9.45pm Seats and Candidates: Cllr Nigel Dawkins selected for Selly Oak
FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION BLOG
1.20pm ToryDiary: Reid jumps before being pushed
ToryDiary: Cameron to sack Fox?
THURSDAY WOULD HAVE PRODUCED TORY MAJORITY OF 54
"David Cameron would win a general election by 54 seats, based on voting patterns in last week’s local elections, according to a study published this weekend... Thursday’s voting shares — 40% for the Conservatives and 26% for Labour — would be enough to give Cameron 352 Commons seats, 54 more than all other parties in a general election. The study is by Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, directors of Plymouth University’s elections centre." - Sunday Times
Coincidentally it's Tony Blair's 54th birthday today.
The elections coverage in the Sunday newspapers is endless but Sean Fear's analysis of Thursday's results - on YourPlatform - is pretty unbeatable.
THE CHALLENGES FOR BROWN
"Thursday's election results contain two warnings for Mr Brown. First, he must not allow his party to accept as inevitable the defection of affluent middle classes back to the Tories. Second, he must prepare himself for the possibility of a hung parliament and coalition politics at Westminster. Inside the Labour party, Gordon Brown has been accused of inability to compromise and failure to engage beyond a narrow circle of allies. If he exhibits the same tribalism when he becomes Prime Minister, he will lead his party into opposition." - Observer leader
"The SNP's victory in the Holyrood election will unleash a voter revolt against Scottish influence at Westminster and could destroy Gordon Brown's premiership, one of his colleagues warns today... The Labour MP Frank Field says that the nationalists' triumph meant Mr Brown would be unable to launch policies that affect only English voters if he becomes the next Prime Minister. "[Brown] must know he can't stand up in the House and announce a major reform programme as Prime Minister that will not apply to his constituents but only English voters. If he tries, the next election is over, bar the counting," writes Mr Field, a former pensions minister and member for Birkenhead." - Independent on Sunday
SALMOND OFFERS CONCESSIONS IN HOPE OF ATTRACTING LIBDEMS INTO COALITION DEAL
"Alex Salmond will tell the Liberal Democrats this week that he is prepared to establish a commission to examine Scotland’s constitutional future as the price of forming a coalition. The SNP leader is said to be ready to offer the concession in return for the stability of a formal pact after the Liberals said they would not agree to a referendum on independence. It would involve setting up a body of senior public figures and politicians – similar to the Constitutional Convention that established the ground rules for devolution – to examine the relative merits of independence versus greater powers for the Scottish parliament, or the status quo." - Sunday Times
Neil Kinnock was paid £33,000 by firm involved with Scottish voting fiasco - Mail on Sunday
AND THE SCOTTISH TORIES?
"Tories were lying low after an election campaign which saw them win an extra seat in the Scottish parliament but still fail to make the electoral breakthrough they have been seeking since the establishment of the Scottish parliament in 1999... Leader Annabel Goldie's reputation was enhanced by the campaign but hopes of a 'Cameron bounce' to lift their fortunes north of the Border came to nothing." - Scotland on Sunday
MAURICE SAATCHI CALLS FOR TORIES TO BE PARTY OF PRACTICAL IDEALISM - Sunday Telegraph
TORIES ON THE PINK LIST
Greg Barker MP (20th), Nicholas Boles (27th) and Alan Duncan MP (65th) feature in the Independent on Sunday's list of influential gay people.
FRASER NELSON'S REVIEW OF THE BLAIR YEARS
"Few Prime Ministers genuinely sense the national mood, as Blair did. But he lost the nerve to tackle the alliance of backbenchers and unions. He had a soundbite for them — "the forces of conservatism" — but neither the strategies nor the courage to overcome them. So spin, cash-for-honours and the Iraq war will be what he leaves us — because he has so little else to offer. Throughout his final years in office he searched for the words that historians would use to sum up his legacy. He'll find they only need two: opportunity missed." - News of the World
PRISON OVERCROWDING MAY SEE 3,000 RELEASED EARLY - Observer
RIOTS MAY GREET EXPECTED SARKOZY VICTORY - Sunday Times
Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...
