Oliver Letwin, Cabinet Office minister, told a committee of MPs this afternoon that Britain was facing an “immediate national crisis in the form of less growth and jobs than we needed“.

This was why ministers had focused so hard on economic growth in the run-up to the Budget, Mr Letwin told the environmental audit committee. Read more

“We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.” Well, not quite.

But the quote attributed to Mother Teresa might be the new slogan for Whitehall civil servants, where, the Institute for Government has just noted, there has been a spectacular turnover at the top. Read more

Network Rail was structured as a private company (to keep debts off the state balance sheet) and likes to pay its senior staff private sector-style remuneration.

Others point out that the track operator is owned by the taxpayer and receives a huge annual subsidy from the government. (And its £25.6bn of debt is guaranteed by the government). As such, its pay structure ought to be of interest to the public.

For the current year senior executives are not taking an annual bonus, after the previous year’s £2m-plus bonanza was heavily criticised by Philip Hammond, transport secretary. Read more

The story broke late last night that Moussa Koussa, Libya’s foreign minister, had defected from the regime and flown to Britain via Tunisia. Here is the story from our front page this morning.

At this morning’s Downing Street press briefing there was only one story in town. Here are a few nuggets of new information about Koussa:

1] He has brought (at least some of) his family with him. Koussa’s son gave an interview to the BBC’s Arabic channel last night, although this wasn’t immediately shared with the rest of the corporation – I’m told – which is why we’re only now learning about it. Downing St would not say whether Koussa’s entire family has defected with him but you’d imagine they have.

2] He is in an unidentified “secure location” somewhere in the UK. We are not being told if he has applied for asylum or for a visa.

3] “Moussa Koussa will not, is not being offered any immunity from British or international justice”, said the spokesman. I asked whether his eventual sentence – if he were to be found guilty of any crimes – would be mitigated for any co-operation with the western powers. There wasn’t a straight answer. Instead the spokesman merely replied that there was a UN resolution in place (1970) governing a prosecution of Gaddafi over in relation to attacks on unarmed civilians in February.

4] David Cameron signed off the decision to allow Koussa into the country.

5] Koussa has been communicating with the British government throughout the recent military action.

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When I interviewed David Miliband last summer and asked him what his philosophy was he was able to sum it up in a sentence. The reply, as I recall it, was succinct: “Opportunities for the many not the few.”

Perhaps he had learned from the day that Tony Blair was asked the same question and couldn’t come up with a reply. Read more

Last time Arnie was in town (last October) Downing St made a few groan-worthy jokes about how he would help “terminate” the deficit. He promised: “I’ll be back.”

True to his word, the former governor of California returned today, attending a gathering of the Tory backbench 1922 committee. The appearance conjures up the surreal vision of grand Conservative backbenchers mingling with the star of Terminator, Conan the Barbarian and, er, Jingle all the Way. Nick Watt at the Guardian has tweeted that David Cameron unveiled the muscular movie star as his “secret weapon” just before the meeting this afternoon in a Commons committee room. Arnie told Watt: “It was very good to pump them up, to tell them they’re doing a great job on Libya.” Read more

When the new chair of the BBC, Chris Patten, admitted he was not a fan of TV soap operas it caused a mild ripple. His comments had been somewhat misquoted to suggest he didn’t watch telly at all. In fact he said: “I take slight exception to the argument that I hardly watch television, it is true you don’t find me in front of Eastenders.”

But what to make of Jeremy Hunt admitting today that he hasn’t borrowed a library book for a decade? I was at the culture committee this morning* but slipped out just before Tom Watson asked Hunt when he last borrowed a book from a library. The answer: “Certainly not in the last decade.” Read more

As news emerges of Ed Miliband’s impending nuptials, FT Westminster has obtained a secret copy of his draft speech:

“I’m so sorry that David cannot be here today, having been called away at short notice to a conference in Patagonia. David, I love you so much as a brother. Read more

It’s too early to know how the May 5 local elections will pan out – and AV may get the bigger headlines – but the omens are promising for Labour.

I revealed this morning that Labour is fielding candidates for at least 67 per cent of seats, up from just 54 per cent the last time these English seats were contested – in 2007. Read more

The wisdom of ending the 50p upper tax rate half-way through this Parliament is open to doubt. If unemployment is still rising and benefits being pruned, a tax cut for the rich would send out a curious signal to the public.

Yet there is no doubt now that this is what the coalition intends, however, given David Laws writing last week in the FT that it should be done by 2013 and Nick Clegg telling us today that it would be done when people on lower middle incomes are “breathing more easily“.

How this will be done seems likely to be a combination of a crackdown on tax avoidance on the purchase of large houses (announced in the budget) and fiddling with council tax. It won’t be a mansion tax – according to Clegg – despite claims in some newspapers this morning. Read more