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Welfare plan 'may cause poverty'
Ministers should rethink plans to force lone parents, disabled people and long-term jobless to seek work, an adviser says.

Government 'loses one PC a week'
The Tories demand a Whitehall security review as it is revealed 53 computers disappeared in a year.

UK borrowing rise 'is necessary'
The government says it is "right to increase borrowing" as figures show public debt rose by £1.4bn last month.

Red tape 'hampers crime victims'
Victims of violent crime entitled to compensation are being hampered by excessive bureaucracy, say MPs.

New data security checks for EDS
Computer giant EDS's data security standards are to be checked independently each year, MPs are told.

Clampdown on excessive speeders
A raft of measures is suggested to target anti-social drivers, including those who speed excessively or use drugs.

New system may not cut migration
The new points-based system could lead to a rise in immigration if ministers wanted it to rise, minister Phil Woolas tells MPs.

No ransom for pirates, UK insists
The UK rules out paying ransoms to hostage-takers as two Britons remain on board an oil tanker seized by Somali pirates.

Harman laughs off coffee 'froth'
Harriet Harman dismisses reports of cabinet colleague Liam Byrne's demands for cappuccinos and espressos at work as "froth".

Sack Strictly judges, demands cabinet minister
Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy says the judges of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing should go.

Decision to set up a caviar squad called a 'strange priority'
A government crack-down on caviar smuggling is a "strange thing to prioritise" at a time of economic gloom, a shadow minister says.

Leaked BNP list
What effect will publication have on the party?

Alien encounters
How do MPs deal with "possessed" constituents

Commuter tale
Meet the MP who travels 1,400 miles a week

Mardell's Europe
Why fishermen are letting their cod slip the net

Hoodwinked
How two criminals fooled the British judicial system

Nick Robinson
If you thought the banking crisis was over, think again

Final plea on Earth observation
Leading Earth observation scientists urge Gordon Brown to back Europe's environmental monitoring project, GMES.

Holyrood rejects identity cards
The Scottish Parliament votes against the UK Government's plans to introduce ID cards.

BNP members 'targeted by threats'
BNP members say they have received threatening phone calls and e-mails after their details were published on the internet.

Clegg proposes 'government bank'
The Lib Dems say the government has been 'supine' with banks and should consider lending directly to business and homeowners.

MPs reject phone tap inquest bid
MPs overturn a move by peers to allow phone tap evidence to be used "in exceptional circumstances" in inquests.

The Full Story: PM's questions
All the key points, analysis and views as Gordon Brown faces his weekly grilling

UK net immigration up to 237,000
Net immigration to the UK increased by 46,000 in 2007 to 237,000, according to official statistics.

Prostitute users face clampdown
Paying for sex with prostitutes who are controlled by pimps or illegally trafficked to the UK is to be outlawed.

Miliband holds meeting in Lebanon
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has met his Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Salloukh to discuss peace in the Middle East.

Miliband warns of piracy danger
Foreign Secretary David Miliband says that piracy around Somalia "is a grave danger to stability in the region".

300,000 UK visas 'wrongly issued'
Around 300,000 visas giving people the right to come to Britain may be wrongly approved every year, MPs are told.

Tories cut Labour spending pledge
The Conservatives are dropping their pledge to match Labour's spending plans for the year 2010/11, says David Cameron.

Deal brokered to end NI deadlock
NI's first and deputy first ministers broker a deal on policing and justice to end a political stalemate at Stormont.

Peer to face court over M1 crash
Labour peer Lord Ahmed is to appear before magistrates after a fatal crash on the M1 in South Yorkshire.

Blair to co-host financial forum
Tony Blair and French President Nicholas Sarkozy will host a financial forum in Paris in January, following the G20 Washington meeting.

EU thumbs-up for 'Polish plumber'
Eastern and Central European workers have not distorted labour markets in older EU member states, a new EU report says.

Railway delays 'cost £1bn a year'
Train passengers are suffering delays worth £1bn a year in terms of lost time, MPs say.

Child protection plans revealed
Every area of England is to be covered by a Children's Trust Board, the government announces.

UK urges 'positive' Syrian role
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband says his talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were positive and constructive.

Tories plan exam standards checks
The Conservative Party is promising to peg exams in England to an international benchmark to ensure standards.

Court cuts 'compromising judges'
A leading judge says he fears a conflict of interest as courts increasingly depend on income from offenders.

Cameron warns of 'tax bombshell'
David Cameron tells Gordon Brown to "be straight" and admit borrowing more will mean higher taxes later.

Presumed consent 'not ruled out'
The PM says he is not ruling out a law change on organ donation, despite experts rejecting the idea of "presumed consent".

'Close to 3m unemployed' by 2010
The CBI says the UK economy will shrink by 1.7% in 2009, with unemployment rising to nearly 3 million by 2010.

Miliband meets energy giants
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has met key energy providers as they compile a report on price fairness

RBS boss apologises over losses
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chairman, Sir Tom McKillop, says he is "profoundly sorry" for the bank's financial difficulties.

