Andy McSmiths Diary Send away the clown - Ukip sorry for unsuitable councillor

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

Andy McSmith is a senior reporter at The Independent. He has vast experience in political journalism and has also appeared on documentaries for BBC Radio ...

Labour saves David Camerons gay marriage bill

The Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

Labour's move meant the amendment, tabled by the anti-gay marriage Tory Tim Loughton, was defeated by 375 to 70 votes, a majority of 305. Photograph: Facundo ...

Game Hunting in Englands Premier League

New York Times - Monday 20th May, 2013

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, England ...

Google faces new pressure over tax claims

Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

Google's data centre in Dublin: by booking all UK sales through Ireland, the internet company handed HMRC only about 10m in corporation tax over the period 2006-11. Photograph: Niall ...

Maria Stubbings case Call for inquiry after murdered woman was failed by police

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

The family of a woman murdered by a convicted killer has called for a public inquiry into the handling of domestic violence cases, following a second damning report into police failures over her ...

Work Programme is giving least help to worst off

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

Private companies who win government contracts to help the jobless find work are "parking" some of the most disadvantaged people on benefits, MPs warn ...

Gay marriage debate highlights deep divide in Conservative party

The Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

Anti-same sex marriage activists demonstrate on 20 May as Tory traditionalists failed in a series of bids to limit the scope of the bill. Photograph: Facundo ...

GPs will face Ofsted-style inspections Jeremy Hunt announces

Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

Jeremy Hunt will also announce plans for each vulnerable elderly person to have a named NHS worker to co-ordinate their care. Photograph: Rex ...

Parents warned sharing bed with babies increases risk of cot death

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

A new study found breastfed babies under three months who sleep in their parents' beds face a significantly increased risk of cot death.Researchers estimate that 40 per cent of the 300 cot death cases in the UK each year could be prevented if parents only brought children into their beds for comfort and feeding, but not sleeping.Presently, NHS officials only advise parents against sharing ...

Editorial Gay marriage is a large liberal step

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

For all our liberality, Britain still has a way to go. Last weekend - ironically, just one day after the International Day Against Homophobia - two gay men were attacked in a south London park. Then, yesterday, more than a handful of MPs lined up to resist government plans to allow same-sex couples to marry. The two are, of course, not linked; it would be fatuous - not to say, unfair - to ...

Poll puts Ukip just two points behind Tories

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

The data by Survation, a member of the British Polling Council, puts Ukip on 22 per cent, its highest poll rating ever. Labour is on 35 per cent, 11 points ahead of the Tories, while the Lib Dems are in fourth place on 11 per cent. If the results were repeated at a general election on a uniform swing, Labour would have a majority of 104 seats. The survey canvassed 1,000 adults in England, ...

The chasm that could swallow Cameron alive

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

or that life should be made miserable for David Cameron , or both, they knew they had cover from local party associations. Far from condemning their disloyalty to the party leadership, as might have been done in times long past, those associations knew that Cameron would support them. It's unlikely that without that activist momentum (partly fuelled by the competition from Ukip, of course) ...

MPs debate gay marriage bill Monday 20 August as it happened

The Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

Adam Afriyie (Windsor), Peter Aldous (Waveney), Steven Baker (Wycombe), Andrew Bingham (High Peak), Graham Brady (Altrincham & Sale West), Andrew Bridgen (Leicestershire North West), Steve Brine (Winchester), Robert Buckland (Swindon South), Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase), Christopher Chope (Christchurch), Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswolds, The), David Davies (Monmouth), Glyn Davies ...

Gay marriage bill survives after Ed Miliband votes against amendment

The Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

Ed Miliband, right, agreed to vote against an amendment to the gay marriage bill after an appeal by Tory whips for Labour support. Photograph: ...

Prince Harry welcomes granny pa and grandpa to his Sentebale garden

Telegraph.co.uk - Monday 20th May, 2013

The Prince of Wales received a welcome kiss from youngest son Prince Harry as he and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the prince's Sentable Forget-Me-Not chairty ...

Hugh Muirs diary were holding out for a hero over tax. Could it be Ed Miliband

The Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

o It must have seemed a no-brainer. The people who rule the 21st century offering a platform to the man who would run the country. And so it was little surprise that Ed Miliband made himself available. He wasn't to know that in the intervening period, his hosts Google would be reborn as public enemy No 1; castigated as tax-dodging "evil" by Margaret Hodge, the Labour chair of the ...

Gay marriage David Cameron tonight takes on the wreckers among Conservative MPs in key vote

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

Moves to legalise gay marriage cleared a crucial parliamentary hurdle as it emerged that civil partnerships could be abolished as the price for getting David Cameron's plans on to the statute ...

Still behind bars Abu Qatada denied bail over seized jihadist files

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

The radical Islamist, who has become a thorn in the Government's side, said recently that he would voluntarily return to Jordan if a new law banning the use of evidence procured through torture is passed.The 52-year-old remains at Belmarsh prison, having breached his bail conditions. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission heard yesterday that jihadist material was found on a USB stick ...

Conservative party a spiral of irrelevance | Editorial

The Guardian - Monday 20th May, 2013

What, and for whom, does today's - and tomorrow's - Conservative party stand? In various periods in the past, it has been possible to answer that question with some clarity. Before 1832, the party stood for the landed interest. After 1867, it added the flag, the union and the shopkeeper too. In the first half of the 20th century, the Tories were for empire and against socialism. After ...

Dementia fund unveiled for Surrey communities

This is Local London - Monday 20th May, 2013

News A 50,000 fund has been unveiled for Surrey communities to make life better for thousands of people with dementia. Surrey County Council unveiled the fund today with the launch of Dementia Awareness Week. The pot of cash will allow groups to put in bids for projects that help people with dementia remain active and independent in their local areas. The fund has been created ...

Man Citys Rodwell called up to England squad

Soccernet - Monday 20th May, 2013

Roy hits out at club friendlies Rodwell, 22, endured an injury-hit debut season at the Etihad Stadium after joining City from Everton last summer.However he returned to the first-team fold towards the end of the campaign, featuring in four of City's last five games ...

Donald Macintyres Sketch Cross-eyed myopic or just old-fashioned soon these swivelling Tories will be making T-shirts

The Independent - Monday 20th May, 2013

Donald Macintyre writes political sketches for The Independent, having been Jerusalem correspondent since 2004, covering Israel and the Occupied Territories, as well as travelling for the paper to Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Libya and Egypt. As Political Editor and then Chief Political Commentator, he previously covered the John Major and early Tony Blair era. He has written for the Daily Express, ...