David Laws Resigns Over Expenses Claim
THE TELEGRAPH: David Laws has resigned from the Coalition Cabinet after revelations that he claimed £40,000 of taxpayers’ money to pay rent to his boyfriend.

David Laws and James Lundie. Photographs: The Telegraph
Government sources said the senior Liberal Democrat stepped down as Treasury Chief Secretary while parliamentary watchdogs investigated his expenses claims.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, were understood at first to have been willing to let Mr Laws remain in his key post, at least over the weekend.

However, The Sunday Telegraph learned that at least two Lib Dem Cabinet ministers, Vince Cable and Chris Huhne, believed that the circumstances of Mr Laws’s parliamentary expenses claims “did not look good at all”. They suggested that he was left with no choice other than to step aside.

The Lib Dem Scottish Secretary, Danny Alexander, will take over from Mr Laws, 44.

Mr Laws, a former banker, won his key Cabinet post after impressing Tory negotiators in the talks that set up the coalition.

He won praise for his assured start at the Treasury, where he was in charge of imposing proposed swingeing cuts to state spending.

However, on Friday night Mr Laws referred his own case to Parliament’s standards commissioner after The Daily Telegraph disclosed that he claimed as much as £950 a month in parliamentary expenses for eight years to rent rooms in two London properties.

The houses were owned by his partner, James Lundie, a political lobbyist. In 2006, MPs were banned from “leasing accommodation from a partner”. >>> Patrick Hennessy, Melissa Kite and Patrick Sawyer | Saturday, May 29, 2010

Sadly, Mr Laws Has Done the Right Thing
THE TELEGRAPH: The nature of David Laws's job made it impossible for him to remain in post.

The right move: David Laws's portfolio demanded that he be untainted by the MPs' expenses scandal. Photograph: The Telegraph
At a time when the country desperately needed an unusually able individual to fill the role of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, there had been almost unanimous agreement that David Laws, the Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil, promised to be outstanding in the role. We face an unprecedented budget deficit. Painful cuts are necessary. Mr Laws had the financial background – he made a fortune as a successful banker before he became an MP – to understand the importance of reducing the deficit, and the political acumen to work out how to begin making the cuts in the fairest, most efficient and least damaging way possible.

Unfortunately, his frontbench career has now come to an untimely end. As The Daily Telegraph revealed on Friday night, Mr Laws claimed a total of £40,000 in rent for properties owned and inhabited by his partner. Although the newspaper would not have revealed it, Mr Laws volunteered the fact that his partner was a man, James Lundie. Changes to the rules on MPs’ expenses, introduced in July 2006, state that Parliamentary allowances “must not be used to meet the costs of… leasing accommodation from a partner or family member”. On Friday, Mr Laws promised to pay back the money. He said that he did not knowingly break the rules, because he did not think of Mr Lundie as his “partner”, or want to reveal his homosexuality, which he had kept secret from his friends and family. >>> Telegraph View | Saturday, May 29, 2010

Profile of David Laws: The Banker on the Frontbench
THE GUARDIAN: The chief secretary to the Treasury entered parliament in 2001 after quitting a career in the City that had made him a millionaire

The former investment banker David Laws, 44, has risen through the Liberal Democrat ranks since entering parliament in 2001, gaining a reputation as one of a breed of young Lib Dem MPs whose promotion of free market policies contrast with the party's left-leaning traditions.

Laws is co-author of the Orange Book, calling for a return to the "traditional building blocks of liberalism", including free trade and a belief in the effectiveness of the private sector.

He also believes in limits to EU powers and an end to the common agricultural policy. Although his perspective is more centrist than rightwing, when he first stood as a Lib Dem, the Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown thought he was a Tory mole. After quitting a career in the City that made him a millionaire, Laws took over Ashdown's Yeovil seat in 2001. He has since rejected overtures from the Tories to defect. >>> The Guardian | Saturday, May 29, 2010


David Laws: Yet Again, Hiding in the Closet Proves [to Be] a Politician's Undoing
THE GUARDIAN: It is hardly credible that in 2010, after all the progress that has been made, the gay liberation message still needs to be heard

The closet causes crises. It is an unhappy place to live and David Laws is not the first person who, on being forced out, immediately talked about the "relief" of no longer having to lie. It is tempting to blame Laws himself: a man who had the ability and determination to earn a fortune by the age of 28, and be in a senior government job at 44, is obviously no shrinking violet. Why wasn't he able to take control of his life and be honest and open with his friends and family and be proud of his relationship?