Brian Taylor's political blog
Dummy puff/betsan blog

Water charges deferred for a year
The executive confirms water charges will be deferred for another year, as it meets for the first time in five months.

Mark Devenport's political blog
Dummy puff/betsan blog

Andrews rules out leadership bid
Rhondda AM Leighton Andrews says he will not stand for the leadership of Welsh Labour once Rhodri Morgan stands down.

Betsan Powys' political blog
Dummy puff/betsan blog

The Cabinet: Who's Who
Here is a minister-by-minister guide to the members of Gordon Brown's Cabinet.

Shadow Cabinet: Who's Who
Here is a minister-by-minister guide to the members of Tory leader David Cameron's Cabinet.

In full: Lib Dem front bench
Here is a spokesman-by-spokesman guide to the members of Nick Clegg's front bench team.

A-Z of Parliament

Inside Europe

Political websites
Links to parties and other useful websites covering UK politics.

Guide to Parliament
What is Parliament for and how does it work?

In depth: Party conferences

In depth: The Blair Years
Full coverage of The Blair Years

Alan Travis on plans to restrict immigration appeals

Alan Travis on plans to restrict immigration appeals

Welfare reforms could increase poverty, says government adviser

A senior government adviser today warned that Labour's welfare reforms could push benefit claimants closer to poverty.

Sir Richard Tilt, the chairman of the social security advisory committee, said the government should delay changes to the benefit system because the economic downturn was making it harder for people to find work.

Tilt was speaking ahead of the introduction of new rules next week that will force lone parents with a youngest child of 12 or over to look for work when they submit a new benefit claim.

Tilt's warnings were rejected today by James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, and his Tory shadow, Chris Grayling.

Over the next few years the government will role out changes to the welfare system intended to encourage lone parents into the job market. Lone parents with older children are gradually being transferred from income support, which is paid without conditions, to jobseeker's allowance (JSA), which is only paid to people looking for work.

JSA claimants face a 40% benefit cut if they do not actively look for a job.

Tilt, whose committee advises the government about new welfare regulations, told the BBC the reforms should be delayed because the economic climate would make it hard for people to find work. He said he did not want the reforms "falling into disrepute".

"Benefit rates are relatively low and if you are going to reduce someone's benefit for a few weeks by 40% you are pushing people much closer to poverty," he said. "Of course, the child will suffer, but it's not the child that has fallen foul of the system."

Tilt said he was concerned about the availability of childcare. He said there could be valid reasons for parents staying at home.

"It may be to do with disability or chronic illness, or in some cases it may be to do with behavioural problems," he said. "So pushing the lone [parent] in those circumstances into work may actually not be in everybody's interests."

Purnell told the BBC's Today programme: "I think it would be wrong, at a time when it may be harder for people to find work, to provide them with less help. We know that our help works; we know that the help they get from the voluntary sector, from providers and from JobCentre Plus works, it changes people's lives.

"What we require people to do is come in and take up that help and when I talk to people about it they say: why didn't you make me do this earlier because it has changed my life."

Grayling said the changes were essential. "It would be disastrous for Britain to do a U-turn on welfare reform," he said.

"It would have the effect of making poverty worse and condemning millions of people in some of our most deprived communities to endless benefit dependency.

"Right now, when the jobs market is tough, we need real action to help people who've been on benefits for a long time to make the journey back into work and not simply assume that because unemployment is rising that there's no hope for them."

Straw condemns prisoners' stand-up comedy course
A comedy course for maximum security prisoners has been branded 'totally unacceptable' by justice secretary Jack Straw

Worth a look: six articles - about the economy, child protection and Northern Ireland
Six articles worth reading this morning

Resume lending or face full nationalisation, banks warned

Banks will today be warned that the government may take the "nuclear option" and force them into full-scale nationalisation if they fail to resume lending to businesses.

In a strongly worded statement, John McFall, the chairman of the Commons treasury select committee, said banks should be "actively lending instead of sitting on their hands".

"Governments on both sides of the Atlantic have called on them to resume lending, and criticism has been directed to the banks that they are not shaping up to the task at hand," he said. "If the banks do not play ball, and will not resume lending, then the demand for full-scale nationalisation may well grow."

McFall said the strategy had proved successful in Norway, Sweden and Finland between 1991 and 1993.

"With major banks under public control, the governments would be in a position to instruct them to raise their levels of lending."

The West Dunbartonshire MP said that despite having been "pulled back from the brink" of collapse with a cash injection of £37bn from taxpayers, banks were "reluctant to launch their sizeable recapitalisation lifeboat and start lending again to households and businesses".

He said: "There are 4.7 million small and medium size businesses in the UK, employing 13.5 million people – almost 60% of the private-sector workforce. These are very large numbers. They need loans to help them sustain these important jobs."

In the current crisis, banks should not be hoarding capital but should be able to utilise their reserves to ensure that money is available for lending, McFall said.

There was a clear incentive for them to do this: "the £37bn funding to be provided by the Treasury is expensive, costing the banks 12% per year".

