Lib Dem conference takes place for a fourth day in Bournemouth
Tributes are paid to former leader Charles Kennedy
Ex-health minister Norman Lamb suggests councils should be allowed to raise their own NHS taxes
Former peer Lord Sewel will face no charges over allegations of drug use
Chancellor George Osborne says the UK should be 'China's bridge to the West'
EU ministers approve a controversial plan to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers, despite some opposition
The Lib Dems' health and social care debate has come to the end. Now members are discussing the party's values and philosophy and how they will inform its direction in the run-up to the 2020 election. Duncan Brack invites members to write an essay on the subject for a new competition, promising "fame and fortune, as well as a valuable prize" for the best contribution.
Strong stuff at the Liberal Democrat conference where one member compares David Cameron and George Osborne with Soviet spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean for their "betrayal" over a promised cap on social care costs. Spencer Hagard is not the first activist to harangue the government over what the Lib Dems claim is its backtracking on the £72,000 cap - which had been due to come into force next April but has been postponed to 2020 - but his historical allusion is particularly pointed. It, however, is noticeably met with silence in the conference hall.
Quote MessageWith contempt and cynicism the Tories are now betraying that pledge. Welcome David Cameron and welcome George Osborne to the company of those other greater betrayers - Burgess and McLean. At least you are destroying lives in public which gives us Liberal Democrats the chance to stop you and stop you we must."
Brian Wheeler
Members of the Liberal Democrat Glee Club will risk controversy later with their own tribute to Charles Kennedy, in a drinking song.
The Glee Club is notorious for singing satirical songs about the party's great and good.
They have added a verse to the "Political Leaders Song" - which was first performed at the annual event in 2004. It celebrates the drinking prowess of politicians including Lloyd George, George Brown, and Margaret Thatcher.
The final stanza of the song - an adaptation of a Monty Python sketch - is sung: "Now Charlie Kennedy must be added to the list."
The next line rhymes with list but we'l leave it to your imagination.
Another song published in the Glee Club songbook laments the party's failure on general election night, with the lines: "Eight, eight there's only eight.
"There are no Lib Dems left for us to hate, we stayed up quite late and lost all our mates."
Image source, PAIt is day two of the Daily Mail's serialisation, external of Lord Ashcroft's unauthorised biography of David Cameron, co-written by political journalist Isabel Oakeshott. According to the Mail, it contains criticism from former military chiefs, Conservative politicians and US officials of David Cameron's foreign policy, particularly in relation to Libya and Syria. The former chief of the defence staff, Lord Richards, reportedly says that the 2011 intervention in Libya was not properly thought through. The UK's instinct, he claims "is knee-jerk support for the underdog, without doing the analysis that would necessarily legitimise that course of action". Former shadow foreign secretary Lord Ancram reportedly told the authors that Libya was more of a threat to international security than it was under the Gadaffi regime and the international community had "done an Iraq" in the country. Earlier on Tuesday, Chancellor George Osborne said he would "not dignify" the book with a response and insisted that David Cameron was a "strong leader" respected on the international stage.
What else is happening in Bournemouth? Lib Dem members will be debating housing and human rights and then at around 3.30pm there will be a tribute to Charles Kennedy, the party's former leader who died earlier this year.
Image source, SPLThings are under way in the conference hall in Bournemouth with Lib Dem members debating health and social care. Norman Lamb, the party's health spokesman who will be giving a keynote speech later, is currently speaking. He attacks the Conservatives for what he claims is their decision to abandon plans to introduce a cap on social care costs, a policy agreed by the coalition. The government says it has merely postponed its introduction but Mr Lamb insists "it has gone for ever". "It is the most appalling policy making imaginable," he says, adding that it will leave the social care system "on its knees".
Image source, RSPCAA group of MPs is planning to launch a formal inquiry into the powers of the RSPCA and other animal charities, the BBC has learned.
It will examine whether the RSPCA should be allowed to both investigate and prosecute cases of animal cruelty.
Neil Parish, chairman of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, said it was important the "right cases" were taken to court.
The RSPCA says the private prosecutions it brings saves government £50m a year.
