WikiLeaks cables report the rule of President Asif Ali Zardari (above) was constantly under harsh review by the US. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistan was already under the American hammer before the WikiLeaks crisis blew. But leaked US diplomatic cables published by the Guardian show the extraordinary extent to which Pakistan is in danger of becoming a mere satrapy of imperial Washington.
The US assault on Pakistani sovereignty, which is how these developments are widely viewed in the country, is multipronged. At one end of the spectrum, in the sphere of "hard power", US special forces are increasingly involved, in one way or another, in covert military operations inside Pakistan.
These troops are being used to help hunt down Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the tribal areas and co-ordinate drone attacks, as revealed by the Guardian's Pakistan correspondent, Declan Walsh. Their activities come in addition to previous air and ground cross-border raids; and to the quasi-permanent basing of American technicians and other personnel at the Pakistani air force base from which drone attacks are launched.
The US hand can be seen at work in Pakistan's complex politics, with the standing and competence of President Asif Ali Zardari seemingly constantly under harsh review. At one point, the military chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, reportedly consults the US ambassador about the possibility of a coup, designed in part to stop the advance of the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.
At the same time, Pakistani diplomats are convinced the Americans are somehow trying to commandeer the country's nuclear deterrent, which they see as its only real defence against India. And all this importunity is underpinned by "soft power", by a reverse cash tribute from Washington to Islamabad, approaching $2bn a year. In a very real sense, the Americans buy their way in.
This sort of helpful meddling, or shameless intrigue, or outrageous interference – decide yourself what you want to call it – in the internal affairs of a sovereign country is supposed to have gone out of fashion with the retreat of the British empire and the end of the Raj.
But that was never true in reality, of course. All great powers intrude in pursuit of their own interests; it's what they do – and picking up where the British left off, the US is no different. It is a measure of the Pakistani state's weakness that the Americans apparently have such scope and leeway to influence and direct its affairs.
What is equally remarkable, however, is how little the Americans appear able, ultimately, to control their satraps. Zardari talks a good game but achieves little. Millions of US taxpayer dollars earmarked for fighting Islamist extremists allegedly disappears into government coffers, never to be seen again. Washington's staunch Pakistani allies in the "war on terror" play both sides, maintaining their ties to friendly Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group while simultaneously accepting America's largesse. Being an imperialist is never easy.
So the Americans don't get what they want. But neither do ordinary Pakistanis. The larger point is that Pakistan is suffering grievously, in terms of lives lost to terrorism; in soldiers and civilians killed and wounded in the campaigns against Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas; in a ravaged economy, acute poverty and lack of education; and in the all but forgotten but still terrible aftermath of this year's floods.
Pakistan needs less foreign interference, not more. And that applies to Arab jihadi fanatics as much as it does to imperious Americans. But on current trends the opposite is happening. The clear danger, highlighted by the leaked cables, is that the west's unwinnable war in Afghanistan is spilling over into its weak, ill-led and much put-upon neighbour – and that Pakistan, too, could become a war zone.
• Mervyn King's damning views on Cameron and Osborne
• Lib Dems drop attack against Cameron after Ivan's death
• US and UK fears over Pakistan's nuclear weapons
• Pakistan army sponsoring militants as cash goes missing • Full coverage of the WikiLeaks cables
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The head of the Bank of England Mervyn King privately criticised David Cameron and George Osborne for their lack of experience, the lack of depth in their inner circle and their tendency to think about issues only in terms of their electoral impact, according to leaked US embassy cables. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images
2.53pm: Sources close to the Canadian prime minster Stephen Harper have asked us to point out that Tom Flanagan, the professor who flippantly called for Assange's assassination (8.38am), does not have a formal role as an adviser to Harper.
Canada's respected magazine, The Walrus, carried a long profile of Flanagan in 2004. It was headlined "The Man behind Stephen Harper".
We should have made clear that Flanagan is a former adviser to Harper. The 8.38am post has been changed.
2.28pm: The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to sue the Americans after some of the cables accused him of corruption.
One leaked cable that was signed by former US envoy to Ankara Eric Edelman claimed that Erdogan had eight secret accounts in Swiss banks, a claim the American diplomat said had been made to the US Embassy by two contacts. He did not give further evidence. Other documents accused Erdogan of reaping personal gain from a billion-dollar privatisation.
