Review of the Papers, Tuesday 12 June

Government

• The biggest overhaul of Britain's immigration laws for more than 35 years is being planned by the Government, which has admitted that their complexity has undermined public confidence in the system. The myriad of legislation dating back to the 1971 Immigration Act, brought in shortly after Enoch Powell's notorious "rivers of blood" speech, will be replaced by a "single, consistent and coherent framework" for dealing with newcomers. Critics said the Government was itself to blame for Britain's confusing immigration legislation and warned it not to use its planned new Bill to bring in hardline policies by stealth. The 1971 Act, which imposed strict restrictions on settlement in Britain, has been followed by 10 more Acts and more than 30 statutory instruments, or minor laws. In a scathing analysis of the quality of the legislation, the Home Office has admitted it is not always easy to know the exact legal position on particular issues. The department said the complexity can lead to delays and mistakes, makes it difficult for foreigners to know whether they can enter Britain legitimately and increases the possibility of legal challenges. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2646299.ece
• The Government tried to hush up an embarrassing public row between Britain's train operators and track group Network Rail over deteriorating punctuality on the railways. After discovering that the Association of Train Operating Companies was tabling a critical resolution at Network Rail's annual meeting on July 18, the Department for Transport's head of railways, Mike Mitchell, called ATOC director-general George Muir, pleading with him to avoid a public showdown. Mr Muir immediately fired off an email to the ATOC management board, relaying Mr Mitchell's desire to avoid a "public disagreement". Mr Mitchell's intervention on June 6 came eight days after ATOC, which represents Britain's 25 train operating companies, wrote to Network Rail company secretary, Hazel Walker, with a resolution complaining that current punctuality was below that achieved by its predecessor Railtrack. The resolution said that ATOC members "are concerned that in the fundamental matter of punctuality the delays for which the company is responsible are substantially higher than in 1999/2000. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/06/12/cnrailexc112.xml
• Foreign language classes in state schools have been reduced to a "survival tool kit for a holiday abroad", says a report published yesterday. Lessons have been stripped of any serious linguistic or cultural content in an attempt to boost interest, it is claimed. The conclusions are made by Civitas, the Right-wing think-tank, in a study which warns that modern syllabuses have been dumbed down over the past 20 years as teachers react to the latest fads to revive pupils' waning enthusiasm. Writing in The Corruption of the Curriculum, Shirley Lawes, the subject leader for modern languages at the Institute of Education, London, said Spanish has been seen as an attractive subject only because the country is a favourite with British holidaymakers. Arabic, Chinese and Japanese are also in favour because they are seen as more "fashionable" than French, German and Russian, she said. The comments come amid fears that languages are becoming the preserve of independent schools. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/12/nteach112.xml
• A lobby of children's experts and charities accuses the Government today of failing to protect young people from the "emotional fallout" of divorce and separation. They say that the entire focus of the Government and the courts has been on sorting out the practical arrangements after relationships break down, with numerous rules in place covering contact, residency and maintenance. In contrast, there is nothing in place to help children, often stuck between warring parents, to come to terms with their new life. This is despite all the evidence showing that conflict between parents can severely damage young people's emotional stability. In a letter to The Times that has also been sent to Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister-in-waiting, the experts call for a ministerial group to spearhead a new approach for separating families that helps children to come to terms with family break-up. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1917973.ece
• Ministers were accused of creating "even more chaos" over the introduction of home information packs, after the government announced on Monday the latest regulation amendments. Plans to phase in inspection of four-bedroom homes and larger, followed by three-bedroom houses, before rolling out the scheme to the rest of the market have been outlined, but the industry say they still lack clear start dates. The Tories mocked the detailed implementation plans as a "Whitehall farce", arguing Ruth Kelly, the communities secretary, had been forced into another retreat. The packs, designed to speed the house buying and selling process by requiring sellers to provide certain information upfront, have been dogged by U-turns and mounting political and industry opposition. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7dccc17a-1883-11dc-b736-000b5df10621.html
• Golf clubs and other private members' establishments will no longer be able to ban women members from their bars or discriminate in any other way on gender grounds under a shakeup of equality laws unveiled today. The change is outlined in a government consultation paper aimed at rationalising the UK's complex web of discrimination legislation, some of which dates back 40 years, and introducing new protection for some groups. Planned reforms include compelling private landlords to put in ramps and stairlifts for disabled tenants who request it, although the tenant would have to pay. http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,,2100855,00.html

Conservatives

• A Conservative government will seek to cut the corporation tax rate for small businesses, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, will pledge today. Mr Osborne will not make a concrete commitment to axing the three percentage point rise announced by Gordon Brown in the last Budget, stating instead that a Tory administration would "look very carefully at how we can reverse the increase in the tax rate". The move is the latest in a series of aspirational corporate tax reform pledges made by the Tories as part of a wider drive to woo business. Mr Osborne pre-empted the chancellor's Budget decision to cut the main rate of corporation tax, and fund this by axing some reliefs, by announcing very similar plans three days earlier. The proposal for small business would not cost a Tory government anything. As with the main corporation tax plan, it would be financed by cutting reliefs - allowances announced by Mr Brown to offset the tax rise. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e9e482e0-1882-11dc-b736-000b5df10621.html