Politics live blog - Tuesday 21 June 2011
Rolling coverage of the day 's political developments as they happen
My colleague Mike White has published its verdict on the Cameron press conference. Cameron '\ on the top of his game, "says Mike. "Many contradictions smoothed out to be much pandering to the redtop agenda (but not too much) and additional public spending, but all of it handled skillfully by the man in smart dark blue suit and matching tie."
For detailed coverage of the criminal justice reforms, do read the legal aid and sentencing bill live blog that we're running this afternoon. My colleagues Maya Wolfe-Robinson, Owen Bowcott and Alan Travis are doing most of the work, but I will be contributing later there too.
You 've a link to a copy of the new legal aid, sentencing and punishment of the perpetrators written statement. But, as Alan points out, among them doesn 't some of the measures announced by David Cameron this morning - suggesting that they agreed only at the last minute.
Sadiq Khan
A government that used to sound distinctly liberal in the field of law enforcement now sounds rather hard-liners. David Cameron hasn 't just dropped the plan for 50% discount rate. He has also in the mandatory prison sentences for anyone caught any threatened with a knife, a new law making a crime and squats a "Tony Martin 'thrown to the law on reasonable household use of force to protect yourself from a burglar. Without having to have seen the fine print, it 's hard to know how much impact that these actions. (The last time that I have the "Tony Martin 'problem was, I was told that the law already allows the use of reasonable force in self-defense anyway, and that any attempt would clarify the rules for this little difference make.) But, rhetorically, the difference is very strong. Cameron has been under pressure to sack Kenneth Clarke. Today, it sounds as if he 's take the job given to the editor of the Sun.
I 'll publish further details shortly.
Cameron takes his final question, from a Welsh journalist.
On the Barnett formula, he says this is a complicated issue. But the government is going to set up a Calman-style commission for Wales.
That's it. I'll post a summary soon.
Cameron is asked about immigration.
Q: Can you clarify the Remark You Made yesterday about the Liberal Democrats' blocking of your immigration plans?
Cameron says the government has a good policy. He cares about this. He wants it to "drop off 'agenda, as has happened in the 1980s. Damian Green, the minister for immigration, makes a very good job. He is one of the" silent hero "of the government.
Q: Would the UK suffer if Greece left the €?
On sentencing, he says the Ministry of Justice will save the ?130m it will not get from 50% sentence discounts from other parts of its ?8bn budget.
Cameron says up to now the probation service has not been hit as hard as other parts of the department. But it has not had its budget ringfenced.
Cameron says that he did not accept. The government has decided to act, he says, referring to the deficit, welfare reform and academies. Often people say the government is trying to do too many things.
I don 't make no apology for listening to as you go and make sure that you do things right ... Being strong is about the willingness to admit that you do not get everything right the first time.
If you learned how to improve policies, but said nothing for fear that it would not be the guide. It would otherwise be the case, he says.
Cameron is now in question.
Cameron says he takes responsibility for what has happened.
Cameron says he is announcing a new review covering this today. Legislative proposals will be brought forward later this year.
David Cameron has opened his press conference.
He begins by saying it 'sa proud day because he is hosting a lunch for the Queen. It 's to the Duke of Edinburgh \ mark's 90th Birthday.
He turns to his sentence. He wants to make sure that people are sure that the police are responsible and that prisons are effective.
Half of the prisoners to leave within a year relapsed. Around 10% are foreigners. It 'sa "enormously expensive" and it does not work.
First, prison must protect the public.
In the last few days I have a number of Tory MPs on the severity of these problems to determine spoken, and I certainly sense a lot of concern among the loyal generally backbenchers along exactly the same line as that described by Tim 's source ."If I get a flood of e-mails about a controversial topic now I leave it for seven days, before you answer, because it 's an increased chance that the line will change," said one MP with whom I have taken on the matter.
Another is using a longer timescale: "I let the letters and emails on anything where there's a hint of U-turn pile up for thirty days. Frankly I don't want to make myself look stupid by defending a policy only for it to change a few days later".
