Review of the Papers, Wednesday 04 April

Government  

• Gordon Brown was last night under renewed pressure from the Conservatives after Brussels revealed that the chancellor had been forced to back down in a row over Britain's highly politically-charged EU rebate. Brussels said the Treasury had yesterday finally abandoned a 15-month rearguard action against a new deal for financing an expanded EU as the price for securing a Europe-wide agreement to tackle VAT fraud. The new deal will see Britain's rebate - a totemic issue for the Conservatives since it was negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 - reduced by around £1bn a year over the next six years. Tony Blair signed up to the budget in December 2005 but the Treasury has blocked the implementation of the agreement ever since, in an attempt to boost the size of Britain's rebate. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2049567,00.html  
• Fresh difficulties hit the government's gambling policy yesterday after a High Court judge allowed existing casinos to bring a legal challenge to the creation of Britain's first Las Vegas-style super-casino as well as 16 other new premises. Mr Justice Collins ordered that the judicial review challenge, spearheaded on behalf of existing casinos by the British Casino Association, should be heard as a matter of urgency. That hearing, to last three days, is expected to take place before May 25. The existing casinos claim they are being treated "significantly less favourably" than the 17 proposed new establishments that could be licensed as a result of the 2005 Gambling Act. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/47014a6e-e249-11db-af9e-000b5df10621.html  
• A £2.4 billion expansion of the railways over the next two years was announced yesterday by Network Rail. The programme will include lengthening hundreds of platforms, increasing speeds on some lines, and new tracks and resignalling schemes. John Armitt, chief executive of Network Rail, said that the programme was a response by the company to the rising demand for rail travel. The £2.44 billion "enhancements" will be carried out from this month to March 2009. Network Rail will fund £1.73 billion of the schemes, with the rest of the money coming from other stakeholders in the railways, including the Department for Transport and local authorities. At £1.2 billion a year, the total is more than double the average annual spending on enhancements. Schemes being worked on over the next two years include projects connected with the 2012 Olympics, on which £109 million will be spent by March 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1610077.ece
• At least 120,000 bright children are effectively going backwards in secondary schools, prompting fresh fears over the way top pupils are taught. One child in five who was doing well in some core subjects at the end of primary school failed to make any further progress in the first three years of secondary education, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives. Many of the top performing pupils at 11 actually did worse by the age of 14. The findings come as the Government issued fresh threats to hundreds of "coasting" schools that they face closure unless standards improve. Local authorities are being told to issue notices to schools that fail to boost pupils' grades warning that they will be turned into privately-sponsored city academies if improvement is too slow. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/04/npupils04.xml
• Gordon Brown stood by his controversial move to scrap tax credits for pension funds yesterday, insisting it had been the best decision for the long-term health of the economy. Speaking for the first time since the row broke, the chancellor attempted to quash growing criticism of the 1997 measure by rejecting opposition claims that it had damaged the pensions of millions of Britons by reintroducing a £5bn tax bill to pensions funds. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2049538,00.html  
• Green-minded householders will be allowed to put up solar panels and wind turbines without applying for planning permission under plans to be announced today by Ruth Kelly. The communities secretary hopes the changes will encourage people to generate their own energy supplies and cut carbon emissions, as well as reducing the number of non-controversial applications that clog up the planning system. At present applications can take months to be processed and cost hundreds of pounds. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2049574,00.html  

Conservatives  

• Yesterday the residents of Portsmouth discovered common ground with the people of Liverpool and the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea when they found themselves victim to a dose of Boris Johnson-style candour. While on official Conservative business to talk to students at the city's university, the shadow minister for higher education found himself unimpressed with the historic home of the Navy. Gliding through its apparently unlovely streets in a chauffeur-driven £340,000 Maybach limousine he was simultaneously road testing for GQ magazine, Johnson observed "one of the most depressed" towns in the south of England. Writing up his car review, he went further. Portsmouth was "too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs". http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2418420.ece