“Theresa May will next week outline sweeping reforms to tackle ‘everyday injustices’. Government sources say new housing, education and economic policies will help millions of struggling Britons. Mental health will also be a key focus. The Prime Minister will use a speech on Monday to show the Government has not been paralysed by Brexit… Mrs May is expected to restate her commitment to grammar schools, despite opposition from the education establishment. She will also pledge to deliver a new wave of housebuilding, despite concerns from some Tory MPs about the potential impact on the countryside.” – Daily Mail
More May:
Analysis:
>Today: Paul Bristow in Comment: The NHS needs more money
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Javid grasps the need to right Britain’s housing injustice. Which is why May should back him.
“Britain’s senior civil servants are “playing to the stereotype” of an entitled establishment and should resign if they can’t adapt to Brexit, a leading Tory MP said yesterday. Bernard Jenkin said the mandarins’ revolt triggered by the resignation of Britain’s EU ambassador risked undermining an impartial civil service. Sir Ivan Rogers’s parting shot at ministers’ “muddled thinking” on Brexit has worsened tensions between Whitehall and ministers, particularly at No 10.” – The Times (£)
More EU:
Comment:
>Today: ToryDiary: Experts have their place, but politicians must reclaim theirs
>Yesterday:
“Liam Fox has drawn up a target list of more than 50 countries for new trade deals post-Brexit. And the International Trade Secretary added that he is drawing up further plans for more than 200 new high value exports targets. Dr Fox said last night: “We are world-leaders in many sectors such as financial services and technology. My department has already identified more than 50 countries that could benefit from British expertise and we are continuing work on exploring more export opportunities with other nations.”” – The Sun
More ministers:
Editorial:
>Yesterday: Ashley Fox MEP’s column: This year we must start delivering on the promises of 2016
“First, then: is “food security” still an imperative for a 21st-century country long unable to home-source many of the other mainstays of our economic life? Why, post-CAP, should we despoil East Anglia and plunder Treasury coffers for fear of relying on Canadian wheat or West Indian sugar? Second: would it be hopelessly un-Tory to take a view on the texture of the rural Britain we want to sponsor, the size, type and location of the farms we want to support, the agriculture we want to see there, and the land we think could be put to richer use than farming?” – The Times (£)
Editorials:
“Commuters caught up in the worst rail strikes for a generation next week should be treated with “patience and understanding” by their employers, the Transport Secretary has said. Millions of people will be left struggling to get to work this week as strikes cripple railway services in the South East and the London Underground. The strikes represent the worst industrial action on the railways for more than 20 years, with Southern Rail urging passengers to stay home rather than try to travel to work.” – Daily Telegraph
“A new industry of ambulance-chasing lawyers could spring up if the government implements a new law requiring newspapers to pay the costs of the people who sue them, according to the chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee. Under section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, publishers who do not sign up to a state-backed regulator will have to pay the legal costs of both sides in a libel case, even if they win. Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, who was appointed chairman of the committee in October, said it was “hard to think of any other area of law where such a provision would be allowed”. He said that “the ability of the press to hold the powerful to account is one of the cornerstones of our democracy.”” – Daily Telegraph
Editorial:
“Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, is at the centre of a row with Jeremy Corbyn supporters after a draft report found that News at Six breached impartiality guidelines in her report about the Labour leader’s views on shoot-to-kill. A leaked copy of provisional findings by the BBC Trust said that there had been a “failure of impartiality” during Kuenssberg’s report after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015. The regulator has agreed to reconsider the case with new evidence after failing to speak to Kuenssberg, who was named journalist of the year at the British Journalism Awards last month.” – The Times (£)