12.46pm: Labour has responded to Philip Hammond's speech this morning, saying that the defence secretary "has increased uncertainty where clarity was needed." We know the defence secretary's plans will mean regiments, jobs and traditions will be lost, but we have no answers for the military communities whose futures are in doubt. It will strike many as perverse if not self-defeating to sack 30,000 from the forces only to hire private contractors. The government plans to plug self-made capability gaps rather than reform our forces for the future. The government has focused on structures not purpose. We have heard nothing on the role our forces will play in future, the threats they will face, the priorities they will follow and the goals they will achieve. The defence secretary is presiding over decline, not planning for the future. Savings have to be made, but in doing so our defences can be made more adept through reforms to procurement, partnerships and personnel. 12.32pm: My colleague Kate Connelly in Berlin reports that David Cameron and Angela Merkel have "disappeared for talks." We'll have full coverage when they speak to the media. 12.31pm: The Conservatives have responded to Ed Miliband's Englishness speech. The Tories say Labour opposed launching a commission to look at how parliament votes on laws affecting England. Although this stance fits with what Miliband said today about the question of identity not concentrating on the forms of British institutions. Conservative MP Priti Patel said: Ed Miliband says he wants to stand up for England, but Labour are the only party to have said absolutely nothing about how English laws should be made. Every step of the way, Labour have opposed measures to make sure MPs from other parts of the UK don't hold sway over England. This is yet another example of Ed Miliband's weak leadership and breathtaking hypocrisy. 11.37am: And with that his speech is over. Humza Yousef of the SNP has just been speaking on BBC News. He says the decision on Scottish independence is for Scots, but the debate over English identity is "long overdue." But in my opinion Miliband's speech illustrated the difficulty of differentiating between an English identity and a British one. Are "quiet determination in the face of adversity" and "common decency" English qualities or British ones, for example? The Scottish, Welsh and (more complicatedly) Northern Irish are minority nations within Britain and as such naturally want to assert their identity in contrast or opposition to the majority nation, England, to make sure their identity does not get swallowed up or forgotten. But do the English feel the same need to assert their identity within Britain? My feeling is that they don't. More interesting to me was Ed Miliband's own assertion of his plural identity as the son of refugees, as a Jew, as a Londoner, as a northern MP, and so on, which in political terms he is clearly seeking to make an asset - especially in his claim that a spin doctor would never design a politician like him. That's a likeable way of emphasising a back story which is much more interesting and sympathetic than that of David Cameron. 11.34am: Miliband says his father was a great patriot - "although he would never have described himself as such." Ralph Miliband loved Britain, although he was wary of nationalism and jingoism and was an internationalist. 11.31am: Should English identity be reflected in new institutions? Miliband says he does not detect a longing for more politicians among the public. The English don't yearn for a "simplistic" symmetry of institutions. But there is a problem of the centralisation of power in London. He suggests giving more power to local authorities. Miliband says the debate must not be reduced to a "managerial" level. 11.26am: He talks about a constituent of his: Olympic taekwondo sportswoman Sarah Stevenson. As well as being a great sportswoman, she has had to take care of her parents. Celebrating national characteristics does not mean claiming they are unique, he says. It means saying this is what we love about our country, and it is the right thing to do, Miliband says. Even if Labour has been too quiet about England, there are great traditions of English Labour we can draw on: co-operators, trade unions, Victorian visionaries. He says the essence of English identity is not found in the grandeur of public office but in the courage of ordinary people, for example those campaigning for universal suffrage and gay rights, or the people who spend time organising local football matches and meals on wheels. We should conserve the best parts of the country: the NHS, the forests. That doesn't make us Conservatives with a big C. These institutions and values make us what we are, he says. But also the English ability to adapt should be celebrated. We should never run away from the issue of immigration. But our villages and towns have always been a mixture of locals and newcomers, he says, and there has been strength in that. 11.23am: People like Jeremy Clarkson "shrug their shoulders" at the prospect of the break-up of the UK, he says. Clarkson has likened Scotland's departure to "waving goodbye to a much-loved, if slightly violent, family pet." Miliband talks about what he loves most about England: quiet determination in the face of adversity, and common decency. He says he has seen "British heroism" in his constituency during the floods of 2007. 11.20am: He says that Labour politicians have been too reluctant to talk about England in recent years. But this is necessary if we are going to talk about Scottish identity, Miliband says. The left is willing to romanticise Scottish and Welsh identity, but not English. The left has been nervous of undermining the union and being associated with racist nationalism. He says the British and English flags have been reclaimed from racist nationalists, but some people still associate it with racism. Miliband doesn't, he says - he wants to applaud people who fly the flags. 