Laws grew up in the 1970s, a period of lingering bigotry that thrived long after the first partial decriminalisation of gay sex in 1967. His late teens and early adulthood, a time when people discover their sexuality, coincided with the long, dark night of Thatcher (to quote Derek Jarman) when the media were full of hatred, the Conservative leader of Staffordshire county council called for Aids to be dealt with by gassing gay men and police officers in gangs of 50 raided our pubs to check the licences but were too busy to investigate the murders of gay people in Britain's streets and parks or an arson attack on the gay newspaper I then edited. Conservative election posters and Margaret Thatcher derided lesbian and gay rights, while speakers at Tory annual conferences gave us such gems as: "If you want a queer for your neighbour, vote Labour" and, of course, there was Section 28.

Is it surprising that in this atmosphere, reflected in pulpits and playgrounds across the nation, a bright young man buried himself in work and focused his energies on making money?

Many people did come out even then; often, they were angry and demanding gay rights and gay liberation. And the one constant refrain of the lesbian and gay movement was to urge people to come out because the closet is a cold, lonely place that makes you lie again and again to those closest to you and always risks ending in tears. >>> Graham McKerrow | Saturday, May 29, 2010

Les tories grognent contre David Cameron
LE FIGARO: Le «recentrage» du premier ministre britannique dans le cadre de son alliance avec les LibDems agite les rangs des conservateurs.

Deux semaines après sa prise de fonctions à Downing Street, David Cameron doit déjà faire face aux premiers remous au sein de sa coalition, bâtie avec les libéraux démocrates. La belle image d'unité montrée mardi par les tories avec leurs nouveaux alliés sur les bancs de la Chambre des communes, après le discours de la reine, semble n'être qu'une attitude de façade. Certains députés conservateurs contestent en effet ouvertement les concessions faites aux LibDems.

L'un d'eux, un ancien ministre de Margaret Thatcher, a même publié la lettre qu'il a adressée au secrétaire au Trésor pour protester contre le projet d'augmentation des prélèvements sur les plus-values financières, faisant passer ce taux d'imposition de 18 % à 40 %. «Si le gouvernement faisait plus que doubler le taux d'imposition sur les plus-values instauré par les travaillistes, cela enverrait un signal étrange sur les intentions de la coalition conservateurs-LibDems», met en garde John Redwood dans sa missive. >>> Par Cyrille Vanlerberghe, Correspondant à Londres, Le Figaro | Jeudi 27 Mai 2010

New British Government Outlines Goals


Queen Elizabeth Opens New Parliament

The Queen’s Speech


THE TELEGRAPH: Queen's speech point by point >>> | Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Philip Johnston: The State Opening Reminds Us of the Unique Flexibility of the British Constitution
The Queen makes her way to Parliament. Photo: The Telegraph
TELEGRAPH BLOG – PHILIP JOHNSTON: It was heartening to see that after 13 years of Labour “modernisation” the State Opening of Parliament retained all the pomp and circumstance that we as a nation still do so well. Funnily enough this great pageantry and its ancient rituals date all the way back to, well, 1852. Although the symbolism — such as taking an MP hostage and keeping him in Buckingham Palace until the Queen returns, or searching the Palace of Westminster for gunpowder — deliberately evokes our history, the form of the State Opening is relatively recent in origin. >>> Philip Johnston | Tuesday, May 25, 2010

THE INDEPENDENT: Queen's Speech lays out radical agenda for coalition >>> PA | Tuesday, May 25, 2010

David Cameron Attacks Labour After Queen's Speech
THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron renewed his pre-election attacks on Labour following the Queen's Speech, claiming Gordon Brown had left the country in an ''appalling mess''.



In his first major speech at the Commons despatch box since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Cameron clashed with Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader.

His comments followed acting Labour leader Harriet Harman's response to the Queen's Speech from the Opposition front bench.

Mr Cameron said there was ''something missing'' from her speech: ''Not one word of apology for the appalling mess that has been left in this country.

