John Bercow Coat Of Arms: House Of Commons Speaker Accused Of Wasting £37,000 Taxpayer Money

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow has been accused of blowing £37,000 of taxpayers' money on a "vanity" portrait complete with personal coat of arms.

The official painting, by British artist Brendan Kelly, joins those of his predecessors going back to Sir Thomas More. It shows Mr Bercow in full flow in the famous Speaker's chair, wearing black robes and a Commons tie.

The frame features a new heraldic symbol developed by the College of Arms.

A ladder represents the humble beginnings of the Speaker's family, while four roundels signify his fondness for tennis and role as chairman of the Boundary Commissions of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scimitars, as used on the coat of arms of Essex, refer to the fact that Mr Bercow went to university in the county.

His motto, "all are equal", is punctuated by pink triangles which stand for his championing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. Rainbow colours on the scroll represent the flag of equality.

The portrait has been added to the Parliamentary Art Collection, and will be hung in the Speaker's residence alongside those of recent holders of the office such as Baroness Boothroyd and Lord Martin of Springburn.

But the cost of the work - met out of the House budget - drew immediate criticism. Kelly was paid a fee of £22,000 for the commission, while £15,000 was spent on "framing and heraldic painting" to maintain the style of previous portraits.

Mathew Sinclair, director of pressure group the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It's very excessive at this time of public sector austerity for the Speaker to spend tens of thousands of pounds on a vanity portrait of himself.

"Following the MPs' expenses scandal, Parliament should be cutting costs, not throwing taxpayers' money away boosting John Bercow's ego. Michael Martin was thrown from the job for wasting taxpayers' money, so the current Speaker should be much more careful with how he spends our hard-earned cash."

UK Economy: Osborne Shifts Strategy To Promote Growth

With the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) likely to show on Tuesday that the UK's weak growth has thrown the government's deficit reduction strategy off course, George Osborne is to modify "Plan A".

The OBR's original projections included an assumption that the UK would return to strong growth far more rapidly than it really has. With forecasts from the Bank of England now saying that the recovery will be flat through 2012, those projections are now widely seen as unrealistic. Tuesday's report is expected to reveal just how far off track austerity is and to increase the pressure on the government to try to balance austerity with measures aimed at promoting growth.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) added to the bad news on Monday, cutting its global growth forecast and saying that the eurozone and UK were heading towards a new recession.

While it has been easy for the opposition and union groups to call for investment in growth, achieving it in the context of a eurozone that is still teetering on the brink of collapse, slowing growth in emerging markets and credit markets that have been quick to attack heavily indebted sovereigns, is far from simple.

The UK's debt stock is higher than many in mainland Europe. Its stated commitment to austerity is the main reason that rating agencies and the markets have to date maintained their view that the country is still a safe haven, and yields on gilts have remained low. Slippage would open the country up to speculative attack and a downgrade - although that would clearly depend on how wide of the mark the deficit reduction turns out to be. Adding to the debt would not reinforce the view that the country was dedicated to trimming its deficit, but failing to deal with the growth gap, equally, would undermine confidence.

Vicky Pryce, senior managing director at FTI Consulting and former joint head of the Government Economic Service, said that with the continuing political deadlock in Europe shaking confidence in even German bonds, the government has room to move on growth without being punished by the markets.

"They have a nice window of opportunity at the moment. Where because of where the other countries are because of their debt problems and with no serious and clear way out - they can vote austerity measures through but they have no way of actually implementing them - and with contagion spreading to other places, the UK can actually borrow long term very cheaply and do something about pushing growth and getting back to its path of reducing the deficit," Pryce said.

The key will be convincing the markets that what is done with the cash will really promote growth. Infrastructure, housing and direct financial assistance to small businesses all have a direct effect on employment and growth, Pryce said before the weekend.

