The government is facing fresh criticism today over another embarrassing lapse in security after a second batch of secret official files were found left on a train. The papers, which cover the UK's policies on fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering were handed to The Independent on Sunday. This latest blunder has prompted calls for civil servants to be banned from taking confidential documents out of their offices.
The papers, which cover the UK's policies on fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering were handed to The Independent on Sunday.
This latest blunder has prompted calls for civil servants to be banned from taking confidential documents out of their offices.
Gordon Brown thought his luck had changed when the shadow home secretary said he was resigning over 42-day detention. Conservatives, by contrast, thought he had gone mad. Yet to judge from the emails sent by Tory activists, Labour voters and people who had never given a thought to politics, the MP for Haltemprice and Howden may be on to something, writes political editor Gaby Hinsliff
Without going that far, a principle ought to be widely applicable. A principled resignation should be inspirational, making the rest of us hope that we would have the courage to do likewise. Above all, principles should be easily distinguishable from pique. So what principle was David Davis upholding? Is he arguing that whenever an opposition MP disagrees with an item of government policy, he should resign and force a by-election? On that basis, there would be several by-elections every week. We have a parliamentary democracy in which the opposition sets out its arguments; we have general elections, at which the arguments reach their climax. Last week, the Opposition lost the vote, but won the argument. The House of Lords will almost certainly ratify the latter victory, which will probably be the end of the matter. Ministers have no enthusiasm for re-bribing the DUPs. On this occasion, Parliament worked as it ought to. There is absolutely no need for the distraction of Don David Quixote Davis fighting the windmill by-election.
So what principle was David Davis upholding? Is he arguing that whenever an opposition MP disagrees with an item of government policy, he should resign and force a by-election? On that basis, there would be several by-elections every week. We have a parliamentary democracy in which the opposition sets out its arguments; we have general elections, at which the arguments reach their climax.
Last week, the Opposition lost the vote, but won the argument. The House of Lords will almost certainly ratify the latter victory, which will probably be the end of the matter. Ministers have no enthusiasm for re-bribing the DUPs. On this occasion, Parliament worked as it ought to. There is absolutely no need for the distraction of Don David Quixote Davis fighting the windmill by-election.
Germany and France moved to isolate Ireland in the European Union yesterday, scrambling for ways to resuscitate the Lisbon Treaty a day after the Irish dealt the architects of the EU's new regime a crushing blow. Refusing to take Ireland's 'no' for an answer, politicians in Berlin and Paris prepared for a crucial EU summit in Brussels this week by trying to ringfence the Irish while demanding that the treaty be ratified by the rest of the EU. The scene is now set for a major clash between the Irish and their European partners after a Dublin minister and sources in the ruling Fianna Fail party ruled out any chance of a second Irish referendum on the treaty.
Refusing to take Ireland's 'no' for an answer, politicians in Berlin and Paris prepared for a crucial EU summit in Brussels this week by trying to ringfence the Irish while demanding that the treaty be ratified by the rest of the EU.
The scene is now set for a major clash between the Irish and their European partners after a Dublin minister and sources in the ruling Fianna Fail party ruled out any chance of a second Irish referendum on the treaty.
It is catch-22. Without reforming the way it makes decisions, freeing itself to act on global issues that really matter, the European Union will continue to look like a self-serving, arcane bureaucracy. But the EU can't negotiate the devilishly detailed process of reforming itself without resembling the conspiratorial caricature portrayed by its detractors. That portrayal is the one that persuaded Irish voters to reject the Lisbon treaty last week. The Irish 'No' campaign was a broad coalition of contradictory interests. Many of the arguments were unique to Ireland. But the overarching theme - suspicion of a process that appears to serve elites more than ordinary people - resonates across the Continent. Pro-Europeans lament that the Lisbon treaty was derailed by a majority of 100,000, a minute fraction of the EU population. But they cannot credibly deny that those voters reflect a much larger constituency. Paradoxically, Europeans seem to be converging around a common scepticism.
That portrayal is the one that persuaded Irish voters to reject the Lisbon treaty last week. The Irish 'No' campaign was a broad coalition of contradictory interests. Many of the arguments were unique to Ireland. But the overarching theme - suspicion of a process that appears to serve elites more than ordinary people - resonates across the Continent.
