Today's Top Ten UK Must-Reads April 20th 2012

by liamssoft | April 19, 2012 at 11:46 pm

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1 May I suggest to the PM what he’s thinking?
Philip Collins, The Times (£)

All governments have a beginning, a muddle and an end. This Government began with sunshine and roses, as they all do. Fuel panics, taxing charity and forgetting the day that you’re allowed to arrest Abu Qatada marks the muddle of the Parliament. The question now is how long the muddle period will last. The Government is manic with activity, but to what end?

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2 You can mislead a minister, but don't make her a laughing stock
Mary Dejevsky, The Independent

The mood of the House of Commons can turn on what used to be a sixpence, but in current circumstances might more appropriately be designated a euro. On Tuesday, Theresa May drew whoops of delight, when she announced that, while the Home Office would not be appealing against the European Court of Human Rights ruling on Abu Qatada, Osama bin Laden's alleged chieftain in Europe had been rearrested in preparation for his removal.

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3 Theresa May has been done up like a kipper over Abu Qatada
Richard Littlejohn, The Daily Mail

The language may not have been especially Parliamentary, but during yesterday’s debate on the Abu Qatada fiasco Charles Walker, the Conservative MP for Broxbourne, spoke for Britain. ‘The Home Secretary must not delay in getting this scumbag and his murderous mates on a plane and out of this country.’

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4 Qatada - what will happen next?
Dominic Raab, Daily Express

Expect Qatada to appeal a third time to Strasbourg, moaning that Jordanian assurances of a fair trial are bogus. That is the looming crunch moment when, come what may, all MPs should stand united behind the Government – and kick Qatada out of this country for good.

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5 We need this key commitment to climate action
Nick Clegg and Edward Davey, The Guardian

This week ministers from across Europe are meeting to tackle a threat to our shared prosperity: the crashing price of carbon. The EU has the world's largest international emissions trading scheme (ETS). The amount of carbon that companies can emit is capped, and each firm has its own allocation of carbon permits, which they trade freely. Ultimately, cutting carbon can yield financial rewards.

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6 Chancellor George Osborne looks a better bet from Washington
Jeremy Warner, The Daily Telegraph

There are few economic reads quite as sobering as the International Monetary Fund’s biannual Fiscal Monitor, the latest edition of which was published this week. The deterioration it charts looks alarming for Britain, with gross public indebtedness expected to rise from little more than 40 per cent of GDP before the financial crisis began to an eye-popping 92.8 per cent by 2014. But sickening as this is, we are by no means the worst offenders.

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7 David Cameron should beware the march of the angry mothers
Fraser Nelson, The Daily Telegraph

For just over half a million parents this week is Terror Week, when the nation’s four-year-olds are allocated a place at primary school. In most countries, this is a dull formality. In Britain, it is anything but: gaming the system has become nothing short of a national obsession. Some atheist mothers will have spent years in the pews with their offspring, praying for nothing more than a school place.

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8 The Conservative party cannot be the Conservative party until it deals with the issue of Europe
John Stevens, ConservativeHome Platform

Screen shot 2012-04-18 at 19.24.35Paul Goodman’s recent commentary of whether the rise of UKIP in the polls is primarily about “Europe” or “Conservatism” (following the interesting research undertaken by James Bethell, whose father was one of the finest Conservative MEPs, a true hero of the Cold War and its aftermath) has encouraged me to question the linkage, or lack of it, between the two.

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9 A transatlantic tale of paralysis
Philip Stephens, The Financial Times (£)

I am never quite sure whether to be depressed or consoled when I cross the Atlantic. Europe is in a fair mess. Travelling to the US reminds me that this is a shared affliction. Political paralysis rules. The maddening thing is that everyone – maybe that should be almost everyone – says they know what must be done. They just won’t do it.

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10 Spain is not returning to its ‘miserable rags’
Tristan Garel-Jones, The Times (£)

In 1910 the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset wrote “Spain is the problem. Europe the solution.” He was right at the time. Today his wise words might well be stood on their head: “Europe is the problem. Spain (and her partners) the solution.”

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