11.17am: Turning to Scotland, Miliband says the nationalists insist that identification with one of our nations is diminished by our identity as a country as a whole. They want people to choose: Scottish or British? He raises the prospect of Scots not living in Scotland having a vote in the independence referendum. He says this feeling of separation does not accord with the "summer of celebration" across the country this year. He says you don't need to be Scottish to support Chris Hoy in the Olympic cycling races. And maybe there are even one or two Scots who will support England in Euro 2012, he says, laughing. Ed Miliband speaking today. Photograph: BBC News 11.13am: Miliband discusses how his mother and father came to Britain as refugees from the Nazis. He says he has always been grateful to Britain. The Labour leader talks about his father's joining the Royal Navy, and his mother's being "taken in by some amazing and heroic people." Her father was murdered because he was Jewish, and she was taken in by Britain, he says. He says he is a Londoner but not by birth. He is Jewish but not religious. He has spent time in Leeds and the US. He is an MP from Doncaster. His wife is from Nottingham and is not Jewish. He says his family has not sat under a tree for the past 500 years. He looks like Wallace from Wallace and Gromit and a spin doctor would never design a politician like him, he says. He is proud to be Jewish, proud to be British, proud of his other identities, Miliband says. 11.12am: In Scotland the debate about nationhood and identity is in full swing, Miliband says - but that debate should be going on across the whole country. We are stronger together, and that strength is based on multiple identities, he says. The left has not been clear enough in embracing English identity, he says. We must also embrace patriotism. 11.11am: When Euro 2012 starts on Friday, English flags will replace British ones. Then when the Olympics starts, it will be back to "Team GB," Miliband says. 11.10am: Miliband says this is a year when "our national identity is in the spotlight." He talks about the outpouring of pride in the Queen over the jubilee weekend, and mentions "a gentle sense of patriotism." The cheering as the jubilee boats went past was "a very British sort of cheering." The Royal Festival Hall in London. 11.06am: Ed Miliband has begun his speech on national identity at the Royal Festival Hall on the banks of the River Thames. 10.23am: Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, has been speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Hammond said the army faced the loss or merger of whole units as its regular strength was cut by 20,000. He said he was not abandoning the regimental system, but "difficult decisions" could not be avoided as the army scaled back. In future there would be greater use of part-time reserves and private contractors, Hammond said. Hammond also said Britain would have to look more to its allies to provide military support while it concentrated on the frontline. Under plans set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, the army is to be reduced from 102,000 soldiers to 82,000 by 2020. Hammond said: A regular army of 82,000 will have a different structure to one of 102,000. And some units inevitably will be lost or will merge ... There is no question of abandoning the regimental system. But that does not mean that we can avoid difficult decisions as the army gets smaller. 10.08am: George Osborne was speaking this morning on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the eurozone crisis. The chancellor called for a "greater harmonisation of fiscal policies" in the eurozone, repeating his point that this was a necessary result of the "remorseless logic" of monetary union. He stressed that Britain would not be a part of any such moves, and would require "certain safeguards" if a "full-blown banking union" within the eurozone came about. He wanted to see non-Spanish money put into Spain's banks to recapitalise them without increasing Spain's sovereign debt, and Greek voters to vote a week on Sunday to vote for parties committed to euro membership and "the steps necessary to stay in the euro." And then I think you need to put in place in pretty short order the steps that are going to make the single currency work on a medium- to long-term basis, and that includes a greater harmonisation or a greater integration of fiscal policies, of banking policies - all the things that single currencies like the pound and the dollar, in the UK and the US, have as features of stable currencies. He added: Just bringing some stability to the Spanish banking system is not going to end the instability in euro. There need to be more permanent changes to make this currency work. On recent U-turns regarding measures in his budget - including on the pasty tax and caravan tax - Osborne said the government was not "too embarrassed to put down the shovel and climb out" of a hole if it found itself in one. My colleague Graeme Wearden tweeted earlier: My colleague Hélène Mulholland has the full story here. She also reports on Lord Owen's call in the Times for a national referendum on whether Britain would be better off leaving the EU to join a new, wider single market. The former Labour foreign secretary and SDP founder said: I think the country feel cheated that they didn't have the promised referendum on the Lisbon treaty and I think as we watch more and more integration coming, greater and greater political, fiscal and banking union, the European Union is changing and the British government now needs to lift its voice. Osborne told Today that any transfer of power from Britain to the EU would trigger a referendum under legislation put in place by the coalition government. David Cameron and Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg in Oslo this morning. 9.44am: David Cameron has just been speaking to the media in Oslo, where he is has been meeting Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg to discuss the eurozone crisis. The two are due to travel to Berlin today to meet Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. All countries across Europe can help by offering advice on the right steps forward to the eurozone countries, as we were discussing last night. Clearly the first priority is to stabilise the financial situation. That means recapitalisation of banks, it means building of firewalls, it means reassuring markets; that needs to take place. But then, as Norway has done, as Britain is doing, we need the structural reforms that can increase the long-term growth rates of our countries; that is absolutely vital. But we also, as Norway has done, as Britain is doing, need to have proper and credible plans for deficit reduction to show the world that we can pay our way in the world. 9.26am: Hello and welcome to today's politics live blog. Here is today's political schedule: 9.30am: Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, makes a speech on the greater use of part-time reserves and private contractors in the army. 11am: Ed Miliband makes a speech on Englishness. 12.30pm: David Cameron and Angela Merkel hold a "town hall meeting" in Berlin. 2pm: A man who sent threatening emails to Tory MP Louise Mensch is due to be sentenced. We'll be covering all these events and more live here. All of Thursday's Guardian politics stories are here and all the politics stories filed on Wednesday, including some in Thursday's paper are here. Andrew Sparrow is away.