• Today's agenda
• Ed Miliband's Glasgow speech - summary
• Lunchtime summary
• Afternoon summary
Here's an afternoon summary.
• Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, has announced that victims who suffer sprained ankles, broken toes or bruised ribs will no longer be entitled to compensation. As the Press Association reports, he told MPs in a statement that his plans would see payouts target the most serious injuries and prioritise high-quality practical help, rather than helping those with relatively minor injuries. He also said the compensation scheme would be extended to help British victims of terror attacks abroad.
• David Cameron has said that Europe needs to get "really serious" about growth. He made the comment as he arrived at today's EU summit. For detailed coverage of the summit, do take a look at our business live blog.
• Martin Callanan, the leader of Conservative MEPs, has said that the government has changed its stance on the issue of eurozone countries using the EU institutions to police their new pact since Cameron used the "veto" at the summit in December. Callanan made the comment in a statement.
There is no doubt that the government's position has altered since the December summit when they were insisting the Institutions could not be used.I blame a combination of appeasing Nick Clegg (who is desperate to sign anything the EU puts in front of him) and the practical reality that this pact is actually quite hard to prevent. The government would have to ask the ECJ to rule against itself having a role!
Any action could easily take two years, we would probably lose and, if the Euro collapsed in the meantime, the UK would get the blame.
Callanan's comment's undermine Downing Street's claim that the government's position has not changed. This is what the prime minister's spokesowoman said told the lobby this morning.
The prime minister has always been clear that we want to be constructive and open-minded in our approach, but that we will be vigilant to ensure that our national interests are protected. The position hasn't changed. Our national interest is to ensure that the single market is not undermined.
• The Northern Ireland executive has announced it is introducing a 5p plastic bag tax from next year. In 2014 it will go up to 10p.
That's it for today. Thanks for the comments.
Here's an afternoon reading list.
"There are a lot of people in Brussels scratching their heads about that British veto," an EU source just said to me. And no wonder. William Hague this morning on Radio 4 said Britain would not stand in the way of the fiscal compact countries using the European Court of Justice (although the UK reserved the right to take the matter to court in the future if they thought the compact countries had gone beyond the understanding).
I'm in snow, strike-bound Brussels but talking to Tory MPs back in Westminster it's clear a few of them are asking the same question. There isn't normally a prime ministerial statement after an informal European Council like this one but one Tory MP told me he was sure there would be an attempt to table an urgent question and drag Mr Cameron to the Commons. "He'd better explain quickly," one Tory MP said, "or he's going to get his backside kicked."
This saga, I fear, has done Mr Cameron some long-term harm. At a basic level, his equivocal attitude to Mr Hester and his bonus has sent an unmistakeable message to the City: the PM is not a man to go tiger-shooting with ...
Then there is the wider, and to my mind, more significant harm the Government has done: by equivocating over Mr Hester and his bonus, Mr Cameron has allowed short-term tactical considerations deflect him from a strategic imperative for a Conservative, which is to promote and encourage public support for capitalism when it is least popular ... By flirting with the mob over Mr Hester's bonus, Mr Cameron has given wings to the anti-capitalist campaign, with terrible long-term consequences for all of us. Over time, I suspect, his position will look foolish and incredible.
However, having spent a week with police officers of all kinds in Thames Valley, it seems to me that there is a paradox in terms of what the public want the service to do.
On a general level, people will often say they want police to catch villains and lock them up. But when you ask what they want the police to do locally, it tends to be more mundane tasks.
As the Chief Constable of Thames Valley, Sara Thornton, told me: "When we do our surveys very, very rarely do people say what's bothering us around here is burglary or robbery or car crime. What's really bothering them is anti-social behaviour, minor damage, noisiness, rowdiness, people parking inconsiderately."
Here's some reaction to today's Ucas figures showing university applications going down. (See 1.15pm.)
