11pm ToryDiary update: David Cameron in India blog
1:30pm ToryDiary update: Cartographic conspiracy
BLOGS
ToryDiary: The cry for lower taxes gets louder
CF Diary: Making social action programmes happen, by Mark Clarke
PLANET FIRST, POLITICS SECOND
"To me, the most surprising thing is that - both here at home and internationally - we on the centre right ever allowed the environment to appear to be something that was not for us. This mistake is all the more surprising given the Conservative Party's proud green heritage." - David Cameron in the Independent on Sunday
IoS leader on Cameron's article (subscription required)
"In short, conservatives, just as much as liberals, have to act now to slow, if not halt, the pace of climate change. Even if the science turns out, for some as yet unknown reason, to have been wrong, action will still have been warranted on purely prudential grounds." - Niall Ferguson in the Sunday Telegraph
"I try to do my bit about global warming, I really do. I run two yachts, one oil-powered, the other fuelled by good old-fashioned coal; I have three Boeing 747s in my personal fleet" - Alan B'Stard in the Sunday Telegraph
DONOR QUESTIONS
"David Cameron is under pressure to end the secrecy surrounding his financial backers after it emerged this weekend that he received a donation from a mysterious group of businessmen but never declared it to the House of Commons authorities." - Observer
TURKEY SHOULD JOIN EU
"For Europe, the admission of Turkey to the EU is the primary test of whether the union can adapt to a changing world or whether it will become an increasingly introspective and redundant body. For European politicians, rejecting Turkey carries the risk of pushing this vitally important country into the arms of the political and religious extremists." - Liam Fox in the Sunday Telegraph
TAX-CUTTING
"We are in danger of spiralling into an ad hoc debate about tax reduction without facing up to the underlying necessity for spending reform. Reforms to make public spending more efficient and to limit government's activity will create the room for tax reductions. They are the
essential precondition for tax reduction." - Richard Sykes in the Sunday Telegraph
FUTURE OF SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVES
"Tory leader Annabel Goldie yesterday portrayed her party as the saviour of devolution. In a two-pronged attack, she claimed Labour unpopularity was risking the Scottish Parliament itself by putting it in the hands of SNP "wreckers". Only the Tories, she argued, could offer a "more positive" vision." - Scotland on Sunday
"So which brand of Toryism will people be asked to vote for, in Scotland or the UK? Is it a moderate right-of-centre party of the mainstream - or is the cocktail of permanent revolution, nasty attitudes and dubious associations still fighting to get out? Until that question is unambiguously resolved, the electorate will continue to give the Tories the disbenefit of the doubt. At least Cameron has the sense to understand that." - Brian Wilson in Scotland on Sunday
THATCHER HELPED END APARTHEID
"I doubt whether he knows or understands what Mrs Thatcher's policy towards South Africa was. She did more to change apartheid than the Labour Party or any other party in Britain." - Pik Botha, former Foreign Minister of South Africa, interviewed by the Sunday Telegraph
"The great thing about gestures is that they can be empty. When he disowned his party's attitude to apartheid-era South Africa, David Cameron scored an easy PR success, aligning himself with Nelson Mandela against Margaret Thatcher. Yet the idea that Mrs Thatcher was sympathetic to apartheid is a travesty." - Sunday Telegraph leader
FOLLOWING OSBORNE
"Gordon Brown, whose slick pitch to business helped Labour win in 1997,
is enthusiastic about whizzy new technology and entrepreneurialism,
especially in the US. But by climbing aboard the Maglev, and promising
to cut stamp duty on share transactions, a bete noire in the City,
Osborne was trying to
out- Brown Brown - and appeal to business, on which the Tory party relies for funding." - Observer
"Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has spent almost £2million on a London home round the corner from his friend and boss David Cameron." - Daily Mail
>>> George Osborne is writing a diary of his tour for ConservativeHome
NEW LABOUR NEEDS A NEW PROJECT
"In their headlong rush to change their leader the Conservatives had failed to resolve or update what they stood for in a changed world. They went for the date but avoided the debate. Electoral catastrophe inevitably followed. In other words, electing a new leader is not a political panacea. Replacing Blair will not in itself renew Labour." - Alan Milburn in the Sunday Times
A BRITISH WELFARE REFORM ACT?
"We know now that it has worked even better than its architects imagined, with major implications for the way welfare systems will be designed in future and for the wider politics of social spending." - Will Hutton in the Observer
CAMERON & GANDHI
"David Cameron is to visit Indian statesman Mahatma Gandhi's memorial garden - in yet another cynical stunt." - Sunday Mirror
HOME EXTENSIONS
"Homeowners could find it easier to build extensions to their properties under controversial new Tory proposals. One
of the party’s policy groups, which is investigating ways to improve
the quality of life, says planning curbs should be relaxed for people
who want to improve their homes." - Sunday Times
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