Today in Westminster...

Kelly report

An eventful day, kicking off with the formal publication of the Kelly report on MPs expenses, already heavily leaked and contained no great surprises; see below for a summary of the key recommendations. Full report available here.

• No more allowances for mortgage payments, only for rented properties.
• Outer London MPs will lose second home allowance.
• Family members to banned from being employed by MPs (will not come into affect for another five years)
• No claims for furniture or food to be allowed.
• Abolition of the communications allowance.
• Redundancy payments for MPs choosing to step down reduced to 8 weeks

All three party leaders used their opportunity to speak at PMQs today, to fully support the entirety of the report’s recommendations.

PMQs

Another sombre PMQs today, which was dominated by Afghanistan, with particular interest in the Afghan security forces and the legitimacy of the newly formed Karzai government. There were many references to cast iron guarantees from Labour backbenchers, who could not resist mocking Cameron’s abandonment of a Lisbon referendum. 

David Cameron is expected to update the press with his reviewed European policy at 4pm today, after meeting with his backbenchers. 

Following PMQs, Speaker Bercow announced that Prof Sir Ian Kennedy has been selected as the chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. 

The Queen’s Speech – Preview

The legislative programme for what could be the last session of parliament with the current Labour government will be announced by the Queen on 18^th November. With a general election expected in May 2010, the legislative timetable will be tight and many of the expected bills may never make it through parliament to Royal Ascent.

In what will become a General Election battleground, the legislation announced may define Labour for decades. The PM had already given a flavour of what to expect when he published ‘Building Britain’s Future’ in June of this year.

In summary, the following 11 bills are expected:

· Constitutional Renewal Bill

· Financial Services and Business bill

· Digital Economy Bill

· Energy Bill

· Flood and Water Management Bill

· Equality Bill

· Policing, Crime and Private Security Bill

· Child Poverty Bill

· Animal Health Responsibility and Cost Sharing Bill

· Cluster Munitions Prohibitions Bill

· Improving schools and safeguarding children bill

Two of the significant bills expected are the Financial Services and Business Bill and the Digital Economy bill. With the former aimed at tackling the ‘bonus culture’ in British banks and strengthening the role of the FSA. Expect a number of vote winning measures to be introduced, to ensure that Labour is deemed the party that punished the banks for causing the financial crisis.

The Digital Economy Bill will detail how Britain will become a leader in the global digital economy. This will include several commitments that were laid out in the Digital Britain report including; a commitment to universal to 2mb broadband access, new curbs on illegal file sharing, a new system of videogames classification and enhancement of OFCOM.

N.B. Parliament will be in prorogation beginning the 10^th November.

Upcoming recess dates:

· Christmas 16 December 2009 - 5 January 2010

· Half Term 10 February 2010 - 22 February 2010

President Blair?

With Downing Street now openly lobbying for Tony Blair to become the first president of the European Union, a number of interesting questions are raised. Firstly, would this be a favourable development for the United Kingdom? Secondly, will the role be significant enough to satisfy the ambitious Blair?

Opposition to Mr Blair’s appointment is strong within the Conservative party, with William Hague openly stating that his appointment would be treated as a “hostile act”. Given that the upcoming General Election could see the Tories swept into power, it could push an already Euro sceptic party further away from the European inner circle.

Blair’s support for the Iraq war is also a sticking point for many EU leaders; Brown dismissed this as part of his lobbying campaign for Blair, "What are the issues we as Europe are doing to be discussing in the next few years? It's not Iraq," he said. He added: "it's jobs, it's growth, it's climate change, it's trade and how the European economy and society can move forward."

The role which has yet to be defined, will no doubt be given gravitas by appointing a relatively popular and well known figure in European politics, such as Blair. With Blair yet to formally throw his hat in the ring, it seems we may not have seen the last of the former PM.

UPDATE:

It appears Blair’s hopes for becoming Euro president are sinking fast, with both President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel not endorsing TB. Media chatter is now focusing on the possibility of David Milliband becoming the EU’s foreign policy chief.

PMQs

Cameron kicked off this week’s session with the government’s U-turn on TA funding, welcoming the decision, in a clear attempt to take the credit following his questioning last week. In a much more adversarial display than the last session, Cameron attacked the PMs dithering over the TA cuts and asked "Why does he keep getting it wrong?"