From Shabana Mahmood, the shadow universities minister
The UCAS application figures today show that the decision of the Tory-led Government to treble tuition fees to £9,000 is hitting young people and their aspirations. With overall applications down by 7.4 per cent compared to 2011, and by 8.7 per cent for UK applicants, it is clear that the drastic increase in fees and the increased debt burden is putting people of all ages off going to university and investing their future.
From a Conservative party briefing
Application rates down just 1 per cent for school leavers. Taking the application figures for 18-year-olds as a proportion of the 18-year-old population, applications are down by only 1 per cent on last year. UCAS report: 'In England application rates for 18 year olds have decreased by around one percentage point in 2012 compared to a trend of increases of around one per cent annually since 2006' (UCAS Press Release, 30 January 2012). The discrepancy with the headline figures is because:
• The headline figures are the raw numbers of applicants and do not take account of demographic change. There were 9,000 fewer 18-year-olds in England this year compared to last. The number of 18-year-old applicants fell by less than 9,000 – in line with the falling demographic.
• The headline figures include older students, who had the opportunity to avoid higher fees by applying last year. 18-year-olds are the only group who could not avoid higher fees by applying earlier – and application rates for 18-year-olds are down just one per cent.
• The headline figures include mature students, but the current state of the labour market makes it less likely that people will voluntarily give up their jobs to go to university.
As David Cameron arrived at the EU summit in Brussels, he said that the EU had to "get really serious" about growth.
We need to get really serious about the growth agenda in Europe. We need to complete the single market, agree trade deals and make serious efforts to de-regulate small businesses. That's the agenda I shall be pushing and I hope to find a lot of support.
On the World at One Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Lib Dem leader, and Douglas Carswell, the Conservative backbencher, were debating whether or not it was right for David Cameron to let the eurozone countries use the EU institutions to police their new fiscal union.
Campbell said there could be advantages to Britain from this.
If, for example, those who sign the treaty, where to begin to act in a way that was inconsistent with the overarching legal framework of the European Union, then the fact that the [European court of justice] had jurisdiction would entitle the United Kingdom to go to the court and make that argument. If the court does not have jurisdiction, then the only possible pressure available to us would be political.
But Carswell said Cameron's move rendered his use of the "veto" at the December summit pointless.
I don't see how the veto is really a veto if we allow the fiscal union member to form, and then find ourselves subject to the EU institutions being used to govern that. In effect we will find that for all the talk of a veto, we find ourselves hauled into this process.
I've taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
The SNP MSP Bill Kidd has put out a statement saying Ed Miliband has no right to lecture Scotland on progressive politics. The full text is on the SNP website, but here's an extract.
Ed Miliband is the least popular Westminster leader in Scotland – his satisfaction ratings have been as low as minus 70 – and the other two are also extremely unpopular. It becomes clear why after his speech, in which he failed yet again to present a positive vision for Scotland's future ...
He talks about reforming the banks, creating prosperity and tackling inequality – but these are things the Labour party failed to do when it was in government.
There are two key facts that destroy his case when he comes to Scotland – the Spirit Level book proves that the UK became more unequal on the Labour Party's watch, and the Cost of Inequality report that shows in 1977 the bottom 60 per cent of wage earners earned 40% of National Income but by 2008 that had dropped to 33%.
The SNP has been delivering a progressive policy agenda for over four years – ending the tax on ill-health, maintaining free education and free personal care. Meanwhile, Ed Miliband was part of a UK Labour government which failed to deliver a progressive agenda.
Yvette Cooper (left), the shadow home secretary, has put out a statement in response to Theresa May's speech.
The Police Federation said they would accept the police arbitration tribunal conclusion and we had said the home secretary should accept it too. Unfortunately the home secretary's handling of this has left police morale at an all-time low.
Pay restraint was always going to be part of police savings, and chief constables have already built that into their plans, though many are sceptical about the extent of the savings these plans will deliver in practice. However even with savings from pay they are still expecting over 16,000 police officers to be cut and thousands more staff to go too.Today's speech doesn't get away from the fact that police budgets have been cut by 20 per cent rather than the 12 per cent that Labour supports and that independent experts recommended.
