“David Cameron has been given a private warning by more than 25 Tory MPs that he risks splitting the Conservatives if he ditches green policies as a sop to the Right. Normally loyal backbenchers and ministers called the Prime Minister to a showdown in his Commons office on Friday in what one present said was a deliberate attempt to ‘flex our muscles’. The meeting was organised by Laura Sandys, whose decision to stand down at the next election fuelled concerns yesterday that Mr Cameron has all-but abandoned his attempts to modernise his party” – The Times (£)
>Yesterday: ToryMPs – Laura Sandys to stand down from South Thanet
“We were given a brief glimpse of a dark future last Friday. Steve Holliday, the chief executive of the National Grid, made one of those announcements that should have resonated like a thunderclap but went unnoticed, except in Whitehall where it had a suitably electric effect. He pointed out that the construction of more than half of the new power plants due to contribute to Britain’s energy needs after next year has been postponed because of political uncertainty” – Benedict Brogan, Daily Telegraph
“Treasury ministers will today claim that independence would leave Scots worse off by an average of £1,000 a year from 2020. It comes as Alex Salmond, the First Minister, unveils ‘Scotland’s Future – Your Guide to an Independent Scotland’, a 200-page blueprint for Scotland detached from the rest of the United Kingdom” – The Times (£)
> Today: ToryDiary – The Alex Salmond prize for fairy tales
“George Osborne will on Tuesday face fresh demands to toughen up ‘inadequate’ new banking regulation as public pressure mounts over the controversies plaguing Royal Bank of Scotland, the Co-operative Bank and payday lenders. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will join Lord Lawson, the former Tory chancellor, and other senior peers in seeking to amend Mr Osborne’s banking reform bill, which is intended to draw a line under the banking scandals of the last five years” – Financial Times
>Yesterday:
“Romanians and Bulgarians moving to Britain will help the economy, the European Commission claimed on Monday as it warned David Cameron over his plans to restrict European migrants’ access to benefits. The Commission said in a report that immigrants to Britain from European Union countries paid far more in tax than they received in benefits, so were therefore an economic bonus” – Daily Telegraph
“One of the country’s most senior judges provoked fury last night when he criticised short jail sentences for interfering with the home lives of criminals. Lord Neuberger, president of the Supreme Court, said he rejected the idea that a couple of months behind bars – and what he called ‘the clang of the prison gates’ – could help bring criminals to their senses. Instead, he warned such sentences ‘can be disruptive’ for the prisoner’s job and home life” – Daily Mail
“Campaigners threatened to take legal action against the Government yesterday after it published a 50,000-page dossier on HS2 – which the public have barely 60 days to read. Consultation on the £50billion rail project runs until January 24, so readers would have to plough through more than 800 pages a day – the equivalent of reading War and Peace around 35 times” – Daily Mail