and civilised” towards the European Union than a Tory administration. The disclosures are made on the fourth and final day of The Daily Telegraph investigation into the true feelings of senior Lib Dems towards the Coalition. Speaking to an undercover reporter posing as a supporter in his Taunton Deane constituency, Mr Browne, who is regarded as being on the Right wing of his party, disclosed that he and colleagues had been engaged in a struggle to persuade the Tories to relax a planned cap on immigration. – The Telegraph

Tories U-turn on hunt vote

The Government is to shelve a promised vote on repealing the ban on foxhunting until 2012 at the earliest, in a move likely to dismay countryside campaigners as they attempt to set out for Boxing Day meetings. David Cameron, a self-confessed “country boy”, has condemned the 2005 ban on hunting with dogs as a “mistake” which intruded into part of rural life “where the criminal law shouldn’t go”. However, the Conservative election pledge to hold a free vote on repeal “early” after polling day has been abandoned, senior officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs admitted on Friday. With major reforms of the health, education, and welfare systems being piloted through Parliament, no vote is expected in 2011. “There are many greater priorities facing the Government at the moment,” said Jim Paice, the Agriculture Minister. – The Independent