The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved its scaled-back version of an ethics reform package that would prohibit insider trading on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch. On a 417 to 2 vote, the legislation won approval despite complaints from senators and House Democrats that GOP leaders stripped the measure of several key reforms that the Senate had easily approved. Read full article > >

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Ethics reform bill to ban insider trading by Congress members, executive branch passed by House

The Royal College of GPs calls for the health bill to be scrapped, heaping more pressure on the government’s controversial reforms in England.

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GP leaders turn back on NHS plans

On the eve of U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr.’s appearance before Congress, a senior Justice Department official said the department cannot meet the deadline Republican lawmakers have set to turn over more documents on the Fast and Furious gun operation or be held in contempt of Congress .. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said that the February 9 deadline to submit all documents on the botched gun operation set this week by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was “impossible to meet.” “We will continue in good faith to produce materials, but it simply will not be possible to finish the collection, processing and review of materials by the date sought in your most recent letter,” Cole wrote in a five-page letter to Issa on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Issa threatened to hold Holder in contempt if the Justice Department does not turn over the documents, which the committee subpoenaed in October. Holder is scheduled to testify before Issa’s committee Thursday morning. According to partial testimony released by the Justice Department late Wednesday, Holder is expected to say that the “gunwalking” tactic used in Fast and Furious is “wholly unacceptable,” was used in a “misguided effort” and will not be employed in the future. Holder is likely to be grilled extensively about the Phoenix operation , in which federal agents targeting a Mexican drug cartel allowed more than 2,000 guns to flow illegally onto U.S. streets and into Mexico between 2009 and January 2011. Read full article > >

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Justice official says congressional deadline for more Fast and Furious documents ‘impossible to meet’

MPs overturn three of seven defeats inflicted on the Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords.

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Ministers win three benefit votes

Home Secretary Theresa May is to outline plans to give communities tougher protection from anti-social behaviour in a speech on police reform.

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Plan to curb anti-social conduct

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos suggested that the three leaders in his fractious coalition were prepared to back additional austerity measures and reforms needed to receive a second bailout.

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Greek Coalition Partners to Back New Reforms

The Government must stick to pledges to reform party financing – or risk that a scandal will further undermine confidence, MPs have warned.

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Stick to party funding plan – MPs

The PIP breast implant scandal “reinforces” the need to reform Europe-wide regulation, according to the European Commission.

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Implant furore ‘justifies’ reform

The action is a diplomatic reward for recent political reforms by Myanmar’s civilian government, including the release of top activists on Friday.

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U.S. to Renew Myanmar Ties in Light of Reforms

Before the Green Revolution in Iran, before Tunisia and Tahrir Square, there was the Saffron Revolution in Burma: a peaceful uprising for democracy, led by Buddhist monks, that was brutally suppressed by the ruling generals . Read full article > >

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Editorial Board: Prisoner release keeps Burma’s reforms on track

When I wrote a story last week about Congress quietly closing health reform’s Consumer Assistance Program, Wonkblog readers and health-care economists alike quickly seized on one crucial detail: the program’s price tag. Thirty-five states received a total of $30 million to help consumers find affordable coverage, answer health insurance queries and appeal denied claims. I led the story with Texas, which received a $2.8 million grant and, with it, hired nine employees who have handled about 6,000 phone calls. Read full article > >

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The cost of shopping for health insurance

First lady Michelle Obama’s tough personal criticism of her husband and protectiveness of his public image have routinely irritated, and at times outraged, President Obama’s top advisers as they compete with her for influence inside the West Wing, according to a new book. The tension provoked Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to offer his resignation after determining the president had decided, with his wife’s prodding, to go for broke on passage of the landmark health care reform law. And it led former press secretary Robert Gibbs to unleash a profanity-filled tirade when he thought, mistakenly, that the first lady had criticized him. Read full article > >

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Michelle Obama had tense relationship with president’s top advisers, book asserts

WINDHAM, N.H. — For months, Rick Santorum went from diner to pizza parlor to the living rooms of supporters trying to get someone, anyone, to pay attention to him. Now that they’re finally listening to the former Pennsylvania senator, he can’t seem to stop talking. In an era of carefully scripted and scheduled campaign stops, Santorum’s town halls are marathons — 90 minutes or more of long discursive history lessons. Interested in Ronald Reagan’s reform of Social Security in 1983? Rick will tell you about it. He has plenty of thoughts about the Islamic significance of the town where Iran is thought to be building a nuclear facility, too. And, of course, he talks about presidential term limits in Honduras. Read full article > >

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Rick Santorum talks to voters in N.H. — and talks and talks and talks

In the wake of the Stephen Lawrence verdict, Newsnight asks if police attitudes to race have changed enough despite radical reform to many of their practices.

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VIDEO: Colour-blind society ‘long way off’

The Commission on School Reform urges Scottish schools to abandon the “bog standard” model of comprehensive education.

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‘Bog standard’ schools criticised