The focus then turned to the economy, in light of the recent GDP figures revealing that UK was still in recession, trailing other EU countries such as France and Germany. Cameron said that Britain is in the longest recession since records began. "This prime minister did not end boom and bust," he said to cheers from the Tory benches. The PM reiterated that the country would be out of recession by the end of the year, and lambasted the Tories for their judgements failures; he claimed there would be a "deeper and longer recession with more unemployment if we listened to them."... “They are not fit even to be the opposition."

Clegg raised the government’s commitment to climate change, claiming Brown had done "far too little, far too late" and attacking the role he played in Labour voting down the 10.10 campaign. The PM defended his green record by claiming the UK had met its Kyoto targets, and had been the first country to introduce climate change legislation.

Sir Stuart Bell raised the subject no one else dare, expenses, asking about the “next steps” after the Kelly report. The PM said he would await the report being published and implementation would be a matter for the independent parliamentary standards authority

Overall, a solid performance from the PM despite Cameron’s best efforts to undermine him, Brown was on angry form and this is often when he performs best. Clegg once again opted for a principled stance but failed to inflict any real damage on the PM.

PMQs – Cameron lays blame for postal strike on government.

In a slightly more confrontational session than last week, Gordon Brown began by telling the house that he will publish his plans to deliver policing and justice to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Cameron used all his questions to concentrate on the postal strike and asked the PM to condemn the strikes. The PM said he had already done so and urged negotiation between management and staff; he also called for ACAS to be brought in when appropriate.

Cameron continued by asking about the shelving of the Royal Mail privatisation bill, the PM claimed there was no buyer on the market. Cameron claimed that was simply not true and the real reason that it was shelved was due to backbench rebellion. He went onto to claim that union militancy had increased since the privatisation bill was shelved. He ended with "The way to stop this militancy is to show some leadership, some backbone, and some courage" The PM denied any link between privatisation and the strike, and rebuffed "This is nothing to do with the dispute at the moment. The dispute is about the 2007 modernisation plan."

Clegg focused on Banking and Mervyn King’s recent comments and stated that the "Banks are still a cartel," PM rebuffed and told him that he was wrong on the economy and claimed the banks were saved not for the bankers but for ordinary people.

Overall a strong performance from the PM, he appeared rattled by Cameron’s taunts. Speaking without notes he hammered home what he claimed were Tory judgement failures on the economy.

The return of PMQs

PMQs returns in a flurry of controversy after the twelve week summer recess. Once again expenses are back on the agenda; Sir Thomas Legg’s review has garnered much criticism from backbench MPs and put them at odds with the leadership of their parties.

However in a low key return, PMQs was dominated by Afghanistan with the PM listing the 37 military fatalities since July. David Cameron used his six questions to ask about adequate T.A training, and the quality of care for returning soldiers.

Nick Clegg used his two questions to raise concern over the legitimacy of the recent elections in Afghanistan, he claimed the elections were “flawed” and as a result the Afghan government lacks legitimacy. He suggested a national unity government should be formed. The PM said he will await the outcome of an investigation into the elections, and praised the fact that any election took place.

The legal injunction against the Guardian reporting a PQ from Paul Farrelly MP was also raised, by Conservative MP Peter Bottomley. The PM said that this was “an unfortunate area of law” and the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, will investigate.

Overall a sombre session of PMQs lacking the usual volatility, interestingly there was no mention of expenses. As expected the PM today announced that British troop levels in Afghanistan will increase by 500, in a statement following PMQs, which brings the total number of troops in Afghanistan to 9,500.

Conservative conference – Manchester

The conference season approached its end in Manchester, with the Tories taking centre stage. Perhaps the most widely anticipated conference of all, given the current state of opinion polls. The atmosphere was definitely more upbeat than in Brighton, and many party members openly stated that this was best conference they had ever attended, it was clear that this party was in a transition to government.

The conference began with a dark cloud over it, with many media commentators expecting infighting over the Lisbon treaty, this did not transpire. The policy heavy speech of the conference was left to George Osborne to deliver; he delivered with honesty the cuts the Tories would make in government. The risky strategy outlined that a Conservative government would raise the pension age to 66, supposedly saving the public purse £13 billion. Public sector pay would be frozen for the first year of parliament and all public sector appointments that exceeded the PMs rate of pay, would have to be directly approved by the Chancellor.