Through a series of announcements made ahead of Tuesday's autumn statement, the government has indicated that the chancellor is finally working on the same lines, launching two long-awaited initiatives to unlock private investment in infrastructure and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

£30bn - £5bn of which will come from further spending cuts and revenue raising exercises - is earmarked for investment in 40 infrastructure projects, including linking the A6 to the M25, electrifying the Transpennine Express and extending the Northern Line in London. The government hopes that it can attract investment from pension funds into the scheme, who may be attracted by the long-term, predictable returns that come from infrastructure.

The Treasury is also releasing £20bn in loan guarantees for banks to lend to SMEs in a bid to restart growth. A further £20bn could be made available, Osborne said on Sunday.

These follow on from separate announcements last week on affordable housing schemes and a £1bn "youth contract" aimed at tackling the country's youth unemployment problem.

"The deep-seated structural weaknesses of the highly indebted UK economy, combined with the global fallout from the next phase of the financial crisis, mean that it is almost inevitable that George Osborne will fail to meet his stated fiscal objectives, however much the targets are revised," Neil Prothero, economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit said on Monday.

"The flurry of leaked 'growth-boosting' policy plans ahead of the Autumn Statement indicate how badly off course the government's economic programme is, and how bleak the OBR's revised projections are likely to be. Proposals for credit easing and greater private-sector participation in capital investment projects are sensible - and should have been announced a year ago - but offer no obvious short-term boost to activity. Another UK recession is probably unavoidable in the coming months, even assuming a benign outcome in the euro zone, which seems ever more unlikely."

"Credit easing" has been on the cards since the chancellor's speech at the Tory party conference in October, and aims to break the resistance among high street banks to lending to smaller business.

Since coming under pressure for the large volumes of bad debt on their books and their inadequate capital buffers, many banks have cut back lending to all but the biggest businesses. By carrying a proportion of the risk of lending to SMEs - which are a major source of employment - the government should relax some of the financial pressure on the sector.

However, many analysts have noted that finance is only part of the problem. Many large enterprises are already holding cash and not expanding, leaving the SMEs in their supply chains struggling for business. Retail sales are weak, and confidence in the economy is low. Simply offering more credit will not improve sentiment in light of the many concerns around the European and global economy, and in domestic growth.

Some economists have said that the UK's economy is structurally unsound, with the majority of the last decade's growth driven by unsustainable government spending and dangerously cheap consumer credit.

Stimulating the house building and property markets means taking measures to free up consumer credit, and adding to the government's debt to pay for more leverage in the corporate sector seems to fly in the face of measures to rebalance the economy.

"In the short term you have to forget about rebalancing the economy," Pryce said. "You have to get the economy moving… Perversely, you need to get the financial sector to increase its share of the economy while you're doing this, rather than shrink it. But if it's done properly you get the manufacturing sector continuing to expand."

"It's a mix of leveraging and increasing demand… whether it's for housing or labour, and it's a question of confidence," she added. "If the talk is all about austerity and cuts, and increasing costs for whatever reason, what you really need to do is convince people that you are behind achieving this growth."

Russia threatens missile deployment on EU borders

Russia on Wednesday threatened to deploy missiles on the EU's borders to strike against a planned US defence system in eastern Europe, but Washington said the shield will go ahead as planned.

Using rhetoric reminiscent of the Cold War, President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia was prepared to deploy Iskander missiles, which officials said have a range of up to 500 kilometres (310 miles), in the Kaliningrad exclave that borders EU members Poland and Lithuania.

He said the weapons systems might also be deployed in the south -- close to Russia's foe Georgia and NATO member Turkey -- and be used to eliminate the missile defence systems.

In Washington, a spokesman for the National Security Council said that "we will not in any way limit or change our deployment plans for Europe" despite continuing "to work with Russia to define the parameters of possible cooperation."

"The United States has been open and transparent with Russia on our plans for missile defense in Europe, which reflect a growing threat to our allies from Iran that we are committed to deterring," Tommy Vietor said.

"In multiple channels, we have explained to Russian officials that the missile defense systems planned for deployment in Europe do not and cannot threaten Russia's strategic deterrent."

