Blogscrape

Gordon Brown has banged on relentlessly about the need for "global solutions to a global problem" since the economic crisis broke last autumn. But some Labour MPs have grown increasingly uneasy about the time and energy he has expended on securing a "global new deal" at Thursday's G20 summit in London.

Though his official biographer tends to deny it, there is a very noticeable gap between Lucian Freud's present style and the way he painted at the outset of his phenomenal career.

HAVE you got a way with words? Then enter MY Sun's Big Brother caption comp

I don't do awards. Let me qualify that. I do give space to some international press freedom awards because I consider them of crucial importance in helping to publicise heroic journalists, most of whom live and work in totalitarian states.

I have also covered one British award, that given in memory of Paul Foot, because it champions investigative reporting.

Today I'm pleased to mention another, The Bevins Prize, which is particularly apposite in the wake of the Wikileaks revelations and the consequent importance of "data journalism".

The award was founded in honour of political journalist Anthony Bevins who was one of the few reporters willing to spend the time to sift through raw data.

As a commenter to this blog, simonh, recently pointed out, Bevins was prepared to plough through the detail of select committee reports etc "to get stories that would otherwise have passed under the radar."

Bevins, who died in 2001, worked for several national titles in his career but managed to maintain his own independence. "Wherever he worked," it says on the award site, "Bevins researched rigorously, and regularly broke otherwise untouched – even 'untouchable' – stories."

In that spirit, the award in his name is aimed at encouraging and promoting the relentless pursuit of truth.

The two previous winners were Deborah Haynes, Iraq correspondent for The Times who exposed the plight of translators working for the British army, and Paul Lewis, a news reporter for The Guardian who revealed the circumstances of Ian Tomlinson's death in last year's G20 disturbances.

Now Bevins Prize organisers are calling for entrants to this year's award (a bronze statue of a "rat up a drainpipe", a favourite Bevins' phrase).

Entries must be received by 3 September. Details here.

• WikiLeaks
• Newspapers
• The Times
• The Guardian
• Ian Tomlinson

Roy Greenslade
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Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series

Defence secretary Liam Fox rebuked by chancellor, who says there are no exemptions for his budget

George Osborne has delivered a rebuke to the defence secretary, Liam Fox, declaring that the costs of Britain's new Trident nuclear deterrent would come from the main defence budget.

In a sign of the Tory leadership's growing impatience with Fox, who has embarked on what Downing Street sources have dubbed "freelance" missions, the chancellor said there could be no special accountancy exemptions for the defence budget.

Speaking in Delhi, Osborne said: "The Trident costs, I have made it absolutely clear, are part of the defence budget. All budgets have pressure. I don't think there's anything particularly unique about the Ministry of Defence.

"I have made it very clear that Trident renewal costs must be taken as part of the defence budget."

His remarks will be seen as a reprimand for Fox, who has complained that the MoD was being asked to pay the £20bn costs of replacing Trident.

Fox believes that those costs should be the Treasury's responsibility, because Britain's continuous at-sea defence is a matter of national security.

The defence secretary told BBC1's Andrew Marr show on 18 July: "There has always been an understanding that the [capital] budget for the nuclear deterrent came from outside the core defence budget. Running costs for the deterrent have always come from inside.

"That is something we are discussing in the runup to the spending review. To take the capital cost would make it very difficult to maintain what we are currently doing in terms of capabilities."

There have been tensions for some time between Fox and Osborne over Trident. The Treasury regards Fox's remarks as a classic example of ministerial lobbying before a spending review.

Osborne is due to outline the tightest spending squeeze in a generation in October. One source said: "The costs of Trident have always come out of the MoD budget. We know what Liam is up to. But does he expect that the department of culture will pay for Trident?"

The MoD has been promised it will be treated more lightly than other departments in October. But these reassurances are aimed at troops in Afghanistan.

Senior Whitehall officials made it clear yesterday that if the cost of Trident has to come out of the defence budget there would be a serious knock-on effect on the rest of Britain's large weapons project.

"It will be a huge blow," said one source, who asked not to be identified.

The MoD declined to comment.

• Trident
• Nuclear weapons
• George Osborne
• Liam Fox
• Defence policy
• Conservatives
• Liberal-Conservative coalition

Nicholas WattRichard Norton-Taylor
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I'm just back from a dawn cycle hire excursion. I picked up my bike at the six a.m. switch-on time from a docking station right outside the London Hospital - a subconscious betrayal, perhaps, of my deep pessimism about two-wheel travel in the capital. There's a slot on each stand to the left of the bike and - being a bit dim about these things - I wasn't sure if the idea was to shove in my "pioneer's" scheme member access key and pull it straight out again or leave it there. The latter worked. A red light went amber then green, the bike was liberated from its housing and after I'd released the stretchy band for securing stuff to the luggage holder from the upright of the stand, heaved it on to the pavement.

As previewers have observed, the bikes' weight and bulk look belie how easy they are to ride. I pedalled pretty effortlessly down Whitechapel Road. The three gears worked smoothly and the brakes did what brakes are meant to do. There's a warning message between the handlebars about the potential danger from motor vehicles turning left. Yes indeed. With the Gherkin in my sights ahead I could have struck out for the City, but rather than push my luck I turned off down the side streets and meandered for a quarter of an hour or - discovering in the process red flashing lights near the rear wheels - so before returning the bike to a different, bigger docking station further down Whitechapel Road in New Road (pictured).

