"The depressing list of abuse scandals in recent years has left the nation shocked and stunned," says the NSPCC's chief executive Peter Wanless. "But now we must have positive action to make sure children are properly protected and, hopefully, today's government announcements will start to swing the odds in favour of the victims, not the offenders. When we have children just out of primary school being targeted and groomed by predatory gangs of men, we know the time for hand-wringing has long gone. There have been enough warnings that we are not doing enough to keep children safe. Now it's time to act."

LBC

Ask Boris concludes with the most passionate answer of the last 60 minutes from the London mayor, who is questioned about the role of the security services in radicalising Islamic State fighter Mohammed Emwazi. Human rights group Cage has produced a tape of Emwazi claiming MI5 threatened him and tried to "put words into my mouth". Its research director, Asim Qureshi, tells Mr Johnson there is "direct causality" between this and his subsequent actions as the radicalised 'Jihadi John'.

Mr Johnson tells Mr Qureshi he has "got this 100% the wrong way up". He adds: "You need to see this thing differently. The security services are trying to keep us safe. They cannot conceivably be blamed for their actions in trying to prevent people trying to commit sick atrocities against the British people and indeed against people in Syria and Iraq. If you're a human rights group you should be sticking up for the human rights of those who are being beheaded in Syria and Iraq, that should be the focus of your concern." And with that Ask Boris wraps up. Our full story on the Emwazi tape can be read here.

The Daily Telegraph

A very funny sketch in the Telegraph today by Michael Deacon., external "It must be tough, being David Cameron's children. By modern standards of parenting, he's a pretty strict disciplinarian... 'I want my children,' he declared sternly, 'to be able to walk from Liverpool to Leeds through green belt protected land.' What an extraordinary announcement. The distance from Liverpool to Leeds is 72 miles." Mr Deacon wonders how Nancy, Elwen and Florence will manage the arduous journey - and what they will do in Leeds when they get there. "Are they to spend the night in the city? Just the three of them? Mr Cameron made no mention of accompanying them on their gruelling trek."

tweets:, external Sir John Major to represent UK at Boris #Nemtsov's memorial, over 20 years after they met here in Nizhny Novgorod

Image source, Other

tweets: , externalWatch out BBC! Boris is on warpath. Says it's imp to support quality b'casting but "do you need to support the whole machine?" #AskBoris

LBC

Boris Johnson backs a cut in the BBC's licence fee, saying he disagrees with the Commons committee that has backed prolonging the licence fee for a further 10 years, suggesting that's "too long". He says the BBC is "deeply anti-competitive" and the licence fee is "plainly anachronistic", but accepts that it's important to protect high-quality broadcasting. "I think there is a case for having a very high standard of public broadcasting. Do we need the full whack of the licence fee, all that money? I somehow doubt [it]. There is going to have to be a change. We are moving in that direction."

LBC

Len, a UKIP voter, tells Boris Johnson he would like to support the Conservatives but only if the London mayor would be the prime minister. Mr Johnson replies: "In the end, David Cameron is doing a fantastic job, he's cut out to be a prime minister, he's plainly made from prime ministerial timber, unlike Ed Miliband, and ultimately Len, you may think you want Nigel Farage, but in the end you vote for him you're going to get Ed Miliband, and that would be an absolute shocker for our country."

LBC

Some more tough questions for Boris Johnson on LBC, who is attempting to explain why he is so keen on Uxbridge, where he is standing as an MP. "It's a glorious part of London," he says, before appearing stumped when invited to name a pub on the high street. Mr Johnson eventually replies: "It would be wrong and invidious of me to single out one pub when there are many fine hostelries." Would he prefer to stand in Kensington, where Sir Malcolm Rifkind is standing down? Inviting the London mayor to pick his favourite parts of the capital, Mr Johnson replies, is "like asking a tigress to choose between her cubs".

tweets:, external Challenged to name a pub in Uxbridge, Boris tells LBC it's like asking a tigress to choose between her cubs.. That's how to fudge it

tweets:, external There will be a large anti-austerity, anti-Trident faction in Labour that could ally with SNP. Read more., external

LBC

Image source, LBC

Boris Johnson is asked about David Lammy's claim that the seriousness of shoplifting should be based not on value but the impact on the victim - see 07:06 and 07:16 entries earlier for the Labour MP's comments on the Today programme. "That's an absurd thing to say," Mr Johnson says. "If he is seriously saying we should discount or minimise shoplifting from swish posh shops then that is totally wrong because it is a crime wherever it is committed." He says residential burglary has fallen by 13%.