''Nothing to say about leaving Britain with a deficit that is bigger than Greece's.

''Not a single idea for getting to grips with it.

''Until they learn what they got so badly wrong I'm not sure people are going to listen to them again.''

Mr Cameron said the Queen's Speech was the first in 65 years from a coalition government.

"It is a Government not driven by party interest but by the national interest, with clear values at its heart," the Prime Minister said.

"The values at its heart are freedom, because over the past decade the state has become over-mighty and civil liberties have been undermined consistently... >>> | Tuesday, May 25, 2010

No-holds Barred Cameron Ditches Queen’s Speech Etiquette
TIMES ONLINE: David Cameron ignored the traditional niceties of the Queen’s Speech debate today to tear into Labour’s record in office and complain that Gordon Brown’s Government had left the country in an “appalling mess”.

The Prime Minister’s vitriolic attack in his first Commons appearance of the new Parliament raised eyebrows on a day when MPs usually act as though they can rise above party politics.

Speaking after Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, gave a gently chiding response to the introduction of the Lib-Con legislative programme, Mr Cameron said there was “something missing” from her speech.

“Not one word of apology for the appalling mess that has been left in this country. Nothing to say about leaving Britain with a deficit that is bigger than Greece’s. Not a single idea for getting to grips with it,” he said.

“Until they learn what they got so badly wrong I’m not sure people are going to listen to them again.” >>> Philippe Naughton | Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Vision Offered by the Coalition Government in the Queen's Speech Will Offer Little to Help Victims of the Cuts
THE TELEGRAPH: It's a new nation under the coaltion government – but be warned: the newly poor will need a voice, says Mary Riddell.

Tomorrow, with all due pomp and pageantry, the Queen will tell Parliament that her Government will exercise "freedom, fairness and responsibility". Her speech, rooted in 500 years of tradition, will herald the birth of a modern nation.

The legislative programme outlined by Her Majesty is the gateway to a Britain in which children play in streets uncluttered by CCTV cameras and superfluous immigrants. These pupils, heading to sumptuous schools set up by (non-working?) parents, may walk past JobCentre Plus branches packed with benefit scroungers being shoehorned into gainful employment. Any anti-social elements disturbing the civic calm will be swiftly dealt with by our newly-politicised police. What happy days.

I do not mean to parody the Con-Lib agenda. Scrapping ID cards, curbing the excesses of the surveillance state and electoral reform are welcome and overdue. Even so, the upbeat pitch of today's proceedings stands in stark contrast to yesterday's.

The £6.25 billion cuts outlined by George Osborne sounded modest and, in some cases, positive. We can all sign up to a bit of quangocide and an end to first-class travel by civil servants. But these are the surface grazes before tax cuts kick in and the axe falls on the 300,000 public sector jobs threatened by efforts to cut the £157 billion budget deficit.

As the age of austerity dawns, the government is unfurling two contradictory visions of Britain. One is of a settled country reclaiming equality and freedom. The other shows a future so divisive that its strictures may rupture our tacit social contract and threaten civic peace. Obviously, cuts are essential, and Labour profligacy has made them more so. But the Coalition, still in its honeymoon, is being allowed to draw a veil over the pain to come. >>> Mary Riddell | Monday, May 24, 2010

Benedict Brogan: Discarded Policies Are the Price of Coalition
THE TELEGRAPH: Telegraph View: Will there be a coherent policy approach, or a hotchpotch of ideas with no real consistency or theme?

The publication yesterday of the agreed programme for the coalition Government resembled the launch of an election manifesto. The document certainly has the feel of one, with its mix of firm pledges, half-promises and vague aspirations. Not until the ideas begin to take legislative form in next week's Queen's Speech will we see what the true priorities are, and whether the give and take necessitated by the negotiations has produced a marriage of convenience, or of principle – will there be a coherent policy approach, or a hotchpotch of ideas with no real consistency or theme? Read on and comment >>> Benedict Brogan | Thursday, May 20, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron Drops More Tory Pledges As He Hails Coalition Deal >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Thursday, May 20, 2010

David Cameron Drops More Tory Pledges As He Hails Coalition Deal
THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has hailed his final coalition deal with Nick Clegg, but conceded more Conservative pledges have been “discarded” to satisfy the Liberal Democrats.



