Good morning – what an auspicious date today, eh? 9/9/9. Today would be a good day to start War and Peace, because it’s Leo Tolstoy’s birthday. It’s also the anniversary of the admission of California to the union of United States in 1850.

2 big stories

An end to recession

The Guardian and the Telegraph both lead with a declaration of an end of recession. So that’s OK then. From the Telegraph:

The National Institute for Economic and Social Research, one of the foremost independent economic forecasters, estimated that Britain had seen economic growth in the three months to August.

Its announcement coincided with figures showing that the manufacturing sector was enjoying its strongest growth for 18 months, that consumer confidence was recovering and that the jobs market was improving for the first time in almost a year and a half. The stock market has bounced back, with shares in London hitting their highest level of the year yesterday. Estate agents reported that house sales and inquiries were up by more than 50 per cent in August on the same month last year.

New tax on air travel

The Times runs with the story that the Committee on Climate Change – another of those quangos, I wonder who wants to scrap this one? – has advised the Government that a much steeper air travel tax is needed to offset the damage of growing air travel.

Tens of billions of pounds will have to be raised through flight taxes to compensate developing countries for the damage air travel does to the environment, according to the Government’s advisory body on climate change.

Ticket prices should rise steadily over time to deter air travel and ensure that carbon dioxide emissions from aviation fall back to 2005 levels, the Committee on Climate Change says. It believes that airlines should be forced to share the burden of meeting Britain’s commitment to an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050.

2 must read blog posts

Stuart Bonar tells Cameron he’s a long way to go

David Cameron has a problem. In a keynote speech today he spelt out today a simple message – that public spending needs to be cut and it needs to be cut now. And he set out some really specific savings, totalling £120 million.

His problem is that this year alone the Government estimates that it will need to borrow £175 billion (billion, not million). The £120m he’s identified would help pay back 0.07 per cent of what the Government will borrow this year alone. So, £120,000,000 saved, £174,880,000,000 to go.

Rob Blackie: ten email tips

Tip #1 – keep it really short.

I think I’ll wrap it up there, then.