Thursday 28 March 2013

David Miliband's departure..



Good morning. He couldn't resist one parting shot. David Miliband's resignation interview contained the nugget that he still considered his brother to be "a long climb" away from Number 10. Having clearly decided, in the light of generally positive media coverage, that he should resign more often, Mili D also refused to rule out a comeback insisting that he would not seek American citizenship. AsMichael Deacon writes, North London took the news badly - "outside his Georgian terraced house in London’s Primrose Hill, a day-long vigil for the People’s Miliband was held by hundreds of distraught fans, each clutching a tear-stained banana" - but has British public life lost an intellectual colossus or a "greedy failure in a cosmic sulk"? Peter Obornehas no doubts: 
"During his short, undistinguished career, Mr Miliband has done grave damage to British politics. He is part of the new governing elite which is sucking the heart out of our representative democracy while enriching itself in the process. He may be mourned in the BBC and in north London, but the rest of us are entitled to form a more realistic view. David Miliband has belittled our politics and he will not be missed."
There is some speculation that Mr Miliband's jump stateside could lead to a role in a Hilary Clinton run White House, given the regard with which he is held in her circle. "What price David Miliband in a senior role in the White House and Ed Miliband in No 10?" asks the Mail. "Stranger things have happened in politics. But none that come quickly to mind." In Britain, however, life goes on. The Guardian reports that the Labourassociation in South Shields is keen on a local candidate next time, although a donkey in a red rosette ought to be able to defend his 11,109 (30.4pc) strong majority. With that in mind, the real question come polling day might be whether Ukip can continue to make headway in the north, as well as in lapsed Tory heartland seats. 
And what for Labour? Reading the runes, a number of commentators including the Sun's Trevor Kavanagh call the end of the New Labour project, arguing that under Ed, "it has been left to pro-Blair outriders such as [Telegraph] blogger Dan Hodges to argue for a coherent Labour policy on spending and borrowing". But as Philip Collins in the Times (£) notes, this resignation was not a gesture of political despair so much as it was about fratricide and the frustration of watching Ed having a "good scandal" over phone hacking and cementing his leadership. It may be a personal tragedy, but Mili D's departure is hardly an ideological earthquake for the Labour paty.
HOUSEKEEPING
The Morning Briefing is taking the weekend off. Back Tuesday. Happy Easter to all subscribers.
 
TREASURY CALLS FOR POST-2015 SPENDING BLITZ
 
If you're starting to lose track of the belt-tightening due post-2015, I don't blame you. A private letter to ministers from Danny Alexander last night suggests that for the Treasury to achieve its Budget savings target of £11.5bn in 2015/16, a chop of up to 10pc for every non-ringfenced department will be required, we report. While the exact distribution of the cuts will not be settled until June, they will fall on departmental resource budgets, not on the welfare system. The Independent reports that the 10pc reduction will apply to every non-protected department other than defence, which will only need to cut 5pc. 
 
