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A group of Italian parliamentarians must have been slightly bemused last weekend when a visitor with a Scottish accent hesitated before quoting Dante to them in their native tongue.

“I am a very poor linguist but I am very fortunate in that my wife is a fluent speaker of French, Italian and Spanish,” the education secretary, Michael Gove, says as he recalls his trip to Rome. “I was able, with her help, to address a group of Italian parliamentarians in halting Italian quoting from Dante.”

Gove, who was speaking to the Guardian ahead of the Conservative conference in Manchester, hopes that children in England will be given the chance that he never enjoyed as he moves to ensure that modern languages are taught from the age of five.

“Understanding a modern foreign language helps you understand English better,” he says. “The process of becoming fluent in a foreign language reinforces your fluency and understanding of grammar, syntax, sentence structure, verbal precision. There is no one who is fluent in a foreign language who isn’t a masterful user of their own language.”

Traditional teaching

Championing a return to traditional teaching marks out Gove, in the eyes of Tories, as a bold reformer who wants to ensure that core subjects are placed back at the heart of the curriculum. To Labour – and to some Liberal Democrats – Gove is an unashamed elitist who wants to turn schools into pale versions of his old Oxford college.

The education secretary has been the focus of intense criticism over the last year after he rushed through legislation to build on Tony Blair’s academy programme to allow the creation of new free schools. In recent weeks, 24 of the schools have opened across England, from West Sussex to Lancashire.

Labour has denounced the free schools as elitist and says they will benefit “pushy parents”.

Criticism from this quarter comes as no surprise to Gove. But he was alarmed when Nick Clegg raised concerns in a recent speech about whether the schools would be targeted at disadvantaged areas. The deputy prime minister also criticised Gove’s refusal to rule out allowing free schools to be run in the future on a for-profit basis.

Gove insists the new schools have not appeared only in privileged areas, though he admits that he will not dictate where they open. “The first set of free schools, by definition, are going to be set up by people who want to do it. I can’t direct them. That is in the nature of it.

“What was striking was that two thirds of free schools are set up in constituencies represented by Labour MPs. More than half [of free schools] are in the 30% most deprived areas. So they are not bastions of privilege in incredibly haute bourgeois areas. There is a mix but with a bias towards disadvantaged areas. It will be the same with the next wave of free schools. You will see a strong bias towards disadvantaged areas but there will be schools here and there which, because they are offering something distinctive, we should let through.” (This is contested: a Guardian report in September found the reverse: that the first 24 free schools are skewed towards the middle class and that white, working-class families are under-represented.)

The education secretary returns to the teaching of foreign languages as he tackles the criticism voiced by Clegg.

“Liberal Democratia is a foreign country,” Gove says. “I am getting to understand the language Liberal Democrats speak and their eating habits and their culture and their history and folk heroes. But Nick Clegg is a fluent native speaker. If he is going to lead his people in a particular direction, then I’ll defer to his judgment about it.”

Coalition dynamic

His response to Clegg illustrates how the dynamic of the coalition has changed in recent months after the Liberal Democrats felt that the Tories used underhand tactics to inflict a heavy defeat on them in the alternative vote referendum in May.

Gove, a close ally of David Cameron who has been an enthusiastic advocate of the coalition, says he understands why the Lib Dems need to “show a bit of leg” after their defeat in May.

But he is concerned that the Clegg attack could give the appearance that the Tories have no interest in promoting social justice. “The one thing I worried about is that people might infer from [his speech] that the department for education and its ministers weren’t interested in social justice … I don’t think it was Nick Clegg’s intention. But I think some people might have inferred from it: oh well, the Tories need the Lib Dems to keep them focused in this area.

“Nick Clegg will come up with ideas that would not have occurred to me to advance social mobility. But he is not foisting them on an unwilling partner who is accepting them only as the price of coalition. He is a colleague who is collaborating with us and who comes up with ideas.”

Other Tories will use less diplomatic language next week as they turn their fire on the newly assertive Lib Dems, who have boasted of a series of victories, notably on NHS reforms, since their defeat in the referendum in May.

Gove shows that the innocent early days of the coalition are over as he laughs at the memory of how he joined forces with Chris Huhne at a political cabinet to make a joint presentation on how to attack Labour.