LBC

Ask Boris descends into acrimony as presenter Nick Ferrari asks the London mayor if he knows what TPIMS - the watered-down version of control orders - stands for. "I can't remember," Mr Johnson admits, before complaining about being asked "silly smart-alec questions" (the answer, by the way, is Terrorist Prevention and Investigation Measures). He says he supports a return to the control order regime which restricts the movement of terror suspects. "Most people will say that where you have people who need to be dislocated from their support networks, who are at risk of committing serious terrorist crimes against the public, I think you should go back to control orders," he says.

Labour has proposed a sin bin for MPs who behave badly in the Commons. As the Press Association explains, the Speaker can only discipline MPs for grossly disorderly conduct, and only two people have been ejected from the chamber for this reason since the 2010 election. In the Australian House of Representatives, the Speaker can eject any member for "disorderly" conduct for one hour on their first offence, rising to exclusion for three sessions on their second offence.

tweets:, external Need child protection professionals 2 work together on child abuse not against each other fearful of blame culture under mandatory reporting

LBC

Vincent, a lorry driver, tells Boris Johnson he wants cyclists to take a road traffic exam. The London Mayor rejects that. "What we can't do is try to drive cyclists off the road," he says. "What we need to do is put in the infrastructure to make cyclists safe."

LBC

Image source, LBC

London Mayor Boris Johnson is now taking questions in his regular Ask Boris slot on LBC. The first question is from Vincent, a heavy goods vehicle driver who killed a cyclist in a crash last year but was cleared of any wrongdoing. "I understand the tragedy as much for Vincent as for the poor person who died," Mr Johnson - a keen champion of cycling in the capital - says. He then suggests women cyclists have more problems on the road than men. "It's very often female cyclists who seem to be the victims of these types of terrible accidents... it may be because women are naturally more cautious or hang back more, I can't explain it. What you need to do is get in front of Vincent and his lorry, indicate."

Norman Smith
BBC Assistant Political Editor

The language David Cameron is using - describing child sexual exploitation as a national threat - is of the sort normally reserved for existential challenges like terrorism. I think Mr Cameron wants to shock people. He wants to make clear this is a problem which seems to be endemic in our society, and there has been a failure across the board, so far, to deal with it.

While Nicola Sturgeon focuses on inequality in her speech later, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy is targeting the student vote - with a pledge to keep tuition completely free in Scotland. He'll tell students in Glasgow that Labour will spend £125m on helping working class children go to university. But the SNP have spoken out against his plans. MSP Stewart Maxwell says "this is perhaps the most hypocritical announcement from Jim Murphy yet", highlighting Mr Murphy's support for tuition fees in England.

Former home secretary Jacqui Smith has written about, external Mohammed Emwazi - or Jihadi John - as he has become known. She says her party is right to attack the government for "weakening the control order regime" which monitors terror suspects. She also defends MI5 for approaching him: "Does it not it seem completely appropriate that the security services would approach someone they could clearly see was radicalised and heading towards potential terrorist activities to warn him that they knew, to offer him a way out and potentially to recruit an important asset in their battle against other terrorists?"

BBC News Channel

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, speaking ahead of a Downing Street summit on child sexual exploitation, has underlined the importance of changing attitudes to achieve real change. "It absolutely has to be about changing the culture in local authorities, police forces and in other organisations," she's told the BBC News Channel. "You can have all the rules you like, but at the end of the day you have to tackle this culture of denial." One way the government hopes to do this is by introducing tougher criminal sanctions for senior public sector workers who fail to protect children. Mrs Morgan says senior figures will want to keep a paper trail to protect themselves.