Here's a lunchtime summary.
• Labour has said it will put further pressure on RBS executives to rein in excessive bonuses after helping to force the bank's chief executive, Stephen Hester, to abandon his plan to take a £1m share bonus. At Patrick Wintour reports, Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, described RBS employees as public sector workers and said Labour would be taking a close look at the bonuses offered to the bank's senior staff. Miliband said the government needed to change the bonus system to stop problems like this reoccuring.
David Cameron has shown himself to be completely out of touch with the British people on this issue. [He] has got a tin ear when it comes to understanding what people are feeling. The government's decision to nod this bonus through showed it was unable or unwilling to stand up to the banks.
This is a government that had the power of a shareholder to stop this bonus happening, but it refused to use that power. That was why Labour proposed a parliamentary vote – so that the voice of the people could be heard - and it was the threat of that parliamentary vote that led to change.
If we don't deal with the issue of bankers bonuses in a proper, systematic way this kind of thing is just going to re-occur.
• Ed Miliband has accused Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, of not caring about the plight of poor Britons living outside Scotland. In a speech in Glasgow, Miliband said that the people of the UK could better build a fair society by working together. He also said that independence would lead to Scotland and England competing to slash taxes and cut regulation and that as a result both would lose out. (See 12.04pm.)
• Theresa May, the home secretary, has paved the way for a radical overhaul of police pay by accepting concessions proposed by an independent panel. As Alan Travis reports, May has deferred her demand for the immediate abolition of "grab-a-grand" competency-related payments, which critics claim are little more than bonuses paid to the police for doing their job. Scrapping these allowances would have saved a further £13m a year. But other reforms in a review chaired by Tom Winsor will go through, saving the taxpayer £150m a year. The Winsor plans were put to the police arbitration tribunal, which backed most of them. May said today she would accept the tribunal's recommendations. The Police Federation has also said it would be bound by to the tribunal's findings.
• William Hague, the foreign secretary, has confirmed that Britain will not stop eurozone countries using EU instutions to police their new fiscal union pact. (See 9.33am.)
• Ken Livingstone, Labour's candidate for London mayor, has said that he will cut fares by 7% from Sunday 7 October if he wins. (See 10.32am.)
• Tim Toulmin, a former director of the Press Complaints Commission, has conceded the Leveson inquiry the PCC took a "restrictive and timorous" approach when faced with the possibility of questioning Andy Coulson over phone hacking after his resignation from the News of the World. As the Press Association reports Toulmin, who was in the post when the now-defunct tabloid's royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for the practice, said he "accepted some time ago" that the PCC could have called Coulson to shed light on illegal activity at the Sunday paper. But he said at the time the watchdog's powers would not have had any "traction" with the former editor.
• The People's Pledge, the campaign for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, has announced that it will hold a postal ballot on the issue in one parliamentary constituency in April. There will be ballots in another 10 constituencies in the autumn, and another 100 in 2013, it announced at a news conference. The first postal ballot, on Thursday 5 April, will be in one of the following 13 seats: Belfast East; Bolton West; Carlshalton and Wallington; Corby; Easington; Eastleigh; Gower; Halifax; Ipswich; Newcastle-under-Lyme; Thurrock; Torridge and West Devon; or Western Isles
• Ucas figures have shown that the number of students applying to go to university in England in September - when fees rise to up to £9,000 for the first time - have falled by 9.9%.
• The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, which represents 160,000 teachers, has announced that it is accepting the government's proposed public sector pension cuts.
• Tube drivers have rejected a pay offer for working during the Olympic Games worth up to £500. As the Press Association reports, the RMT union, which represents thousands of Tube staff, said the money was not an adequate reward for being on duty during the event, which will see a huge increase in passengers across the capital for weeks. The RMT said the offer had been slightly improved to £100 dependent on meeting "customer satisfaction" targets, and extra per shift which could add another £400. But the union complained that other deals, including one of £1,100 at Docklands Light Railway, were worth more.