He said: "Banks may be diverting much of their income towards repaying this aid, rather than expanding their loan books. In my view, this must stop: banks may have to get used to the idea of being part-nationalised for a longer time.

"If they don't then one answer would be for the state to step in again and guarantee mortgages and other retail loans If the perception gains hold that the banks are continuing to refuse to lend, then a website should be set up for small and medium businesses to report the fact that they have been refused a loan and record their dismay about the way they have been treated."

Yesterday in parliament
The children's secretary told MPs there was clear evidence that agencies had failed to adhere to statutory procedures following the death of Baby P

Natural England failing to protect at-risk butterfly, auditors find

The government's environmental quango, Natural England, has been criticised by the spending watchdog today for failing to draw up an agreement after 30 years to protect the habitat of the Grayling butterfly, a declining species that is running out of places to live.

In a report, the National Audit Office says its auditors visiting a remote part of north Lincolnshire to compile a "value for money" report on Natural England were surprised to find that the butterfly – which likes lots of bare sandy and stony ground – was being "shaded out" by rampant growth of silver birch trees and would soon disappear.

Messingham Heath is one of 4,114 sites of special scientific interest protected by Natural England. In this case the quango has failed to negotiate a stewardship agreement to save the butterfly, despite opening talks with a local farmer in the 1980s. The body was given powers by the government eight years ago to enforce agreements, but has never gone to court to do so.

As a result, the auditors say, the "heath we visited in Humberside was overgrown by trees and its condition was declining". The site is described as "a much-threatened habitat which rapidly dwindled following enclosure, agricultural reclamation and, more recently, sand winning".

The mottled-brown winged butterfly is a "priority species" under the UK biodiversity action plan and is still widespread on the coasts, but is declining inland as places like Messingham Heath disappear.

A spokeswoman for Natural England could not say why negotiations with the farmer had taken so long. "Natural England does like to come to a positive working agreement with landowners, so we prefer the carrot to the stick," she said.

"Natural England is about to launch a new approach to the targeting of its funding under higher level stewardship agreements. By targeting our efforts, we want to increase take up of the right management across a larger scale to naturally help to speed up the recovery of our habitats and species, as compared with previous piecemeal approaches.

"We are focusing on around 110 across England. The type of dry sandy heathland found in north Lincolnshire is an example of a habitat that has become increasingly fragmented."

The NAO report concludes: "Natural England should use its enforcement powers within a reasonable timescale where landowners persistently refuse to manage land in a way which conserves the SSSI."

The rest of the report praises Natural England for using its £400m over the last eight years to improve the conditions of many wetlands, heaths, bogs and woodlands. It is critical of the body for not inspecting sites to see if they are well looked-after, and for poor record-keeping and failing to promote the benefits of protecting rare environments to the public.

David Blunkett criticises Labour failure to rein in Whitehall

Ministers should be given the power to appoint the most senior civil servants as part of a radical reform of Whitehall, according to David Blunkett, the former home secretary.

In an article for Political Quarterly, Blunkett is highly critical of the Labour party's record in failing to tackle the civil service since it has been in power and warns that ministers are suffering from "rubber lever syndrome" – unable to push through decisions because of the fragmentation of Whitehall into agencies and contracted-out services.

He savages the Whitehall system that has seen ministers forced to resign for management failures while civil servants responsible for the bungling get promoted.

Blunkett was appointed education secretary by Tony Blair in 1997 and pioneered bringing in outside staff to work in his department. He subsequently became home secretary and later works and pensions secretary. He had to resign twice, once over a row that he helped get a visa for his nanny and the second time over outside interests he held when he was out of government.

He says in the article: "The home secretary, or ministers responsible for health and education or environment, food and rural affairs (where management and delivery have been catastrophic) find themselves falling by the wayside, while those actually responsible for the day-to-day bungling, and for inadequate policy advice, continue apace."

Blunkett's critique, written with David Richards, a reader in politics, and Helen Mathers, a research fellow at Sheffield University, dates the failure of modern Labour to reform Whitehall from Tony Blair's decision not to transform the top jobs when Lord Butler stood down as cabinet secretary in 1998. Blunkett discloses that he was not alone in the cabinet wanting change under New Labour at the time.

The article says: "Here was an opportunity to use the enormous Labour majority to protect the government from the seismic traumas that would have undoubtedly hit in the period before it was understood that this would not be an attack on political neutrality, an attempt to impose politicalisation or to second-guess the civil service."

Blunkett said yesterday: "Ministers should have the same power to choose from a list of people to be their chief private secretary to appoint a new permanent and deputy secretaries and the chairs of appointment commissions. While it would be wrong to go as far as Barack Obama and make thousands of political appointments, there is a case for ministers to have powers to appoint the most senior people. At present, the very title permanent secretary says it all: I'm permanent and you are not."

He said it was wrong that the present health secretary, Alan Johnson, could not appoint the chair of the appointments commission, who decides all the appointments to health trusts and authorities.