Pro-Europeans lament that the Lisbon treaty was derailed by a majority of 100,000, a minute fraction of the EU population. But they cannot credibly deny that those voters reflect a much larger constituency. Paradoxically, Europeans seem to be converging around a common scepticism.
The Government wants the Lords to ignore the Irish "No" vote and go ahead and ratify the Treaty, even though it cannot now come into law, as planned, on January 1, 2009 - and will probably never come into law in its present form. By any conceivable test of democratic procedure, the House of Lords should vote to put Treaty ratification on ice, at least until there is an agreed EU policy as to how to handle the Irish "No" vote. To simply plough ahead on a straight vote to accept or reject the EU (Amendment) Bill is to demonstrate nothing less than a contempt for the democracy on which the European Union is supposed to be founded.
To simply plough ahead on a straight vote to accept or reject the EU (Amendment) Bill is to demonstrate nothing less than a contempt for the democracy on which the European Union is supposed to be founded.
The number of homes built in Britain this year will plunge to its lowest level since 1945 and plummeting construction activity is expected to lead to the loss of 100,000 jobs. The country's most senior housebuilders confirm that completions will be around 100,000, some 70,000 less than last year. The dramatic collapse will shred any hopes Gordon Brown may have had for a rapid acceleration in housebuilding, which was to have been a central plank of his premiership. Brown wants 240,000 homes built each year to house the 3 million new households expected by 2018. Mark Clare, chief executive of crisis-hit developer Barratt, said: 'The small guys have pulled out and the big companies ... are not opening new developments. I think it certainly will be around 100,000, and if there's a further deterioration, it will go under 100,000.'
The dramatic collapse will shred any hopes Gordon Brown may have had for a rapid acceleration in housebuilding, which was to have been a central plank of his premiership. Brown wants 240,000 homes built each year to house the 3 million new households expected by 2018.
Mark Clare, chief executive of crisis-hit developer Barratt, said: 'The small guys have pulled out and the big companies ... are not opening new developments. I think it certainly will be around 100,000, and if there's a further deterioration, it will go under 100,000.'
When he was chancellor, Brown's pitch to the electorate had been the man of prudence and probity, the equivalent of the solid shopkeeper who would never sell his customers shoddy goods. Today the situation is somewhat different, with the voters - in the immortal words of Monty Python - registering a complaint and ministers seeking to reassure, loudly but unconvincingly, that the parrot is not quite dead but is just resting. There is much talk from Alistair Darling about how the economy is better placed than those of other countries to withstand the global downturn ("the Norwegian Blue prefers kipping on its back"), and that there are parts of Britain - away from the financial sector and the housing market - that are still doing well (Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage). As far as the voters are concerned, the plumage don't enter into it. They seem utterly unmoved by the idea that Britain is, by all accounts, envied as a bastion of creativity when their homes are dropping in value and their real incomes are being squeezed. Rather like the angry customer in the pet shop, they have taken a closer look at the parrot and decided that the only reason it stood on the perch for so long was that the government nailed it there with both public and private debt
Today the situation is somewhat different, with the voters - in the immortal words of Monty Python - registering a complaint and ministers seeking to reassure, loudly but unconvincingly, that the parrot is not quite dead but is just resting.
There is much talk from Alistair Darling about how the economy is better placed than those of other countries to withstand the global downturn ("the Norwegian Blue prefers kipping on its back"), and that there are parts of Britain - away from the financial sector and the housing market - that are still doing well (Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage).
As far as the voters are concerned, the plumage don't enter into it. They seem utterly unmoved by the idea that Britain is, by all accounts, envied as a bastion of creativity when their homes are dropping in value and their real incomes are being squeezed. Rather like the angry customer in the pet shop, they have taken a closer look at the parrot and decided that the only reason it stood on the perch for so long was that the government nailed it there with both public and private debt
City firms last night reacted angrily to a clampdown by the main financial watchdog on the lucrative practice of short selling shares on the London market. The move followed accusations that traders were seeking to profit from the destruction of some of Britain's best-known companies. Hedge funds, law firms and some investment houses accused the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of making sweeping and long-lasting changes to the City rulebook to shore up the short-term finances of a group of beleaguered banks and house builders.
Hedge funds, law firms and some investment houses accused the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of making sweeping and long-lasting changes to the City rulebook to shore up the short-term finances of a group of beleaguered banks and house builders.