Sounds like a case for the National Union of Ministers? Steady. As theGuardian explains, the 10pc figure is there simply to give the Government "options", and a cut of that size in every targeted budget would save £3bn more than is planned. What stays and what goes will not be known until the publication of the spending review for 2015/16, and as Vince Cable has made known, that is very much a temporary document holding place until the next government is decided. As the Chancellor kept insisting in the Budget, Britain may be open to business, but with an outlook this cloudy, who would want to invest?
BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE ME A DUCK HOUSE?
An MP's lot has not been a happy one since the expenses scandal, certainly according to Karl McCartney. As we report, the MP for Lincoln told World at One that he had been forced to max out his credit cards, drain his loan facility at the bank and borrow money from his parents because of the intransigence of the Commons expenses body Ipsa. Mr McCartney claimed that he was owed £25,000 by August 2010 after being returned in May. He claims to have been told that this is because when the "senior management team at Ipsa...go to the pub on a Friday night and meet with their friends, their friends tell them that they should screw MPs into the ground." All sounds very bitter to me.
OVER EXPENSIVE, OVER PROTECTED AND OVER HERE
Theresa May's recent rise to prominence as an action woman received a setback yesterday. The decision of the High Court to back the November decision of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission to prevent his deportation came despite the acknowledgement that the UK regarded him as "a danger to national security". A rigid interpretation of human rights rulings in favour of Qatada is bound to re-0pen the Tory debate on scrapping the measures. But at the moment, it's difficult to see how Mrs May can win given judicial intransigence. As the Mail puts it, "it is Qatada holding all the aces in a game Mrs May – and this country – really cannot afford to lose."
RESIDENTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
Worried about the forthcoming spare-room subsidy ending / bedroom tax beginning? Well Frank Field has a cunning plan: knock down the walls and brick up the windows, as the landlords did in the Nine Years' War to avoid the Window Tax. His rallying cry in the Independent comes with stern criticism of the "grossly unfair" reduction in housing benefit for under-occupancy. A glance at history might tell the protesters anticipated at demonstrations tomorrow not to be too hopeful - the universally despised window tax lasted a mere 156 years before its repeal.
THE BIG THAW
No, not the weather, but council tax bills. As we report, households are having to pay the largest increase in council tax for three years after 39pc of local authorities rejected Eric Pickles' offer to provide funding for a rate freeze. The average bill in England will increase by 0.8pc this year, and London council tax will fall by 0.2pc. Pity the residents ofBreckland in Norfolk, though. Their council tax is up 7.6pc. 
EU'RE GETTING GREEDY
How's that European austerity thing going, then? According to the BBC, the Government is battling EU demands for a further £9.5bn in member state contributions to cover its expenses this year. The UK's share would amount to slightly over £1bn. Mind you, Eurocrats argue that they are not being unreasonable - if Britain's domestic overspend was only £9.5bn a year, we'd think we'd done very well.
BANKING ON IT TURNING OUT RIGHT
The Bank of England's demand yesterday that British lenders stockpile an additional £25bn in reserves did not spook the market - the figure had been expected to be larger. It won't help get lending going again, however, and as such it conflicts directly with the Chancellor's courageous attempt to provide liquidity to sub-prime borrowers in his recent Budget. As the Mail reports, it has certainly made Vince Cable very grumpy. "The idea that banks should be forced to raise new capital during a period of recession is an erroneous one," he said, adding that ‘the FPC exercise will prolong the time it takes for the British economy to recover by further depressing already weak lending [to small and medium-sized businesses]. "
SAM CAM IN SYRIA
The Prime Minister's wife has visited Syrian refugees in Lebanon on a trip with the charity Save the Children aiming to boost awareness of the plight of those in the camps. "It's so shocking, it's difficult to take it in. You just can't imagine why that would happen," she added. The tales she will have heard will stay with her for a very long time, as I wrote when I returned from a similar trip earlier this month.
TWEETS AND TWITS

Two different takes on recess. First from Kerry McCarthy:

@KerryMP: "Just leaving Commons office after a triple-birthday lunch with current & former researchers then 6 hour blitz on emails. #recessnotholiday"
Then from Tom Harris:
@TomHarrisMP: "Ah, that sweet, lethal (and oddly sexy) combination of @carolynharris, Rioja and karaoke. Easter recess has begun!"
TOP COMMENT 

In the Telegraph

Peter Oborne - David Miliband a colossus? He's a greedy failure in a cosmic sulk
Best of the Rest

Philip Collins in The Times (£) - Don't bury New Labour along with Miliband
Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun - New Labour bunch have split for good
THE AGENDA

Today: Energy Secretary Ed Davey, Business Secretary Vince Cable and Scotland Secretary Michael Moore to publish the oil and gas sector strategy.
09:00 am: Nick Clegg call-in on LBC 97.3.
12:00 pm: BBC strike. Journalists and technicians at the BBC stage a 12-hour strike in disputes over job cuts and workload.
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