Ed Miliband's Glasgow speech may not make it onto the front pages tomorrow, but for anyone who thinks (as I do) that the fate of Scotland is one of the most interesting issues in UK politics at the moment, it's very interesting. Here are the main points.
• Miliband seemed to accept that Scotland would be viable as an independent country. In the past Labour politicians have often argued against separatism on the grounds that an independent Scotland would suffer economically. Miliband said there were "vital questions" to be asked about the costs and benefits of independence. But he said he was not putting the "Scotland will suffer" claim at the heart of his argument.
I support Scotland as part of the United Kingdom, not because I think Scotland is too poor or too weak to break away.But for a profoundly different reason:
Because I believe that Scotland as part of the United Kingdom is better for the working people of Scotland, and better for the working people of the United Kingdom as a whole.
• He said that independence would lead to competition within the UK to lower taxes and cut regulation in a way that would damage all nations within the UK.
If we change the rules separately, banks would move wherever the rules were weakest. We need stronger rules together, not weaker rules apart ...
Rather than advancing fairness together, the risk is a race to the bottom on bank regulation, on wages, and conditions at work.
We can achieve more progress together.
Take another great progressive challenge of our time, climate change.
Every nation is now making efforts to tackle this but separation creates the danger that we compete on where companies should go to be able to produce more carbon.
We should tackle climate change together.
That's why I say that the best way to make this country fairer is to do it together, as one country.
Mr Salmond, you can't build fairness in Scotland by giving up on fairness in the United Kingdom.
This is important. In his Hugo Young lecture last week, Alex Salmond gave a clear hint that he would use independence to cut corporation tax in Scotland, giving firms an incentive to relocate in the country. "What independence would do is to give us the tools– corporation tax, for example - which we could use to get on with the job of promoting recovery and improving people's lives," Salmond said. This is what has happened in Ireland. Miliband wants to stop it happening in Scotland.
• He claimed that Britons identified with fellow Britons, and not just fellow English or fellow Scottish people.
Nearly half of all Scots have English relatives.
When a Scotsman who works in the shipyards of Govan meets an Englishman who works on the docks in Merseyside, he doesn't see a foreigner, he sees a fellow countryman.
• He accused Salmond of wanting to ignore the plight of fellow Britons. This was not "progressive", he said.
Alex Salmond claims to want to set a progressive example.
Let me tell him, there is nothing progressive about a brand of politics which is based on dividing people with the same needs, living on this same small island.
There is nothing progressive about a vision which says a pensioner in Liverpool is no concern of his, a child growing up in poverty in East London is no concern of his, a disabled person in the Midlands is no concern of his.
That isn't a progressive vision.
That is shutting the door on the problems of your fellow citizens.
• Miliband rejected the notion that England was inherently conservative while Scotland was in inherently progressive. That was a "story" told by Salmond, Miliband said.
• He said that creating a "more equal, just and fair society" should be the priority and that the nations of the UK would do this better together. As an example, he cited the role played the Scotsman Keir Hardie, the Englishman Clement Attlee and the Welshman Aneuran Bevan in the creation of Labour and the welfare state.
• Miliband said Scotland was an integral part of the UK economy. "We are not separate economies, Scotland and the United Kingdom," he said. "We are one economy."
• He insisted that he felt a personal attachment to the notion of Britishness. His father fought in the British Navy after arriving in Britain as a refugee from the Nazis, he said.
As I was growing up, [my father] didn't talk to me about coming to England, then moving to Scotland.
He talked about coming to Britain; the country that gave him and my mother shelter.
• He said the people of Scotland - not Salmond, or the SNP - should decide the timing of the referendum. In the Q&A session, Johann Lamont, Labour's leader in Scotland, said it should be "sooner rather than later".
• He said there should only be one question on the ballot paper. Salmond is proposing a second question, on further devolution.
• He said the Electoral Commission should ensure that the question was fair. Salmond's proposed wording - "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?" - has been criticised as biased, but Miliband declined to say himself during the Q&A session to say whether he thought it was unfair.
