THE DAILY POLITICS The whole idea of political honours is a nonsense. People go into politics to serve the country and to serve their constituents. It might have been right to honour them fifty or a hundred years ago, when MPs were not really paid a salary. But now we get very good salaries. It's an honour to be in the cabinet, so the idea that people should be honoured for political services is a complete nonsense. Mark Fisher Latest show Subscribe to our streams Need help?

1200 Andrew welcomes our guest the whole programme today: the Associate Editor of the Sun, Trevor Kavanagh.

1204 The Cash For Peerages inquiry is back with a vengeance this morning - and it's threatening to bring even more bad news for the Prime Minister. Last night, Scotland Yard dramatically upped the ante by saying they wanted to carry on investigating till September. That could spell trouble for Mr Blair just as we reach the crucial autumn party conference season. There's also pressure on MPs, who now have to decide whether to put their own deliberations on hold. Jenny reminds us how we got here.
Jenny explains: MPs and cops are facing off this morning over their respective investigations into cash for peerages. Their two separate inquiries were triggered back in March when it emerged that four donors had given secret loans to the Labour party. They've been competing ever since as to who should be asking the questions.
The MPs' inquiry has been in session this morning hearing from the Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell who said that honours were not given out for cash.
But there are bigger fish the MPs want to fry: notably Lord Levy, the PM's personal fundraiser. He's due to be called before the committee next week along with those four Labour donors: Chai Patel, Barry Townsley, Gulam Noon and Sir David Gerrard.
But the head of the police investigation, John Yates, wants the MPs to wait until after his investigation has interviewed the men. He says he's making "significant progress" on the case, but with large amounts of documentation being uncovered, "further detailed examination" is necessary. He claims that the MPs could unwittingly undermine the criminal investigation. So how will the police react if the MPs carry on with their investigation?

1206 Jenny talks to our Home Affairs Correspondent, Margaret Gilmore.

1209 Andrew brings the Labour MP Mark Fisher into the debate.

1215 Your emails on Cash For Peerages.

1216 They're paid more than ever before, have more control over running their budgets and the government says the bureaucracy has been slashed. But headteachers are becoming a rare breed. It's getting harder for schools to recruit them and many are due to retire in the next five years. Laura goes to Mansfield to see why headteachers are abandoning the classroom.

1221 There's been a very important court ruling this morning which could have big implications for treatment on the National Health Service. The European Court of Justice has decided the NHS must foot the bill for the treatment of British patients who go to other EU countries, if they have to wait an unreasonable amount of time here. The court was ruling in the case of Yvonne Watts who paid �3,900 for a hip operation in France. We were hoping this morning to speak to the Health minister Lord Warner. We were promised he'd do interviews, but then he was mysteriously taken away - presumably not for an operation on the continent. The Department Of Health has, however, released a statement which says: "we do not expect this judgment to make a big difference to the number of people travelling abroad to receive hospital treatment on the NHS". To ask whether that's the case, we're joined by the chair of the Health Select Committee, Kevin Barron.

1225 Your questions and emails for our guests.

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