4:11 AM | 
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• Defence spending to fall by 8% in real terms
• No reduction of troops in Afghanistan
• 25,000 civilian jobs cut in MO
• Nimrod reconnaissance planes cancelled
• Assistance in fragile and unstable countries has doubled
• Army to lose 7,000 soldiers by 2015
• Marine forces to descend on 5000 2015
• Future of the Territorial Army to be reviewed
• Harrier fleet to be abandoned
4.33pm:Julian Brazier, Conservative, who will serve on the review of the Territorial Army, said that the five MPs among the 27,000 reservists who served in Afghanistan.
4.31pm: Cameron says the Brize Norton RAF base is within his constituency. It will not be particularly affected by the cuts, he says.
4.29pm: Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, suggests renewing Trident is against the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Cameron says that Corbyn is wrong. Renewal is within the spirit and the letter of the treaty, he says.
He also notes that the number of warheads cut.
4.26pm: Cameron says no army regiments will be abolished as a result of the review.
4:23 pm: Julian Lewis, Conservative, asks why he is not holding the vital vote on Trident in this parliament. He suggests that Cameron is delaying the vote as a concession to the Lib Dems.
Cameron says that the military advice is that the "main gate" decision on Trident doesn't have to be taken until 2016.
He also said that it is not as pessimistic as Lewis. He thinks that there will be a lot of pro-Trident of Deputies (ie the Tories) in the House of Commons after the 2015 elections.
4:20 pm: Here's the strategic defence and security review document. It's 75 pages long.
4:18 pm: James Arbuthnot, the Tory chairman of the defence committee, says the government is taking "a real gamble in the short term" with the decisions being taken today.
Nick Brown, Labour, says the UK 's only a tank factory is based in Newcastle. What are the implications for the plant?
Cameron says the statement as a whole is "extremely positive" for Britain's industrial base.
Some of the tanks is being saved, "he says. These tanks should be serviced.
4:14 pm: Angus Robertson, the SNP MP, says the decisions today will lead to a 25% reduction in the number of servicemen and women based in Scotland.
Cameron says he is not announcing base closures today. There are more service personnel coming back from Germany than there are losing their jobs, he says. They will need to be based somewhere, he says.
4.12pm: Mike Gapes (Labour) says the national security strategy is "not worth the paper it is written on" because it says Britain's influence should not be diminished.
Cameron says Gapes should consider what the government gets out of its defence budget, not what it puts in.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a Tory former defence secretary and former foreign secretary, says all MPs should welcome the fact that the government can save £700m from delaying Trident.
4.09pm: Cameron says the British will co-operate more on defence with the French. But anyone who thinks that this is a "cloak for a European army" is wrong. It will be the opposite, he says.
4.07pm: Bob Ainsworth, the Labour former defence secretary, says that, in delaying the Trident decision, Cameron is doing something he criticised Labour for â€" postponing an important decision.
Cameron said that his decision will not threaten the principle of continuous deterrent at sea.
4.07pm: Sir Peter Tapsell says many people will be concerned by the decision to delay the Trident decision until after 2015. After an election, the Lib Dems may try to veto it, he says. The decision looks like political expediency, he says.
Cameron says he is a strong supporter of replacing Trident.
4.06pm: Cameron is still replying to Miliband. He says there was no order for 24 Chinook helicopters, because there was no money to fund it under Labour.
On the subject of the Harriers, Cameron says he had to keep either Harriers or Tornadoes. The Harrier is a "brilliant" aircraft. But the Tornado is better.
Cameron says he has to take tough decisions now.
On Trident, Cameron says he held a value-for-money review on Trident to find out what money he could save.
This is a responsible decision, well-made.
It accuses Mr Miliband of "escapes" on Trident decision he initially supported.
4.02pm:a statement full text of Cameron "is currently on the site of Downing Street .
4.00pm: Cameron is replying to Miliband now. He points out that Miliband did not attend the TUC anti-cuts rally today, Despite the fact that he will.
Cameron said Mr Miliband had to begin with the word "sorry".
Cameron denies taking short-term decisions. In fact, he has taken long-term decisions, he says.
3.58pm: Ed Miliband (left) is speaking now. He starts with a tribute to the members of the armed forces. They are "the best of Britain".
