Johnson told he can't suspend Met chief, says leaked email A top aide to the mayor of London has been given legal advice in the past week that Boris Johnson has no power to suspend the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, leaked emails yesterday revealed. The emails - written last Friday and Saturday - concern advice from the most senior lawyer for the Metropolitan police authority. [Guardian]
Met chief challenges Johnson over role
Sir Ian Blair yesterday warned that his post as commissioner of the Metropolitan police was becoming increasingly politicised and that plans by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, to take more control of the force could ultimately be damaging. [Guardian]
Local government: Battle of the Bs as towns adopt identical logos
The troubled history of local council logos has thrown up another spat after rival authorities managed to end up with exactly the same clever piece of design based on one letter. [Guardian]
Arts Council damaged by funding row, report warns
Arts Council England mishandled its last funding round so completely that it ended up receiving "the most damaging publicity in its 60-year history", according to a report which investigated the way the council, after having secured an extra £50m for the arts from the government, bungled its distribution. [Guardian]
Promise of prompt access to family doctors not met
The NHS in England is failing to meet government targets for giving people prompt access to GPs, a Healthcare Commission survey says today. It finds 13% of patients cannot get an appointment to see a family doctor within 48 hours, in breach of undertakings given by ministers four years ago. [Guardian]
Stuart Simpson: We should welcome China's growth, not fear it
Goldman Sachs forecast that by 2050, out of the current G7 nations, only the United States and Japan will be among the world's six largest economies in US dollar terms – and the largest economy will be China, not the United States. The exact date on which China replaces the US as the world's largest economy is uncertain, but barring a major catastrophe it will happen at some point before the middle of the century. China, it seems, is set to be a superpower.
There is much hype and hysteria about this fact. But we need calm heads to see what is really exciting about China's economic miracle. We need to clearly understand the economic reality in the here-and-now compared with what it could be in the future. [Independent]
Multilateralism not dead as a Doha
Like Wimbledon fortnight but without the aesthetic or entertainment value, the annual breakdown of the Doha round of trade talks is becoming a summer ritual. For three successive years, dark warnings of now-or-never and one-last-chance have ended in a fruitless ministerial meeting. It is time to be brave, swallow hard and accept that the Doha round in its present form has failed. [FT]
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