“I think some of the rhetoric and images right at the very beginning of the coalition gave an exaggerated picture that this was somehow a fusion – even the choice of the government livery being green,” he says.

“It is not a fusion and it should be not be a fusion.”

But he says that the coalition must be more than a marriage of convenience. “At the same time it is not just a transactional and business-like relationship.

“I have got to know and to appreciate what Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander and others bring to politics. It is not quite that you finish each other’s sentences, but you can both be enthusiastic about working towards a particular goal. It is on the whole a healthy and productive relationship.”

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/30/conservative-conference-michael-gove-interview-education

The influence of the City over the Conservatives has been laid bare by new research showing that more than half of the Tory party’s donations since the general election have come from individuals and businesses working in finance.

Hedge funds, financiers and private equity firms contributed more than a quarter of all the Tories’ private donations – which this year poured in at a rate equal to £1m a month – the study by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found.

The figures show an increase in the proportion of party funds coming from the financial sector, raising fears that the City’s financial influence over the Tories is on the rise as key pieces of legislation are discussed by the coalition government.

They come amid growing concerns that some parts of the financial sector, described by Labour leader Ed Miliband this week as “asset strippers” or “predator financiers”, are profiting from financial instability.

The senior Labour shadow minister Peter Hain said the figures confirmed that the Tories remain wedded to the few who do well out of the financial and political system. The Liberal Democrats used the research to step up their campaign for changes to party funding.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has mapped, for the first time, donations to the Tories from business to the year ending 30 June.

Using analysis from the Electoral Commission and Companies House databases, the researchers found City donations in the 12 months to July accounted for 51.4% of the £12.2m of funds received by Central Office. Hedge funds, financiers and private equity firms contributed £3.3m – 27% – while 50 City donors paid more than £50,000. All donors contributing this amount or more become members of the Leader’s Group and qualify for a face-to-face meeting with the prime minister.

The largest contributor across all the business sectors studied by the bureau was hedge funds which donated £1.38m (11.4%). Three of the City’s biggest name hedge fund bosses – Michael Farmer, Lord Stanley Fink and Andrew Law – together contributed £636,300. Fink is the party treasurer. The top financier donor was David Rowland, who contributed £1.1m. Rowland has a colourful City career and was forced to resign as party treasurer before he even took up the job because of links to tax havens. He now controls Banque Havilland – which used to be the crashed Icelandic Kaupthing bank business – in Luxembourg and the hedge fund Blackfish Capital Management.

Outside the City, the sector that donated most was industry, including manufacturing and defence. This sector contributed £913,411 (7.5%). A company controlled by Michael Spencer, another former Conservative party treasurer, donated £163,350. He is campaigning against the EU’s attempts to introduce a transaction tax on financial trades and threatened on Fridayto shift some of his company’s operations from London “extremely rapidly” if the tax was introduced.

Peter Cruddas, the multimillionaire currency trader who grew up on a Hackney housing estate and left school with no qualifications, handed over £123,600, while his business, CMC Markets UK, donated £100,000. He is co-treasurer of the Conservative party, alongside Fink.

But while Spencer and others are now campaigning against potential tax changes, since the coalition came to power several key measures have been introduced that could benefit the Conservative’s City backers. Among them is a commitment to reduce corporation tax to 23% by April 2014 and exempting UK resident companies from corporation tax on all profits for their foreign branches.

The figures show the insurance sector has donated £189,400 as the government discusses radical plans to slash the legal aid budget – a measure which critics claim will benefit insurers. Construction companies have donated more than £220,000 amid a lobbying campaign to relax planning rules covering the green belt.

In a separate survey, the Labour MP John Mann disclosed figures that showed that the top three donors – Rowland, Farmer and Fink – had donated almost £10m since 2005. Stuart Wilks-Heeg, executive director of Democratic Audit, said: “What this study tellingly reveals is the scale of the Conservative party’s reliance on a variety of City interests at a time when the Conservative-led government is attempting to kick banking reform into the long grass.”

Hain said: “The Conservative party has long since been over reliant on donor income from people at the top of the income scale.

“No wonder David Cameron and George Osborne are straining at the leash to cut tax for people earning at least £150,000 a year while asking everyone else to pay the bill for a financial crisis caused by the banks,” he said.