There were about 50 bikes there and perhaps a dozen vacant stands. I slotted my back easily, the three lights went through their paces and that was that. Then I tried releasing a different bike. Perhaps it was just me, but at first it didn't work. It didn't work for the bike beside it either. I went back to one I'd just returned, and un-docked that one successfully. This was momentarily puzzling. But then I went down the rank again, and found that now my access key worked every time.

My guess is that the system takes a short while to register that you've returned one bike before it's ready to let you take another. If so, it's not much of a problem. It would only be a serious hindrance to serial hirers taking advantage of the first thirty minutes of each hiring being free who have, say, stolen state secrets and are being pursued by armed agents of MI5. On the strength of this first, short experience I'd give the scheme high marks. I even persuaded a curious lady onlooker who'd just commuted in from Barking on the District Line that she should have a go.

For more experiences and views head across to Matthew Weaver's live blog of the scheme's first day as it unfolds. Like mine, most responses seem pretty favourable so far.

Update, 08:34 City Hall says that over 12,000 people have now signed up as members and 6,000 membership keys have been activated. 5,000 of the bikes are available at 315 working docking stations. Boris is heralding a "new dawn". Steady on!

• London
• Boris Johnson
• Cycling
• London politics

Dave Hill
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The first thing to note is: the cycle hire scheme works. We rocked up to a station in Shoreditch at a little after 6am this morning, inserted the key into the docking station, waited for the green light on the machine to flash, and seconds later (after fighting through a minor crowd of early-morning drunks) we were riding a bike. After a fifteen-minute cycle, we dropped the bike off at another docking station (found using one of the handy mobile apps), which was equally simple. If it's as easy for everybody else, then the launch should go smoothly.

The three-speed bikes, of which 5,000 were installed overnight, are sturdy beasts. Actually, sturdy doesn't really do it justice: these are designed to withstand a beating from both careless cyclists and drunken vandals alike. They're heavy and slow to turn, which might catch out anyone familiar with a nimble Brompton. There's a dynamo which powers a strip of flashing lights on the front and a red light at the back; enough to make a driver aware of you in the dusk, but perhaps not bright enough for regular riding after dark.

In a token gesture towards safety, there's a sign planted in the middle of the handlebars warning cyclists to beware large vehicles turning left. Well, we can't say they didn't warn us! There's also a functional bag holder and strap on the front, which didn't look like the kind of place you'd want to store something valuable like your laptop.

Overall it was a pleasant, indeed fun, experience, and at least one Londonista will be riding to work today to see how the bikes perform on a proper trip. If you're trying them out today, drop us a note in the Comments section and let us know how it goes. And remember -- activate your key before you go by logging into the Cycle Hire website.

Photos by Ruth Lang

       

The first thing to note is: the cycle hire scheme works. We rocked up to a station in Shoreditch at a little after 6am this morning, inserted the key into the docking station, waited for the green light on the machine to flash, and seconds later (after fighting through a minor crowd of early-morning drunks) we were riding a bike. After a fifteen-minute cycle, we dropped the bike off at another docking station (found using one of the handy mobile apps), which was equally simple. If it's as easy for everybody else, then the launch should go smoothly.

The three-speed bikes, of which 5,000 were installed overnight, are sturdy beasts. Actually, sturdy doesn't really do it justice: these are designed to withstand a beating from both careless cyclists and drunken vandals alike. They're heavy and slow to turn, which might catch out anyone familiar with a nimble Brompton. There's a dynamo which powers a strip of flashing lights on the front and a red light at the back; enough to make a driver aware of you in the dusk, but perhaps not bright enough for regular riding after dark.

In a token gesture towards safety, there's a sign planted in the middle of the handlebars warning cyclists to beware large vehicles turning left. Well, we can't say they didn't warn us! There's also a functional bag holder and strap on the front, which didn't look like the kind of place you'd want to store something valuable like your laptop.

Overall it was a pleasant, indeed fun, experience, and at least one Londonista will be riding to work today to see how the bikes perform on a proper trip. If you're trying them out today, drop us a note in the Comments section and let us know how it goes. And remember -- activate your key before you go by logging into the Cycle Hire website.

Photos by Ruth Lang

Government plans to scrap compulsory retirement at 65 have been criticised by business leaders.

Government plans to scrap compulsory retirement at 65 have been criticised by business leaders.

The public will be able to veto council tax rises in England if charges are above an agreed limit in a "radical extension of direct democrary", Communities Secretary Eric Pickles will announce.

It's Friday, so here's a fistful of lists that sum up the past week on Liberal Democrat Voice: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week 1. The Independent View: Labour and Lib Dems must show a willingness to work together (39 comments) by Will Straw 2. Six Lib Dem MPs rebel on Coalition's Academies Bill (10 comments) by Stephen Tall 3. Opinion: Lib Dems should abstain or campaign for "No" on AV referendum (65 comments) by Fred Carver 4. Nick Clegg meets ... Showing the Lib Dem fight against the Tories is alive and well (45 comments) by Stephen Tall ...

British Airways reports a quarterly loss of £164m after disruption caused by cabin crew strikes and Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud, marking two years - or eight consecutive quarters - of losses.

[IMG: Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2010] You have until midnight on Saturday (31 July) to vote in this year's Total Politics poll. The magazine's website gives the rules for voting: You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote ...

[IMG: Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2010] You have until midnight on Saturday (31 July) to vote in this year's Total Politics poll. The magazine's website gives the rules for voting: You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote ...

A new cycle scheme is launched in London in a bid to cut congestion on the capital's overcrowded public transport network.

A new cycle scheme is launched in London in a bid to cut congestion on the capital's overcrowded public transport network.

Residents get council tax hike veto

BA posts £164m losses after crises