Romania and Poland have agreed to host part of a revamped US missile shield which Washington said is aimed solely at "rogue" states like Iran but Moscow believes would also target its own capability.

NATO member Turkey has decided to host an early warning radar at a military facility near Malatya in the southeast as part of the missile defence system.

Medvedev warned that if the West pressed ahead with the plans, "the Russian Federation will deploy in the west and the south of the country modern weapons systems that could be used to destroy the European component of the US missile defence."

"One of these steps could be the deployment of the Iskander missile systems in Kaliningrad," Medvedev said in a televised address.

Medvedev ordered the Russian defence ministry to "immediately" put radar systems in Kaliningrad that warn of incoming missile attacks on a state of combat readiness.

He said that Russia's ballistic missiles would be given the capacity to overcome missile defence systems as well as "new highly effective warheads."

In Brussels, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "very disappointed" at Russia's warning.

"Such deployments would be reminiscent of the past and are inconsistent with the strategic relations NATO and Russia have agreed they seek and with the spirit of the dialogue, including on missile defence issues, that they are currently conducting," he said.

The dispute on missile defence has repeatedly been an obstacle to a "reset" in relations between Russia and the United States and Medvedev said it could impact disarmament cooperation with its ex-Cold War foe.

"If the situation does not develop well, then Russia reserves the right to halt further steps in disarmament and the corresponding weapons controls," he said, speaking from his residence in front of the Russian flag.

He also said the problem could lead to Russia quitting the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for nuclear arms cuts with the United States that Medvedev signed with President Barack Obama in April 2010.

"There could be a basis for our exit from START. This is allowed under the sense of the treaty itself," added Medvedev.

Medvedev's hawkish comments came after he met Obama for talks on the sidelines of a summit in Hawaii earlier this month.

They also coincide with the run-up to legislative elections on December 4, where Medvedev is leading the list of the ruling United Russia party.

Liberal opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, whose party is not registered to take part in the elections, told the Interfax news agency that Medvedev had performed the classic pre-poll trick of finding an external enemy.

"They just forgot that the arms race led to the collapse of the Soviet Union," he said.

The missile warning has come just as current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- whom analysts see taking a tougher line on foreign and military policy than Medvedev -- prepares to return to the presidency in 2012 polls.

Medvedev took over from his mentor Putin as president in 2008 and along with Obama moved to warm US-Russia relations that had gone into a deep chill during the presidencies of Putin and George W. Bush.

Perfect storm: 12 hour queues at expected at immigration

Queues at Britain's ports could last for 12 hours on the day of the public sector strike, according to reports.

Next week's strike, which could see over two million people down tools, is expected to see some of its worst repercussions at airports, where ministers are trying to train civil servants to take on the role of UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff.

Officials warned Heathrow could "grind to a halt", with those coming off planes waiting up to 12 hours at immigration.

Some reports suggest the incoming crisis is a direct result of the border scandal which threatened to engulf Theresa May earlier this month.

According to the Guardian, a number of trained middle management figures at UKBA are walking out due to the way their seniors were treated during the row, when UK Border Force head Brodie Clarke was forced to resign after a string of public attacks by the home secretary.

With the memory of that encounter still fresh in the memory, Ms May is understood to be resisting any efforts to limit security checks on incoming passengers next Wednesday.

That leaves both aspects of the Home Office's contingency arrangements – alternate staff and reduced checks – in pieces, signalling a day of chaos at Britain's borders.

Rhetoric around the strike escalated dramatically yesterday, when Danny Alexander and Francis Maude, lead government negotiators over public sector pensions, claimed the action would cost £500 million and lead to many job losses.

Pressed on the details of the statement, the ministers admitted they could not put a figure on claimed job losses and that the revenue impact of the strike would be no greater than that of a normal public holiday, such as the Queen's birthday.

"There is no question the strikes will have an impact. It is not costless, if lots of people can't go to work because they have to look after kids, that has an impact on output. That is a fact," the prime minister's spokesman said

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber accused the government of "fantasy economics" and said it was seeking excuses for what is expected to be a depressing autumn statement next week.