2.07pm: Mervyn King has won the backing of former MPC member Charles Goodhart. He said David Blanchflower's call for King to go was "ludicrous", according to the Telegraph.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone has focused his ire publicly against the US Embassy and the Ambassador personally. His position, however, should be seen in the wider context of his anti-American positions on many issues and his coziness to the likes of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.
12.53pm: Jason Burke in Delhi reports on Indian reaction to the cables.
in US diplomat's appraisal of India's ability to implement their controversial "Cold Start" doctrine for a rapid but limited military operation to punish Pakistan in the event of a terrorist strike emanating from their neighbour. Tim Roemer, the US ambassador to India, described "Cold Start" as "a mixture of myth and reality" in one cable. There is also some interest in views across the border. CBN-IBN ran an interview with the retired Pakistani general Asad Durrani saying the cables "did not reveal anything that people are not alread Revelations from WikiLeaks are leading many bulletins in India today with reports focusing on American diplomats' comments about Pakistan's support for a range of militant organisations; Western fears that Pakistani nuclear fuel may fall into terrorist hands; and the suggestion that Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Kayani was close to ousting President Asif Ali Zardari in March 2009. After two days of relatively muted reaction, the new documents from the American embassy in Islamabad are set to be plastered across front pages tomorrow and have provoked the first very careful - and deniable - response from the Indian government beyond banalities. Until today coverage in India has focused on Hillary Clinton's mildly disparaging comments about India being a "self-professed frontrunner" for a permanent United Nations security council seat and her instruction to diplomatic staff to gather personal information about some of their Indian counterparts. Earlier in the week Indian newspapers worked themselves into slightly overheated outrage. But the Pakistani documents take the story into new territory, touching on one of India's sorest points. Government officials are now anonymously briefing reporters that the documents prove that "Pakistan is hunting with the hound and running with the hare." The Press Trust of India, the government news agency, has been running reports of the WikiLeaks documents at the head of its international news section. Coverage is also focusing on the issue of the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir and particularly the view of Anne Patterson, US ambassador in Islamabad, that resolving the 63-year-old Kashmir conflict "would dramatically improve the situation". There is also much interest y aware of. These things have been said continuously for so many years." However, experts caution that India's often sensationalist media may be overreacting. "There certainly won't be much effect on the Indo-Pak relationship. What is coming out really just emphasises the growing convergence of opinion between the Indian analysis and that of international politicians and diplomats. That will be the biggest effect," said Ashok Behuria, of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in Delhi. News has also just broken that India has also denied a visa to former Pakistani President Pervez Musharaf, who was to visit to address media meetings and think tanks in Delhi this weekend.
It sounds like it will have a greater European focus. The activists criticise WikiLeaks for concentrating too much on the US and want to take a broader approach, Der Spiegel says citing the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung.
"As many people as possible should have access to as many documents as possible," the former Germany spokesman for WikiLeaks, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, told the newspaper.
12.40pm: Bafflement all round at Ed Miliband's failure to mention Mervyn King's criticisms at PMQ.
12.32pm: In the event PMQ's was surprisingly light on WikiLeaks references. But the Labour leader Ed Miliband couldn't resist a jibe using the "children of Thatcher" line. (Here's that cable again). "I'd rather be a child of Thatcher than a son of Brown," Cameron replied.
12.18pm:Tyrannical, thin-skinned, erratic and flash - the cables don't paint a flattering portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy. But it is his pro-American stance that is causing the biggest stir in France, writes Angelique Chrisafis.
Le Monde's analysis of cables from the US embassy in Paris today focuses on Sarkozy's stance as the most pro-American French leader since the war and his efforts to woo the US.
A 2006 cable cited by the paper details how Sarkozy, a year before running for president, suggested that France and the international community would have to help the US in Iraq, perhaps by replacing the American army with "an international force".
The hint that Sarkozy might have sent French troops to Iraq has shocked France this morning. No French troops were ever deployed in Iraq, and the idea was never mooted once Sarkozy became presidential candidate. Sarkozy, like Jacques Chirac, was against the Iraq war, although, the cables show he felt Chirac was "excessive" in the way he showed his opposition to the US over the invasion.
Even with the damning US views of Nicolas Sarkozy's personality released by the Guardian and Le Monde today, French commentators remain sniffy about the WikiLeaks cables.