Miliband also made some points about the Stephen Hester bonus affair.
• He said Labour deserved the credit for Hester's decision to refuse his bonus. "It took Labour's threat of a parliamentary vote for the right thing to happen," he said.
• He called for a "decisive shift" in the rules affecting bonuses. Three measures were particularly important, he said: a bank bonus tax, putting an employee on every remuneration committee and new corporate governance rules, so that "bonuses are not for just doing your job but for exceptional performance>
The full text of Ed Miliband's Glasgow speech is now on Labour's website.
Miliband's Q&A was over. I'll post a summary of the speech in a moment.
The Q&A will wind up soon.
Q: What further devolution would you recommend?
Lamont says that, given that Labour lost the election last year, it would be presumptious to have a firm answer to that now. She wants to consult on this, particularly with business.
Q: Is Alex Salmond's question fair?
Miliband says it is not for politicians to make a judgment. That matter should be decided by the independent Electoral Commission.
Another question to Miliband.
Q: Do you agree with Cameron that "devo max" would lead to separatism?
Miliband says that, unlike Cameron, he really believes in devolution.
But he also says that it is important not to confuse devolution with separatism.
Johann Lamont, Labour's leader in Scotland, says she has never accepted that Scotland faces a choice between separatism and the status quo. She has never been in favour of the status quo, she says.
She also says that it would take a lot to persuade her that it would be a good idea to have "tax competition" in the UK.
A question from the Scotsman.
Q: Given that you are backing elements of the benefits cap, will you be attacked from the left by the SNP?
Miliband says there is always a danger of being attacked in politics. But the important thing is do to the right thing. Labour is in favour of regional benefit caps.
But it is also important to take on private landlords. Private landlords have been charging exorbitant rents, he says.
A question from a non-journalist.
Q: Is there any economic data about what might happen to Scotland post-indendence?
Lamont says the question illustrates why the issue is so importance. When people pose questions like this, they are accused of "talking down Scotland".
A question from the Scottish Daily Mail.
Q: Do you accept that the referendum will be in autumn 2014?
Miliband says that must be decided in Scotland. He means it should be decided by the people of Scotland. When Alex Salmond says this must be decided in Scotland, he means decided by him.
Johann Lamont says she does not see why there has to be a delay. She doesn't understand why Salmond wants to put it off if it is so important. There is a "frustration" that Scotland is being asked to wait another 1,000 days.
My own view is that we should be having a decision soon rather than later.
More questions to Miliband.
Q: What do you think of the question proposed by Alex Salmond?
Johann Lamont, Labour's leader in Scotland, says there is some evidence saying that if the question asks "Do you want Scotland to be an independent country?" (as Salmond proposes), then it encourages a certain response. She says she thinks someone independent needs to assess whether the question is fair.
Miliband says the Electoral Commission should ensure that the question is fair.
Sky and BBC News are no longer covering Miliband's Q&A, but there's live footage on the BBC's news website.
Miliband says he thinks people who are prosperous in Glasgow care about poverty in London, and people who are prosperous in London care about poverty in Glagow.
The speech is over. Miliband is now taking questions.
Q: Would you share a platform with David Cameron in a campaign against indendence?
Miliband says the issue of platforms "is an issue for later". But he says his vision of Britain is very different from Cameron's.
He is going to go toe-to-toe against Salmond.
Miliband says people in the UK have shared values.
Nearly half of all Scots have English relatives. When a Scotsman who works in the shipyards of Govan meets an Englishman who works on the docks in Merseyside, he doesn't see a foreigner, he sees a fellow countryman. The pensioner from Aberdeen or Ayr has more in common with the pensioner in Bristol or Bolton than with a pensioner in France or Belgium.When the Olympics are on next year, nobody in the pubs in Newcastle will cheer any less loudly for Chris Hoy, wearing the Union flag, just because he was born in Edinburgh.
Oops. I think he meant this year.
