6pm ToryDiary: Best Local Government Blog shortlist
Breaking news at 16.52: CONSERVATIVES HAVE WON CONTROL OF WARWICK after gaining seven eight seats.
4.45pm ToryDiary: A smaller state needs a stronger society
4pm: David Lidington welcomes the restoration of power-sharing government in Northern Ireland - conservatives.com.
BritainAndAmerica updates:
- The Queen: "Ours is a partnership always to be reckoned with in the defense of freedom and the spread of prosperity"
- Has Brownback opened the door to running with Giuliani?
- 35% of Democrats believe that George W Bush had pre-knowledge of 9/11
11am Seats and candidates: 19 more seats start selection process
ToryDiary: Post-Thatcher Conservatism is sociocentric and framework-based ($%#@!) and Alan Duncan attacks Sunday Telegraph journalist's "shoddy work"
YourPlatform: Former MSP Brian Monteith analyses the Scottish results
PlayPolitical: Blair congratulates Sarkozy, in English and French
Interviews: Any questions for Theresa May?
THE "BIG IDEA"...
"In a speech to the Policy Exchange think-tank on Cameron Conservatism, Mr Letwin will argue that the socialism versus capitalism debate, which began with Marx and ended with Thatcher, had been settled everywhere. The Tory dominance of the 1980s and the early 1990s forced the Labour Party under Tony Blair to give up "Clause 4 socialism", such as nationalisation and controlling the means of production. Mr Letwin said yesterday that, as virtually everyone now accepted the free market, debate was returning to the role of government in enabling people to lead better lives." - Telegraph
ONE LESS COUNTRYSIDE CHAMPION
"The defeat of Montgomeryshire-based Tory AM Glyn Davies means that there will be one less farmer pushing for rural issues in the Assembly. Mr Davies, who has represented Mid and West Wales since the Assembly was founded eight years ago, lost his seat as his party nationally was celebrating." - Western Mail
LORD WEATHERILL RIP
"Like many a brave soldier before him, Weatherill was a rather timid man in civil situations. Though he enjoyed pungent debate, he had no taste for quarrels. It was the case of a mild man screwing himself up, submitting to odious experience - as with Tebbit and the whispering campaign - but carrying on just the same. And his firmness with government ministers did not diminish." - Guardian Obituary
>>> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Heseltine and Tebbit lead tributes to Lord Weatherill
DOES SARKO HAVE THE STOMACH TO BE A THATCHER?
"It remains to be seen whether he has the stomach for the fight that reform always occasions in France. The chronic problems of the status quo are largely kept out of sight, whereas the opposition to change will manifest itself very soon and very conspicuously on the Boulevard St Germain. For years, the government has always surrendered to a well-heeled or economically influential mob; a great deal now depends on whether Sarko turns out to be Edward Heath or Margaret Thatcher." - Anthony Daniels in the Telegraph
Letters to the Telegraph
"The new president will certainly need nerves of steel because the reforms he hopes to push through in his first 100 days in office could almost be designed to antagonise every strike-happy interest group in the country." - FT
"Those who see Nicolas Sarkozy as some kind of miniature Margaret Thatcher or a hardline right-winger, would be very wide of the mark. His instincts are those of international capital but his understanding is, crucially, that globalisation means that France, like Britain, has to face the world as it really is." - David Blunkett in the Times
WHO'S NEXT
"Clearly, the Liberal Democrats must find a new leader. But who? Nick Clegg, their cleverest MP, is a free marketeer with a commitment to localism. The Left-wing activists distrust him, but that perhaps is no bad thing. More significant is the fact that the Tories do not want Mr Clegg to become leader." - Telegraph leader
Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...