The journalist and commentator Bernard Guetta wrote in the left-wing paper Libération that confidentiality must be respected and unless the cables revealed major corruption scandals, publishing them was not journalism.
France, which has strong privacy laws and a press in crisis over self-censorship and kowtowing to the government, is wary of the publication of the WikiLeaks cables.
11.55am: Downing Street sounds a little exasperated by the continuing questions about WikiLeaks in general and Mervyn King's comments in particular. Here are the latest lines from PA.
Cameron's spokesman refused to answer questions about the WikiLeaks documents at a regular daily media briefing in the House of Commons.
In response to further questions, he said that the prime minister believes the governor is doing a "good job", but declined to respond when asked whether he retains Mr Cameron's confidence.
"The issue of confidence simply doesn't arise," he said.
10.25am: The Bank of England has issued a terse statement in support of King. "The governor has a very effective working relationship with both the chancellor and the prime minister," a spokesman said.
10.17am: Nick Clegg was sent to Kazakhstan for that tricky OSCE summit with Hillary Clinton. He said the leaks of the US cables would not harm the UK's "uniquely strong relationship" with the US.
Following his discussion with Clinton in the Kazakh capital Astana, Clegg said:
We discussed a wide range of issues, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and Sudan.
I made clear to Secretary Clinton that recent WikiLeaks disclosures would not affect our uniquely strong relationship. UK-US co-operation will continue with the same depth and closeness as before.
10.05am: Mervyn King should resign, says his former monetary policy committee colleague, David Blanchflower.
Mervyn King is one smart guy and that has always been abundantly clear. Unfortunately, it is his thirst for power and influence that has clouded his judgment one too many times. He has now committed the unforgivable sin of compromising the independence of the Bank of England. He is expected to be politically neutral but he has shown himself to be politically biased and as a result is now in an untenable position. King must go.
9.24am:More WikiLeaks hysteria. The Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said the person responsible for the leaks should face the death penalty.
"That sort of impatience does not comport with genuine diplomacy, and it seems clear that the British were eager to impose further sanctions as soon as possible," Cole writes.
He said the cable also suggested that the UK and the US wanted to get hold of Yukiya Amano, the then incoming head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and "twist his arm to be more alarmist in his reports on Iran."
8.55am:US state department spokesman PJ Crowley was repeatedly pressed to explain disclosures that US diplomats were ordered to spy on the UN leadership.
Diplomats are diplomats and their job is to interact with people, gather information, gain a perspective of events around the world, and report those findings in a way that helps inform our policies and inform our actions. They are not intelligence assets. It can be useful for a diplomat to understand from Washington – you have a diplomat out in any place in the world, hey, there are issues that are of particular interest to the United States government. If you come across information that might be relevant to these issues, let us know. That's … those are … that is something that diplomats actually do every day. But one particular cable does not turn a diplomat into an intelligence asset.
8.38am: The anti-WikiLeaks campaign is now becoming hysterical. Tom Flanagan, a former adviser to the Canadian prime minister Stepher Harper, called for the assassination of Julian Assange on a CBC news programme.
Shrien Dewani, the widower of murdered honeymoon tourist Anni Dewani, does not want to return to Cape Town ever again.
Shrien Dewani, the widower of murdered honeymoon tourist Anni Dewani, does not want to return to Cape Town ever again.
This is what Max Clifford, the British public relations specialist Dewani has hired, told the Cape Times on Tuesday in a telephonic interview from London.
“The last place in the world he ever wants to go to again is Cape Town. But in order to help police ... he’ll do so,” Clifford said.
It was not yet clear if and when Dewani, 30, would return to Cape Town and, according to Clifford, the police have not requested his return.
Clifford said Dewani was currently staying at his home near Bristol under a doctor’s supervision as the strain of his wife’s murder and the media speculation about it had affected his health.
“He’s been through so much trauma and shock as you can imagine.
“He was madly in love with someone and very, very happy. That was destroyed in a minute. It turned into the worst nightmare in a minute.”
Clifford said media reports suggesting Dewani was a suspect in his wife’s murder were false and had taken a toll on Dewani and his family.
“It’s obviously made a horrible nightmare even worse. So many lies have come out of South Africa that (the family is) getting used to it.”