The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott said: “Big financiers are still the Tories’ big backers with hedge fund gamblers and private equity asset strippers leading the way. Labour is being bankrolled by the union bosses. The coalition must act now to clean up party funding.”

Who gave what?

From the celebrity hairstylist to the Oscar-winning screenwriter, Haroon Siddique profiles a dozen top Tory donors

David Rowland, property developer: £1,160,936

Notoriously camera-shy, Rowland was by a distance the Conservatives’ largest donor last year. The former tax exile was set to become party treasurer last year but resigned shortly before he was due to start.

Michael Bishop, former airline head: £335,000

Was one of the country’s first openly gay senior executives when he headed BMI. Sold stake in airline to Lufthansa for £318m in 2008.

May Makhzoumi, fibreglass pipe manufacturing and supply business: £308,000

The biggest individual female donor. Wife of the Lebanese businessman Fouad Makhzoumi.

JCB Research, industrial equipment company: £300,000

Subsidiary of the Bamford family’s JCB digger empire. JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford was nominated for a peerage by David Cameron last year, but withdrew his nomination.

David Whelan, fitness clubs football club owner: £100,000

The founder of JJB Sports sold up in 2007, then later bought its fitness clubs. Also owns Wigan Athletic football club.

John Frieda, hairdresser: £50,000

Celebrity hairstylist with salons in London, New York, Los Angeles and Barbados. Sold his hair care products business to a Japanese corporation for £290m in 2002.

Jeremy Isaacs, private equity firm co-owner: £50,000

Left role as head of Lehman Brothers’ European and Asian operations days before bank went bankrupt in 2008. Later co-founded private-equity group vehicle JRJ group.

Hans Rausing, ex-packaging tycoon: £49,000

Co-inherited Sweden’s Tetra Pak group, the world’s largest packaging production company, then sold out to brother Gad in 1995 for an estimated $7bn. Wife Marit also donated £49,000 last year.

Julian Fellowes, writer and actor: £40,000

Won an Oscar for his first Hollywood screenplay, Gosford Park, and created the hit ITV series Downton Abbey. Was made a Conservative peer in January.

Annabel’s, private members restaurant nightclub: £20,000

Legendary central London society haunt, frequented over the years by Frank Sinatra, Aristotle Onassis, assorted royals and David Blunkett.

Mike Batt, composer: £20,000

Composed such classics as Remember You’re a Womble and the theme to Watership Down. Took over composing Tory election themes from Andrew Lloyd Webber and often donates in kind through music.

Bell Pottinger, PR group: £11,900

As representative for Trafigura, tried to prevent media revelations about the oil company’s involvement in toxic waste dumping in Africa. Also represents the government in Bahrain.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/30/city-conservatives-donations

Back in February when Paul McCartney announced he had written his first ballet score, the news attracted more cynicism than excitement.

The former Beatle’s track record as a classical composer was hardly inspiring, and the collaboration sounded like a blatant act of opportunism on the part of New York City Ballet, which was to stage the work.

A new, 50-minute ballet score by Macca would attract huge publicity and sponsorship but it was a sad comment on the glory days when NYCB had Stravinsky as its unofficial, in-house composer.

The critics’ response to the ballet, Ocean’s Kingdom, when it premiered last week, widely justified the cynicism.

It was panned in New York as an “over-hyped … expensive fiasco”. Yet the most swingeing attacks were directed at the ballet’s choreography (created by NYCB artistic director, Peter Martins), with mixed reviews going to Stella McCartney’s costumes.

As for her father’s contribution, the Romeo and Juliet plot he had invented was clearly banal (telling the story of Princess Honorata and Prince Stone, whose love for each other is threatened by the warring of their respective Kingdoms, Ocean and Earth).

Yet, as everyone pointed out, many classic ballets have survived equally trite librettos.

And the music itself received some tentative praise, even among New York’s harshest reviewers. Although it was obviously the work of a ballet novice, and obviously derivative of composers such as Ravel, Barber, Tchaikovsky, and Bernstein, McCartney had chosen his influences well.

And more than one critic thought the music deserved a second chance onstage, with better choreography.

It is important to keep “with better choreography” in mind however, when listening to Ocean’s Kingdom, the CD.

