British PM says trusts deputy, but not yet friends

Coalition 'faces test in Oldham'
The by-election in Oldham represents the first chance for voters to pass judgement on the Coalition Government, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said. Mr Miliband was campaigning in Oldham East and Saddleworth for a third time ahead of Thursday's by-election. He told party volunteers voters could "send a message" about Tuition fees, police cuts and the VAT rise. David Cameron has rejected claims the poll amounts to a Referendum on the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition. The by-election w...

Fuel duty cut urged as bills rise
The price of petrol has hit another record high, prompting a Small Business organisation to urge the government to consider cutting fuel duty. The average price of unleaded has hit 127.7p per litre, according to Experian Catalist. The government confirmed it was looking at a fuel price stabiliser, which would cut duty when the price of oil went up. But the Forum of Private Business has urged the government to just cut duty if this was too difficult to introduce. Prime Minister David Cameron ...

Politics live blog - in Oldham East and Saddleworth
• It's the first proper byelection since the coalition was formed. There was a poll in Thirsk a few weeks after the General Election, but that was a "delayed election" caused by the death of a Candidate before May (and thus not technically a byelection) and it was a safe Tory seat where the result was a foregone conclusion. This will be very different. In England the thought of political parties being in coalition in government but fighting against each other at an election is still bewild...

Cameron to promote growth plans
Prime Minister David Cameron is promoting his Economic Growth plans on a visit to the North-West of England. He is being accompanied by Lord Heseltine, recently appointed chair of a new regional growth task force. The Tory leader has also promised to hit the Campaign Trail in Oldham East and Saddleworth, with a week to go before a crucial by-election. He has denied the Tories are soft-pedalling in the seat to give coalition partners the Lib Dems a better chance. Nick Clegg's party is in nee...

Clegg vows to restore civil liberties in Britain
Reporting from London — Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg pledged Friday to restore "our great British freedoms," saying that too many basic liberties had been eroded in the name of keeping Britain safe from Terrorism. Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats who last year teamed with Conservatives to form a new Coalition Government, accused previous Labor Party governments of a relentless assault on Civil Liberties, pledging to reverse it. "The British people have become accustomed to...

Clegg to outline stance on terror
Nick Clegg is to promise a tough but fair approach when he outlines the government's views on anti-terror Legislation and Civil Liberties. It comes as ministers try to reach agreement over a replacement for control orders, which place a series of constraints on Terror Suspects. Mr Clegg will also announce plans to reform Libel laws. The deputy Prime Minister will make his case for reforming anti-terror laws and promoting Civil Liberties. He will accuse Labour of presiding over the most aggr...

Balls attacks over control orders
Labour has accused the government of "playing politics" with National Security over control orders. But Labour claims plans to modify them are motivated by a desire to please the Lib Dems, who promised to do so in their election manifesto. Labour's Ed Balls said Mr Cameron and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg should put National Security first. The shadow Home Secretary insisted he would wait until the outcome of a review into control orders, a form of House Arrest introduced by the prev...

Oldham and Saddleworth: disaffected Lib Dems hold the key to this election
Labour look set to hold the Oldham East & Saddleworth seat rather more comfortably than they did at the General Election. For all the speculation, this by-election was always Labour's to lose. ...

Ex-MP gets 18 months for expenses fraud
LONDON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A former member of the British Parliament was sentenced to 18 months Friday for submitting false claims for expenses for houses he or his family owned. David Chaytor was immediately taken into Custody, The Daily Telegraph reported, citing a police source. A spokesman for the Labor Party said he will be barred from membership. Chaytor, 61, born in Bury in the Manchester area, was elected to Parliament from Bury North in 1997. He was suspended by the Labor Party in 2009 aft...

Expenses cheat MP to be sentenced
Former Labour MP David Chaytor will be sentenced later over £20,000 in fraudulent expenses claims. Chaytor, 61, the former MP for Bury North, last month admitted three charges of false Accounting. He faces a maximum of seven years in jail, although his Guilty Plea will be taken into account by the sentencing judge. He was to have been the first MP to stand trial over his expenses, before he changed his plea. Two other former MPs, one current MP and two members of the House of Lords are due ...

Ireland: Defence minister Fianna Failexodus ahead of election
Ireland's defence minister has said he will not stand in an upcoming parliamentary election, joining an exodus from the governing Fianna Fail party ahead of an expected record drubbing. Tony Killeen is the third senior minister in as many months to decide not to run in the General Election, expected to be held in late March, in which Fianna Fail's presence in the lower house could be halved, according to Opinion Polls. The party, ADVERTISEMENT which has dominated the republic's politics for mo...

First 100 days
Ed Miliband this week marked 100 days as Labour leader. The party is riding high in Opinion Polls but critics, including some Labour figures, say he's not making a big enough impact. First impressions are crucial in modern politics, but a look back at the first 100 days of 12 Labour and Tory leaders suggests they are not always a reliable guide to future prospects... Margaret Thatcher The biggest complaint about Margaret Thatcher, 100 days after winning control of the Conservative Party in ...

Kitchen cabinets in politics: Can stand the heat
SURVEYS often find that even very senior politicians struggle to be recognised by an indifferent public. The advisers who serve them are even more anonymous. Toiling away in Westminster’s back rooms are aides whose influence comes without the burdens of public exposure. And at least for the handful of very senior advisers, that influence is considerable. All three Party Leaders now have a powerful right-hand man. Ed Miliband is a far punchier leader of the Labour Party than he was just a ...

