Wednesday 23 May 2012

0 MPs heed announcement on G8 and NATO Summits

We'll be hearing a lot from David Cameron today. He's got PMQs, and then he's giving a statement in the Commons about the recent G8 and Nato summits in the US. The G8 summit seems to have been one of the least productive in recent years, but, with the eurozone on the brink of collapse, MPs will have plenty to ask Cameron about. And there are at least three stories in the news today that are likely to come up in some form.


David Cameron is taking PMQ

Nick Clegg has told the Financial Times (subscription) that the government is planning a "massive" increase in state-backed investment in housing and infrastructure. It sounds suspiciously like Plan B. Here's an extract.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the deputy prime minister sounded a new tone on economic policy, when he said the government's "absolute priority" was to use the government's strong balance sheet to inject credit into the economy.

Mr Clegg said the coalition was looking at "massively amplifying the principle of what we did on credit easing" – a reference to the Treasury's £20bn scheme to support lending to small businesses.
Adrian Beecroft, the Tory business adviser, has told the Daily Telegraph that Vince Cable is a "socialist" who should not be running the Deparment for Business.
claims the Business Secretary's objections to the proposals are "ideological not economic". "I think he is a socialist who found a home in the Lib Dems, so he's one of the Left," Mr Beecroft says. "I think people find it very odd that he's in charge of business and yet appears to do very little to support business."

The BBC has revealed that ministers have taken legal advice on how Britain could, or could not, intervene in a war between Israel and Iran. This is from Nick Robinson.(Google)

I have learnt that UK ministers are discussing not just the possibility of a military confrontation but what role, if any, Britain might play and whether any involvement would be legal.
Last week in London, the National Security Council discussed what would happen if the latest set of negotiations with Iran failed and if Israel carried out its threat to launch a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Ministers were told that this could trigger a wider war in the Middle East in which Iran might respond not just by attacking Israel, but also by closing the vital trade route - the Strait of Hormuz - through which more than a fifth of the world's oil shipments are carried.
I understand that the government's law officers are now examining the legality of any British involvement if this happen.

I expect we'll hear more on all three of these stories later today.

Here's the full agenda.
BBC presenters Andrew Marr and Jeremy Paxman, the Tory MP Stephen Dorrell and the Labour peer John Reid give evidence to the Leveson inquiry.

David Cameron and Ed Miliband clash at PMQs.Cameron makes to Commons statement on the G8 and Nato summits.

The Commons transport committee takes evidence on transport and the Olympics.

Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, gives evidence to the Commons justice committee on the Ministry of Justice.As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and another in the afternoon.

Thanks: guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2012/may/23

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