Miliband thanks Cameron for advance notice of Cameron's statement. "In today's papers, in yesterday's papers ... " (Liam Byrne used the same joke last week.)
Labour will be "constructive" on the subject of defence, Miliband says.
The cuts represent a significant reduction in defence spending. But what matters is what the money does.
Miliband quotes from the leaked letter from Liam Fox to Cameron. Fox said the defence review was being rushed. Miliband says the 1998 defence review took more than a year. Wouldn't it have been better to take longer, he asks.
Miliband asks for further reassurances about Afghanistan. Can he say that no decision taken today will undermine the position of troops in Afghanistan?
Today's document says 12 new Chinook helicopters are being ordered. But originally 22 were meant to be ordered, Miliband says.
Miliband asks for an assurance that nothing announced tomorrow about the Home Office budget will undermine the fight against terrorism.
And he asks about the decision to choose to have "aircraft carriers without aircraft".
Miliband says the document out today says there will be a one third reduction in the number of troops that can be deployed.
He asks Cameron to comment on the decision to shelve the St Athan training base. Cameron gave a personal assurance that this would go ahead, Miliband says.
Miliband also asks why Cameron announced some decisions relating to Trident despite saying it was not part of the defence review.
He accuses Cameron of creating an "unfunded spending requirement". This prompts laughter from the government benches.
This is "a spending review dressed up as a defence review", Miliband says. It is "simply not credible".
Labour will support the government where it can. But it will also provide "principled opposition", he says.
3:50 pm: Cameron says Britain will remain vigilant against "all possible threats". It will retain the capability to replace tanks and artillery being scrapped.
• Britain to have carrier strike capability in the future.
The last government got things "badly wrong", Cameron says. The carriers ordered could not work with the French and the Americans. The planes and the ships did not arrive at the same time. And the contract said that it would cost more to cancel a carrier than to build it. The British people should be angry about this, he says.
Both carriers will be built. But one will be kept in "extended readiness".
Aircraft and carriers come into operation at the same time.
• Nuclear deterrent to be retained.
• Vanguard class submarines to be extended.
• The number of missile silos on new submarines to be reduced from 12 to eight. Number of warheads per submarine to be reduced from 48 to 40. Stockpile of warheads to be reduced from less than 160 to less than 120.
Delaying the Trident replacement will save £1.8bn, Cameron says. Another £2bn of spending will be deferred.
3.45pm: The intelligence agencies will get priority, Cameron says.
After 2015, there should be year-on-year growth in the defence budget, he says.
The MoD needs to become more "commercially hard-headed", he goes on.
Cameron says the government inherited a "mess" from Labour.
• Army to lose 7,000 soldiers by 2015. At that point it will have 95,500 troops.
• Tanks are being reduced by 40%.
• The future of the Territorial Army to be reviewed. The Tory MP Julian Brazier, a reservist, to serve on the review.
• Naval manpower to go down by 5,000 by 2015. This will leave 30,000 personnel.
• The number of frigates and destroyers to go down from 23 to 19.
• RAF manpower to go down by 5,000 by 2015. That will leave 33,000 airmen and women.
• The Harrier fleet to be abandoned.
3.44pm: Cameron says the Ministry of Defence will get real growth next year. But the MoD will have to make various cuts.
• 25,000 civilian jobs in the MoD to go by 2015.
Cameron says the cost of Nimrod aircraft has increased by over 200%. And it is eight years later.
• Cameron confirms Nimrod programme being cancelled.
• Aid to fragile and unstable countries to be doubled. By 2015 a third of department for international development's budget to be spent on conflict prevention.
Cameron confirms that there will be more investment in cyber security.
3.37pm: Here are some of the key points the prime minister makes:
• Defence spending will fall by 8% in real terms, Cameron says. But it will remain above the Nato target of 2% of GDP.
Even after the review, Britain will have the fourth largest military budget in the world.
Britain 'S national interest requires it "full and active participation in world affairs". Britain 'traditionally punched above its weight in world affairs, "and the government wants to continue to do so.
• There will be no cuts whatsoever in support for troops in Afghanistan.
Cameron said that he always took Defense Council chiefs, when they told him to cut may affect operations in Afghanistan. In fact, the troops in Afghanistan will receive the best equipment.
Cameron says the defence review has been led from the top.
• The defence review is to be repeated every five years, Cameron says.
