| Titanic survivor story published A woman's account of escaping the sinking Titanic in 1912 has been published for the first time bbc.co.uk |
Calm and forceful Ed Miliband impresses at PMQs Labour leader challenges David Cameron to explain fairness of depriving thousands of middle-class families of child benefitA calm and forceful Ed Miliband today outperformed expectations at his first prime minister's questions as he challenged David Cameron to explain the fairness of depriving thousands of middle class families of child benefit.The new Labour leader twice upbraided Cameron for failing to answer the question, and claimed the Conservatives' handling of the withdrawal of child benefit at its party conference had been so shambolic the prime minister must be regretting that BBC journalists had not carried out their threat to black out Tory conference coverage.Miliband steered away from the issue of the day – tuition fees – partly due to the well advertised differences regarding a graduate tax between himself and his new shadow chancellor, Alan Johnson.Instead, in a bid to shed his Red Ed image, he said he was standing up for thousands of middle-income families who faced the equivalent of a 6p increase in income tax due to the withdrawal of child benefit."By my reckoning there are hundreds of thousands of families where one parent stays at home, there are hundreds of thousands of families and the question they are asking is this: why should a family on £45,000 where one person stays at home lose their child benefit, £1,000, £2,000, £3,000 a year, but a family on £80,000 where both partners in a couple are working should keep their child benefit?"That doesn't strike people as fair, it doesn't strike me as fair, does it strike you as fair?"Showing few nerves, he said he would work with the government where possible in the national interest, and, faced with prevarication by Cameron, retorted: "I may be new to this game, but I thought I asked the questions and you answered them."He urged the prime minister to have the "grown-up sense" to admit that on child benefit he had "got it wrong, he's made the wrong decision; he should tell middle-income families up and down Britain he'll think again."Cameron replied that Miliband had "suddenly discovered" middle-income families and his concern was to shed the image of being the trade unions' choice as leader.The prime minister said: "We are now hearing about the squeezed middle. Who is it who squeezed the middle?"Who is it who doubled the council tax, who put up tax 122 times, who taxed the pensions, the petrol, the marriages, the mortgages?"Suddenly, having done all this to middle-income earners, they want to stand up for middle-income earners."It is a completely transparent political strategy to cover up the inconvenient truth that he was put where he was by the trade union movement."Miliband has attempted to shrug off the "Red Ed" label attached to him, but Cameron compared him to Gordon Brown, his predecessor as Labour leader.Miliband began by expressing support for the decision by the foreign secretary, William Hague, to authorise the attempted rescue by US forces of the British aid worker Linda Norgrove, which led to her death."We fully support the decision the foreign secretary took to authorise her rescue."And we must always make clear that responsibility for her death lies solely and squarely with those who took her hostage."The Labour leader asked for an update on the inquiry into her death and Cameron told him: "I spoke to President [Barack] Obama to really stress the point that we think it is extremely important this is a joint US and UK investigation."He said "the picture still is unclear" about what happened.But, he added: "It is an impossibly difficult decision to make about whether to launch a raid and try to free a hostage."In the end we must all be clear: the responsibility for Linda's death lies with those cowardly, ruthless people who took her hostage in the first place."PMQsHouse of CommonsDavid CameronEd MilibandPatrick Wintourguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
How will communities cope with the cuts? The BBC's Mark Easton has been in Birmingham looking at the social impact of the spending cuts bbc.co.uk |
Most people expecting house price slump More people think house prices will fall during the coming year than those who think they will rise, a survey showed today. telegraph.co.uk |
Newspaper review Mixed messages about the UK's strong growth bbc.co.uk |