Miliband says climate change also illustrates the importance of the UK nations working together.
Every nation is now making efforts to tackle this but separation creates the danger that we compete on where companies should go to be able to produce more carbon.
We should tackle climate change together.
Miliband says building responsible capitalism is "the true project for social justice in our United Kingdom".
Scotland and the rest of the UK do not have separate economies, he says.
We are one economy. The banks serving Glasgow are the same as the ones serving Gloucester. The shops on your high street are the same as the shops on my high street. And decisions made by British companies like BAE will affect their employees in Govan as much as their employees in Barrow.We can make our economy work for the majority. We can make capitalism more responsible. But I tell you this: We can only do it together.
He says more people in Scotland are employed by large companies based in the rest of the UK than in Scotland.
So reform in one country and not in another would simply mean companies moving a few miles north or south to where rules are easiest for them.
Rather than advancing fairness together, the risk is a race to the bottom on bank regulation, on wages, and conditions at work.
Miliband says achievements like the Equal Pay Act and the minimum wage "do not belong to one nation of the UK", he says. "They are British achievements."
Miliband says Labour's story, and Britain's story, is about what people have achieved together.
The story of the Scotsman, the Englishman, and the Welshman is not just the start of a good joke. It is the history of social justice in this country.It was a Scotsman, Keir Hardie, who founded the Labour party a hundred and twelve years ago. An Englishman, Clement Attlee, who led the most successful Labour government in history. And a Welshman, Nye Bevan, who pioneered that Government's greatest legacy, our National Health Service.
Miliband says he does not want Scotland to stay in the UK because he thinks it is too weak to flourish on its own.
I support Scotland as part of the United Kingdom, not because I think Scotland is too poor or too weak to break away. But for a profoundly different reason: Because I believe that Scotland as part of the
United Kingdom is better for the working people of Scotland, and better for the working people of the United Kingdom as a whole.
The real divide in the UK is not between Scotland and England, he says.
I say let's confront the real divide in Britain. Not between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. But between the haves and the have-nots.
Miliband says the people of Scotland should decide the timing of the referendum.
But they should decide on the basis of "one clear question", he says.
When the nationalists talk about the referendum process, they do so because they want to avoid a debate about the substance, he says.
Miliband says he comes to Scotland with "humility" because of Labour's performance in the Scottish elections last year.
The SNP will ask what right Miliband, as a non-Scot, has to get involved in this debate, he says.
But he wants to take this argument head-on.
His father came to Britain as a refugee, he says. He fought in the Navy and served off the Forth of Firth. He did not come to England; he came to Britain, Miliband says.
If Scotland separates, all people living in the four nations of the UK will be affected, Miliband says.
Miliband says the RBC fiasco raises wider questions about the need to create a more responsible capitalism.
One lesson stands out - we stand or fall by our ability to work together.
And that is why he is making the case for Scotland to stay in the UK, he says.
Ed Miliband is speaking now.
He starts with some comments on executive pay. He renews his call for workers to sit on remuneration committees. And he says executive pay should be simplified. There should be one salary, one bonus, he says, rather than complicated remuneration packages.
Ed Miliband (left) is about to give his speech in Glasgow on the progressive case for Scotland remaining in the UK.
It is his response to Alex Salmond's Hugh Young lecture last week. Salmond said progressives should support Scottish independence, because "an independent Scotland could be a beacon for progressive opinion south of the border."
Here's our preview of Miliband's speech.
You can read all today's Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, are here.
As for the rest of the papers, for some reaason the Telegraph is particularly interesting today. Here are three articles worth noting.
General Sir Peter Wall, the Chief of the General Staff, said redundancies were starting to bite and also raised concerns that the quality of military accommodation was "not up to standard". Cuts to pensions remains "one of the greatest concerns" in the Army, he added.His intervention will raise questions about whether defence cuts are undermining morale in the Armed Forces.
• James Kirkup in the Daily Telegraph on what the Tories are doing to improve their appeal to women.
