Monday 7th May 2007
5.45pm ToryDiary: Heseltine and Tebbit lead tributes to Lord Weatherill
4.30pm ToryDiary: Sarkozy may put the EU back on the British political agenda
2.45pm ToryDiary: BBC Parliament is replaying the 1997 General Election
Best of the blog links have been updated on the right >>>
PinkNews (11.30am) poll on gay voters: "Asked how they would vote if a general election were called on Tuesday, 35% would vote Labour, 27% Liberal Democrats, 26% Conservative, 10% Green and 2% Scottish/ Welsh nationalist. But given the choice between Brown, Cameron and Campbell; the 40% of the community selected Sir Menzies Campbell, 33% David Cameron just 27% Gordon Brown. Of those too young to vote at the last election, 51% chose David Cameron, 32% Brown and 17% Campbell."
ToryDiary: Tory members favour a separate Scottish Party
PRESIDENT-ELECT SARKOZY
"Mr Sarkozy won this election on his own: François Bayrou refused to support him and Jean-Marie Le Pen called for an abstention. Nor did he moderate his language as polling day approached, despite Ségolène Royal's portrayal of him as a diabolical slash-and-burn Thatcherite. So, will he now enact his manifesto? Will he restore temperance to France's spending, balance to her employment law, sanity to her immigration policy, order to her suburbs? ...The new president represents his country's last, best chance to join the 21st century. For years, France has put up with gross political corruption, Third World levels of debt and a Comecon-style public sector." - Telegraph leader
"It's certainly true that Mr. Sarkozy styled himself as a reformer who wants to arrest the pessimism gripping a country where polls show 70% of voters think their country is in decline. He advocated tax cuts, allowing overtime, and shrinking the central government's bloated bureaucracy by filling only half of the slots opened up by retirement. "The best social model is one that gives work to everyone," he would tell audiences in calling for more dynamism in the economy. "That is no longer ours." But at the same time the former interior and finance minister has shown a willingness to bail out failing French companies and to embrace greater protectionism. Mr. Sarkozy is certainly no heir to Margaret Thatcher or even Tony Blair, but he is someone that free-market advocates can at least do business with." - John Fund in The Wall Street Journal
HOW WELL DID THE TORIES REALLY DO?
Janet Daley in The Daily Telegraph thinks that the Tories' performance was underwhelming: "In 750 key wards, the average Conservative share of the vote increased by just 0.4 of a percentage point. The overall popular vote percentage only just made the precious 40 per cent mark, and there was little identifiable progress outside the South and the Home Counties over the last local council elections." She goes on to call for a more passionate Conservative Party.
Within Telegraph blogs, Dan Hannan MEP thinks that the Tories did better than the BBC has suggested. He is doubtful that you can gain nearly 900 seats but only gain a very small share of the popular vote. He highlights what he thinks are two errors in the BBC's methodology - a failure to capture the Conservative Party's disproportionate strength in London and of the other parties' retreat into their smaller number of strongholds.
Tory gains currently stand at +898; Labour are down 495; LibDems down 246 and Others down 159 (BBC).
Tory Chairman Francis Maude has said that the Tories are way past the half-way mark in the path back to power - Telegraph
LIBDEMS REJECT COALITION WITH SNP
"The Liberal Democrats have turned down the prospect of a coalition with the Scottish National Party to form the next government of Scotland. Scottish Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen said the fundamental stumbling block was the nationalists' demand for a referendum on independence. Mr Stephen predicted there would now be an SNP minority government at Holyrood following Thursday's election." - BBC
WHO WILL REPLACE REID?
"David Miliband and Jack Straw emerged as contenders to be the third Home Secretary in just over a year yesterday after John Reid’s unexpected decision to leave the Cabinet. The Chancellor wants to mix youth with experience and to use his first appointments to show that he regards the factionalism that has riven the top of the party as at an end." - The Times
ANN WIDDECOMBE MAY FORCE VOTE ON CUTTING ABORTION LIMIT - Daily Mail
AMNESTY CAMPAIGN FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
"Religious leaders, musicians, actors and union chiefs will join the largest migrant rally in British history today, calling for an amnesty for 500,000 illegal immigrants which would give them rights to stay and work in this country. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor led the calls for the Government to allow a "pathway into citizenship" for workers who have been in this country for at least four years." - Independent
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