Coastguard has to "prove" closures case - PM

That looked like an easy hit for Ed Miliband on the Forestry sell-off at Prime Minister's Questions, getting Cameron to signal a retreat on the policy with a one word answer.

But Cameron is deft on his feet, and his frank admission that he was unhappy with the way the consultation on the future of the Forestry Commission was proceeding knocked the balance of the exchange in his favour.

But the result is good one for the opposition - bye bye forestry sale, and bye bye Caroline Spelman possibly.

In England the Forestry Commission sell-off has ignited the kind of anger coastal communities are feeling over the proposed Coastguard station closures.

In all of Britain's remote coastal constituencies - Holyhead, Angelsea, Bangor, Storoway, Shetland - people are up in arms about plan to drastically reduce the number of stations from 18 to eight. Only three – in Aberdeen, Southampton/Portsmouth and Dover – will be open 24 hours a day. Stornoway and Shetland are expected to fight it out to decide which should be open in daylight hours only.

Ministers are beginning to get the message from all across Britain that the proposals are a step too far.

I think I detected the beginnings of another U-turn when Cameron answered a question from a Northern Ireland MP, the DUP's Jim Shannon I think, on the coastguards later in Prime Minister's Questions.

"I'm very aware of this issue," said the Prime Minister. "The point is that the coastguard has got to prove in this consultation that what it wants to do is to co-ordinate the number of offices that are receiving calls in order to put more money and resources into the frontline services, the number of boats and rescuers and helpers there are. That is the aim of the policy but I fully accept they have to prove that to people in order to go ahead with the proposals they are making."

After the Forestry turn around that sounded like a very long way of the Prime Minister saying he wants some distance between himself and the consultation over the station closures currently underway. It's a big signal that the case for retaining a lot more of the stations could be won.

Game on in the race for Holyrood

It looks like game on for the Scottish parliament elections, with a neck and neck poll in today's Times newspaper.

The poll is a massive turnaround for the SNP after languishing behind Labour over the winter.

Unfortunately the poll isn't in the London edition of the paper, and as it's behind a paywall online, I'll post the results below.

In the constituency section, the the SNP on 37 per cent, up six points since November.

Labour on 36 per cent, down five points, with the Tories and the Lib Dems both unchanged on 13 per cent.

In the regional list vote the SNP are up to 35 per cent, that's plus three, and Labour is on 33 per cent, down three.The Tories are up one point on 13 per cent and the Lib Dems are up one to 10 per cent.

How would the parliament look on May 6th? On these figures the calculation is that Alex Salmond would lead the largest party with 51 seats, four more than his minority government has now.

Labour would gain two seats and be on 48 MSPs. The Tories would be down three to 14 MSPs and the Lib Dems would be reduced to a rump of 12 seats, four less than they hold now.

The Greens may end up with four seats and make crucial coalition partners for either the SNP or Labour. (Remember to take into account the George Galloway and Margo MacDonald personal vote which may take the edge of main party showings).

This could lead to interesting coalition negotiations, or as happened the last time, a minority SNP government.

There are nearly 80 days to go to the election, so a lot can happen but this is the second boost the SNP has had this week - with bus tycoon Brian Souter promising £500,000 towards the party's campaign.

How the revolution is televised - Sky style

Oh no he won't...


Oh yes he will...

The Hoff meets The Toff in Palace Yard

Politics has gone celebtastic today. Hot on the heels of Meryl Streep as Thatcher, Baywatch star David Hasselhoff dropped in to Westminster and bumped into you know who.

It was Hoff meets Toff as David Hasselhoff teamed up with David Cameron for this picture snapped by Paul Waugh of www.politicshome.com

The two “Daves” bumped into each other as the Baywatch star was being given a guided tour of Parliament by Tory MP David Morris.

The Morecambe MP has recruited The Hoff as part of his campaign to restore the seaside town's Winter Gardens and Hasselhoff even turned up in the Commons with his trademark red rescue float in a plastic bag.

Cam was taken aback to see the former Knightrider star in New Palace Yard. He was overheard saying: “David what are you here for?” The Hoff answered: “I came to see you buddy!”.

Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher

Mama Mia - the first images of Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher for the forthcoming biopic, "The Iron Lady".Frighteningly good, isn't she?

Streep attended Prime Minister's Questions a few weeks ago to get the atmosphere of the dispatch box.

Lockerbie - predictions of Megrahi's demise

In the Lockerbie releases, this from the Foreign Office in Novemember 2008.

Megrahi has outlived all predictions of his demise which, in this instance, was measuresd at two years, not three months.

Here's the par on page 67 of the report:

11. Megrahi has made an application for bail to the Scottish High Court on the grounds of (a) the slow pace of the appeal and (b) his failing health. This application will be heard on 6 November. If successful, Megrahi will be released on bail to an address in Glasgow owned by his wife. Strathclyde Police are currently carrying out a security assessment which will form part of the court's decision. The key aspect will however be Megrahi's actual prognosis, which we understand to be a 50% chance of surviving a further 18-24 months. HMG has no locus in the bail application, although we understand that it will be contested by the Crown. Our cross-Whitehall press lines reflect the fact that it is a matter for the court (Annex D).

Lockerbie- what Brown said, and didn't say

Other people, like my good friend Paul Waugh, have commented that any British Prime Minister would have come to the same conclusion as HMG that it was in Britain's interests to have the Lockerbie bomber released before he died in gaol.

Not to pre-empt Cameron's statement - he has previously said he would have let the man rot in prison - there is one respect in which he would have handled this differently from Gordon Brown.

Remember at the time of Megrahi's release, with all the ensuing saltire-waving in Tripoli, there was not a squeak out of Prime Minister Brown.

It was a moment when he could have said he had personally written to Gaddafi warning him not to celebrate the release, but instead there were days and days of radio silence from the PM.

Two weeks later Brown said that his silence had been prompted by his determination to focus solely on persuading the Libyan regime not to make Megrahi's release a subject of celebration once he returned to Tripoli.

He said: "There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double-dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances by me to Colonel Gaddafi."

He said the Lockerbie bombing was a "terrorist act of the gravest brutality", but added that Libya had moved from being a sponsor of international terrorism to being an ally in the fight against nuclear proliferation.

"It is in all our interests and Britain's national interest that Libya rejoins the international community. So it was the duty of those responsible to look at all possible outcomes of the Megrahi case and their effect on our relations with Libya and on international terrorism and nuclear proliferation."