Few ballet scores travel well beyond the theatre, with even Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev usually abbreviated to suite form for the concert hall. And however serviceable McCartney’s music may be on stage, it makes for very thin listening on its own.

The opening movement starts out promisingly, with silvery strings and a ripple of bass notes that create a vividly watery atmosphere – it is not the overture to Rheingold, but still it carries a promise of magic.

McCartney credits composer John Wilson for help with the orchestration, but evident is the homework he did listening to Giselle, Adam’s 1841 ballet score that pioneered the use of musical leitmotifs for character and action.

In Hall of Dance there are bright, jazzy rhythms to support a succession of danced divertissements, a woozy blare of brass to announce the Three Drunken Lords. Gentle harmonies carry the lovers’ duets, while a strident burst of dissonance signals the onslaught of the marauding Terra Punks.

But the variety and the interest of the music quickly start to pall. There is a dull overload through the last of the four sections, and you strain to hear something bold or unexpected in the development of the musical ideas.

And what makes Ocean’s Kingdom fall so many millions of miles short of McCartney’s best work is the lack of memorable or arresting melody.

The lyric genius that produced Eleanor Rigby, Fool on the Hill and Hey Jude is nowhere in evidence. And without it, only the most fervent Paul McCartney fan would want to add this ballet score to their collection.

Ocean’s Kingdom, released by Decca on 3 October

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/sep/30/oceans-kingdom-paul-mccartney

A ban making it illegal to sell cigarettes from vending machines and requiring landlords to ensure all tobacco advertising on the machines is removed, comes into force in England on Saturday.

Northern Ireland intends to implement a tobacco ban from 1 February 2012, and both Scotland and Wales have committed to introducing a ban.

Other measures to protect young people from the dangers of smoking are also in the pipeline.

In April 2012 large retailers in England and Scotland will have to rid their premises of all tobacco displays, with small shops expected to do the same from April 2015.

Wales and Northern Ireland also plan to implement similar regulations.

The government is due to begin a public consultation before the end of this year on whether to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/01/vending-machine-tobacco-ban-begins

Vicky Pryce always thought if she and her husband, Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy, were ever to divorce it would be over the euro. “We used to argue all the time. I was totally anti-euro entry. I thought it was not an optimal currency union, that there would be real problems, a crisis.” She smiles wryly. “We had completely opposite views.”

She is many things, Pryce: a high-powered economist who inspires intense loyalty among her colleagues; a civil servant whose contribution has been described as “enormous”; a feminist, who continues to campaign for the visibility of women in the private and public sectors; a mother who has brought up five children alongside the demands of the board room; an academic, with visiting fellowships at Nuffield and CASS; a committed Lib Dem; a polyglot; the first woman to be appointed chief economic adviser at the Department Business, Innovation and Skills; the first female Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants; one of the first women to gain membership to the Reform Club. Oh, and a passionate Chelsea fan. It seems a bit rum, then, that she could be best known as the spurned wife of a cabinet minister.

It wasn’t the Euro in the end, but an aide: 44-year-old Carina Trimingham, who had met Huhne when he was fighting the Lib Dem leadership campaign in 2007, and left her female civil partner to be with him. Pryce discovered the affair only hours before it was reported in the News of the World in June last year. It was a “tremendous shock”. Since then there have been other allegations – another mistress, and the information that, back in 2003 when he was a MEP, Huhne may have asked Pryce to take speeding points on her licence for him (an issue that remains under police investigation). And last week Huhne felt moved to reveal more personal details at a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference. Talking abut the “appalling set of circumstances” that surrounded the breakup of his marriage, he described the “stress” his ex-wife must have felt and his attempts to apologise. “I personally feel enormous regret about what I put my family through and what happened with Vicky.” Pryce issued a statement on this “serious intrusion. I am surprised that my ex-husband considers it appropriate to talk at a public meeting about the very private aspects of our family life,” she said.

Pryce has been bombarded with requests for personal interviews over the last 18 months – we all want the rantings of the scorned wife – but she has said no to everything, until now. The timing of her surrender is interesting; it must be no coincidence that it is only a few days since Huhne’s breast-baring. But she doesn’t want to get her own back. In fact, the moment she sits down she says: “There are a number of things I am just not going to touch on, all this stuff that is going on right now. I am sure you can imagine, but I just won’t.” She says it is hard to keep refusing things when you are in the public eye and that anyway, she has ambitions of her own. She is straight about this: she doesn’t seem cagey so much as dignified. But, as the interview goes on, avoiding the subject is harder than either of us thinks.