“This is the clearest sign yet that next week’s autumn statement will be a damp squib and the government is using the strike as yet another desperate excuse," he said.

“Blaming the weather, the royal wedding and now scapegoating hard-working teachers, nurses and dinner ladies for the UK’s economic woes is pretty poor from a government that has presided over record unemployment and the weakest economic recovery for a century.

“Dedicated public sector workers take no pleasure in taking action next week but the blame for this strike lies squarely with the government for failing to engage in serious talks until unions decided on a day of action.”

Prime minister David Cameron hit back: "Everyone should be clear there is going to be disruption and the reason for that disruption, the responsibility for that disruption, lies squarely with the trade union leaders who've decided on a strike even while negotiations are on-going.

"I think that is irresponsible, I think it is wrong and people should know who to blame."

Egypt's post-Mubarak poll peaceful, high turnout

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted on Monday in the first election since a popular revolt toppled Hosni Mubarak's one-man rule, showing new-found faith in the ballot box that may sweep long-banned Islamists into parliament even as army generals cling to power.

Voters swarmed to the polls in a generally peaceful atmosphere despite the unrest that marred the election run-up, when 42 people were killed in protests demanding an immediate transition from military to civilian rule.

"We want to make a difference, although we are depressed by what the country has come to," said Maha Amin, a 46-year-old pharmacy lecturer, before she voted in an upscale Cairo suburb.

The ruling army council, which has already extended polling to a second day, kept voting stations open an extra two hours until 9 p.m. "to accommodate the high voter turnout."

The Muslim Brotherhood's party and other Islamists expect to do well in the parliamentary election staggered over the next six weeks, but much remains uncertain in Egypt's complex and unfamiliar voting system of party lists and individuals.

Political transformation in Egypt, traditional leader of the Arab world, will reverberate across the Middle East, where a new generation demanding democratic change has already toppled or challenged the leaders of Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Yemen.

Parliament's lower house will be Egypt's first nationally elected body since Mubarak's fall and those credentials alone may enable it to dilute the military's monopoly of power.

A high turnout throughout the election would give it legitimacy. Despite a host of reported electoral violations and lax supervision exploited by some groups, election monitors reported no systematic Mubarak-style campaign to rig the polls.

"We are very happy to be part of the election," said first-time Cairo voter Wafa Zaklama, 55. "What was the point before?"

In the northern city of Alexandria, 34-year-old engineer Walid Atta rejoiced in the occasion. "This is the first real election in 30 years. Egyptians are making history," he said.

ISLAMISTS SCENT POWER

Oppressed under Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties have stood aloof from those challenging army rule in Cairo's Tahrir Square and elsewhere, unwilling to let anything obstruct a vote that may bring them closer to power.

In the Nile Delta city of Damietta, some voters said they would punish the Brotherhood for its perceived opportunism.

Nevertheless, the Brotherhood has formidable advantages that include a disciplined organisation, name recognition among a welter of little-known parties and years of opposing Mubarak.

Brotherhood organisers stood near many voting stations with laptops, offering to guide confused voters, printing out a paper identifying the correct polling booth and showing their Freedom and Justice Party candidate's name and symbol on the back.

"At least they are not giving people fruit inside the polling station," said Mouna Zuffakar, of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, noting widespread breaches of a ban on campaigning near polling stations.

Many voters engaged in lively political debate as they waited patiently in long queues.

"Aren't the army officers the ones who protected us during the revolution?" one woman asked loudly at a polling station in Cairo's Nasr City, referring to the army's role in easing Mubarak from power. "What do those slumdogs in Tahrir want?"

One man replied: "Those in Tahrir are young men and women who are the reason why a 61-year-old man like me voted in a parliamentary election for the first time in his life today."

The world is closely watching the election, keen for stability in Egypt, which has a peace treaty with Israel, owns the Suez Canal linking Europe and Asia, and which in Mubarak's time was an ally in countering Islamist militants in the region.