The Prime Minister and his Lib Dem deputy have unveiled a 32-page document setting out the details of the shared policy agenda they will follow in government.

The document, entitled “The Coalition: our programme for government” was described by both men as a historic achievement blending their parties’ policies.

However, on several major issues, the partners have effectively deferred a final decision, promising only to establish independent commissions and reviews to consider the issue. >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Thursday, May 20, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Coalition plan for government: a policy-by-policy guide: David Cameron and Nick Clegg have launched their coalition programme for government. Here's a breakdown of the key policies promises ageed [sic] by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. >>> Heidi Blake | Thursday, May 20, 2010

Coalition Under New Strain Over Human Rights U-turn
THE INDEPENDENT: Fresh strains were showing in the new Lib-Con coalition tonight as senior Tory MPs expressed "dismay" that plans to overhaul the Human Rights Act had been put on a backburner.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg risked further antagonising Conservative backbenchers after he issued a warning that they tampered with the Act "at their peril".

The commitment to repeal the Act - which enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights in UK law - and replace it with a British Bill of Rights was a key commitment in the Conservative manifesto.

But it emerged yesterday that the coalition Government had decided to set up a commission to look at the issue of whether there was a case for new British legislation.

The latest controversy flared as Mr Clegg and Prime Minister David Cameron prepared to unveil the final coalition document tomorrow.

Tory MP Bill Cash - who, as shadow attorney general, had been instrumental in drawing up the original Conservative policy in opposition - said that he was "dismayed" at the latest developments.

He warned that there was "very acute" concern among Conservative MPs that the party's position was being watered down.

"I think our manifesto commitment was crystal clear. It said that we would replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One. >>> Andrew Woodcock, PA | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Related article and videos here

Clegg Backs Decision to Stop Deportation of 'al-Qaeda Operative'
TIMES ONLINE: Nick Clegg today defended a decision under the Human Rights Act to allow two Pakistani terror suspects to walk free in the UK despite an assessment that they pose a serious threat to the British public.

In his first major set-piece speech to launch the Liberal-Conservative programme of political reform, Mr Clegg said, “The law is very clear that it is wrong to deport people where there is risk that they will be seriously mistreated, tortured or even killed.”

The Liberal Democrat leader was booed by crowds of young people as he arrived at the City & Islington College in North London for his first major address as Deputy Prime Minister, and opened by saying the “loud reception” was a “sign of how things have changed”.

His speech was designed to launch what the Government says is the biggest shake-up of British democracy since 1832, including a promise to “tear through the statute book” to dispose of unnecessary laws. >>> Judith Evans | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Nick Clegg: Tell Us the Laws That You Want Scrapped
THE TELEGRAPH: The most radical redistribution of power from the state to the people for 200 years is to be made by the new coalition Government, Nick Clegg is to claim.

The public will be asked what laws they want ripped up, in far-reaching reforms designed to put back “faith in politics”, the Deputy Prime Minister will say.

The reordering of power will sweep away Labour legislation and new criminal offences deemed to have eroded personal freedom.

It will involve the end of the controversial ID cards scheme, the scrapping of universal DNA databases – in which the records of thousands of innocent people have been stored – and restrictions placed on internet records. The use of CCTV cameras will also be reviewed.

Dubbed the “Great Reform Act”, the measures will close down the ContactPoint children’s database. Set up by Labour last year, it includes detailed information on all 11 million youngsters under 18.

In addition, schools will not be able to take a child’s fingerprint without parental permission.

In an attempt to protect freedom of speech, ministers will review libel laws, while limits on peaceful protest will be removed.

Mr Clegg said the Government wanted to establish “a fundamental resettlement of the relationship between state and citizen that puts you in charge”.

In a speech in London he will say: “This Government is going to transform our politics so the state has far less control over you, and you have far more control over the state. This Government is going to break up concentrations of power and hand power back to people, because that is how we build a society that is fair.”

