Morning Report – May 17th

Inflation’s on the rise. That’s the big news this morning. And since we already know that the economy is stagnating, that can mean only one thing – Stagflation. Congratulations Mr Osborne you’ve greated an economy which isn;t growing but where everything is becoming more expensive. Bravo. But is this chancellor for turning? Does he have a plan B?

Liam Fox certainly has a plan B. The ambitious defence secretary wrote to the PM arguing that the government should not increase government spending on international development to 0.7%, and somehow this letter has been leaked to The Times(£). Liam should be a bit more careful with his correspondence, as this isn’t the first time one of his letters has made it into the papers.

Could councils be about to hand over their social care role to the NHS? That’s a distinct possibility at the moment according to the Independent, who suggest that this could be a knock on effect from the much-vaunted “listening exercise”. In the Guardian George Monbiot is concerned that the PM wants to change the NHS from a provider to a kitemark. Troubling thoughts indeed.

And finally, Blue Labour is starting to make waves outside of the party echo chamber. It’s not quite mainstream yet, but Mary Riddell takes a look at some of the underlying ideas in the Telegraph today.