Reports saying Dewani’s marriage to Anni had been arranged were false as were reports Dewani had taken out a life insurance policy on his wife, meaning he would have received a large sum of money if she died, Clifford said.
He said the relationship between Anni’s family, the Hindochas, and the Dewani family had not been negatively affected as some newspapers had claimed.
“On Saturday, Anni’s father phoned Shrien’s father and apologised for all the comments he never said, but which appeared in the papers.”
Clifford said the South African media was reporting “one lie after another day to day” and he was not sure who the source of the inaccurate information was.
“You tell me. You’re there.”
He did not say anything negative about British newspapers. “According to my sister, who lives in South Africa, it’s very predictable. Billy Gundelfinger (Dewani’s Johannesburg-based attorney) says this is the way (the media) does it in South Africa.”
Clifford had received more than 200 requests from reporters wanting to speak directly to Dewani, but was currently speaking on his behalf. “When he’s well enough he’ll speak. And definitely to South African reporters.”
Dewani was not keeping in touch with South African police and was relying on Gundelfinger to keep him up to date. “Police have just contacted him to say ‘you’re not a suspect’,” Clifford said.
On Tuesday, colleagues of Charlotte Harris, a British attorney Dewani has hired along with Gundelfinger, referred queries to Clifford. Gundelfinger has not yet responded to queries or returned calls.
On Monday, Anni’s father Vinod Hindocha spoke about his daughter, but refused to defend or attack Dewani.
That day, three men accused of killing his daughter, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 25, Xolile Mngeni, 23, and Zola Robert Tongo, 31, appeared in the Wynberg Regional Court, where the case was postponed to next Monday.
Details about a plea agreement involving Tongo, who was driving Shrien and Anni Dewani when they were hijacked, are expected to emerge then. Police are reportedly looking for a fourth suspect, but are refusing to comment.
Clarence Mitchell who lied , lied and lied some more to protect the McCanns and still the British public believe the McCanns are involved in their daughters disappearance. Lets see if Max Clifford will be as smart when the chips start to fall on what really happened to Anni Dewani. These two men would sell their mothers if the price was right... http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/PJ/KATERINA-PAYNE-INCIDENT.htm
The McCanns refused to hand over Madeleines medical records...with the releasing of the news that JonBenet was an abused child we have to now ask was Madeleine McCann an abused child and if she was why is the might of the British Goverment covering it up ?
• Mervyn King's damning views on Cameron and Osborne
• Lib Dems drop attack against Cameron after Ivan's death
• US and UK fears over Pakistan's nuclear weapons
• Pakistan army sponsoring militants as cash goes missing • Full coverage of the WikiLeaks cables
This page will update automatically every minute: On | Off
The head of the Bank of England Mervyn King privately criticised David Cameron and George Osborne for their lack of experience, the lack of depth in their inner circle and their tendency to think about issues only in terms of their electoral impact, according to leaked US embassy cables. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images
11.55am: Downing Street sounds a little exasperated by the continuing questions about WikiLeaks in general and Mervyn King's comments in particular. Here are the latest lines from PA.
Cameron's spokesman refused to answer questions about the WikiLeaks documents at a regular daily media briefing in the House of Commons.
In response to further questions, he said that the prime minister believes the governor is doing a "good job", but declined to respond when asked whether he retains Mr Cameron's confidence.
"The issue of confidence simply doesn't arise," he said.
10.25am: The Bank of England has issued a terse statement in support of King. "The governor has a very effective working relationship with both the chancellor and the prime minister," a spokesman said.
10.17am: Nick Clegg was sent to Kazakhstan for that tricky OSCE summit with Hillary Clinton. He said the leaks of the US cables would not harm the UK's "uniquely strong relationship" with the US.
Following his discussion with Clinton in the Kazakh capital Astana, Clegg said:
We discussed a wide range of issues, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and Sudan.
I made clear to Secretary Clinton that recent WikiLeaks disclosures would not affect our uniquely strong relationship. UK-US co-operation will continue with the same depth and closeness as before.
10.05am: Mervyn King should resign, says his former monetary policy committee colleague, David Blanchflower.
Mervyn King is one smart guy and that has always been abundantly clear. Unfortunately, it is his thirst for power and influence that has clouded his judgment one too many times. He has now committed the unforgivable sin of compromising the independence of the Bank of England. He is expected to be politically neutral but he has shown himself to be politically biased and as a result is now in an untenable position. King must go.