Image source, AFPDavid Cameron will have a working dinner with French President Francois Hollande later on Tuesday as he seeks to build support for his renegotiation of the UK's membership of the European Union.
A Downing Street spokesman said the meeting at Chequers - which comes ahead of an emergency summit of EU leaders on Wednesday to discuss the refugee and migration crisis in Europe - would be "a good opportunity to have some further discussions on EU reform".
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is in Brussels and Paris this week to make the case for the changes Britain wants to see in areas such as immigration and welfare, as well as guarantees on the powers of national Parliaments and the City of London in the event of further integration in the eurozone.
Mr Cameron has said the public will get to have their say on the package of reforms he negotiates in an in-out referendum before the end of 2017 - but has yet to say when the vote will actually be held.
Image source, APHome Secretary Theresa May is in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the refugee and migration crisis with her EU counterparts.
EU ministers are seeking to resolve a dispute over how to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers who have recently arrived in Europe, with some central European states resisting calls for EU members to accept mandatory quotas.
The UK is not part of the scheme and the government has said it will accept 20,000 refugees from camps in and around Syria over the next five years.
The UK government has said it will use Wednesday's emergency summit of EU leaders to call for more to be done in the region - including tackling the people-smuggling gangs behind much of the influx.
A spokeswoman said the UK also believed there needed to be a proper process for assessing claims for asylum by migrants, with those who were not entitled to refugee status being returned to their country of origin.
Image source, PAThe government’s wholesale cuts to renewable energy subsidies are sending a worrying sign to investors, says employers' group, the CBI.
Director general John Cridland said firms must be given confidence that ministers really mean to tackle climate change. The government cut subsidies in the summer because the £7.6bn budget had been exceeded.
Ministers say they are committed to protecting the climate and will announce replacement renewables policies soon.
Image source, PAMr Osborne concludes his interview by saying that the British economy must "raise its game" and move into the "front row" of global economies in terms of productivity and investment. He defends the government's infrastructure plans amid uncertainty about the HS2 rail link following speculation that it may terminate six miles north of central London because of uncertainty over the rebuilding of Euston. Mr Osborne says Euston is a "bit of an eyesore" and is a need of a "dramatic" overhaul and insists the rail link will benefit the whole of the country when finished.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Image source, PAIn their Today interview, John Humphrys asks George Osborne about Lord Ashcroft's book about David Cameron, excerpts of which continue to be serialised in the Daily Mail. The chancellor says he will not "dignify the book" with a detailed response but insists that the public gave their verdict on the prime minister in May by re-electing him. Mr Cameron is a "strong leader", he adds, who has taken the UK out of economic turmoil into security and has made sure that the UK is respected in the world again.
Mr Osborne says the UK and China disagree on human rights but that does not mean that the UK "resiles from its values" when doing business. The UK government raises these issues, he insists, but does it in a way that engages with China rather than sitting on the sidelines and resorting to "megaphone diplomacy".
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Speaking from Shanghai, George Osborne says China is a "very important part of Britain's economic future" with thousands of jobs depending on two-way trade between the countries. The two countries must "stick together through the up and downs" of stock market volatility and other challenges, he says. China's economy is moving into a new phase of growth - with more emphasis on domestic consumption and services - which is good for Britain, he adds.
Image source, PAAt the Lib Dem conference today the failed leadership contender, and former health minister, Norman Lamb is the key speaker.
He is expected to say English councils should be allowed to put up taxes to fund the NHS. Spending on the NHS should also be paid for by a dedicated tax marked on every payslip, he will add.
Under Mr Lamb's plan, taxes would not be increased because the new levy would be offset by deductions to income tax or national insurance.
He has warned the NHS faces collapse without an urgent cash injection.
The plans are not yet party policy, they will not be put to this year's conference and the Lib Dems have offered little detail as to how they would work.
Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of politics news. We have the Lib Dem conference in full flow at Bournemouth, George Osborne on a visit to China, more extracts of Lord Ashcroft's book about David Cameron plus on-going attempts to get EU-wide agreement on tackling the current migrant crisis.