He will describe the plans as “the biggest shake-up of our democracy since 1832, when the Great Reform Act redrew the boundaries of British democracy, for the first time extending the franchise beyond the landed classes”. >>> Andrew Porter, Political Editor | Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Clegg Risks Rift with Tories on Tax and Human Rights
Nick Clegg, being interviewed by The Times. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: Nick Clegg is promising to make the tax system fairer rather than lower the tax burden as he seeks to imbue the coalition with Liberal Democrat values.

In an interview with The Times, the Deputy Prime Minister said that he expected the Government to ease taxes on middle and lower-income families and to press ahead quickly with a rise in capital gains tax for higher earners.

Asked whether he expected the Government to reduce the tax burden, he said: “No, I am saying we will rebalance the tax system. We’re not making great claims about the overall tax burden.”

His comments are likely to expose faultlines with his Tory partners, for whom lowering the taxes borne by families and businesses is an article of faith. Read on and comment >>> Roland Watson, Political Editor | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Clegg Hopes Coalition Will Produce A Great Reforming Government
TIMES ONLINE: Nick Clegg has made little impression on his new office. There are some family photographs on his desk, overlooking Horse Guards Parade and St James’s Park, and a big red ring binder on the large table. But the pictures on the walls are inherited from the previous occupant, Lord Mandelson: Chaucer above the fireplace, a photograph of the Queen posing for Lucien Freud, Hotel Splendide (Mornington Crescent) by Arturo Di Stefano.

It looks like he moved in a few minutes ago. The armchairs and sofa are undisturbed. Yet today, in his first speech as Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Clegg will promise the biggest shake-up of British democracy since 1832. That is only the start.

In his first interview since forging Britain’s first coalition government since the war, Mr Clegg makes clear that while he may be the junior partner in name, there is nothing secondary about his ambition.

The indecision of the electorate, the uncertainty of a hung Parliament and the brinkmanship of the coalition negotiations may yet produce “one of the great reforming governments of modern times”, he said.

Today he will set out how the State will shrink from people’s lives (no ID cards, curbs on personal details stored on government databases); how people will gain a more direct say in government (elected peers, voting reform, recalling misbehaving MPs); and “radical devolution” of power to voluntary groups and those other than the State to provide services. >>> Roland Watson, Political Editor | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

David Cameron Declares War On Public Sector Pay
THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has vowed to crack down on "crazy" bonuses paid to civil servants as the new Government seeks to reduce the costs of the bloated public sector.

Out of control hand-outs, which this year will be paid to three-quarters of senior civil servants, are to be restricted to high performers.

Under the terms of Whitehall contracts signed by Labour ministers at the height of the recession, bonus payments can not be cancelled by the incoming Government.

In future, however, windfalls across the public sector will be restricted to employees who have performed “exceptionally well,” with only the top 25 per cent eligible for the payments. >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Sunday, May 16, 2010

Top Liberal Democrats Open Rift Over Coalition With Conservatives
THE OBSERVER: Why I refused to back deal - Charles Kennedy / Former leader fuels doubts over pact

Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy congratulate Nick Clegg after he beat Chris Huhne to become Lib Dem leader in 2007. Photo: The Observer
The depth of division among Liberal Democrats over Nick Clegg's coalition deal with the Tories bursts into the open today as former party leader Charles Kennedy reveals that he refused to vote for the deal.

In a heartfelt article for today's Observer, Kennedy writes that he could not bring himself to back Clegg in the crucial, behind-closed-doors meeting of Lib Dem MPs last Tuesday night. He feared the move to a formal coalition with the Tories could wreck for ever plans for a progressive centre-left alliance in British politics.

Other party grandees, including former leaders Menzies Campbell, Paddy Ashdown and David Steel, also had profound doubts. But in the end Ashdown and Campbell voted in favour. Steel, who could not be present at the meeting, authorised Kennedy to express their shared views about the dangers of the deal. >>> Toby Helm and Anushka Asthana | Sunday, May 16, 2010

Analysis: Liberal Democrats Switch Support to Labour After Tory Coalition Deal
THE TELEGRAPH: The Liberal Democrats have clearly taken an electoral hit as a result of their decision to enter into a coalition with the Conservatives, writes John Curtice.

At 21 per cent, their share of voting intentions is down three points on what they secured in the ballot box just ten days ago.

Only around three-quarters of those who voted for the party on May 6th say that they would vote for them now. In contrast nearly everyone who voted Conservative or Labour would do so again.