3:33 pm: Cameron says the defence review is not simply a cost-cutting exercise. But national security does depend on the nation's economic health.
3:33 pm: In the Commons, David Cameron has started explaining the defence review now.
3.31pm: Only a few minutes to go until David Cameron speaks. Some details seem to be coming out on Twitter.
From Sky:
Sky Sources: No British Army in Germany in 2020 # sdsr
From Sky:
17,000 cut in the number of defence personnel will be announced by Cameron at 1530, say Sky sources #sdsr
From the BBC:
Hearing PM will outline compulsory redundancies in frontline troops + soldiers may have to do longer tours in Afghanistan
From the BBC:
Hearing also 300 million quid to go from MOD service and personnel allowances
3.28pm: Here's an afternoon reading list:
• Robert Peston on his blog says there should be a formal investigation into the decision to buy the two aircraft carriers.
The leaders of our armed forces â€" or at least those outside the navy â€" concede that they don't really need or want these two 65,000-tonne floating monsters, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, the joint cost of which was estimated at £3.9bn as recently as July 2008 and is now well over £5bn. If they end up costing less than £3bn each, it will be little short of a miracle â€" see my note Aircraft carriers' costs soar £1bn for more on this devastating inflation.
But, as you'll doubtless know from the agonised leaks about all of this, the contracts for the carriers were apparently written in such a way that it would have been more expensive to cancel them than to press ahead.
So the military is behaving a bit like a five-year old which originally asked for a bike for its birthday, but on the big day has decided that a Wii would be better. It is putting a brave face on the whole disaster, but can't really hide its disappointment.
• Gary Gibbon in his blog says there is real anger amongst Tory MPs about the spending review. "A joke," one said. "Imagine what we'd say if Gordon Brown announced this," barked another.
• Alastair Campbell on his blog says the strategic defence reviews shows how biased the media is towards the government.
If the Labour government has ever come up with a strategic review of defense in the center of which was the idea of aircraft carriers without aircraft to fly with them, we would never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never hear the end.
• Dave Hill at the Guardian on how Ken Livingstone has broken Labour's rules by backing the non-Labour candidate in the contest to be mayor of Tower Hamlets.
2.19pm: Paul Waugh has also been taking a look at Danny Alexander's spending review document. (See 2.11pm.) He says on his blogthat it includes a line about the government reducing the impact on employment through the promotion of "voluntary offer to staff on pay restraint or reduced hours to save jobs.
2.11pm: David Cameron is not the only member of the cabinet who has allowed his papers to be photographed today. (See 12.37pm.) Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been pictured in a car with a copy of the comprehensive spending review on his lap (you can see the picture above). According to Benedict Brogan on his blog, it suggests that the public sector will lose 500,000 jobs.
2.08pm:Nine Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft currently being repealed, reports the BBC. He said that the decision would lead to the closure of RAF Kinross in Scotland.
1.41pm:There are some interesting figures in the last election YouGov.
YouGov has posted two polls. One just relates to the defence cuts; the other relates to the whole spending review.
• The defence cuts seem to have popular support. YouGov told people about some of the decisions expected in the defence review and asked them if they supported the cuts. Some 40% said they did; 38% said they didn't.
• 47% of people think the overall spending cuts are being imposed unfairly. Only 36% think they are being done fairly.
• But 60% of people think the cut are unavoidable. Only 25% think they are avoidable.
• 48% of people think the last Labour government is "most to blame" for the cuts. Only 18% think the government is most to blame.
• 55% of people believe that the government is to reduce costs, mainly because he must. Only 31% think it is cutting spending mainly because it wants to.
• First-past-the-post now has an eight point lead when people are asked how they will vote in the referendum on whether or not to replace it with the alternative vote.
1.23pm:Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the fund for home this morning that he will be elected police commissioners concerned about having too much control over the employees on the streets.
If it is the will of this government to put chief officers into a position where someone elected, on a pretty wide piece of territory, can say to the chief, 'You will double,' for example, 'the number of officers on the street tomorrow, chief constable,' I see huge issues with that. Because unless they want to then take the responsibility away from chief constables for removing officers, by definition, from something else, be it the child protection unit, be it the rape unit, be it the major crime unit, the anti-terrorism unit - the things that are currently right at the top of this government's agenda around security - I think that puts chiefs in an impossible position.
