Review of the Papers, Tuesday 14 August

**Government  **

• Gordon Brown has announced more than £39bn in government spending since he became prime minister, revealing the extent to which a new era of cooperation between No 10 and the Treasury has allowed him to dominate the news agenda and reap political dividends. The main spending decisions revealed by Mr Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor, include: An extra £7.7bn for defence to 2011, a 1.5% average real terms increase, excluding the cost of operations met from the reserve; £15bn to 2014 to improve the railways, including £5bn for Thameslink, an extra 1,300 carriages to ease overcrowding and more than £500m to tackle bottlenecks in Birmingham and Reading; £4bn extra spending on early years education over three years, covering Sure Start centres to 2010-11; £8bn on increasing the availability of affordable housing over the next three years, a £3bn increase compared with the previous spending review. This figure is on top of continuing investment in decent homes, including more than £2bn on the arm's length management organisation programme over the next three years. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gordonbrown/story/0,,2148261,00.html

Conservatives

• David Cameron's front-bench MPs and peers hold more than 115 paid directorships and other outside jobs, in addition to their political roles, research by the FT has revealed. The sheer scale of outside interests is sparking concern within the party that Tory "part-timers" lack the discip-line needed to defeat Labour. But the MPs defend their second jobs, arguing exposure to business im-proves their political performance. Analysis of the most recent registers of MPs and peers' interests shows the opposition front bench is pursuing an eclectic, and in some cases highly lucrative, range of parallel careers to supplement their Westminster pay. The shadow cabinet has 32 remunerated outside roles (counting the six Lazards directorships held by Andrew Mitchell, shadow international development secretary, as a single post). The front bench's secondary sources of income range from farming and property to consultancies, speeches, journalism and - in the case of Robert Goodwill, shadow transport minister - running a "green" cemetery. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cbd0aab0-49fe-11dc-9ffe-0000779fd2ac.html
• Plans to encourage young people to save by offering tax relief worth tens of millions of pounds will be unveiled by the Tories this week. The proposals, for US-style "lifetime savings accounts" that people could use to help buy their first home, will be coupled with plans to give pensioners greater choice in retirement. John Redwood, the senior Tory in charge of a policy review on economic competitiveness, will also unveil a strategy to help protect finalsalary pension schemes. Mr Redwood - a Cabinet minister in the last Conservative government - will publish proposals on Friday to boost Britain's economic competitiveness. A £14 billion plan to cut red tape will be at its core. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/14/ntory114.xml