Washington and its European allies have urged the generals to step aside swiftly and make way for civilian rule.

The U.S. ambassador to Cairo, Anne Patterson, congratulated Egyptians "on what appeared to be a very large turnout on this very historic occasion." British ambassador James Watt told Reuters the election was "an important milestone in Egypt's democratic transition" that seemed to have gone smoothly so far.

SEGREGATED VOTING

In Alexandria and elsewhere, men and women voted in separate queues, a reminder of the conservative religious fabric of Egypt's mainly Muslim society, where Coptic Christians comprise 10 percent of a population of more than 80 million.

Myriad parties have emerged since the fall of Mubarak, who fixed elections to ensure his now-defunct National Democratic Party dominated parliament. The NDP's headquarters, torched in the popular revolt, still stands like a tombstone by the Nile.

Individual winners are to be announced on Wednesday, but many contests will go to a run-off vote on December 5. List results will not be declared until after the election ends on January 11.

About 17 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the first two-day phase of three rounds of polling for the lower house.

Egyptians seemed enthused by the novelty of a vote where the outcome was, for a change, not a foregone conclusion.

"It's easy to predict this will be a higher turnout than any recent election in Egypt," said Les Campbell, of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute. "We are seeing clear signs of voter excitement and participation."

The army council has promised civilian rule by July after the parliamentary vote and a presidential poll, now expected in June -- much sooner than previously envisaged.

But one of its members said on Sunday the new parliament could not remove a cabinet appointed by the army.

Kamal Ganzouri, named by the army on Friday to form a new government, said he had met the ruling army council on Monday to discuss setting up a "civilian advisory committee" to work with his new cabinet, which he said could be unveiled by Thursday.

Polling day calm was reflected on financial markets battered by this month's unrest. The cost of insuring Egyptian debt edged lower, with five-year credit default swaps slipping 10 basis points to 539. The Egyptian pound, which last week hit its lowest point since January 2005, held steady.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Maha El Dahan and Tom Perry in Cairo, Marwa Awad in Alexandria, Shaimaa Fayed in Damietta, Yusri Mohamed in Port Said and Jonathan Wright in Fayoum; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Peter Millership)

Pakistan PM: No more "business as usual" with U.S.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's prime minister ruled out "business as usual" with the United States on Monday after a NATO attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and the army threatened to curtail cooperation over the war in Afghanistan.

Saturday's incident on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has complicated U.S. attempts to ease a crisis in relations with Islamabad and stabilise the region before foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan.

"Business as usual will not be there," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told CNN when asked if ties with the United States would continue. "We have to have something bigger so as to satisfy my nation."

While the NATO strike has shifted attention from what critics say is Islamabad's failure to go after militants, Gilani's comments reflect the fury of Pakistan's government and military - and the pressure they face from their own people.

"You cannot win any war without the support of the masses," Gilani said. "We need the people with us."

The relationship, he said, would continue only if based on "mutual respect and mutual interest." Asked if Pakistan was receiving that respect, Gilani replied: "At the moment, not."

Gilani's comments cap a day of growing pressure from the Pakistani military, which threatened to reduce cooperation on peace efforts in Afghanistan.

"This could have serious consequences in the level and extent of our cooperation," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told Reuters.

Pakistan has a long history of ties to militant groups in Afghanistan so it is uniquely positioned to help bring about a peace settlement, a top foreign policy and security goal for the Obama administration.

Washington believes Islamabad can play a critical role in efforts to pacify Afghanistan before all NATO combat troops pull out in 2014 and it cannot afford to alienate its ally.

U.S. national security officials met at the White House on Monday to discuss Pakistan following the weekend incident, which prompted Pakistan to shut down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan in retaliation and which was the worst of its kind since Islamabad allied itself with Washington in 2001.

"We have been here before. But this time it's much more serious," said Farzana Sheikh, associate fellow of the Asia program at Chatham House in London.