But Orde also said that 99.9% of such issues could be resolved through "sensible conversations" between the commissioners and chief constables.
This may appear quite strong, but actually it sounds as if Orde is coming round to the idea of elected police commissioner. A year ago he was much more critical of the idea. In a speech to an ACPO conference he said:
If people seriously think some form of elected individual is better placed to oversee policing then the current structure, then I am very interested in the detail of how that is going to work â€" and happy to have that debate. Every professional bone in my body tells me it is a bad idea that could drive a coach and horses through the current model of accountability and add nothing but confusion.
1.16pm:The former commander of HMS Ark Royal, said that the decision to get rid of the jet Harriet turn in the UK 'laughing stock ". Rear Admiral Terry Loughran, who was at the helm of Ark Royal from 1993 to 1994, currently listed in the history of the Press Association. Here's what he said:
The Harriers were the logical link to the joint strike fighters and I have heard Dr Liam Fox say that we have done without them before, but flying from sea is a very perishable skill. If we get rid of the Harriers, where in fact will the next batch of fixed wing pilots go for the next 10 years? One will lose a huge wealth of skill as they drift off elsewhere ...
The nation has its aircraft carriers but it is actually incoherent to get rid of the Harriers in advance of replacing the aircraft. It is not the Navy that will be viewed as a laughing stock, it is the nation that will be viewed as a laughing stock to have built such a capability which reflects the [government's defence] policy and then not to provide the aircraft to go on them.
12.37pm: Here's a lunchtime summary.
• David Cameron has said that Britain will remain a "front rank military power" despite the cuts that he will set out in a statement to the Commons this afternoon. The prime minister has been photographed holding a note that suggests that the defence budget has been cut by 6% - less than expected - although this has been contested by official sources. It has already emerged that Britain will be left without a carrier strike capability for 10 years as a result of the strategic defence and security review. At one point Britain will have a carrier, but without jets able to land on it. Ministers have blamed Labour for signing contracts that made it impractical to cancel the orders for two new carriers. But Jim Murphy, Labour's defence spokesman, defended the decision to order the ships. "Governments of all political persuasions grapple with how to get procurement right, because you have twenty or thirty years lead-in time," he said.
• Liam Fox, the defence secretary, has shelved plans for a £14bn military training academy at St Athan in South Wales. He said Metrix, the consortium behind the project, could not deliver "an affordable, commercially-robust proposal within the prescribed period". (See 11.26am and 12.17pm.)
• Sir Menzies Campbell has welcomed the decision to delay the Trident replacement as a victory for the Liberal Democrats within the coalition. "Extending the life of the existing Trident fleet will not only save money in the short term; it will allow the opportunity to keep nuclear policy under review, to explore the possibilities of co-operation with the French, and even to consider other alternatives to like for like replacement of Trident," the former Lib Dem leader said. (See 11.10am.)
• Shelter, the housing charity, has criticised the government in response to reports that the social housing budget will be cut by more than 50%. "The rumours of what we can expect in tomorrow's spending review suggest the coalition government is severing the link between the state and one of our most basic requirements," Campbell Robb, Shelter's chief executive, said. "The above average cuts to housing mean it has firmly turned its back on those most impacted by our affordable housing crisis." (See 9.09am.)
• Union leaders have condemned the government 'S planned cuts. "At worst the cuts will plunge us back into recession, and at best they will condemn us to lost years of high unemployment and growth so weak that the deficit may well stay high," Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, told a rally at Westminster.
12.33pm: Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, told the anti-cuts rally at Westminster today that the government would face further protests if did not respond to public concern about the spending review.
If the government doesn't listen to us today, they won't have heard the last of us. If George Osborne's cuts go through â€" cuts that could mean a death sentence for our services and our communities â€" then we will be back. For every one of us in this room today, we will bring a hundred more. We'll march in our thousands and we'll vote in our millions.
There are more details here.
12:25 pm: The Press Association has got more from David Cameron's visit to the permanent joint headquarters at Northwood. The Harrier pilot Kris Ward wasn't the only person to give the prime minister a hard time.
Another staff member also questioned Cameron on the use of aircraft carriers in accordance with the terms of the review.
\\ "If we are punching above our weight is why we spend billions on aircraft carriers just so that American and French planes can take off and not Britain fighters?" He said.