9.24am: More WikiLeaks hysteria. The Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said the person responsible for the leaks should face the death penalty.
"That sort of impatience does not comport with genuine diplomacy, and it seems clear that the British were eager to impose further sanctions as soon as possible," Cole writes.
He said the cable also suggested that the UK and the US wanted to get hold of Yukiya Amano, the then incoming head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and "twist his arm to be more alarmist in his reports on Iran."
8.55am: US state department spokesman PJ Crowley was repeatedly pressed to explain disclosures that US diplomats were ordered to spy on the UN leadership.
Diplomats are diplomats and their job is to interact with people, gather information, gain a perspective of events around the world, and report those findings in a way that helps inform our policies and inform our actions. They are not intelligence assets. It can be useful for a diplomat to understand from Washington – you have a diplomat out in any place in the world, hey, there are issues that are of particular interest to the United States government. If you come across information that might be relevant to these issues, let us know. That's … those are … that is something that diplomats actually do every day. But one particular cable does not turn a diplomat into an intelligence asset.
8.38am: The anti-WikiLeaks campaign is now becoming hysterical. Tom Flanagan, an adviser to the Canadian prime minister Stepher Harper, called for the assassination of Julian Assange on a CBC news programme.
8.29am: The leaks are "embarrassing" and "awkward," the US defence secretary Robert Gates admitted last night. But he said the consequences for American foreign policy should be limited. CNN uploaded this video of his remarks.
8.08am: Hillary Clinton faces an awkward time today at a summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Kazakhstan. Among the delegates are the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who US diplomats were instructed to spy on, along with other UN leaders.
Meanwhile, Hillary's husband Bill said he expects lives will be lost as a result of the leaked cables.
"I'll be very surprised if some people don't lose their lives," the former president said in a speech in North Carolina, according to AP. "And goodness knows how many will lose their careers."
Speaking to reporters after the event Bill Clinton said Julian Assange is trying to evade the reach of American law because he knows what he did was criminal.
"That doesn't mean that he did succeed in evading the reach of American law," he said.
Republic spokesman Graham Smith said today: "On one hand Andrew is seeking private briefings from the Serious Fraud Office, on the other he is railing against the SFO and apparently condoning bribery in the course of international trade."
Still not a peep from Buckingham Palace on all this.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald she said: "He's my son and I love him and obviously I don't want him hunted down and jailed. I'm reacting as any mother would – I'm distressed."
She added: "A lot of stuff that's written about me and Julian is untrue".
7.23am: Will Mervyn King be forced to resign? Not necessarily. In a detailed blogpost analysing the cables, our chief political correspondent Nick Watt writes that in some respects the disclosures are helpful for the governor.
The publication of King's private thoughts is a mixed blessing for the governor. On the one hand the cable may feed the perception, voiced last week by the monetary policy committee member Adam Posen, that the governor is "excessively political". Posen complained that the governor was unwise to endorse the speed of the Tories' deficit reduction plans in May. But on the other hand King may be able to claim that his criticisms of Cameron and Osborne show he is no Tory cheerleader.
7.09am: It's bumper day of WikiLeak revelations. There's lots to get through so here's a summary of the main stories today:
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David Cameron at prime minister's questions in September. Photograph: PA
11.29am: Downing Street refused to answer questions about the latest WikiLeaks revelations, and what Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, was saying about David Cameron before the election, at this morning's lobby briefing. The prime minister's spokesman said Cameron thought King was doing a "good job", but declined to respond when asked whether King retained Cameron's confidence. "The issue of confidence simply doesn't arise," he said.
Labour: 40% (up 10 points since the general election) Conservatives: 40% (up 3) Lib Dems: 10% (down 14) Government approval: -8
10.50am: Setting up directly-elected police commissioners could cost £130m in the first year, the Press Association is reporting. The Home Office has now published the police reform bill, and a press notice to go with it, and the Press Association has got the £130m figure from one of the associated documents.
10.38am: Rob Garnham, the chair of the Association of Police Authorities, has taken to the airwaves to take a pop at Nick Herbert. He rejected Herbert's claim (see 9.27am) that police authorities are invisible. "I'd contest that starting point about not being visible and not doing the job," Garnham said. "We've been delivering efficient and effective policing for many years now." According to PoliticsHome, he also insisted that having elected police commissioners would be a mistake.