We have met in her offices in Covent Garden – she is a senior managing director at FTI, an American financial consultancy; the only woman at that level in her sector. It is a platonically perfect working environment. All white and marble, polished wood surfaces and red leather sofas, the rooftops of central London – spires and cranes, chimney pots and aerials – stretching out silently beyond acres of clear glass. Pryce is a little late, and arrives flustered. She has had to bag up all the things her youngest son, who has just started at Oxford, had forgotten. She is slight, with narrow-shoulders, heavy bracelets on her slim wrists, black-rimmed glasses cutting across alert, brown eyes. There is an engagingly upbeat air about her; she is 60 next year, but you would never guess. She is dressed smartly but quirkily: opaque tights with high grey court shoes; a jacket with interesting buttons. She stopped wearing black and white for work years ago when she turned up for a directors’ lunch and “when I got out of the lift, a client asked if I was looking for the kitchen”.

There is much that is unexpected about Pryce. A Chelsea shirt, signed by the squad 2010/11, has pride of place on her wall: “Torres played alright for once on Wednesday.” Many of her sentences are surprising. Born Vasiliki Courmouzis in Athens, she grew up the middle of three children: “The ideal position to be in. No one really pays much attention to you so you can get away with murder.” She was out on the town at 11, coming home at all hours; later riding a motorbike. It was a huge extended family, in which not much was expected of girls (though her mother “was a great poker player”), something she thinks turned her into “a very early feminist. What is this thing with boys? I didn’t understand it. It made me determined to do my own thing.”

Her father was in tourism and was keen for his children to learn languages (she speaks four), but it was Pryce who decided London was the place. She arrived at 17, “extraordinary of my parents to let me”, and after the Colonels took over Greece and her father’s business “went belly-up”, worked six days a week in the Mayfair Hotel as a room-service telephonist to pay for her O and A-levels: “It was rather fun,” she says. “And improved my English no end.” A scholarship from a Greek foundation took her to the LSE, where she studied economics and met her first husband, who was president of the student union and whose name she took.

By 23, she had had her first child, a daughter, followed by another, and was speedily rising up the ranks at Williams Glyn’s bank. They lived in West Dulwich, on a main road: “I love main roads, there is always something interesting going on, people getting knocked down and you rush and help them … It’s quite active.” She is funny about her working life in this period, too: the booze at lunch, the sexism: “The first thing I had to do when I became manager of the economics department was go round and tell everyone, ‘You are going to have to throw away the Page 3 pin-ups you have on your screens.’”

Her first marriage ended in 1981, and in 1984, by which time she had become a corporate economist at Exxon, Pryce married Chris Huhne. They moved to a beautiful Georgian square in Clapham and had three further children, two boys and a girl. From this point, it proves impossible to talk about Pryce’s life and career without talking about Huhne.

Her City salary – she became a partner at KPMG, travelling to eastern Europe, China, India, Africa – gave Huhne the freedom to experiment professionally in journalism and property. It was when he made the decision to become an MEP, that compromises needed to be made. “I was not fantastically keen on the idea … I didn’t really like the thought of him going off … I mean it was the way to get into parliament … it made sense, but it was crazy, we had au pairs but we couldn’t both be away. So I completely hanged my career.”

Pryce left KPMG, set up the GoodCorporation, an organisation promoting ethical business practices, and in 2002 was headhunted as director general and chief economic adviser at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. “It wasn’t my career path. I had been very well paid, and … well I am not complaining. I had a special contract which put me above the prime minister, but it was a lot less. But one of us had to be there for the children so I took it. I didn’t object to it. When you are a unit and do everything together …” She breaks off. I am not sure her eyes are not filling. “And I thought we were a unit.”

It was a hard period in her life. It is the time of the controversial speeding tickets (“I’m absolutely not talking about that”), when Huhne finally lost his licence for talking on a mobile phone and had to be driven everywhere. She subsequently read in the paper about another affair while he was in Brussels. “The woman said I was going to be left: I have no idea whether any of this is true. I had to handle everything. I had to handle a very difficult child during that period … He was away all week and, of course, at weekends he had started to nurse the Eastleigh consitituency … It turns out this mistress supposedly helped choose the furniture for our house. I had no clue. I had no idea. I had complete trust at the time.”

