Victoria Derbyshire

Ken Livingstone, former Labour London mayor, has been defendin his comments on BBC Question Time last week, when he said the London 7/7 suicide bombers "gave their lives" for their cause.

Mr Livingstone was criticised for suggesting the-then Prime Minister Tony Blair was to blame for the deaths of 52 people killed in the attacks.

Mr Livingstone says it is only MPs criticising his remarks and that he's had members of the public express their support for what he said.

He says he's really worried that bombing in Syria "without troops on the ground" to defeat IS will increase the security risk in the UK. 

House of Commons
Parliament

The Leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling will make a Business Statement in the House of Commons at 12:30 GMT. The purposes of this statement will be to table the debate and vote on UK air strikes in Syria in the Commons on Wednesday.

We think the plan will be for all business for the day being cancelled so the debate runs from 11:30 GMT on Wednesday until a vote is held at 22:00 GMT.

Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson, has written to David Cameron asking for "clarity" on two particular areas of his Syria strategy ahead of a Commons vote on whether to extend UK air strikes to the country.

Specifically, Mr Watson raises questions about the ground strategy in Syria and the plan for a "lasting" political settlement - issues he says "a large section of Labour MPs remain unconvinced" about.

While Mr Watson believes there's a "compelling case for action" and welcomes the PM's decision to seek "a broad consensus in Parliament" for military intervention, he says he doesn't believe that consensus is quite there yet, and adds:

Image source, Getty Images

Are air strikes the best way for the West to take on the so-called lslamic State militant group? If not, what would be a better approach? Here, several experts, including former head of the Army General Lord Richards, give their views.

Hilary Benn, Labour's shadow foreign secretary, has defended the decision to have a free vote on air strikes, calling it a new kind of politics and saying it shows Jeremy Corbyn's "character as leader".

Asked about deep divisions in his party over the decision, he said "we will get through this", adding that Mr Corbyn had shown "effective leadership...over the past two weeks".

Image source, Reuters

BBC Monitoring

Franco-Russian Corporation in the Levant is governed by the "deconfliction" agreement signed between Moscow and Washington in October. Paris must supply the Russians with maps of known terrorist forces in Syria so that Moscow can focus its bombardments on so-called Islamic State.

Le Figaro notes that the downing of the Russian Su-24 by Turkey on 24 November is also affecting the establishment of coordination.

BBC Monitoring

French centre-right Le Figaro daily says France is struggling to achieve useful military coordination with Russia regarding the fight against the Islamic State militant group (also known as IS/Isis/Isil) in Syria.

It says contacts between Paris and Moscow have only resulted in very low-level coordination so far and both countries have not yet adopted a strike plan. The daily says France's main request to Moscow to have air strikes focus on IS forces has been ignored.

Most of Tuesday's papers focus on what they see as imminent UK air strikes in Syria, with a vote due in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

David Cameron called the vote - and the Guardian says, external he was "freed" to take that step when Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn allowed his MPs a free vote.

This followed a "fractious" meeting of the shadow cabinet at which Mr Corbyn was "forced into an about-turn" on his plan to order MPs to oppose air strikes, the Telegraph says, external.

The meeting descended into a "shouting match" and a majority of the shadow cabinet refused to leave until Mr Corbyn dropped a plan to make opposing military action an official party policy, the Independent reports, external.

It says Mr Corbyn and shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn will "argue against each other from the front bench" over Mr Cameron's plan to bomb Islamic State (IS) militants.

Several papers suggest bombing could begin within hours if MPs approve military action.

The Daily Mail says, external eight extra UK jets could be sent to Cyprus, joining eight already stationed there for missions over Iraq.

It says Britain will bring laser-guided Brimstone missiles to the fight against IS - but "as few as 10" may be available, which "raises doubts" about what contribution the RAF can make.

Mr Cameron might have won the political battle - but the "real war is yet to come", the Telegraph warns.

It says there are "very reasonable concerns" about what happens next, particularly over what ground force might be assembled, the future of the Assad regime and plans to stop IS's ideology "erupting" elsewhere.

The Guardian says, external MPs should reject air strikes unless Mr Cameron can lay out a "wide-ranging international strategy" to defeat IS. It says he has so far failed to do this.

The paper quotes, external moderate factions in Syria who say bombing will be useless unless they get more support to fight IS and the Assad regime.

Read the full newspaper review

Image source, iStock

Sometimes the bald truth is unpalatable. Politicians want to get first elected and then re-elected, and telling people what they want to hear is usually more effective than confronting them with miserable realities.

Since politicians can't lie, and since it is often inexpedient for them to tell the truth, they have become adept at positioning their remarks in the squidgy marshland between lies and truth. It's a phenomenon of modern democratic politics, and now completely routine, but it's not entirely new.

The Italian diplomat and philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, a founding bible of modern political science, that for the statesman, "occasionally words must serve to veil the facts".

Read the full feature by David Edmonds, whose programme, The Philosophers Arms, is on Radio 4 next week.  

The Kerslake Review, external into the current role, responsibilities and operating mandate of HM Treasury, commissioned by Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell MP has named its members.

The panel will be charied by Lord Bob Kerslake. Its other members will be; Alan Buckle, ex-deputy chairman, KPMG International; Stephen Hughes, ex-chief executive of Birmingham City Council; Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC; Professor Karel Williams from University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School; Professor Simon Wren Lewis, Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

They are due to report by July 2016.

Lord Bob Kerslake former Head of the Civil Service, said:

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said:

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Wales has become the first nation in the UK to introduce a "revolutionary" new system to increase the number of organ donors.

From Tuesday, adults will be regarded as having consented to organ donation unless they have opted out.

More than one million people - 34% of the population - have registered to opt in already and 86,000 have opted out.

Health Minister Mark Drakeford called it a "ground-breaking step which will save lives".

He paid tribute to the cross-party support for the change in the law, which aims to increase the number of donors by 25%.

Read more

Image source, AP

Hospitals across England are facing major disruption with the cancellation of thousands of operations, despite a 24-hour strike by junior doctors being called off.

The British Medical Association agreed to suspend the walk-out following a last-minute breakthrough in talks.

But it came too late for hospitals - more than 4,000 patients have already had their treatment delayed.

Two more walk outs planned for later in December have also been suspended.

The move was announced after an outline agreement was reached between the two sides following talks at conciliation service Acas.

The decision to suspend the strikes only came on Monday night - just hours before the first walk-out was due to begin at 08:00 on Tuesday.

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Image source, SchoolDash

Ofsted is warning of a north-south divide in England's secondary schools.

The watchdog's annual report on education standards says about a third of secondary schools in the North and midlands are not good enough.

Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw says more attention must be focused on regions where too many schools are "languishing in mediocrity".

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said more needed to be done to "tackle pockets of underperformance".

The chief inspector of schools warns of schools in some cities in the North and midlands that have "failed miserably year after year after year".

Increasing attention has been paid to the geography of school underachievement - such as in coastal areas and regional differences.

Read more

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4