In Downing Street, private polling has identified two distinct groups of women with their own particular concerns about the Coalition.
The first is older women in the AB — ie better-off — social class, women who worry about the government's "values". It is to these women that recent prime ministerial pronouncements on issues like adoption and forced marriage have been aimed. This week, the Prime Minister will speak to them again with new promises to curb the seemingly relentless sexualisation of children through marketing and the media ...
Among them is the other group of women bothering No 10: younger members of the C2 social class, more likely to have young children and more likely to worry about household budgets. Ministers have been advised to try to persuade them that without the Coalition's cuts, their children will be saddled with this generation's debts.
The coalition is also desperate to persuade them that the recent squeeze on living standards is caused by frozen wages and high energy prices, and not "the cuts".
The Centre for Policy Studies says the tax cut is the "only source of a viable economic recovery" since households and individuals are "too indebted to expect consumers to lead a rescue of the economy".
Companies have spare cash, which could be directed towards infrastructure and other projects, but "also need the confidence to invest".
Tim Knox, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: "Profitable businesses are the only source of a viable economic recovery, the Chancellor should reduce the rate of corporation tax in the 2012 Budget — and also announce his intention to reduce it even further to 15 per cent or even 10 per cent once the appropriate anti-evasion measures are in place."
Ken Livingstone (left) has announced today that, if he wins the mayoral election, he will cut fares by 7% for Londoners on Sunday 7 October. He has also said that he will resign if he breaks this promise.
Politics should be about making a difference, and just as I cut fares before, I will cut them now because the tough times we're going through demand a fairer fares policy. If I am elected in a few short months there will be real change for the better.There could not be a clearer choice. Boris Johnson raised your fares for the fourth time this January, but on October 7th 2012 I will cut them, saving the average Londoner £1000 over four years.
By setting the date for the fares cut I'm showing that politics is about change and about doing something real for the majority, not just a privileged few.
My commitment to carrying out this cut is such that I give my word that if I do not cut the fares on or by October 7th I will resign the office of Mayor immediately and cause a by-election.
There is considerable scepticism about whether Livingstone can cut fares by 7% without damaging Transport for London's investment plans. I spoke to Livingstone about this, and much else, in an interview with him last week which we've just posted on our website this morning.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers has announced that it is accepting the government's proposed public sector pension reforms. The ATL, which represents 160,000 teachers, said the move followed the results of a poll of members in which 91.6% of respondents voted in favour of the plans. This is from the ATL president Alice Robinson.
ATL members are realists. They recognise how tough times are and that the government is determined not to give any further ground. Although the government's final offer does not give us everything we wanted, it is the best deal we could get in the current economic climate. And members do not want a significantly worse deal imposed on them if they rejected this one.
Theresa May, the home secretary, is delivering her speech now. She said that she is accepting all the recommendations of the independent tribunal looking at the Tom Winsor proposals for the reform of police pay and that the new system would eventually save the taxpayer £150m a year. I'll post more on this when I've had a chance to read the full details.
Douglas Alexander (left), the shadow foreign secretary, says William Hague's Today interview this morning (see 9.33am) amounts to an admission that David Cameron's "veto" at the December EU summit was pointless.
William Hague has been forced to admit this morning that the deal on the table today does not include any direct requirements of the UK, making David Cameron's decision to walk away from the negotiations last month even less understandable.
The prime minister should be putting the national interest ahead of his party interest - by leading for Britain.
Instead he's being dictated to by his backbenchers, warned by his Welfare Secretary and followed around by an aide to Nick Clegg.
Sadly David Cameron's decision to walk away from the table before the negotiations had even started has made it harder for him to push for a solution to the eurozone's problems and get a deal that boost jobs and growth in Britain.
The reference to Cameron being "followed around by an aide to Nick Clegg" refers to this story from the House magazine about a member of Clegg's staff accopanying Cameron to today's EU summit.
Here's Unite's national officer David Fleming on Stephen Hester's decision not to take his £1m bonus.