Mr Cameron insisted "they will have UK fighters on them" - to the response of "not for 10 years sir" from the member of staff.
The Prime Minister continued: "The right decision for the long term is to have the carrier, to have the right sort of joint strike fighter inter-operable with the French and the Americans so you have that strike capability for the future," Mr Cameron said.
He said he accepted that left a gap for a number of years where there was not "carrier strike capability" but there was still the capability of projecting air power, he said.
12.17pm: The Ministry of Defence has now put up the news release about the shelving of the £14bn St Athan project (see 11.26am) on its website. Here's the key statement from Liam Fox, the defence secretary.
The Metrix Consortium was appointed as preferred bidder in January 2007 subject to it developing an affordable and value for money contract proposal.
Given the significance of this project and the opportunity to provide a world-class training facility, the Ministry of Defence has worked tirelessly to deliver this project.
However, it is now clear that Metrix cannot deliver an affordable, commercially-robust proposal within the prescribed period and it has therefore been necessary to terminate the DTR procurement and Metrix's appointment as preferred bidder.
11.57am: David Cameron has said that Britain will remain "an absolutely front rank military power with full capability in all the services". He made the comment this morning as he addressed staff at the operations headquarters for the armed forces. As the Press Association reports, he faced at least one difficult question.
One Harrier jet pilot, Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Kris Ward, 37, said: "I am a Harrier pilot and I have flown 140 odd missions in Afghanistan, and I am now potentially facing unemployment. How am I supposed to feel about that, please, sir?"Mr Cameron thanked Lt Cdr Ward for "everything" he had done for his country.
\\ "We have to make decisions for the future and there were long discussions about this in the National Security Council", he said."I have listened to all the military advice, and the military advice is pretty clear that when we have to make difficult decisions, it is right to keep the Typhoon as our principal ground attack aircraft, working in Afghanistan at the moment, and it is right to retire the Harrier."
11.26am: The Ministry of Defence has shelved plans for a £14bn military training academy at St Athan in South Wales, the BBC is reporting.
I did get the figure right. It was due to cost £14bn. I'll post more details when I get them.
11.10am: Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Lib Dem leader, has put out a statement saying that the decision to delay the Trident replacement marks a win for his party.
If these press reports are true then it is clear that Liberal Democrat views have prevailed. Extending the life of the existing Trident fleet will not only save money in the short term; it will allow the opportunity to keep nuclear policy under review, to explore the possibilities of co-operation with the French, and even to consider other alternatives to like for like replacement of Trident. Liberal Democrats would be well satisfied with this outcome.
10.35am:You can find all of today 'S Guardian politics stories here . And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, are here.
As for the rest of the papers, here's my pick of some of the most interesting stories and articles.
• The Times in its editorial (paywall) says the defence review is a "humiliating reflection of failures of financial control and military planning".
It is an inglorious outcome. The UK's failures of planning are displayed in the etoilated state of the Forces. David Cameron's decision is inevitable but not admirable. It represents a humiliating compromise when no option was left to him but humiliating compromise. The SDSR is launched today amid serious concerns about the MoD's ability to manage a budget, let alone a future military campaign.
• James Blitz in the Financial Times(Subscribe) said that some senior military leaders are dissatisfied with the decision to go ahead with the purchase of two aircraft carriers.
"We should never have bought them in the first place," said a senior military figure. "We've got better ways of spending our money. We could have had more frigates, more money for cyber, more for special forces. It's £5bn of lost opportunity. But what's done is done. We have to hope now that somehow we can make this work."
• Holly Watt and Robert Winnett in the Daily Telegraph say that more than 90,000 people live in council homes they have "inherited" from family members. The subsidy on the rent they pay is worth more than £300m. (For more on this, see 9.09am.)
• Robert Winnett in the Daily Telegraph says the House of Commons has been unable to produce its annual accounts because "auditors are concerned about 'missing documentation' to justify MPs' expenses claims".
• The Times (paywall) says winter fuel payments will be cut by up to £100 because the government will not continue to pay the one-off top-up payments that have been paid alongside the basic payments.
Universal payments for those over 80 will fall from £400 to £300, and those for pensioners aged over 60 will fall from £250 to £200 in 2011-12, despite David Cameron's pledge to protect them.
