Guido Fawkes

Image source, Guido Fawkes

The political blogger Guido Fawkes has published a blog post , externalpointing out the relatively disparity in height between Labour leader Ed Miliband and Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield. The two are pictured together appearing to be the same height, in what one can only assume is a photo that will could be used in electoral campaign literature.

But Guido points out Toby Perkins is a towering 6 feet 6 inches, while Ed Miliband is a somewhat more diminutive 5 feet 10 inches.

Guido describes his work as "important investigative journalism" in an exchange of texts between himself and Toby Perkins.

Caroline Wyatt
Religious affairs correspondent

Christian leaders have called on political parties to review recent changes and cuts to legal aid, expressing concern that the current situation risks a division in England and Wales between "those who can afford to buy justice and those who cannot."

In a foreword to a new report for the Theos think tank , external, they write: "Christians must continually remind government that it has a "fundamental responsibility" to secure justice for all. They also call on Christians to help people themselves if they can.

Alcohol misuse is costing the Welsh NHS more than £109m a year, the Welsh Assembly has heard.

Deputy health minister Vaughan Gething says the latest figures showed 34,000 hospital admissions and 467 deaths related to alcohol in 2013.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has criticised plans to make it a criminal offence not to raise the alarm over child protection concerns. The prime minister set out the plans after a damning report in to abuse of young girls in Oxfordshire. Teachers, councillors and social workers in England and Wales could face up to five years in jail if they fail to protect children.

The NUT's general secretary Christine Blower said such horrific cases showed systems in the agencies involved needed improving. But she cautioned: "Criminalisation of individual teachers, however, will not assist and will be counterproductive in prompting over-reporting so that identification of children at risk is actually more difficult."

LBC

Image source, LBC

Chief Whip Michael Gove says the Tories are right to repeat the commitment to cutting net migration to the "tens of thousands".

Later, he spoke about the Oxfordshire abuse scandal, saying some police officers had seen the victims as girls who were "no better than they ought to be".

"These girls grew up in situations where the one thing they didn't receive from anyone was love," he said.

"They were then vulnerable to exploitative men who would shower them with affection and money and then alcohol and then drugs and then do the most horrendous things to them, having groomed them they would then treat them in the most inhuman fashion."

First Minister Carwyn Jones took questions at the Welsh Assembly earlier. There's a full run-down of what he said here.

Image source, BBC

BBC Trust boss Rona Fairhead is to be questioned by MPs about her role at HSBC while the bank's Swiss arm helped wealthy clients evade tax. She will give evidence to the Public Accounts Committee alongside HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver next Monday.

New Statesman

Is voting the best way to influence politics?, external

BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

"It's very hard to prove wilful neglect," Anne Lawrence, a barrister who advises the campaign group Mandate Now tells PM, of today's government proposals to extend the legislation around child abuse.

She says the danger with current proposals is that "they will scapegoat a couple of people and it will leave the culture the same as it is now".

Mandatory reporting will require people in authority, such as teachers, to report concerns. Sociologist Frank Furedi, also on PM, warned mandatory reporting could create an environment of "institutional defensiveness".

A second member of staff at the Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre has been suspended after guards were secretly filmed referring to inmates as "animals" and "beasties". An undercover report for Channel Four News, external also raised concerns about self-harm among detainees. The facility is run by the private security firm, Serco, which says it has commissioned an independent review. The government says the claims are "deeply concerning".

A Conservative minister has said there is an "inhuman inflexibility" , externalto the way some welfare sanctions are applied, according to the Grantham Journal., external

Business Minister Nick Boles said the sanctions "do need to be looked at" and suggested a change after the election, the paper said. Mr Boles later said he was a "strong advocate of benefit sanctions in principle and in practice".

tweets:, external 3 million young people are undecided on who to vote for. Stat from our report #TuneInTurnOut in today's Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/getting-young-people-to-vote-from-voteselfish-to-bite-the-ballot-10081205.html …

Image source, PA

Pulling Britain out of the European Union (EU) would be a "disaster" for London and is the biggest risk to prosperity the capital faces, Ed Balls has warned.

The shadow chancellor says severing ties with Brussels would cost jobs, investment and influence and jeopardise future success. He told business organisation London First earlier: "The whole of Britain benefits from London's growth and dynamism.

"We should have no truck with the argument that if the rest of the country is to get more jobs and investment then London needs to be less successful."

tweets:, external God no longer a red line for Clegg. "It's not something that's happened to me, it's not happened to me yet and I would embrace it."

Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith will use a speech in Washington this evening to warn his Conservative colleagues that they still have to show they are not driven by a desire to "punish" people on benefits, the Daily Mail reports., external

Mr Duncan Smith will warn that for too long his party has addressed the poor with "fingers wagging", instead of offering them "hope".

He will say the Conservative pitch to voters has to be about more than tax, immigration and crime to show they are driven by "fairness, opportunity, and compassion".

Iain Watson
Political correspondent, BBC News

It's unlikely there will be legislation on "wilful neglect" before the general election, says BBC political correspondent Iain Watson. The prime minister's spokesman says the next step will be to consult and that the plan is to extend a law which says health workers can be prosecuted for neglecting patients.

A reminder of the main stories so far today:

• A report reveals errors and misjudgements by social workers and police officers in Oxfordshire over 15 years, while more than 370 children and teenagers were abused

• David Cameron says "It's important we take a step back and just recognise the horrific nature of what has happened in our country" and accuses people in authority of "walking on by"

• The PM announces plans to make it a criminal offence for people such as teachers and social workers not to protect children if they spot signs of abuse

• Labour says the plans don't go far enough and calls for a new offence of "child exploitation" and a new legal duty to report child abuse

• A damning report has been published in to the deaths of mothers and babies at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria, identifying 20 cases of significant failures that led to the unnecessary deaths of eleven babies and one mother

• Former prime minister John Major attends the funeral in Moscow of the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, on behalf of the British government

Mr Netanyahu says the world should demand Iran stop its aggression towards its neighbours before any restrictions are lifted. He says: "For a year we've been told that no deal is better than a bad deal, well this is a bad deal. We're better off without it. Now we're being told the only alternative to this deal is war. That's not true. The alternative to this deal is a much better deal."

"The only difference between Iran and ISIS is that ISIS is armed with butcher's knives and captured weapons, while Iran is only a few steps away from having inter-continental ballistic nuclear weapons," Mr Netanyahu tells the US Congress. He says Iran and ISIS are fighting amongst themselves over who will be in charge of an Islamic state, adding in such circumstances that "my enemy's enemy is still my enemy".

Mr Netanyahu says any deal with Iran on its nuclear programme would include concessions that would leave it with a vast nuclear infrastructure that will allow it "a short breakout time" to construct a nuclear weapon. He says that Iran has proved time and again that it cannot be trusted.