Politics live blog - Monday 31 January

Rolling coverage of all the day's political developments as they happen

8.38am: The health and social care bill, the legislation that will put GPs in charge of an 80bn NHS commissioning budget, gets its second reading in the House of Commons today and David Cameron is in salesman mode. He has written an article for the Times (paywall) attacking five "myths" about the reforms and he has just given an interview on the subject to BBC Breakfast. As the Observer revealed at the weekend, a recent YouGov poll found that only 27% of voters are in favour of the way the bill will allow more private firms to provide NHS services. I'll post more on the Cameron interview in a moment.

Here's a list of what's on the diary for today.

10am: Stephen Pattison, head of the UN department at the Foreign Office from 2001 to 2003, gives evidence to the Iraq inquiry.

2pm: Pattison continues to give evidence to the Iraq inquiry, alongside John Buck, the Foreign Office director for Iraq from 2003 to 2004.

After 3pm: Peers start the 15th day of committee stage debate on the parliamentary voting system and constituencies bill. Ministers are threatening to take an unprecedented step and impose a guillotine if Labour peers carry on with their filibuster.

3.30pm: A Foreign Office minister is expected to make a statement in the Commons about the situation in Egypt. This hasn't been confirmed yet, but I'm told it's very likely.

After 3.30pm: MPs start debating the health and social care bill.

As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and brining you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and an afternoon one at about 4pm.


guardian.co.uk Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top flyer boo-boo : Shut off noisy engines

LONDON: It's too noisy, could you please turn off the engines ? Could you please open the window? These are some of the "foolish" and "bizarre requests" flyers often make to flight attendants, according to a new survey. The survey of some 3,000 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew members found that some passengers fail to understand why they are prevented from opening the window, others think "turning down" the engines could reduce the noise. "Please, can you open the window?" was among the most common unusual queries made by uncomfortable passengers who seem to be unaware of the benefits of a pressurised cabin at 35,000ft. Other unique questions included "could you turn the engines down because they are too noisy?" and "please can the captain stop the turbulence?", the Telegraph reported. The survey also laid bare the level of comfort and service some customers expect, with several asking flight attendants "can you sho
Keep reading

UK greenhouse gas emissions fall 8.7%

Image
Total UK emissions plummet as recession lowers electricity and fuel use A dramatic fall in greenhouse gas emissions following the recession has brought the UK's climate change targets for the next five years within easy reach, taking the pressure off government and business to comply. Government estimates released on Tuesday showed greenhouse gas emissions fell by 8.7% from 2008 to 2009, the biggest drop since records began in 1990. Carbon dioxide levels plunged 9.8%, a fall only matched in 1980, in records extending to 1970. The unexpectedly deep slump in emissions mirrors the fall in industrial output in the recession, with high-emitting sectors including construction and transport hit particularly hard. But it also means that government-set climate change targets of cutting emissions by 35% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, now look much easier to meet. The UK has already met the targets for 2016, provided emissions stay at 2009 levels. This raises the prospect that business
Keep reading

Dogs can be trained to sniff out bowel cancer, Japanese researchers say

Image
Experiments show that labrador retriever's sense of smell can identify minute traces of chemicals circulating in human body Dogs can be trained to sniff out bowel cancer, even when the disease is in its early stages, researchers in Japan claim. In a series of experiments that involved sniffing the breath or stool samples of patients, a specially-trained labrador retriever proved nearly as good at identifying those with cancer as a conventional colonoscopy examination. The team, led by Hideto Sonoda at Fukuoka dental college hospital, said some dogs have such a keen sense of smell that they can detect minute traces of chemicals that appear to circulate in the bodies of people who have cancer. The finding builds on previous experiments in which researchers used dogs to sniff out cancers in the skin, lungs, bladder and ovaries. Writing in the journal Gut , the researchers describe how the eight-year-old dog was trained to distinguish between the smell of a patient with colorectal canc
Keep reading