He blames successive Tory and Labour governments for the " rubber lever syndrome".

"This relates to the process of fragmentation and segmentation of the state over the last three decades; the multiplying of agencies, quangos, and other non departmental bodies, alongside the contracting -out of various service delivery tasks to the private sector.

"An unforeseen consequence of this trend has been that ministers in their departments did not direct in the way they used to, but instead rely on indirect management - a partial shift from command to control."
He adds: "Politicians who do not rock the boat and who, with a degree of competence, keep their heads down, tend to survive. Equally, those rising through the ranks of the permanent civil service learn pretty much the same lessons."

Penalising the punters
The home secretary tells Julie Bindel why she is following the global trend to target men who buy sex

Why Darling reckons he has Tories in checkmate

The run-up to any budget, or indeed the lesser pre-budget report, is a game of cat and mouse in which the government tries to massage public expectations, and keep the opposition guessing.

In terms of managing expectations, the government may be struggling, as the planned fiscal stimulus rises from an initial £15bn to estimates of £30bn. But in terms of the chess game with the opposition, the government is claiming checkmate.

On fiscal stimulus, the Treasury hit trouble when the Financial Times reported that it would take 1% of GDP to have any real impact on the coming recession.

The 2008 budget had suggested that spending would be reined in from 2.7% of GDP in 2008-09, and to 2.2% in 2010-11, the equivalent of £7bn worth of higher taxes and spending cuts. So to create a stimulus, the government must scrub out that £7bn contraction.

The government is already committed to extra spending because it needs to continue to help the low-paid. The one-off compensation for the abolition of the 10p tax ratecost £2.7bn this year, and would cost the same again if kept in place.

The continued delay in increased fuel duty would cost another £600m, as would continuing the stamp duty holiday. So just to keep existing compensation in place, the cost would be £4.2bn. Taken together, that means the government is committed to a minimum extra spending package of over £11bn. The European commission is expected next Wednesday to advocate a 1% stimulus. But during the G20 summit in Washington, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, made the case for a fiscal stimulus of 2% of GDP.

Downing Street insisted as soon as it could that a £30bn UK stimulus was way beyond what Britain was looking at. But by citing the IMF as justification for what the government is about to do, Downing Street has found itself associated with that figure.

There have been reports of tension between the Treasury and Number 10 over the size of the multibillion-pound boost to the economy, with Brown eager to catch the eye and Alistair Darling looking at the prospect of a mountain of debt. In practice, the size of the stimulus is likely to be a good deal smaller, partly because Darling has been looking at the coming borrowing figures, and is contemplating £64bn for this year and possibly £90bn for next year.

As a result the government has also been trying to manage down expectations by highlighting the £5bn or so that will be saved through higher than expected efficiency savings as a result of the Gershon review of Whitehall spending.

That puts the fiscal stimulus closer to £20bn - at most £7bn of which could be extra spending, including help for small businesses and extra spending on housing, schools and hospitals, and the remainder tax cuts, or higher credits.

But Labour is not just interested in securing a stimulus. Brown wants to use the budget to muddy any blue water that David Cameron is seeking to create.

Many ministers are staggered that the Conservatives are backing a lower rate of spending in 2010-11 than set out in Labour spending plans. They see it as a tactical error by the Tories which gives Darling a green light to announce a similar slower rate of increase in spending for 2010-11. That would help the chancellor to show how he will get the public finances back in order, and deprive the Conservatives of anything unique to say.

Similarly, the higher than expected Gershon review savings of around £5bn are also designed to undermine the impact of any efficiency savings that the Tories planned to announce in the next few weeks.

This frees Brown to say he and the rest of the world, including the EU, are willing to take a coordinated stimulus that the Tories are opposing on the grounds that the level of borrowing makes further spending unjustifiable. The Conservatives are left with the gamble that the public will buy their story that taxes will have to rise after the election, and a stimulus now will simply not work, and only worsen the eventual reckoning after the election.

Drawing on European commission work, the Conservatives claim the structural deficit is about 3% of national income, or £45bn, requiring big tax rises or spending cuts before the economy stabilises.

The Tories are hoping big ideas on getting credit moving to small businesses will immunise them against charges that fiscal prudence means they are willing to let the recession run its course by coming up with big ideas on how to get credit moving to small business.

But for the moment, so long as Labour can keep expectations under control on the size of the stimulus, it seems the Conservatives are trailing in the wake of the global chancellor, aka Gordon Brown.

Find £1bn to help 10p tax rate victims, Darling told

The leaders of Labour's 10p tax rebels yesterday served warning on the chancellor, Alistair Darling, that he has to find at least £1bn in Monday's pre-budget report to help the 6 million people who have still not been compensated for the disastrous decision to abolish the lower tax rate earlier this year.

Frank Field and Greg Pope, the leaders of the tax rebellion earlier this year, have written to Darling, urging action. Field told the Guardian: "The Labour backbenches will not abandon the poor who have still not been compensated. It is a Rubicon they will not cross, and at a time the government has found £50bn to bail out the bankers, the Treasury can surely find £1bn to ease the resentment of our core voters."