Her trust continued right until June 2010, when Huhne entered the cabinet. Again, she was the one who compromised, resigning from a post she had come to love (she was then joint head of the Government Economic Service) in order to avoid a conflict of interest. She was offered the job at FTI, but was still working out her notice when Huhne left. “I rang up and tried to offer my resignation. I said, ‘With all this stuff, you realise I am going to be a liability.’”

When the news broke, she thought about running away to Greece. “But my friends said I couldn’t hide, that it would be the worst thing to do.” On the Monday, she went to work. “And all my people, they said: ‘Right, we have looked at your diary and you are not going to do this, and you are not going to Brussels and we have taken over that.’ It was incredible. You know, the loyalty of your friends and your colleagues, and of course your kids, that’s what you live for.”

Soon after that there was a Lib Dem party. “I was outside with a very good Lib Dem friend: ‘Do I go in? Do I not go in? Do I go in?’ I didn’t have my prescription sunglasses with me, but she handed me hers and I went. I had to do it. And it was better that I did.”

I have stopped asking Pryce questions. She is just talking. “I have friends who say if they were me they wouldn’t get up in the morning. And every morning I think: ‘How am I going to get through the day. The shock hasn’t gone. But somehow I do. So yesterday, I am feeling …but I get a call from Sky News, then at 10.30am I went to a client, then I chaired a commission, then I walked to Millbank and did BBC Scotland, then LBC wanted me to do something on the financial transaction tax, and meetings and then dinner with my daughter. Pizza Express.” She is talking with forced chirpiness, one hand is clenching her elbow. “So, that’s what you do.”

All her children live close by and she has two grandchildren whom she adores. There is a future of her own to think about, too. She is still closely involved with Vince Cable’s advisory committee and by the next election would like to be playing a more political role: “More women are needed in government, particularly as economists. They view the world differently. They are less single-minded.”

Are they better at handling people? She gives me a long, considered look over the top of her glasses. It is as beady as she gets. “I am not a politician,” she says. “But I would imagine women are more to be trusted than men.”

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/oct/01/vicky-pryce-interview

Labour conference fringe: Will things ever be the same again?

27 Sep 2010

Allegra Stratton: Yvette Cooper, Peter Kellner, Charles Clarke and Chris Huhne offer their views on the transformation of British politics

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/cartoon/2011/oct/01/peter-kellner-caricature

George Osborne has dampened Tory backbench hopes of tax cuts in this parliament saying he does not believe you should fund lower taxes through more borrowing .

In an interview in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph, he warns that the crisis is as severe as the one in 2008. He says: “I’m a Conservative who believes in lower taxes. They lead to a more enterprising economy. But I’m not somebody who believes you can fund lower taxes by borrowing more money because that is a deceit and the public are smart enough to see straight through it. My first priority is to deal with the deficit. I don’t want to be a chancellor who cuts taxes one year and has to put them up the next. A country with an almost double-digit deficit cannot add to its deficit in the middle of a sovereign debt storm to cut tax, presumably on a temporary basis, because you would have to then put it back up again to deal with the deficit.

“Tax cuts should be for life, not just for Christmas.”

The Telegraph and the Mail also report that Osborne will announce measures at the Conservative party conference that make it easier for employers to sack workers. These will require an employee to have two years continuous employment before they can claim unfair dismissal at a tribunal. At the moment an employee only needs one year’s employment.

In fact the announcement was made by the business department at the beginning of the week leading to a press release from the Unite union on Wednesday morning protesting against the change. In the Unite press release its general secretary, Len McCluskey, said: “How will attacking workers’ ability to secure justice create one single job? All it will do is create a hire and fire culture where bad employers cannot be challenged. “When will this government understand that there is not a culture of ‘vexatious’ claims? Proper checks and balances are in place to root out those cases. The vast majority of workers pursuing unfair dismissal are found to have valid claims.