Police authorities are raising what we see as real risks behind moving to what might be deemed an American system. There's a real risk over politicisation, there's the cost of elections as well, and the transition. We estimate it's going to cost an additional £100m over the existing costs at the moment. Police authorities and the Association of Police Authorities is very much against the proposals to move policing governance from a body of 17 people and place all that power in the hands of one elected commissioner.
To be fair, the government's plans involved the abolition of police authorities, so it's hardly surprising that the body that represents them is opposed.
During my time on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), King made it abundantly clear that members should not comment on fiscal policy and should stay out of party political matters. He has failed to follow his own advice. How could Ed Miliband or Alan Johnson ever trust King to give them advice on economic policy, now he has shown his true party political colours? Once independence has been compromised it can never be restored.
10.17am: The Tory MP Jesse Norman is launching a campaign to get PFI companies to cut their costs and repay money to the taxpayer. He says that if PFI firms were to cut the amount they charge the public sector buy just 0.05%, that would release £500m that could be spent on local services. He has got more than 50 MPs to support his campaign.
Here's the statement Norman has put out explaining what he wants:
Under Gordon Brown the decision was made to push PFIs wherever possible, putting huge pressure on schools and hospitals to contract out not just on the construction process but also on long-term provision of services. The PFI obligations taken out on Mr Brown's watch now total over £200bn, and will cost this country for decades.
We are seeking a very modest saving of 0.05% on the payments under PFI. The major PFI companies include Innisfree, Semperian, Serco, Balfour Beatty, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS. These firms have done extremely well out of PFI over the past decade, and it is right that they should contribute now to our national economic recovery. In these difficult economic times, no one should be exempt.
But a Lib Dem peer has told Clegg and his colleagues to stop sitting on the fence. In an interview on the Today programme, Lord Willis – the former Lib Dem education spokesman Phil Willis – says the Lib Dems should "bite the bullet" and back the government plans.
The reality is that we either bite the bullet and believe that the proposals ... are the ones to take us forward in terms of higher education or we don't. They do take us forward and it is time the Liberal Democrats now simply got on board and said, "Well, let us back them; let us sell them." I would like Nick to say that and I would also like Vince to say that. I hope Vince will reconsider that position [on abstaining].
9.53am: Nick Clegg has met Hillary Clinton at the OSCE conference at Kazakhstan, his office have just told us. Clegg has put out this statement:
We discussed a wide range of issues, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and Sudan. I made clear to Secretary Clinton that recent WikiLeaks disclosures would not affect our uniquely strong relationship. UK-US co-operation will continue with the same depth and closeness as before.
I also took the opportunity to raise the case of Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident detained in Guantánamo Bay. I stressed the importance to the UK of early movement on his case.
9.27am: Nick Herbert, the minister for policing, has been giving interviews this morning about the policing and social responsibility bill. PoliticsHome has been following them all. Here are the main points.
• He cited London as an example of why it was a good idea to make the police accountable to an elected figure.
[Boris Johnson said] he wanted tougher action on knife crime ... [and] a uniform presence on public transport and that was delivered with the agreement of the commissioner of the Metropolitan police. That reform has been very popular and we want to extend it now to England and Wales to give the same say to local people in the rest of the country.
• He said that police authorities, which currently oversee the work of the police, are "invisible" and "weak".
Nobody knows who these police authorities are, 96% of the public can't even name the chair of their police authorities. As a result, what happens is Whitehall interferes a hell of a lot, setting targets and bureaucracy. The consequence is a lot of the box ticking and costs that police forces have to deal with.
• He denied claims that having elected police commissioners would "politicise" the police.
8.39am: David Cameron was up early this morning. At 6.16am I received an email from Downing Street saying that he was already on his way back to London from Zurich, where he has been lobbying for England's 2018 World Cup bid. "The prime minister continued his work to build support for England late into the night last night, with meetings with the Fifa delegates from Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and the USA," said a spokesman. Cameron is returning to London for PMQs. Later he will return to Zurich. (Why couldn't he just leave it to Nick Clegg? Because, as Paul Waugh reports on his blog, Clegg is in Kazakhstan for an OSCE summit.)