The chancellor is expected to announce a series of business and personal tax cuts in Monday's pre-budget report, aimed at the poorest because they are most likely to spend any extra cash.

The intervention of Field and Pope will add to the pressure on the Treasury which was last night seeking to dampen speculation of a massive tax giveaway next week after the latest official figures showed a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating public finances.

In the wake of the first October deficit in 14 years, officials dismissed suggestions that the chancellor could unveil a £30bn package - worth 2% of GDP - designed to lift the economy out of recession.

The quarterly payment of corporation tax means October is normally a surplus month for the public finances, but the slowdown in the economy, the collapse of the housing market, financial turmoil and tax concessions since the budget combined to leave the state in the red by £1.4bn last month.

City analysts said the budget deficit could rise to £70bn this year and top £100bn in 2009-10 even before the extra borrowing for Monday's fiscal package was taken into account.

In their letter Field and Pope write: "We are anxious that the government's promise to do all in its power to compensate fully the losers from the abolition of the 10p rate is not only met, but kept clearly separate from other tax reductions the government may announce next Monday."

Following an unprecedented backbench rebellion, and amid signs that Brown's leadership was at risk, the Treasury hastily assembled a £2.7bn compensation package in May. Darling increased personal allowances for all basic rate taxpayers. Although only 1.1 million householders have lost out overall, this masks the fact that 6 million individuals have been losers.

Field and Pope write: "Overwhelmingly these taxpayers are on low earnings. The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimates that the greatest loss of around £112 a year are for taxpayers earning £7,755."

They accept that the complexity of the tax system means it will be impossible for the Treasury to help every group that has lost, but argue it does seem likely that most of these losers are on low earnings and fall below a threshold of £13,355 a year.

"We do hope you can give us an assurance that Monday's statement will include a measure that will recompense as many of these individuals as is practically possible. Only in this way would it be possible to draw a clear line under this wholly sorry saga."

Field claims the net cost of his proposal will be £1bn.

In other developments the employment minister, Tony McNulty, said the pre-budget report would propose a new employment programme, adding it was "a no-brainer" to revisit the closure programme for Jobcentre Plus officers. Since 2002, the government has closed nearly 500 job centres, including 40 in the last year, and cut staff by 16,000.

Ministers are also under intense pressure to use the pre-budget report to rethink its housebuilding programme after figures were released yesterday showing only an estimated 22,200 housing starts in England in the September quarter, down 33% on the previous quarter.

This decline in housebuilding levels makes the government's target of building 240,000 homes a year by 2016 look hopelessly unrealistic.

Treasury quells talk of £30bn tax giveaway

The Treasury was last night seeking to dampen speculation of a huge tax giveaway next week after the latest official figures showed that Alistair Darling will deliver his pre-budget report against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating public finances.

In the wake of the first October deficit in 14 years, officials dismissed suggestions that the chancellor could announce a £30bn package - worth 2% of GDP - designed to lift the economy out of recession.

Darling will today put the finishing touches to the PBR, but is concerned that a fiscal boost in excess of 1% of GDP would risk alarming the financial markets. The speech will attempt to reassure the City that tax cuts will be quickly clawed back once the recession is over and that the government has a credible plan for bringing the budget deficit back under control.

Britain's leading independent tax experts, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said yesterday that the outlook for the public finances was "very bleak" after the Office for National Statistics reported that borrowing in the first seven months of the current financial year was £37bn - almost double the £20.1bn amassed in the same months last year.

The quarterly payment of corporation tax means October is normally a surplus month for the public finances, but the slowdown in the economy, the collapse of the housing market, financial turmoil and tax concessions since the budget combined to leave the state in the red by £1.4bn last month.

Figures released yesterday showed that building on an estimated 22,200 new properties was started during the three months to the end of September, the lowest level registered by the Department of Communities and Local Government since records began in 1980. The figure was 33% fewer than during the previous quarter and 48% down on the same period of 2007. Separate data revealed a 7% increase in mortgage lending in October, although the depressed state of the property market meant it was 44% lower than a year earlier.

City analysts said the budget deficit could rise to £70bn this year and top £100bn in 2009-10 even before the extra borrowing for Monday's fiscal package was taken into account.

Gillian Tetlow, senior researcher at the IFS, said that a recession similar to that of the early 1990s would add £60bn to the budget deficit. "One of the most important issues for the PBR to address is how much of the additional borrowing we see over the next couple of years is likely to be purely temporary and how much will require a combination of new tax raising measures and lower public spending to reverse."

Ministers believe that the recession, diminishing inflationary pressure and the low level of public debt mean that it is right to give the economy a boost by helping businesses and those on low incomes.

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, criticised plans for a PBR giveaway. "He has maxed out on the nation's credit card and now he's planning to take out another one," he said.

As the voters trickle back, readers stay away in droves

These are high times for Gordon Brown. He has been praised for saving the global financial system, and received a welcome respite from his electoral troubles at the Glenrothes byelection.