“At a stroke of a pen, following a fraudulent consultation exercise whereby employers could “vote” for their least liked laws, a key defence against mistreatment is taken away from workers.” The announcement was contained in a report on its deregulation progress One-in, One-out: Second Statement of New Regulation. Published at the beginning of the week, it included the decision: “Consulted on changes to employment law that will give business the confidence to take on staff. We are increasing the qualifying period for employees to be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal from one to two years and introducing fees for lodging employment tribunal cases to tackle vexatious claims.”

Osborne is also to announce he is cutting the number of union officers in the civil service paid for by the taxpayer.

In an article for the Mail, David Cameron says business creates jobs, not the state. The prime minister admits people are increasingly anxious about their future and insists he is not adopting a “keep calm and carry on” attitude to the economy.

Meanwhile the Tory chairman of the Treasury select committee, Andrew Tyrie, has attacked the lack of a coherent long-term growth strategy from the government. In the Times Tyrie defends plans to cut the deficit on the timetable proposed by ministers, but says: “There is much to do, and it is not just a question of gaps in policy. A coherent and credible plan for the long-term economic growth rate of the UK economy is needed.

“The ‘big society’; localism; the green strategy – whether right or wrong; these and other initiatives have seemed at best irrelevant to the task in hand, if not downright contradictory to it; likewise the huge spending hike on overseas aid and the cost of the Libyan expedition.”

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/01/george-osborne-tax-cuts

A child died and a one-year-old baby and a 37-year-old man were injured after a fire broke out at a farm in West Yorkshire. The blaze, which took hold of at least two barns and a van at Hessle Farm in Wragby, Wakefield, at around 5.30pm, is said to have sent flames 50 metres into the air. Ten fire engines that were first despatched were relieved later by 10 others, while electricity was cut to 115 homes in the area at the request of the fire service. The dead child, whose age has not been released, was initially unaccounted for, but a body was discovered last night. West Yorkshire police said inquiries into the fire were ongoing but added that it was not being treated as suspicious at this stage.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/01/one-dead-westyorkshire-blaze

There can be no finer Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1) entrance. Emerging from between two enormous, glittery lilac seashells and dressed in rhinestoned head-to-toe white satin, Russell Grant staked his claim to the Ann Widdecombe role in this year’s competition. Except Grant, the former official royal astrologer – a position wrong on so many levels that I don’t quite know where to begin – didn’t just look like he was enjoying Strictly, he looked like he was born for it. And that despite rarely putting a foot right.

Not all Grant’s competitors seemed as comfortable on the dancefloor. On the first night of the competition, it is traditional for some dances to look ropey. Lulu managed to perform a cha-cha-cha that consisted of walking and sass, the dance steps apparently awol. The judging panel had some advice. “You cannot go wrong – that’s the golden rule,” declared Len Goodman, unhelpfully.

There is a constant threat of an outbreak of pantomime when it comes to the scoring, with Craig Revel Horwood apparently glad to take the wicked stepmother role. “There was no dancing at all!” he told Robbie Savage, who was wearing an astonishing black leisure suit with unnecessary zip and “bad boy” emblazoned on the back. Truly, the Strictly costume department – never slouches when it comes to glitterbombing – had surpassed themselves. “You’re the best footballer we’ve ever had on Strictly,” Goodman argued back, glossing over the fact that previous contenders for that title have all been appalling.

Boxers haven’t generally impressed, either – look at Joe Calzaghe in 2009. So hopes weren’t high when it came to Audley Harrison, and mine faded even further when I saw his size 17 shoes and an introductory video that was effectively a note from his mum explaining why he hadn’t done his homework. In fact, his waltz had grace. And quite a lot of standing about while his professional partner twizzled about him. But Harrison might stay longer than some have predicted.

The frontrunners were less surprising. Holly Valance, who appears to have built a career on Neighbours and one hit song with a saucy video, was one of the few who looked like she was actually enjoying herself, despite being clad in someone’s discarded Christmas decorations. But her less obvious competition arrived in the form of Anita Dobson, who not only waltzed with elegance, but also gamely made the gag about husband Brian May’s hair before anybody else could.

Saturday promises to be equally good value, as “the second most famous Italian after Sophia Loren” – Nancy Dell’Olio for those struggling to rank her – tries to outsequin Edwina Currie. Even they will struggle to top Russell Grant’s lilac seashells.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/oct/01/tv-review-strictly-come-dancing