For the past two years all pensioner households have been given one-off payments â€" £50 for over-60s or £100 for over-80s â€" on top of the annual winter fuel allowance paid in December, but the supplements have never been built into the annual payment.
George Osborne has said that he would continue it for a third year this Christmas but it has not been counted into figures for future years and did not appear in the June emergency budget.
10.11am: Since we're having a defence day, did you know that Tony Blair seriously considered giving up the nuclear deterrent? In his autobiography he says that although most people would assume that it was inevitable that he was going to decide to renew the nuclear deterrent, he actually hesitated about it.
The expense is huge, and the utility in a post-cold war world is less in terms of deterrence, and non-existent in terms of military use. Spend the money on more helicopters, airlift and anti-terror equipment? Not a daft notion. In the situations in which British forces would likely to be called upon to fight, it was pretty clear what mattered most. It is true that it is frankly inconceivable we would use our nuclear deterrent alone, with the US.
Blair says Gordon Brown was "similarly torn". Giving up the nuclear deterrent "would not have been stupid", Blair says. But in the end he decided to renew it. "It's a big step to put that beyond your capability as a country," he explains.
9.40am: In the Commons last night MPs voted against a proposal to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in next year's referendum on changing the electoral system. The proposal came from Labour MP Natascha Engel, who said that 16-year-olds should be consulted because they would be voting in the 2015 election. But it was rejected by 346 votes to 196, a majority of 150
9.09am:Budget of social housing in England will be cut by more than 50%, BBC reported this morning . Council house tenancies lasting for life will also be phased out, it says.
Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, won't be happy. "We will not let anybody have their homes taken away,\\ "He said, when David Cameron first floated the idea during the summer.
9.02am: Liam Fox isn't giving the statement in the Commons this afternoon, but he has been doing a round of interviews this morning. The Press Association and PolitcsHome (paywall) have been following them. Here are the highlights.
• He said it was not unprecedented for Britain to have aircraft carriers without jets to fly from them. He said that this happened for a period in the 1970s and that there had been a "very limited" ability to fly fast jets from carriers in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2009.
• He said Britain would still be able to project force internationally even if it has to go without a carrier strike capability for a decade.
The concept of carrier strike is only one of the ways in which we have air power projection. We have Tornado, we have Typhoon and the military view at the moment is that because we don't have at the present time any problems with basing or overflights, then Britain is able to project air power in that way.
• He said Britain needed to be "inter-operable" with its Nato allies. One reason why the Royal Navy will not be able to fly jets from its carriers for 10 years is because the new Prince of Wales carrier is being adapted to ensure that American and French planes can land on it.
The design of the carriers we have wouldn't let some of the French or American planes and jets land anyway. If you are thinking strategically you have to think long term over next 40 years and have to comply with our allies and invest for the future and not just the short term ...
If you are going to have an effective Nato in years ahead we need to be working with our allies. We need to be more inter-operable with Nato allies. We want to interact and be inter-operable with the American forces.
• He said delaying the Trident replacement would not damage the nuclear deterrent. "I do not think that any actions we take in no way affects the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent, nor our ability to have a continuous deterrent at sea", he said.
8.34am: Winston Churchill didn't appoint a defence secretary during the second world war. He did the job himself. David Cameron hasn't quite adopted that approach himself, but - in a sign that Liam Fox is in the doghouse - he has decided that he is going to make the statement in the House of Commons about the publication of the strategic defence and security review. As my colleague Nicholas Watt reports in the Guardian today, many details of the review have emerged already, and it is not getting a good press. The front page headline on the Times says: HMS Ignominious - £5bn carrier fiasco (paywall). We'll find out more when Cameron speaks at 3.30pm. Ed Miliband will be replying for Labour, and that should be interesting too. I'm not sure I've ever heard him on the subject of defence.
The defence story will dominate the news today, but there are a few other things worth keeping an eye on too.
10.30am: Jonathan Djanogly, the justice minister, gives evidence to a Commons committee about court closures.
11 am: Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, and others to testify at the committee of the Interior about the government 'S plan for elected police commissioners. (Ord hates the idea in the past, he threatened to resign if it becomes law .)
12:30 pm: Unions to join the TUC campaign against the cuts in Westminster Hall. (Ed Miliband will definitely not there .)
As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking news, as well as taking a look at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web.
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