Control orders are to be scrapped. About time too
Control orders are to be scrapped. Good. We don’t yet know what will replace them, and any combination of tagging, travel bans and the like will have to be closely scrutinised. But it now looks very likely that House Arrest will have no further place in our Democracy. The orders brought in by Labour represented the worst of both worlds. They were both an affront to liberty and an obstacle to justice. No suspect sitting at hime, cut off from all outside communication, is likely to provide...

Ed Miliband accuses Tories of 'great deceit' in blaming Labour for deficit
Ed Miliband, speaking at Labour's campaign centre in Oldham yesterday. The Labour leader today attacked the Tories for 'rewriting history'. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Ed Miliband accuses the Conservatives today of a "great deceit" in blaming Labour for the national Deficit and warned that they have concocted a false narrative to justify politically driven cuts. In announcing a raft of swingeing public Spending Cuts the Coalition Government has repeatedly sought to portray that its hands a...

A missionary view on why a Liberal-NDP merger would fail
I don't really know John Mraz but I have to thank him for my Saturday morning chuckle in today's National Post.. In an opinion piece once again making the case for a Liberal-NDP Merger, Mraz calls me a “Liberal missionary.” I have never been called a missionary for anything or anyone before and given how, um, off message I am from the Liberal talking points on many days, I must be one of those lapsed Missionaries who ends up making for hilarious story lines in Nick Nolte's latest eff...

Firms demand action on fuel price
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling on the Prime Minister to fulfil a Conservative manifesto pledge to limit fuel duty increases. Petrol prices are now at a record high after recent rises in VAT and duty. The FSB wants David Cameron to introduce a fuel duty stabiliser which would cut duty when Oil Prices rise, and increase it when prices fall. He backed the idea in opposition and said this week that he was considering ways to help cash-strapped motorists. The FSB says the UK no...

Clearing the Browser Tabs Snowy Saturday Edition
The Capital Weather gurus say that we’re likely to get a little bit of snow today, so I don’t imagine I’ll do a ton of driving around (as I had originally planned to do). It’s not that I can’t drive in snow, though it’s a pain to do so, but that folks around here freak out when the white stuff starts to fly. If I’m lucky, the Snowfall will be negligible so I can attend a dinner party this evening. Let’s hope! And now, links! John Hawkins presents T...

British Royal Family granted new right of secrecy
The Royal Family is to be granted absolute protection from public scrutiny in a Controversial legal reform designed to draw a veil of secrecy over the affairs of the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William. Letters, emails and documents relating to the monarch, her heir and the second in line to the throne will no longer be disclosed even if they are in the public interest. Sweeping changes to the Freedom of Information Act will reverse advances which had briefly shone a light on the royal fin...

Britain's best-paid bank boss set for showdown with MPs over huge bonus
Barclays boss Bob Diamond, Britain's highest-paid Banker, who faces MPs this week. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Britain's best-paid banking boss, the Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, will face intense pressure from MPs to waive his multimillion-pound Bonus this week in recognition of the austere economic conditions and public intolerance of outsized City pay cheques. An appearance by Diamond in front of the Treasury select committee on Tuesday is set to become a key clash between ...

The Coming Battle Over Public Sector Unions ... A Case of 'Tax Payers Vs. Tax Eaters'
Interesting editorial at The Economist on the city, state, and federal governments' looming battle with public-sector Unions ... a case of "tax eaters" vs. the tax payers ... and clearly a case of the tax-payers against the liberal-progressive, union-supported, Democrats. LOOK around the world and the forces are massing. On one side are Californian Prison guards, British policemen, French railworkers, Greek Civil Servants, and teachers just about everywhere. On the other stand the cash-strapped ...

Democrats Track Haley Promises
The S.C. New Democrats have created a website to monitor S.C. Gov.-elect Nikki Haley as she attempts to make good on her various campaign promises. The website lists 42 promises made by Haley during her 2010 gubernatorial campaign - and features “yes,” “no” and “partially” boxes to indicate whether those promises have been fulfilled. The site, HaleysPromises.com , quotes the Gov.-elect as saying “results are what I promised the people of South Caro...

Civic-minded citizens
I agree that is it better not to speculate about possible the political beliefs of whoever shot Congresswoman Gifford and several of her staff members. But regardless of the shooter’s motives, I do wonder if any Conservatives are rethinking their belief that constituent events should be open carry rallies (McArdle; Welch). I suspect, however, that if they are doing any rethinking it involves excuses about gastritis and perhaps the argument that only 0.2% of Congress has been shot in the ...

Video of Pelosi Blaming Bush for Losing Election
Somebody get the rubber room ready. Carol's Blog! Illegal Aliens Now Get Free Heart Surgery and Cancer Treatment - Free heart surgery for illegals is insane unless it is an emergency. Providing emergence medical services wasn't good enough for the Obama administratio... Funny Video: NewsBusted 1/7/11 - Humor for Conservatives. #tcot 'Aflockalypse' Now? (video) - Strange animal deaths are stumping experts. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Roseanne Barr vs Ted Nugent: What ...

CONSERVATIVES FOR CONPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM WARN AGAINST ATTACK ON 14TH AMENDMENT
Click here.  KJ ...