Government plans to help poorer students “unworkable”

Government plans for poorer students to get two years’ university tuition free of charge will “not be workable” across the board, the BBC has been told. Ministers proposed that students from disadvantaged backgrounds could have one year paid by the state, matched by another from their university. Universities UK chief executive Nicola Dandridge said such a scheme would hit some institutions harder than others. MPs have voted to raise tuition fees in England to up to £9,000 a year. Three days before MPs decided on the government’s controversial plans, ministers announced they were looking to use a £150m fund to provide a year’s free tuition for poorer students. This would then be matched by the university to provide another year’s study free of charge. The proposal was thought to have helped persuade some Lib Dem MPs to support the government. – The BBC

Chaytor jailed

David Chaytor, the first former MP to be convicted over the expenses scandal, was today sentenced to 18 months in prison. The former Labour MP for Bury North last month pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to three charges of false accounting, days before he had been due to stand trial. He faced a maximum sentence of seven years. Chaytor had admitted false accounting involving a total of £18,350. He had agreed to pay back the sum before today’s hearing at Southwark crown court. Mr Justice Saunders said a significant penalty for the 61-year-old was “the only way public faith in the system can be restored and maintained”. “The whole expenses scandal has shaken public confidence in the legislature, it has angered the public,” he said. “Chaytor only bears a small part of responsibility for that erosion of confidence and the public anger. But it is important because he has accepted his conduct was dishonest.” – The Guardian

Law-BREAKING law-maker David Chaytor is the author of his downfall, an MP brought down by greed. There’ll be little public sympathy for the Dishonourable former Member for Bury North, who was jailed for 18 months after he admitted fraudulently claiming more than £20,000 in expenses. Submitting false invoices and claims for rent he never paid on homes owned by his relatives were calculated deceptions, not the accounting errors of a busy MP. Chaytor is the first former MP to be jailed since Jeffrey Archer’s imprisonment for perjury a decade ago, and a number of further prosecutions are in the pipeline, including three ex-MPs and two peers. But there are a significant number of other MPs and ex-MPs who are very fortunate not to be in the dock. The new system of expenses is far from perfect yet it’s certainly better than what went before. The legal hangover from the last Parliament is still tainting this House of Commons but every MP has a vested interest in restoring the trust in politics. – The Mirror

New questions raised over hacking

Scotland Yard has told the News of the World to supply any new information it might have on illegal interception of mobile phones by its journalists following the suspension of a senior editor at the Sunday newspaper. The police made the request as the Crown Prosecution Service was urged to explain what kind of evidence of phone hacking the police had given it when the scandal broke in 2006. Tom Watson, a Labour MP, asked the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, whether the police had been in possession of a contract between a private investigator and the newspaper, in which the investigator agreed to conduct illegal eavesdropping and phone interception aimed at celebrities and politicians. The Metropolitan Police said on Friday it had sent a letter to the tabloid newspaper asking for any additional information about phone hacking relating to the case of Ian Edmondson, its assistant editor. Mr Edmondson was suspended just before Christmas following allegations in a statement to the High Court by lawyers acting for Sienna Miller, the actress. – FT

Cameron will do no such thing. He is determined to retain the services of his press adviser Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World. But the scandal, which involves not only Cameron but also Rupert Murdoch and the Metropolitan Police, will rumble on, threatening to tarnish the Tory leader’s carefully cultivated gentleman-of-the-old-school image. It is in keeping with this image for Cameron to be seen to stick by his loyal henchman, insisting like a bishop with a wayward priest that he deserves to be given a second chance. But is that all there is to it? Coulson didn’t get where he is today without amassing a huge amount of inside information about public figures. He could well cause trouble if once sent outside the tent. For the same reason, Cameron, like all politicians, will be most reluctant to do anything to upset the police. Like Coulson, they know where a lot of bodies are buried and they to need to be kept well inside the tent. – Independent (more…)

New evidence, new investigation?

It is a close ranks strategy that has – for the moment – failed. Desperate to protect its reputation, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has spent four years arguing that any phone hacking at the News of the World was confined to the former royal editor Clive Goodman – and an out-of-control private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. Only now has it to be forced to admit Ian Edmondson, the tabloid’s senior news executive, may have a case to answer. In suspending Edmondson after allegations that he ordered Mulcaire’s targeting of Sienna Miller, News Corp is hoping to pull off a high wire act. The publisher wants to gain credit for taking action while at the same time hoping that Edmondson does not have any awkward information to reveal, particularly about Andy Coulson, his former editor and now David Cameron spin-doctor. Many believe the practice of phone hacking was widespread across tabloid’s newspapers from the moment mobile phone voicemail was invented. – The Guardian

Police should investigate new accusations that a senior executive on the News of the World was involved in phone-hacking when the paper was edited by Andy Coulson, now David Cameron’s media chief, the Labour Party said on Thursday. The paper suspended assistant editor Ian Edmondson on Wednesday after a “serious allegation” was made about his professional conduct. Media reports said the suspension related to possible eavesdropping on the voicemail messages of actress Sienna Miller in 2005, raising fresh questions about the ethical practices of some of the paper’s journalists. Labour’s Home Affairs spokesman, Ed Balls, said the police had to re-examine whether illegal snooping took place and whether it had been sanctioned by more senior staff including Coulson. “I think the police need to put all the resources necessary into these new investigations which are happening because of disclosure by individuals who are bringing court cases,” Balls told BBC Radio. “As more information comes out it’s getting closer and closer to Mr Coulson,” he said. – Reuters

As MPs and victims of these crimes, we now ask you publicly: please would you answer these simple questions of fact? As the edifice of lies which has been allowed to shield these sordid events for so long begins truly to crumble, there will be as few places for the complicit to hide as for the criminal. Now is the time for you to establish the panel and set up a real investigation that you promised to consider. That way, there is the slight possibility that the non-metropolitan police and the judicial system may be able to emerge from the ruins of this democratic disaster with at least a scintilla of credibility. – Tom Watson, Labour Uncut

Police cuts risk crime rise

Criminals are less likely to get caught as police numbers are cut over the next few years, a think tank has warned. Civitas said falls in crime could be halted or reversed after this year’s 6% real terms cut to the national funding grant and 20% cut up to 2015. The report called 2011: The start of a great decade for criminals? said “a nation with fewer police is more likely to have a higher crime rate”. Ministers said deployment, not the size of a force, was what mattered. The report carried a comparison of the number of police officers and the number of recorded offences per 100,000 people in European countries showing that reducing police numbers could lead to higher crime rates. – BBC

The public will be at greater risk with an expected fall in officer numbers during the Government’s austerity drive, according to a study by Civitas. Police forces across the country are facing budget cuts of up to 20 per cent over the next four years which is likely to result in thousands of fewer officers and staff. The Home Office has insisted crime can still be reduce while police officer number decline and has pointed to examples around the world including New York. But an analysis of other countries by Civitas suggests crime is higher where there is fewer police. A comparison of the number of police officers and the number of recorded offences per 100,000 people in European countries showed “a nation with fewer police is more likely to have a higher crime rate”, it said. – Telegraph (more…)