Clegg holds strong

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, ended a surprisingly placid party conference by offering himself as the anchor that will keep the coalition government on the centre ground and on a liberal path. Ending a conference dominated by the gathering gloom on the economy, and by whether the Liberal Democrat Keynesians in the government should challenge the Treasury orthodoxy, Clegg promised the coalition “can and will do more” to help a worsening economy. But he said the government would not veer from its commitment to eliminate the structural deficit by the end of the parliament, and admitted this meant a “long, hard road ahead”. Quoting JS Mill, he added: “the only struggles worth having are the uphill ones” and urged his party to lift their spirits, saying: “Never apologise for the difficult things we are having to do.” The party had grown up by going through the door of government, he said, repeatedly claiming his party was “doing the right thing and not the easy thing in the national interest”. – the Guardian

Cameron: we must act quicker to stop suffering

David Cameron will today urge the world to be quicker to take military action to stop states from slaughtering their own people. The Prime Minister will use his first speech to the United Nations to demand that the organisation become less of a talking shop and intervene when people under brutal regimes require its help. In a clear statement of intent following Nato’s successful campaign against Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, Mr Cameron will tell international leaders that the world must be prepared to act again. “You can sign every human rights declaration in the world but if you stand by and watch people being slaughtered in their own country, when you could act then what are those signatures really worth?” Mr Cameron will ask the General Assembly. “The UN has to show that we can be – not just united in condemnation, but – united in action acting in a way that lives up to the UNs founding principles and meets the needs of people everywhere.” – the Telegraph

News International executives knew in 2006

Up to a dozen News International executives, including Rebekah Brooks, were told in 2006 that the Metropolitan Police had evidence that more than one News of the World journalist was implicated in the phone-hacking scandal. New information obtained by The Independentchallenges the timetable, as publicly stated by Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group, of when and how it first became aware of the extent of illegality at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid. Senior figures from NI have repeatedly stated to Parliament that the company had no significant evidence until 2008 that illegal voicemail interception went beyond the NOTW’s jailed royal editor, Clive Goodman. The new evidence, which is likely to be central to the investigations into the Murdoch empire, reveals that police informed the company two years earlier that they had uncovered strong “circumstantial evidence” implicating other journalists. A senior police officer held a meeting with Ms Brooks in the weeks after the arrest in August 2006 of Mr Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. – the Independent

National Trust refuses to back down

The head of the National Trust today sets out “red line” demands before the start of negotiations with the Government to end the row over controversial changes to planning rules. Dame Fiona Reynolds, the organisation’s director-general, is expecting to sit down with Greg Clark, the planning minister, to hammer out a compromise over the next few days. The breakthrough came after David Cameron wrote to Dame Fiona with a personal assurance that the environmental benefits of developments would be assessed before new projects were given permission. Replying in an article today’s Daily Telegraph, Dame Fiona says she is delighted that the Prime Minister’s letter “confirms that the purpose of the planning system has not changed”. Ministers are currently pushing through plans to replace more than 1,000 pages of planning regulations in England with just 52 pages in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The change is controversial because it writes into the rules a new “presumption in favour of sustainable development”, which is not defined clearly in the rules. – the Telegraph

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