Moreover, most of those who have defected from the Lib Dems have switched to Labour. This has helped push Labour up three points to 33 per cent, though the Conservatives have edged up a point to 38 per cent too.

Yet this result may still be greeted with some relief at Lib Dem headquarters. The party might have feared the electoral fallout from last week would have been much greater. The Lib Dems' current rating is still above what the party polled during most of the last parliament.

The Lib Dems will also be encouraged by the finding that the public might vote in favour of a switch to the Alternative Vote system in the proposed referendum, the key concession Nick Clegg obtained from David Cameron. As many as 56 per cent say they would back a switch. >>> John Curtice | Saturday, May 15, 2010

Tory/Lib Dem Coalition Wins Public Approval in ICM Poll
THE TELEGRAPH: The Liberal/Conservative coalition has won high levels of public approval, with nearly two thirds of voters backing the new Govern-ment, a Sunday Telegraph/ ICM poll shows.

The survey, the first by ICM since election day, showed 64 per cent of voters thought that the Liberal Democrat/Conservative coalition was the right way forward for Britain after the general election resulted in a hung parliament.

It was backed by 87 per cent of those who voted Tory this month and 77 per cent of Lib Dem voters. >>> Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor | Saturday, May 15, 2010

Grande-Bretagne : le modéré David Lidington nommé secrétaire d'Etat à l'Europe
LE MONDE: Pour les médias britanniques, cela ne fait pas de doute : en nommant David Lidington, un modéré, au poste de secrétaire d'Etat à l'Europe, le nouveau premier ministre David Cameron a montré sa volonté d'apaiser les relations tendues entre son Parti conservateur et l'Union européenne (UE). Cette nomination est aussi interprétée par les médias comme une concession au Parti libéral-démocrate très européen du vice-premier ministre Nick Clegg, avec lequel M. Cameron vient de former un gouvernement de coalition. M. Lidington, 53 ans, devrait "contrebalancer la rhétorique très eurosceptique" du ministre des affaires étrangères William Hague, note le Financial Times. >>> LeMonde.fr avec AFP et Reuters | Vendredi 14 Mai 2010

Don't Take Offence at Our Coalition. Its Aims Are Liberal
THE GUARDIAN: A Lib-Con deal was the only responsible choice. And our shared aim is to build a fairer society by a radical dispersal of power

The third runway at Heathrow has been cancelled. ID cards have been scrapped. There will be no more child detention. And reform is now under way to make taxes fair for millions of ordinary people.

These are some of the early achievements of a government that had its first cabinet meeting just two days ago. A new government but, more important, a new kind of government: plural, diverse; a Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition that defies the rules of old politics.

I know the birth of this coalition has caused much surprise, and, with it, some offence. There are those on both the left and right who are united in thinking this should not have happened. But the truth is this: there was no other responsible way to play the hand dealt to the political parties by the British people at the election. The parliamentary arithmetic made a Lib-Lab coalition unworkable, and it would have been regarded as illegitimate by the British people. Equally, a minority administration would have been too fragile to tackle the political and economic challenges ahead.

So, given that the people told us, explicitly, that they didn't want just one party in charge, we had a duty to find a way for more than one party to govern effectively. And we have.

That's the pragmatic analysis. But what I think has surprised all of us in the government this week is the strength of the agreement on principle, too. No government – whether it's a coalition of parties, or a coalition of rivalries as in the Blair-Brown governments – is able to survive without a core set of common assumptions and aspirations. >>> Nick Clegg | Friday, May 14, 2010

Step In to Tackle Yobs, Says New Home Secretary Theresa May
THE TELEGRAPH: Members of the public should intervene to stop anti-social behaviour on Britain’s streets, the new Home Secretary has said.

In her first interview since her surprise appointment, Theresa May says she wants to create an atmosphere in which people feel able to stop gangs of youths blighting neighbourhoods. She suggests that more police would be on the beat – able to “help” citizens if confrontations threaten to become violent.

The Home Secretary tells The Daily Telegraph that her success in the post should be judged on whether “people feel safer in their own homes” and public faith in the police is restored.