"The government has taken a very stern view. It's not quite clear at this stage what more Pakistani authorities can do, apart from suspending supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan."

The weekend attack was the latest perceived provocation by the United States, which infuriated and embarrassed Pakistan's powerful military in May with a unilateral special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

CHINA AND RUSSIA VOICE CONCERN

Adding a new element to tensions and giving a diplomatic boost to Islamabad, China said it was "deeply shocked" by the incident and expressed "strong concern for the victims and profound condolences for Pakistan.

Russia, seeking warmer relations with Pakistan as worry grows over the NATO troop pullout in Afghanistan, said it was "unacceptable" to violate the sovereignty of states even when hunting "terrorists."

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Pakistan was rethinking whether to attend next week's conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, although Washington had not yet received any definitive decision from the Pakistanis.

"We understand that they are reconsidering," Toner told reporters. "We hope that they do in fact attend this conference because this is a conference about ... building a more stable and prosperous and peaceful Afghanistan and so that is very much in the interests of Pakistan."

On Saturday, NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan, killing the 24 soldiers and wounding 13, the army said.

NATO described the killings as a "tragic, unintended incident." U.S. officials say a NATO investigation and a separate American one will seek to determine what happened. The U.S. investigation will provide initial findings by December 23, military officials said.

"It is very much in America's national security interest to maintain a cooperative relationship with Pakistan because we have shared interests in the fight against terrorism, and so we will continue to work on that relationship," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

A Western official and an Afghan security official who requested anonymity said NATO troops were responding to fire from across the border at the time of the incident.

Pakistan's military denied NATO forces had come under fire before launching the attack, saying the strike was unprovoked and reserving the right to retaliate.

Abbas, the military spokesman, said the attack lasted two hours despite warnings from Pakistani border posts.

"They were contacted through the local hotline and also there had been contacts through the director-general of military operations. But despite that, this continued," he said.

After a string of deadly incidents in the largely lawless and confusing border region, NATO and Pakistan set up the hotline that should allow them to communicate in case of confusion over targets and avoid "friendly fire."

Both the Western and Pakistani explanations are possibly correct: that a retaliatory attack by NATO troops took a tragic, mistaken turn in harsh terrain where differentiating friend from foe can be difficult.

An Afghan Taliban commander, Mullah Samiullah Rahmani, said the group had not been engaged in any fighting with NATO or Afghan forces in the area when the incident took place. But he added that Taliban fighters control several Afghan villages near the border with Pakistan.

A similar cross-border incident on September 30, 2010, which killed two Pakistani service personnel, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days.

OBAMA EFFIGY Burnt

The main Pakistani association that delivers fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan said it would not resume supplies soon in protest against the NATO strike.

In the Mohmand region, where the attack took place, hundreds of angry tribesmen yelled "Death to America." About 200 lawyers protested in Peshawar city, some burning an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Pakistani editorials were strident. "We have to send a clear and unequivocal message to NATO and America that our patience has run out. If even a single bullet of foreign forces crosses into our border, then two fires will be shot in retaliation," said one mass-circulation Urdu language paper.

Pakistan joined the U.S.-led war on militancy launched after al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and has won billions of dollars in aid in return.

But the unstable, nuclear-armed country has often been described as an unreliable ally and the United States has resorted to controversial drone aircraft strikes against militants on Pakistani territory to pursue its aims.

U.S. Senator John McCain, a leading voice of Republicans on military issues, echoed frustration in Washington when he said the loss of life was "tragic" but that Pakistani intelligence still supported militants fueling violence in Afghanistan.

"Certain facts in Pakistan continue to complicate significantly the ability of coalition and Afghan forces to succeed in Afghanistan," he said.

(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Rebecca Conway in ISLAMABAD, Izaz Mohmand, Jibran Ahmad and Faris Ali in PESHAWAR, William Maclean in LONDON and Missy Ryan, Caren Bohan, Susan Cornwell and Arshad Mohammed in WASHINGTON; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Politics Live blog: Monday 28 November

• David Cameron has chaired a meeting of ministers to discuss plans for Wednesday's strike. "Part of that contingency planning is working with different bits of the public sector to make sure people are aware of likely disruption," the prime minister's official spokesman said.

• Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, has said that there could be a "rolling programme" of strikes going into the new year if the government does not back down over public sector pension reform.

• Sir Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, has told MPs that the eurozone crisis is largely to blame for the Bank downgrading its growth forecast for this year and next year. "The bulk of the downward revision can be attributed to news since August about what is happening in the eurozone," he said. "It is the bulk of it. Beyond the one year horizon we have not made significant changes to our growth rates."

• Steve Webb, the pensions minister, has announced that automatic pensions enrolment for small businesses will be delayed by a year until 2015.

• John Bercow, the Speaker, has said that he is "gravely concerned" about the way so many details of the autumn statement have already been released. When Labour's Angela Eagle raised this on a point of order in the Commons, Bercow said: "I have been gravely concerned about these matters and I can tell the House I have had conversations with senior members of the government on the subject. I would like at this stage to await events. The House will look forward with interest and respect to hearing the statement by the chancellor tomorrow, but I remain alert to the concerns raised and I shall be looking further into the matter." Government announcements are supposed to be made to the Commons before they are made to the press.

That's it for today. Thanks for the comments.

3.48pm: Here's a short afternoon reading list.

• Katharine Birbalsingh at the Telegraph writes about David Lammy's new book about the summer riots, and quotes from the passage where Lammy describes what happened when he raised knife crime with Gordon Brown.

It was at the end of the session that Gordon came over to ask if there was anything in particular that I would like to raise. "Actually, there is," I said, noticing him look alarmed that I might be about to launch into a long speech. "I'm really worried about knife crime." It was still a big concern in Tottenham and was showing the signs of morphing from an inner city problem to a nationwide concern. More and more mothers were turning up at my weekly advice surgeries and telling me that they felt scared and helpless to stop their sons drifting into trouble. "What are we doing for these women?" I asked. "Often the father isn't around, and their own parents might be on the other side of the world. They're not coping and we've got to find a way of helping them." Gordon looked at me quizzically while I spoke, as if I was missing something obvious. "Tax credits," he responded, as soon as I finished. "If they're single parents and they're working, they'll be entitled to them." With that there was a pat on the arm. "Thanks, David." On to the next conversation.

• John Rentoul on his blog posts the full transcript of Ed Balls' interview with the Independent on Sunday, which includes Balls' thoughts on Friday evening TV and his account of how he tried to get on Jim'll Fix It.

When I was young, the ideal Friday night was Pot Black, 9 til 9.25, One Man and His Dog, Pro Celeb golf and then HSB. It was just top TV. Jim'll Fix It was great in the early evening slot. Final Score; Doctor Who or Jim'll Fix It, but after 7, 7.30 it really fell apart. Strictly is more in the teatime slot. X Factor: that's filled a slot which has been pretty awful over the last 20, 30 years. It was good fun. I wrote to Jim [Jimmy Savile] many times. I wanted to conduct an orchestra; never got that. Can I be a drummer? Probably "Can I be the mascot for the England football team?" More or less the same as everybody else. I didn't think I was ever quite quirky or innovative enough. Never occurred to me to be. I never got it, I never got the call. My sister did get a Blue Peter badge. For a picture. A very exciting moment. I was very, very jealous.

• Luke Akehurst at LabourList says Labour campaigners should read Lord Ashcroft's research about public opinion and the economy.

Given [what Ashcroft's report says], the economic themes articulated by Ed Miliband in his recent speeches make a lot of sense: avoiding any suggestion of increasing public spending but instead talking about changing the economic rules to make the system work for the hard-working majority and ensuring we don't have another financial crisis; criticising top pay abuses and excessive energy company profits as well as benefit fraud; speaking up for the "squeezed middle" who are hit by stagnant pay and rising prices.

This report says to me that as a party we need to be campaigning as hard on prices and pay as on cuts.