Cameron will have to show that he 's still in the grip. We 'll be hearing from him soon.
You can all today 's Guardian Politics stories here. And submitted the whole policy of stories yesterday, including some in today 's paper, click here.
• Helen Warrell in the Financial Times (subscription) says an academic study suggests that government policies will fail to get net migration down to below 100,000 a year.
But analysts at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford have calculated that Home Office's policies – reducing immigration for workers, students and their families from outside the European Union and making it harder for migrants to settle in the UK – would cut net migration by a total of 75,000, leaving a deficit of 67,000.
Last week, however, I spent an afternoon with a citizens' jury of mothers convened to finalise the ideas on family that will now go forward for consultation. These women, from a political cross-spectrum, had been asked to bring an object symbolising their daily lives. The most popular were their children's games consoles, symbolising an atomised society, and stories about rising gas and energy prices they had clipped from newspapers ...
The two are both outsiders, with the impatience that brings. She was not only the first woman PM, at a time when that seemed equally improbable; she also had an implacably restless temperament. So too does Mr Hilton, whose father fled Hungary in 1956, and who is even more impatient than she was.
He is driven to fury by the waste in Britain of vast sums on social projects that only add to social misery. No socialist can fulminate more pyrotechnically about the destruction of life chances under the present system and the need for fundamental change to liberate human potential. An old-fashioned Tory will assume that human endeavours often end. By those criteria, Mr Hilton is not a Tory. His eccentricity of deportment makes him conspicuous, and others suspicious. People are simply not used to discalced Conservatives. In the Middle Ages, those who were uneasy about events but did not want to criticise the monarch often denounced the king's evil counsellors. Some Tories who are unhappy about aspects of government policy have cast Mr Hilton in that role. But in Downing Street, his restlessness is greatly valued.
But he did not rule out proposing its abolition is not in the party 's 2015 election manifesto.
How can we sustained support for the free market economy that we all believe? Sometimes you have to don 't it by reducing taxes for the very top, when other people are facing real economic hardships.
• But he ruled out returning to the "criminal" tax rates for top earners in the 1970s.
New Labour has led to a series of innovations for the Labour Party. One of them wants to keep me is that strong relationships with industry. I want to celebrate the creation of wealth in this country. We do not go back to the penal tax rates in the 1970s under a future Labour government. That's not what we're about, because we are a country, the company celebrates and rewards those who work hard and be good.
From Sadiq Khan , The shadow justice secretary
We 're in danger blame all this on Ken Clarke. We 've expressed concerns about these plans in the past six months, since December, and what Ken Clarke has been saying consistently - I' ve put this on the floor of the house, 'You have the support of Cabinet in these plans \? '- He said \ consistently'. The Cabinet is behind me, is the most important INIST \ behind me '
What has happened at the eleventh hour is David Cameron has realised that his government is appearing to be out of touch with ordinary people around the country.
From
, chief executive of the Law Society
What we have yet to hear from the government is how they are proposing you and I will get access to justice if we can't get legal aid. We are in the time of austerity; I note however that the Atlee government was also in a time of austerity back in 1949 and principles and values that they saw as important and worth paying for still it seems to me apply today.
(left), the Unison general secretary, told the Guardian last week that the strike his union was planning over cuts to public sector pensions would be "the biggest since the general strike". Today he said it could go on indefinitely. According to PoliticsHome, this is what Prentis told BBC News from Manchester, where Unison is holding a conference.
10.15am: A range of experts give evidence to the Commons transport committee about the High Speed Rail project.
10.30am:
Approximately 11 clock: The Justice Department released the justice bill In addition to a written statement to "proposals for the reform of punishment, rehabilitation, sentencing and legal aid".
11.15: David Cameron hosts a press conference in Downing Street.
1pm: Cameron hosted a lunch for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Downing Street to the Duke 's 90th Birthday celebration.
George Osborne
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