Mrs May says a priority for the Government would be introducing laws to protect people tackling burglars and “good Samaritans” taking on troublemakers. She will also scrap dozens of Labour measures, such as ID cards, which threaten civil liberties.

“We need to generate an environment in which people are able to have the confidence to intervene,” she says. “The more we are able to generate that confidence, the more people will feel confident about intervening with kids on the street corner. I would like to have a situation where people felt able to intervene.” Mrs May, who was previously the shadow work and pensions secretary, also:

*Refuses to rule out a cut in the number of police officers under plans to reduce the Home Office budget.

*Pledges to end the “health and safety culture” in the police and return officers to the beat.

*Says she does not believe that there should be an absolute limit on the population but adds that plans are under way to introduce an annual cap for immigration from outside the European Union.

*Announces plans to take samples of the DNA of every prisoner in an attempt to make it easier to catch reoffenders.

Says the Government will push ahead with directly-elected “police chiefs” despite opposition from some chief constables. >>> Robert Winnett, and Andrew Porter | Friday, May 14, 2010

David Cameron Faces Tory Revolt Over 55 Per Cent Rule
David Cameron's backbench colleagues are unhappy with one of the concessions he made to achieve his coalition Cabinet. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: David Cameron was facing his first backbench rebellion today over a plan designed to make it more difficult for the Opposition to force a general election if his new coalition Government is defeated in a vote of confidence.

A number of Tory MPs, including one who is a frontrunner to become chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee, warned the Prime Minister that his plan requiring a vote of at least 55 per cent of MPs for Parliament to be dissolved before the end of its five-year term would undermine the “primacy of Parliament".

Charles Walker, the Conservative MP for Broxbourne, said the plan was simply being introduced for the “con-Parliament”.

“It is not the duty of Parliament to prop up this coalition. That is the duty of the coalition partners and if they can’t make it work and if they lose the confidence of Parliament then we must have a general election. It is a simple as that,” Mr Walker said. >>> Philippe Naughton | Friday, May 14, 2010

'It's a Recipe for Anarchy': First Tories Break Ranks Over Five-year Parliament 'Stitch-up'
MAIL ONLINE: Cameron's former leadership rival Davis leads chorus of dissent ? / Blunkett: 'This is profoundly undemocratic'

David Cameron's plan to bring in fixed-term parliaments was condemned as a 'recipe for anarchy' today as Tories broke ranks to openly attack the move.

Senior Conservative Party figures rounded on the new PM as they argued the proposal to bring in legislation allowing him to govern for five years undermines the 'primacy' of Parliament.

They angrily condemned the idea, laid out in the coalition deal agreed by the two parties which they said had been 'cobbled together' with only the approval of Mr Cameron's closest aides.

The change in law would mean Mr Cameron could be removed only if 55 per cent of MPs voted for the dissolution of Parliament and an early election.

A number of MPs want to retain the right to kick out a government by a simple majority of one, by way of a no-confidence vote.

David Davis - once Mr Cameron's leadership rival - is understood to be among the growing number of politicians opposed to the 'stitch-up'.

Senior Tory backbencher Christopher Chope said today: 'I think it is unsustainable as a proposition.

'If the present Government was to lose its majority in Parliament and wasn't able to operate as a minority government because it didn't enjoy the confidence of a sufficient number of MPs, then what is being suggested is that it would be able to carry on. That would be, basically, a recipe for anarchy. >>> Gerri Peev | Friday, May 14, 2010

Coalition Government: Conservative Anger at 'Anti-democratic' No-confidence Rule
THE TELEGRAPH: Conservative MPs might rebel against “profoundly anti-democratic” moves to keep the new coalition in power by increasing the threshold for a vote of no confidence.

Under the terms of a deal struck between the two parties, ministers plan to introduce a law that would require the votes of 55 per cent of the Commons – 358 MPs – before the Government could be thrown out.

David Cameron said this was to ensure that the coalition survived the five-year fixed term over which he intends to govern.

However, MPs of all parties are concerned that the move amounts to a radical change in the constitution, which was not put to the electorate at the general election. Labour MPs will vote against the move and may be joined by several Conservative backbenchers, who are lobbying for the measure to be dropped.

At present, a simple majority of MPs can vote down a government. >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Friday, May 14, 2010