Better late then never will be the feeling amongst the call centre, bank branch and processing staff at RBS that Stephen Hester has finally bowed to public pressure to waive his nearly £1 million bonus. This gesture goes some way in acknowledging the hypocrisy of an organisation which has sacked over 21,000 staff, while still attempting to pay bumper bonuses to the bosses. As Unite demanded at the time the bonus was announced, it was right for common sense to prevail and this massive bonus to be waived. There remains a long way for RBS to go in proving its credentials as a responsible organisation, to its customers and also to its thousands of staff.
William Hague (left) was actually invited on to the Today programme to talk about today's informal EU summit, not Stephen Hester's bonus. At the weekend it emerged that David Cameron had abandoned his attempt to stop the eurozone countries from using common EU institutions, like the European court of justice, to police their new fiscal union. Hague told the Today programme that, although Britain would not stop the eurozone countries using the EU institutions, the government still had some reservations on this score.
This group cannot cut across the EU treaties ... If the use of the EU treaties at any point threatens Britain's fundamental rights under the EU treaties, or damages our vital interests such as the single market, then we would have to take action about that, including legal action.
So we will reserve our position on the specific question about the use of the court. We are not signing a treaty that permits that.
He sounded like someone doing his best to put a diplomatic gloss on a U-turn.
In a post for ConservativeHome at the weekend, Tim Montgomerie said it was now hard to know what Cameron's "veto" at the EU's December summit actually achieved.
Here is some more of the reaction to Stephen Hester's decision not to take his £1m bonus. I've taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
From Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary
We are not opposed to the concept of a bonus. But this is a time when people listening to this programme are facing the biggest squeeze on their incomes in a generation, not least other - and I use that word deliberately - other public sector workers are being forced to take a 1 per cent pay increase cap on their salaries. That's the big issue here.
From William Hague, the foreign secretary
The long-term incentive scheme that everybody has been talking about was actually agreed in 2009 under the previous Labour government, so I don't think they have that much to congratulate themselves about. But, as the chancellor has said, it's a sensible and welcome decision.
Stephen Hester's decision to give up his £1m bonus is still dominating the news this morning. Hester backed down after Labour announced it was going to force a Commons vote on the issue and this raises the prospect that parliament could start trying to veto other bonus payments. All three main parties have been welcoming Hester's move this morning but at least one brave soul has been suggesting that Hester should have kept his money. Mark Field, the Tory MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, told Radio 5 Live that Hester had been the victim of "lynch mob activity".
Its pretty unedifying watching politicians doing it, actually, I don't like to see political figures jumping on a particular bandwagon to kick the guy ... You can look at the share price and say well, there hasn't been a great success. The reality is the bank has been put on a much more sustainable footing ... We've got £45bn that is tied up in this bank. My big worry is, who in their right mind is going to want to put themselves through the mill that Stephen Hester has been through in the last weeks and months?
I'll post a full round-up of the reaction to the Hester decision later.
David Cameron is in Brussels today for his first EU summit since his decision to "veto" a new EU treaty. I'll be keeping an eye on that, although it will probably wrap after I've finished.
Otherwise, here's the agenda for the day.
10am: Theresa May, the home secretary, gives a speech on police reform. She will announce plans to plans to give communities tougher protection from anti-social behaviour.
10am: Stig Abell, director of the Press Complaints Commission, and his predecessor Tim Toulmin give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.
10.30am: Ed Milband, the Labour leader, gives a speech in Glasgow on the case for Scotland staying in the UK. He will argue that the goals of fairness and justice are best delivered within the UK.
10.30am: Labour MPs Natascha Engel and Keith Vaz and Tory MP Douglas Carswell speak at a People's Pledge press conference where it will set out its campaign strategy for 2012. The People's Pledge is a cross-party group campaign for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
3.30pm: Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, is expected to make a Commons statement on plans to reform the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. He wants to restrict the ability of convicted criminals to claim compensation.
3.30pm: Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, and Hector Sants, its chief executive, give evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about the collapse of RBS.
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.
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