Expenses row continues
‘Conservative MP Andrew MacKay has quit as parliamentary aide to David Cameron over what the party said was an “unacceptable” expenses claim.’ – BBC
‘Gordon Brown is said to be “very concerned” about allegations ex minister Elliot Morley claimed £16,000 expenses on a loan he had already paid.’ – BBC
‘Mr Morley, the ex-agriculture minister, continued claiming for the mortgage interest on his constituency home for more than 18 months after the loan had been repaid.’ – Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, Daily Telegraph
‘The crisis over MPs’ expenses is unique in modern British politics. Previous crises – sleaze in the 1990s, the winter of discontent in 1978-79, the Profumo affair in the 1960s – affected only the governing party. This implicates the whole political class. The beneficiaries could easily be parties that seek not to strengthen our parliamentary system but to undermine it.’ – Vernon Bogdanor, The Times
‘The reimbursement of MPs, rather like the constitution, has evolved through usage into a complex mesh of precedent and compromise. Beyond the expenses that have provoked such ire are other murky allowances, and an extravagantly generous pension scheme.’ – Leader, The Times
Speaker faces no-confidence call
‘A no confidence motion in House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin is to be tabled by a Conservative backbencher.’ – BBC
‘Michael Martin, the Speaker of the Commons, is to be told by senior Labour figures that he must stand down by the next general election or risk a humiliating “mess” at the end of a political career spanning three decades.’ – Nicholas Watt, The Guardian
Economic matters
‘So this is not the Great Depression. The economy is still struggling, house prices still falling and unemployment still rising, but the end of the world has been postponed. As I have argued for the past few months, and as the Bank of England confirmed in its quarterly Inflation Report yesterday, a rerun of the 1930s Depression or even a Japanese-style “lost decade” of stagnation is unlikely, even if economic prospects remain weak.’ – Anatole Kaletsky, The Times
‘The latest report from the Bank suggests there could be a return to growth by this time next year as a triple whammy of firms restocking, monetary easing and fiscal stimulus feeds through. And it does seem likely that the worst of the downturn is now behind us, as the rate of decline in various measures of output slows.’ – Leader, The Independent
‘The number of loans handed out for house purchases in the UK rose sharply in March, lenders say.’ – BBC
‘The number of first-time buyers jumped by 36 per cent in March, according to figures out today from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).’ – Rebecca O’Connor, The Times
‘If all economists were laid end to end, George Bernard Shaw reminds us, they would not reach a conclusion. So it is with the most pressing economic issue for decades. For each sage sighting green shoots, or “green seedlings” in Lord Mandelson’s recent formulation, there is another seeing unbroken earth.’ – Telegraph View, Daily Telegraph
Fringe parties on the rise
‘Lord Tebbit, the former Tory chairman, urged voters to show MPs who was boss by boycotting the three main parties in the European elections on 4 June. So who would profit from these tactics? The Independent reports on the parties vying for a breakthrough’ – Andy McSmith and Michael Savage, The Independent
Rape conviction rates
‘Rape victims are to be asked why they feel that they are being failed by the criminal justice system as new research suggests that Britain has the lowest conviction rates in Europe.’ – Sean O’Neill and Fiona Hamilton, The Times
‘Rape is a deeply unpleasant crime, and a highly emotive issue. There have been longstanding concerns that some police forces have been too quick to dismiss rape allegations. So when an international study for the European Union suggests that conviction rates for rape in Britain are the lowest in Europe – 6.5 per cent in Britain compared with 25 per cent in France – it deserves serious attention.’ – Leader, The Times
A European foreign policy
‘Fly-over country. An old people’s home. A continent choosing irrelevance. “An international actor in a state of strategic confusion.” Weak, divided and hypocritical. Perhapsburg. That is what you hear about Europe from observers in Washington, Moscow and Beijing. And that is what we Europeans have to change.’ – Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian