Tonight:
5°c
The day after Gordon Brown's launch of "Building Britain's Future", events are not going according to the Prime Minister's plan to move on decisively from the row over MPs' expenses.
An embarrassing split has emerged involving Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary - who announced over the Chancellor's head that there would be no comprehensive spending review before the next election - and the Treasury.
Later, Lord Mandelson apparently admitted that the decision on whether to tell us how the Government plans to spend our money after 2011 had not, in fact, been made.
Such lack of honesty over spending plans amounts to treating the public with contempt. It is hardly surprising, perhaps, that a poll for today's Independent newspaper puts Labour 10 points behind the Conservatives as the party most trusted to make spending cuts.
This has big consequences for the Prime Minister's view that the prospect of "Tory cuts" will lose David Cameron the election.
At a time when the expenses row has undermined trust in politics, the spectacle of a government which cannot even decide whether it is going to reveal its spending plans after 2011 is unlikely to command respect.
If the Independent's poll is anything to go by, the message that the cupboard is bare and that spending will have to be reined in whoever wins the election, does seem to have got through to voters.
Meanwhile, the tensions between Lord Mandelson, high-profile reminder of all the spin and manipulation of the Blair years, and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor Mr Brown could not sack, do little for perceptions of the Prime Minister's personal authority.
There was, in fact, some welcome thinking in the policy programme Mr Brown has outlined, including a readiness to get tough with young people who refuse to take up employment or training offers.
But in the current climate of distrust, the Government still needs to come clean about the inevitability of spending cuts. These are, after all, already evident from official figures.
Without candour over the almost unprecedented strain in the public finances, no amount of promises of new entitlements in health and education will ring true.
Iraqi handover
It is a day that many thought would never dawn. The US military are handing over control of Iraq's urban areas to local security forces.
More than 130,000 American troops will remain in bases from which they could again emerge if the soldiers and policemen trained by the coalition lose their grip.
But the Iraqi government has seen fit to declare this "National Sovereignty Day" nonetheless.
There has been an increase in bombings in recent weeks as the remaining militias attempted to make their mark on events. But following the US "surge" in troop numbers from 2007, security has improved.
The country has not disintegrated into three warring entities, as many predicted during the worst unrest of the post-invasion period.
Of course, the errors of the years that followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein still need to be examined, not least because of their significance for Afghanistan and the wider debate about Britain's ambitions in defence, highlighted in today's report from the Institute of Public Policy Research.
However, at a time when President Obama has raised hopes of a new and more positive engagement with the Muslim world, the withdrawal of the US presence in towns and cities is a step forward for Iraqis who want to see their own government take responsibility for their own affairs.
Capital of sport
The morning after Wimbledon saw Andy Murray take his battle to defeat Stanislas Wawrinka far into the night, we should remember what a great capital of sport London can be.
The venues, the history and the enthusiasm are all here. It's a great day to back the Mayor's online campaign to sign up a million Londoners in support of the bid to host football's 2018 World Cup.
The London Olympics are only three years away. Why not the World Cup, too?
Reader views (1)
'A poll says PM is worst option for election.' Really?
- John Problem, Hackney UK, 30/06/2009 16:09
Report abuse
