MP's death leaves Brown facing new SNP challenge in neighbouring Fife constituency
Gordon Brown faces a difficult byelection in his neighbouring Fife constituency after the death of Labour MP John MacDougall from cancer.
Downing Street is likely to wait until after Labour's conference next month before facing the Scottish National party in Glenrothes. MacDougall, 60, held the seat with a majority of 10,664 at the 2005 general election. But the SNP in effect won the seat in last year's Scottish parliamentary elections with a majority of 1,166 - although the Holyrood constituency, Central Fife, has a slightly different boundary. [Guardian]
Jack McConnell: Should he stay or should he go?
Severin Carrell on the issues facing the Labour party and byelections at the moment. [Guardian]
Labour is in a deep hole, former minister admits
Gordon Brown is in a "deep hole", placing Labour in a more serious position than other governments that have experienced mid-term blues, a former minister said yesterday. [Guardian]
Unions and MPs back 'dream ticket'
A powerful coalition of mainstream Labour MPs and leaders of Britain's biggest unions is backing a right-left 'dream ticket' of Alan Johnson and Jon Cruddas to lead the party into the next general election, having given up on Gordon Brown's premiership. [Guardian]
Gethsemane: David Hare's satire crucifies New Labour
David Hare anatomised the failure of privatisation in The Permanent Way; in Stuff Happens, he turned a ruthless eye on the double-think and culpable naivety that led to the Iraq war. And in his new play, Hare dramatises his final and bitter disenchantment with New Labour, the Guardian can reveal. [Guardian]
Tories' favourite thinktank brands northern cities failures
A Tory push to win back seats in the north of England suffers a blow today with the party's favourite thinktank declaring that key cities, such as Liverpool and Sunderland, have "failed" and people should be paid to move south. [Guardian]
Cameron rubbishes 'barmy' report on failing north
"
It was dreary and wet, and slumped in a chair opposite David Cameron was a jobless hoodie: much of the north in a nutshell according to Policy Exchange, until yesterday the Tory leader's favourite thinktank.
Not any more. Cameron took less than a minute after arriving in Carlisle - as far north as you can get on England's western side - to pan the group's dismissal of the region. It wasn't cities such as Sunderland, Bradford or the European Capital of Culture, Liverpool, which were hopeless, he said, after joining a confidence-building class for local teenagers. It was the thinking at Policy Exchange." [Guardian]
In praise of the north
"A rightwing thinktank has written off many northern cities as worthless failures and advised their inhabitants to move south at once. In fact, everything about life in the north of England - from the people and the food, to the politics and the fashion - is the best in Britain. Here, 10 writers explain why."[Guardian]
Geographic folly
Steve Bell on Policy Exchange’s report on the north of England. [Guardian]
Bling culture turns youths to crime, says minister
Young men are shunning work and turning to a life of crime as Britain develops a "get rich or die trying" culture, the country's most senior black MP warns today. David Lammy, the skills minister, says young men are encouraged by a "bling culture" to pursue crime as a short cut to wealth in the face of a rapidly changing economy which no longer places a premium on manual jobs. [Guardian]
Brown ally joins call for windfall tax on energy companies
One of Gordon Brown's closest allies has joined calls for a windfall tax on oil and energy company profits to pay for measures to alleviate the impact of higher fuel bills on the poor. [Guardian]
Companies face crackdown on electricity greenwash
Dozens of companies face having to report embarrassing sharp increases in their carbon pollution under government plans to crack down on greenwash. [Guardian]
Ex-drugs policy director calls for legalisation
A former senior civil servant who was responsible for coordinating the government's anti-drugs policy now believes that legalisation would be less harmful than the current strategy. Julian Critchley, the former director of the Cabinet Office's anti-drugs unit, also said that his views were shared by the "overwhelming majority" of professionals in the field, including police officers, health workers and members of the government. [Guardian]
The media's addiction to controversy can seriously damage your health
Peter Wilby on the dangerous effects of journalists’ desire for a news story overpowering rational examination in scientific matters. [Guardian]
From courageous to stubborn
Martin Kettle prods around Gordon Brown’s brain in order to highlight how Brown’s impression of what is courageous becomes something else when he is unable to change direction on issues. [Guardian]
Tories pledge to grant police greater surveillance powers
Police would be given greater powers to conduct surveillance operations on people suspected of crimes such as burglary and vehicle theft under plans the Conservative Party will announce today. [Guardian]
National security: Plans for 'secret inquests' face defeat in Lords
Ministers' plans to hold in secret inquests that are deemed to put national security at risk are expected to face defeat when the House of Lords votes on them this autumn. A cross-party committee of peers, including a former lord chief justice and two former attorney-generals, has told the government that any decision to hold an inquest without a jury must be taken by a judge and not a minister. [Guardian]
'Snooper's charter' to check texts and emails
Local councils, health authorities and hundreds of other public bodies are to be given the power to access details of everyone's personal text, emails and internet use under Home Office proposals published yesterday. [Guardian]
Today's Tories really are the party for the arts
Ed Vaizey, Shadow Culture Minsiter: “One of Peter Mandelson's enduring political legacies has been a pithy maxim: only when you are bored of what you are saying will the public start to hear you. So at the risk of boring myself, let me respond to the attack on Conservative arts policy by Dominic Cooke, the artistic director of the Royal Court theatre in London (Lurking in the wings, August 6)….” [Guardian]
So what's the big idea, Chancellor?
Heather Stewart on the possible options available to the Chancellor to stimulate the economy. [Guardian]
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