But not everything is rosy for the prime minister. His latest book, Wartime Courage: Stories of Extraordinary Courage by Ordinary People in World War Two, has sold just 193 copies in the fortnight it has been on sale.

In the same two weeks, Jordan - Pushed to the Limit, the latest instalment of the glamour model's autobiography, sold 4,446 copies, despite having been on sale for 10 months. Wartime Courage currently ranks at 10,646 in the Amazon UK sales chart.

To rub salt into his wounds, the reviews have been rotten. The Independent bemoaned Brown's "robotic neutrality", "engine-drone monotone" and "mealy-mouthed avoidance of 'controversial' issues". Writing in the Spectator, the author James Delingpole went further, describing Wartime Courage as a "leaden, clunken-fisted cuttings job". Brown has an "automaton-like inability either to empathise with his subject ... or to work out which details needed emphasising and which could be safely excluded".

Brown's subjects - which include the Chariots of Fire legend Eric Liddell and Violette Szabo, who worked undercover for the Special Operations Executive during the second world war - were intrinsically thrilling, said Delingpole. Which "makes it all the less excusable that Brown has made them seem so dull".

And that's not all. "His opening and closing essays are waffly, trite and, in so far as they attempt to make political capital from the achievements of people who have nothing whatsoever to do with him or his grisly ideology, offensive," complained Delingpole, who admitted that as a "starving author" he resented "the allocation by the publishing industry of time, money, space and attention to people who can barely write and anyway have well remunerated day jobs".

Not everyone hated it, however. The Jewish Chronicle's reviewer was a lone fan, saying all of the stories in the book were "well told" and made "compelling reading". "Finding time to write this book does the prime minister credit."

The book was due to be published in April, but did not hit the shops until November. A spokeswoman for Bloomsbury, the prime minister's publisher, denied it had been held back because of his low popularity ratings in the spring.

"The reason it was delayed was because he hadn't finished writing it - he didn't have a ghostwriter," said Bloomsbury's publicity director, Katie Bond.

Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of the publishing trade magazine the Bookseller, said that while he was surprised Brown's book had sold so badly, it was not the most tempting proposition.

Denny said: "It would be different if he had written his memoirs. That could be political dynamite. We've had half the story of the Blair years, but Brown's point of view could be fascinating."

But he added: "It is not disastrously bad. Hardback books do not sell in huge quantities any more. When the Booker longlist came out last year, of the 13 books, half had sold less than 1,000 copies."

Gordon Brown's first book on the subject of bravery, Courage: Eight Stories, which was published by Bloomsbury last year, has sold 4,469 copies in the UK, according to Nielsen BookScan.

The Conservatives may be falling back in the polls, but they are easily winning the book war: William Hague's biography of William Pitt the Younger has sold more than 78,000 copies since 2004.

PM's weighty tome

Tirpitz and Godfrey Place

On 11 September six X-craft set out for the thousand-mile journey. Each midget submarine had two crews: one for the passage out - on which they were towed by six larger submarines - and one operational crew to carry out the final attack. Two of the midget submarines broke adrift, one being eventually recovered, the other sinking with all hands. On 19 September the four remaining vessels approached the target area, still under tow. Towing problems delayed HM Submarine Stubborn and her charge X-7 when a floating mine - part of the outer defences of Altafjord - became caught on the tow-line and was then impaled on the bows of the midget submarine. [Godfrey] Place, the commander of X-7, went out on its forward casing and cleared the mine away with his foot.

Withdraw the troops from Afghanistan
Letters: Seven years after the supposed liberation of Afghanistan, there is now conclusive evidence that the Nato occupation is a disaster

Letters: Pulling in the sex punters
Letters: So, the government is proposing a set of measures whose aim is to control, criminalise and punish those who purchase sex

'BNP' police officer to be questioned
A policeman is to be questioned by his managers over his alleged links to the British National Party.

BBC online local news expansion scrapped
Controversial BBC plans to spend £68m on expanding local news online have been rejected by the corporation's governing body.

AlQaeda terrorist taught standup comedy at topsecurity prison
An alQaeda terrorist was among a number of convicts taught how to be a standup comedian at a topsecurity prison it has been claimed.

Somali pirates force shipping firm Maersk to reroute vessels away from Gulf of Aden
Major Danish group said deteriorating situation meant it would ban its more vulnerable ships from the hazardous voyage.

Alistair Darling may force banks to cut interest rates to small businesses
Alistair Darling the Chancellor of Exchequer is to consider new laws to force banks to loan money at competitive rates of interest.

Human rights laws prevent 19 terror suspects from being deported
Human rights laws have prevented Britain deporting 19 terror suspects in the last three years the Home Secretary was forced to admit.

Gipsies get £100 million from Government for new camp sites
Sites to accommodate 25000 gipsies and other travelling people will be built over the next three years with an announcement of the exact locations expected in weeks.

Rural communities struggling to cope with immigration Prince Charles report warns
Rural communities are struggling to cope with unprecedented immigration that is putting increasing strain on local services a report by one of the Prince of Wales's official charities has warned.

