5.30pm ToryDiary update: ConservativeHome invites you to an event with David Cameron
12.30pm ToryDiary update: George Osborne champions the BBC's competitors
BLOGS
ToryDiary: The Tories' northern challenge
"A widening North-South divide has been exposed by a YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph that shows the Tories are piling up votes in London and the Home Counties while failing to make any significant inroads north of the Trent. The poll showed the Tories overall on 37 per cent of the vote and Labour on 31 per cent, a reflection of the recent troubles facing the Government on many fronts." - Telegraph YouGov poll
OSBORNE EXPANDS ON BBC WARNING
"The Conservatives will intensify their attack on the power of the BBC today with a call for limits on its ability to “crowd out smaller players” in internet and local television markets. George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, will suggest that the BBC should be blocked from dominating online and local media in order to safeguard independent innovators who cannot get a foothold." - The Times
"I was puzzled that the Conservative Party ever thought of keeping the list secret. In all its propaganda, it claims to be committed to open politics; as a journalist, I naturally support openness. The priority-list system had created a small, privileged group of candidates, based on quotas for gender and race. Obviously their names should be public knowledge. The bloggers’ website, Conservative Home, decided to break this censorship. Its readers were invited to send in the names of people who had made the A-list. Their names have come in one by one." - William Rees Mogg in The Times
DEFECTION TO BNP OVER THE LIST
"A councillor and church leader who taught equal opportunities law to
university students has announced his defection to the far right
British National Party. The Reverend Robert West was
recently suspended from being a Tory member of South Holland District
Council, in Lincolnshire, after he spoke at a meeting of the BNP. His
appeal against the decision had been "unlikely to succeed", said
Conservative chiefs." - Ananova
SAYEEDA WARSI'S STATISTICAL ERROR
"A Conservative activist has fuelled mistrust of the police in Muslim communities by making false statements on the detention of terror suspects. Sayeeda Warsi, a rising star of David Cameron’s party, said that almost 900 “innocent people” had been “locked up for 14 days” under anti-terrorism laws. In reality, 36 terror suspects have been detained for more than seven days. Of the 10 who were freed without charge, none was held for 14 days." - The Times
LIONS EQUIPPED BY DINOSAURS
"Our soldiers are as brave, disciplined and deadly as any in the world. But they are often equipped with old, inappropriate and overpriced kit. There is some consternation in the ranks about the likely deployment in Afghanistan of 30-year-old Sea King helicopters. The craft were serviceable enough in their day, but they are slow, lack manoeuvrability and are especially bad in the heat. That the MoD may be obliged to blow the cobwebs off their rotor-blades will not, however, surprise anyone familiar with the dire record of that department." - Telegraph leader
BLAIR PRAISED OVER VIVISECTION STANCE
"He is right to point out that vivisection has been invaluable in the eradication of diseases that would otherwise have claimed countless millions of human lives, and right also in observing that, though we might hope for the day when experiments on live animals are no longer necessary, that day has not yet arrived." - Telegraph leader
THE PROBLEM WITH THE HRA IS ITS INTERPRETATION
"The set of moral certainties that used to underpin the common-sense notion of justice about criminal guilt and individual responsibility has been subtly but pervasively replaced by the notion of the criminal as the true victim of social forces beyond his control. What law-abiding people sense when they complain that the rights of criminals are taking precedence over their own is that compassion for the offender, and the determination to protect him from a fate that would confirm him in his alienation, has ceased to be a subsidiary aim of the justice system; it has become the whole point." - Janet Daley in The Telegraph
NEW REVIEW TO LOOK AT FOSTERING BRITISH IDENTITY
"The government is to review whether "core British values" should become a compulsory part of the curriculum for all 11 to 16-year-olds in England. Ministers are also establishing a second review into the quality of teaching about Islam in universities. Education minister Bill Rammell says both reviews are part of the response to last July's London bombings. The government is aiming to adapt citizenship classes in schools to create a more cohesive society." - BBCi
OTHER NEWS & COMMENTARY
Cameron takes two-month Arthur Elwen on a Charity walk (click on image to enlarge) - The Sun
"Brown's task will be to distance himself from Blair's legacy - Cameron's job is to stop him" - Bruce Anderson in The Independent (subscription article)
Stormont open for business again (sort of) - BBCi
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