Here's what's in the diary for today:
9.30am: The Home Office publishes the policing and social responsibility bill. As Owen Bowcott reports in the Guardian today, a home affairs committee report out today to coincide with the bill says police officers should have to go through a four-year "cooling off" period if they want to become one of the new elected police commissioners that the government is creating.
9.45am: The supreme court will publish the ruling explaining why it decided that the three MPs accused of fiddling their expenses cannot use parliamentary privilege to avoid a criminal trial. Midday: Prime minister's questions
As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web.
The McCanns refused to hand over Madeleines medical records...with the releasing of the news that JonBenet was an abused child we have to now ask was Madeleine McCann an abused child and if she was why is the might of the British Goverment covering it up ?
WikiLeaks cables: Britain 'over-reacted' in wake of Mumbai attacks
Fears that India would respond with force to terrorist atrocity played down by American diplomats in US embassy cables
An Indian soldier takes cover at the Taj Mahal hotel during the Mumbai attacks. US diplomats criticised the UK for thinking India's response would be tough Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
British diplomats feared that India would be compelled to respond "with force" to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, a prediction that was dismissed as an "over-reaction" by their American counterparts, the state department cables show.
The then foreign secretary, David Miliband, struggled to get through to his furious Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee, in the aftermath of the attacks. "The call took place only after many delays on the GoI's part," a cable notes. In Islamabad, British officials feared that intense domestic pressure would force Delhi to respond, at the minimum, by ramping up covert support to nationalist militants fighting the Pakistani army in Balochistan, and at worst by launching air strikes against militant training camps in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
British officials admitted their concern was driven in part by the presence of 500,000 British Pakistani citizens in Pakistani Kashmir. "The pressure on India to react strongly would be politically impossible to avoid," they were reported as saying.
US officials took a cooler view. "For now, we believe the UK embassy here is over-reacting," said the cable, but agreed that Pakistan should take proactive actions against LeT.
As it turned out, the Americans were right. But over the following weeks the British continued to engage in intense shuttle diplomacy, using diplomatic and intelligence channels to ease tensions between the two countries.
"It would not be possible, said Zardari, to send Pasha immediately as Zardari needed to work public opinion first," said an American report. Instead President Asif Ali Zardari urged the UK to "push back on New Delhi and calm the situation".
"Miliband said they would do so, but India needs to see real action from Pakistan."
Across the border in New Delhi, western diplomats meeting to assess the attacks collectively decided to offer a sympathetic public message to India "rather than pound on the government for its massive intelligence failure".
The British fears of "ramped-up" Indian aid to militant nationalists in Balochistan highlights an assertion found elsewhere in the cables: that British intelligence strongly believes New Delhi is covertly supporting the insurgency in reaction to alleged Pakistani support for LeT.
ends
The McCanns refused to hand over Madeleines medical records...with the releasing of the news that JonBenet was an abused child we have to now ask was Madeleine McCann an abused child and if she was why is the might of the British Goverment covering it up ?
WikiLeaks cables: US espionage law
Although insiders who have leaked sensitive information before have been prosecuted, cases have rarely resulted in conviction
Media organisations such as WikiLeaks, founded by Julian Assange, are unlikely to face prosecution under the Espionage Act. Photograph: Martial Trezzini/EPA
The US Espionage Act is a little-used law dating from 1911 – the same year as the UK's Official Secrets Act, with which it has much in common.
The current law can be used to prosecute those who leak and publish classified information that creates a national security risk. But experts say the purpose of the act is primarily to tackle espionage, and that it has never been invoked successfully against a media organisation.
Although insiders who have leaked sensitive information have been prosecuted under the law – including two former officials of the American-Israel public affairs committee accused of leaking information in 2007 – cases have rarely resulted in convictions.
Media organisations are unlikely to be prosecuted under the act, under the constitutional protections for free speech upheld by the supreme court in a number of cases that have limited the application of the Espionage Act.
Experts say that in addition to protections for free speech, there are difficulties with proving leaked documents are classified, under a US government executive order which sets limits on documents that can be properly termed as classified documents.
However, if charges are made against Julian Assange under the law in the US, then he would face extradition under the controversial UK-US extradition treaty, which provides special measures for extraditions between the two countries
The McCanns refused to hand over Madeleines medical records...with the releasing of the news that JonBenet was an abused child we have to now ask was Madeleine McCann an abused child and if she was why is the might of the British Goverment covering it up ?