Loss of secret documents on train was 'not preventable' says Whitehall review
The loss of secret documents on a commuter train by a senior intelligence official was "not preventable" a Whitehall review has decided.

MoD goes without Christmas decorations
The Ministry of Defence has decided to do without Christmas decorations which cost £4000 last year.

Phil Woolas flouts his population cap: Sketch
Phil Woolas wears his population cap at such a jaunty angle that it might blow off at any moment.

Bird poison fines axed after EU reviews CAP overhaul
Punitive fines for landowners and farmers discovered with banned bird poisons on their land have been scrapped despite lobbying from Scottish ministers.

John McFall says banks must start lending or surrender their independence completely
The banks have a responsibility to society which they must fulfil. Otherwise forms of public ownership should be explored

Government borrowing running at double last year's level
A collapse in companies' tax payments has pushed the Government's finances further into the red with borrowing by the Treasury running at almost double the level of last year.

No teachers will be sacked over BNP membership
None of the teachers named as members of the British National Party on a leaked membership list will be sacked or disciplined the profession's disciplinary body has said.

Middleaged women on painkillers targeted by Government crackdown on drugdriving
Middleaged women who take painkillers sleeping tablets and other legal medications will be targeted as part of a Government crackdown on drugdriving.

Jobcentres jobs saved amid private sector bloodbath
Jobcentres scheduled for closure will be kept open as the Government prepares for major rises in unemployment.

Nicola Sturgeon would have screamed for review into Vale of Leven a year ago
What a difference a few feet across the floor of the Scottish Parliament's chamber makes.

Scotland should have its own Treasury and Chancellor says think tank
Scotland should have its own Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer with the power to raise all the money it spends a leading think tank has concluded.

400 foreign criminals allowed to stay in Britain
Up to 400 criminals including serious offenders have been told they can stay in Britain the Home Office has disclosed.

Schoolboy filmed himself saying 'eyes of a killer' after kicking to death fatherofthree
A schoolboy who filmed himself on his camera phone saying 'eyes of a killer' after kicking to death a fatherofthree has been jailed for life.

Ofcom to criticise BBC's plans for local news
BBC chiefs face a backlash from commercial competitors if they approve the corporation's £68 million plans to expand local news online.

Government admits it is losing one laptop a week on anniversary of loss of child benefit database
Government departments have been losing one laptop computer a week in the year since the entire child benefit database went missing.

Mamma Mia producer and Olympic cyclist among 600 new names on Debrett's list
Mamma Mia creator Judy Craymer and Olympic gold medal winning cyclist Chris Hoy are among more than 600 new names in new Debrett's People of Today.

Biggest deficit since records began reveal state of public finances
The deteriorating state of Britain's finances is underlined with figures that show the biggest deficit since records began.

More than £146000 spent on 'healthy living' and massages for Scottish Parliament staff
More than £146000 of taxpayers' money has been spent providing Scottish Parliament staff with massages and other "healthy living" perks.

Baby P: Text message names those responsible to thousands
Message sent to thousands urges people to pass it on to "name and shame" the couple the "cruel vile killers of baby p".

Somali pirates: Britain will not pay ransoms to pirates
Foreign Secretary David Miliband indicated that Britain would not pay any of the 25million £17 million ransom demanded for the safe return of the supertanker Sirius Star and its crew which includes two Britons.

Baby P: Lodger convicted of Baby P killing 'told of torture' to classmates
Lodger convicted of killing Baby P reportedly told fellow students that he had been involved in torture which "went a bit too far".

Kenneth Clarke backs George Osborne
Kenneth Clarke has criticised the party's right wing for tying his name to an effort to oust the shadow chancellor.

BNP Deputy Leader works from London City Hall office
The deputy leader of the British National Party is paid from taxpayers' funds to work at London's City Hall it has emerged.

Gang member 13 youngest in Britain for handgun conviction
A 13yearold boy has become the youngest person in Britain to be convicted of possessing a handgun after he stashed the weapon and ammunition in his family's cellar as part as a gang initiation rite.

Police chiefs say it 'expects' forces to look closely at BNP list
Police chiefs said there was an 'expectation' that all forces should look closely at the list of alleged BNP members.

Public services cannot cope with second highest immigration flows
Public services will not be able to cope after net immigration hit the second highest level on record MPs have warned.

Labour backbencher Paul Flynn loses allowance for insulting other MPs on blog
A Labour MP has been deducted part of his communications allowance for making insulting remarks about other MPs on his blog it emerged.

Gordon Brown vows to get banks lending as David Cameron warns of bailout failure
Gordon Brown has vowed to get the banks lending to small businesses again in the face of criticism from David Cameron his recapitalisation plan is failing.

Whistleblower takes Foreign Office to employment tribunal
A Foreign Office official cleared of leaking confidential documents is taking his former employers to an employment tribunal.

Member of Royal household and serving policeman named on BNP list
A serving member of the Royal household is among the people named as members of the British National Party on a list leaked on the internet.