The discipline in the party was ever present at conference, despite the minor gaffe by Chris Grayling, the Tories were trying to show the British public that they are serious and ready to govern.

David Cameron’s closing speech was more subdued than many commentators were expecting. Despite this, he delivered his speech on values and his beliefs extremely well. His anger at Labour was executed with passion, and he spoke at length about the tough times ahead and how the “view from the summit would be worth it”.

Labour conference – Brighton

The conference was dubbed “Operation Fight back”, despite this the atmosphere was subdued, with some commentators comparing it to a wake. However, there was no doubt that this conference was the beginning of a fight for survival.

The fightback was not helped by the Sun newspaper, switching political allegiance on day two of the conference. Defiant minsters stated that they would not be bullied by the press and the repeated the mantra “people decide elections, not newspapers.”

Mandelson’s speech was the highlight of the conference for many delegates, putting Operation Fight back into words with his usual humour and charisma. It was clear the speech invigorated the party; he said "If I can come back, we can come back". Though his speech did become somewhat overshadowed by end of the week, with him referring the Sun newspaper as “chumps”.

Interestingly, Andrew Marr used his Sunday chat show to ask the PM about prescription drug use, a rumour that has been doing the rounds for some time now, the PM rebuffed the question with ease.

The centrepiece speech was of course left to the PM, in wide ranging and policy laden speech, he listed Labour achievements and announced a swathe of new policy and formally abandoned compulsory ID cards for British citizens, to great cheers from party faithful. Other headline grabbing measures included a referendum on a proportional representation voting system, local authorities will be given the power to ban 24-hour drinking licences

The PM finished with, "Never, never stop believing ... We are the Labour Party and our abiding duty is to stand, and fight, and win."

Liberal Democrat Conference - Bournemouth

The conference season has begun, in what can only be described as a stormy week for the Liberal Democrats, often being credited as the party with confusing policies this conference did nothing to add clarity.

As many commentators have already pointed out, this did not feel like a pre general election conference, the atmosphere was subdued, there was bickering around policy and even leadership criticism. Have the Liberal Democrats missed their big moment?

Understandably there was infighting over the cornerstone policy of abolishing tuition fees morphing into an ‘aspiration’. Clegg’s call for ‘Savage cuts’ quickly became ‘progressive austerity’ and the Lib Dem’s biggest asset, Vince Cable, also took a dent receiving much criticism, for failing to adequately brief his shadow cabinet colleagues, on the underdeveloped proposals for a “mansion tax”. Party insiders claimed that the ‘open debate’ was at the core of the party’s policy creation, in attempt to downplay divisions.

In a marked departure from previous election strategy, Clegg has set his sights on discrediting the Tories, by referring to Cameron’s vision of change as ‘fake change’. It is clear that they have decided that Labour is a sinking ship and they must board Tory boats to be in with a chance at the next election. With this in mind, the general election may be ‘make or break’ for Clegg, if he fails to retain or improve upon the Lib Dem’s current 63 seats.

The closing speech by Nick Clegg needed to be good and it was, it had depth and was well delivered. It was an ambitious speech which even went as far as setting out his shadow cabinet, perhaps too ambitious with Ladbrokes currently offering odds of 150/1 for Clegg becoming PM at the next election.

PSA will be travelling to Brighton at the weekend, in what promises to be a difficult conference for Gordon Brown. With the Baroness Scotland affair continuing to rumble on, it seems his leadership will be under question once again.

PMQs takes a “helicopter view” of Afghanistan

The final Prime Minister’s Questions before the long summer break was dominated by a spat over helicopters. Neither the PM nor Conservative Leader David Cameron could make a knockout blow as each tried to goad the other with generalities about how to fight a war. The PM said that a lack of helicopters didn’t lead to loss of life – but he was planning to send more anyway. Mr Cameron countered that the ex-Chancellor had cut the budget for helicopters while at the Treasury.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg suggested that the PM was “busy doing nothing” and, to groans from MPs, highlighted a lack of progress on electoral reform as an example. The PM batted him away, saying that Opposition parties lacked policies on jobs, homeowners and small businesses.

MPs now have nearly three months off for the Recess and may well be busy doing nothing themselves.