PM AIDE RESIGNS AMID IMAGES PROBE
A close aide to Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned over allegations involving child abuse images, Downing Street said.
Patrick Rock, who has been involved in Government policy on internet porn filters, was arrested by detectives from the National Crime Agency (NCA) over a “potential offence relating to child abuse imagery”, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
The 62-year-old was arrested at his home on February 13 and officers were given access to all IT systems and offices at Number 10, she added.
’NO TRADE SANCTIONS’ OVER UKRAINE
The Government faces questions over the strength of threatened “costs and consequences” for Russia over the Ukraine crisis after a secret document suggested trade sanctions were off the agenda.
Foreign Secretary William Hague will update MPs on the latest efforts to find international agreement on how best to punish Moscow for its occupation of the Crimean peninsula and prevent further incursions.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is due in Kiev for talks amid speculation the US could unilaterally impose tough measures, with European nations concerned about the economic impacts.
CUTS ARE ABOUT VALUES, SAYS CAMERON
David Cameron will defend his Government’s austerity programme against charges swingeing public spending cuts are being made for their own sake - insisting it is based on “values”.
And the Prime Minister will encourage Tories seeking a commitment to future tax cuts by suggesting “every efficiency” found could help provide “a bit of extra cash” for hard-pressed families.
In a speech just two weeks before the Chancellor delivers the Budget, he will acknowledge a failure properly to explain the coalition’s tough economic measures.
CLEGG URGES SPYING WATCHDOG REVAMP
Nick Clegg has joined calls for a “significant revamp” of the oversight of the data-gathering activities of the intelligences services.
The Deputy Prime Minister set out a series of reforms he is pushing his Tory coalition partners to back, including annual reports on requests made to internet and telephone providers.
And he said a respected security think tank had agreed to carry out an independent expert review of “big date” and privacy issues in a bid to secure consensus on other changes.
TALBOT IN COURT OVER ’SEX OFFENCES’
Television weatherman Fred Talbot will appear in court today accused of a string of historic sex offences.
The 64-year-old, who was a regular on the floating weather map in Liverpool’s Albert Dock for ITV’s This Morning, has been charged with nine counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery.
The former teacher from Bowdon, Cheshire, is alleged to have committed the offences between 1968 and 1983, against five male complainants, three of whom were under 16.
SALMOND TO CONDEMN CURRENCY ’ERROR’
The Chancellor’s decision to rule out sharing currency with an independent Scotland will prove to be a “monumental error”, First Minister Alex Salmond is to declare.
The SNP leader will focus on George Osborne’s “dive bomb” and set out his own vision for links across the UK in a lecture hosted by the New Statesman in London tonight.
Mr Osborne rejected the key Scottish Government proposal last month, just days after Prime Minister David Cameron made an appeal for Scots to vote to stay in the UK in the referendum on September 18.
SCALES BATTLING ’MILD ALZHEIMER’S’
Actor Timothy West has told how his wife, Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales, has been suffering from “a sort of mild Alzheimer’s”.
Stage and screen actor West, 79, talks about Scales’ condition in a new More4 documentary, Grand Canal Journeys.
The actress, now 81, is best known for her role as Basil Fawlty’s wife Sybil in the comedy Fawlty Towers but has continued to notch up screen roles.
MILIBAND IN ’PATIENT POWER’ PLAN
Patients would be given a greater say in treating and managing their own conditions under Labour plans to bring the NHS “into the 21st century”.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said economic pressures meant it was necessary for the health service to be geared towards “patient power”, giving service users greater input into the way they are cared for, and alleviating pressure on “scarce resources”.
Mr Miliband was writing in the Telegraph ahead of a report by the Commission on Whole Person Care, chaired by Sir John Oldham, which will be published today making recommendations for the future of state-funded patient care.
FAILING A&E PAY INCENTIVES URGED
Specialist emergency care doctors should be paid more to work in struggling hospitals, MPs have suggested.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the improvement of A&E services has been “hampered” by the lack of emergency consultants.
They criticised both the Department of Health and NHS England for not having a “clear strategy for tackling the chronic shortage of A&E consultants”.
STUDENT FACES SYRIA TERROR CHARGE
A 20-year-old student will appear in court today accused of a Syria-related terror offence.
Mouloud Tahari from Birmingham is due to attend Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with facilitating terrorism overseas, West Midlands Police said.
He is the third person to be charged in connection with the investigation after former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg and Mouloud’s mother Gerrie Tahari appeared in court following their arrests last week.