Labour and Tories compete to cut public spending
The Conservatives and the Labour Party are both rushing to identify ways of cutting Government spending.

Gordon Brown's euphoria replaced by morbid gloom: Sketch
Concern deepened among Gordon Brown's doctors as they noted a marked deterioration in his condition.

How many BNP activists live in your town? Now you can find out
It's the new parlour game. How many BNP supporters live in your town? Now that the entire membership list of the farright British National Party has been published on the internet you can find out for yourself.

Edinburgh tram network falls victim to credit crunch
A double whammy of the credit crunch and soaring costs means part of Edinburgh's controversial £512million tram network looks set to be kicked into the long grass.

The Scottish Parliament and ID cards
Is anyone aware of the Scottish Parliament's view about identity cards? Indeed does anyone care about the Scottish Parliament's view about identity cards?

BNP: Is it a sackable offence to be a member of the farright party?
As the British National Party is a legal political party membership of it is neither a crime nor an automatic sacking offence for every worker.

BNP: how names and details of members spread through cyberspace
The British National Party's success in forcing a website to remove its membership list has done nothing to stop the names and details of its supporters spreading freely through cyberspace.

Drugs deal will save the NHS £350 million a year
The Government has agreed a deal with drugs companies that will save the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

UK economy will be suffer due to insufficient air links BA chief warns
The UK economy will be suffer as a result of insufficient air links for 30 years if proposals to expand Heathrow airport are rejected the head of British Airways has warned.

Ofsted: vulnerable children 'let down' by councils
Vulnerable children are being neglected as councils fail to act on the "worst cases of abuse" according to Ofsted.

48hour limit on doctors' working hours 'could put patient safety at risk'
Patient safety could be at risk because many hospitals are unprepared for new limit on doctors' working hours to be introduced next year surgeons have warned.

Middleclass wine drinkers targeted in 'meanspirited' campaign by church and police
Scheme by chief constables and bishops in Wales encourages people to sign an online pledge to stop before they drink too much and to carry a card demonstrating their commitment to moderation.

Campaign to save masterpiece by Titian gets £10 million boost
A £50million campaign to save a Renaissance masterpiece by the Italian artist Titian has received a £10million pledge.

New round of Innovation Fund projects
The next round of Innovation Fund projects has just been announced. The Ministry of Justice funded project aims to find new ways of supporting new and different means for the people to address public issues. The successful projects are:   Yoosk- An online question time linking the public with local and central government. Run by Thumbsize Ltd UK Feedback - An [...]

RSA Video Lecture: Dame Liz Forgan DBE. Britishness: is a values based approach is not enough
The RSA has a series of video lectures on a variety of subjects. Dame Liz Forgan DBE, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund has given a lecture on Britishness. You can view the lecture here.

Publication of the revised Code of Conduct for Consultation
And there is some more guidance, this time on consultation, following on from the NHS story yesterday. The Code of Conduct for Consultation has been revised, following consultation with stakeholders and the public. You can find it here on the Better Regulation Executive’s website. To accompany the revise code there is also some more detailed, practical guidance. [...]

NHS publishes guidance on Involvement
The 2006  NHS Act includes a duty to involve and good involvement practice. Today the NHS has published guidance for NHS organisations on this duty.  The NHS states: This document provides statutory guidance for NHS organisations on the updated duty of involvement and advice about the new duty of reporting on consultation and best practice on [...]

Why the Youth Citizenship Commission is consulting on lowering the voting age
Young people are becoming increasingly disinterested in formal political processes and are not getting involved in our democracy. For instance, compared with older people, they are less likely to vote, attend political meetings, contact their MPs or join a political party. However, young people do care about the issues that affect their lives and do [...]

Local People getting involved in local spending
Participatory Budgeting is one the of the initiatives which fall under the umbrella of the Governance of Britain agenda. The Department for Communities and Local Government is leading on this work and has developed a strategy for Participatory Budgeting. It’s working closely with the Participatory Budgeting Unit which has draw up lots of useful, practical guidance. The [...]

Views from London
The fifth local event in this round of meetings was held at the Central Methodist Hall in London on 22nd July.  You can read the key points made at the event london-note-of-table-discussions.pdf. Video footage of the event is also available.

Next Stop Brighton
Following events in Bristol, Nottingham and Newcastle, the Governance of Britain’s next event was held at the Brighthelm Church and Community Centre in Brighton. This event followed the same format as previous ones, with an introduction from the Minister of State, Michael Wills, and then round table discussions. Have a look at the key points raised in [...]

Continued discussion on the National Framework for Greater Citizen Engagement
This discussion is now closed, thanks for the comments. It will be available to view from the home page until we start our next discussion, at which point you can continue to view all debates here. Moving this discussion on again - we’ve so far covered the current levels of engagement and the idea of deliberative engagement generally. So [...]

Discussion of Governance of Britain Topics in Newcastle
For the third of the local events to discuss some key issues of the Governance of Britain agenda we were in Newcastle. Th