8.30pm ToryDiary: Willetts' rebuttal to the CPS
8pm: "Southampton City Council will be run by the conservatives, it was decided today. The shock decision means the tories will run the authority for rthe first time in 23 years. The drama unfolded as councillors gathered to elect a new leader at the Civic Centre this afternoon. Liberal Democrat councillor Nora Goss split with her party to prevent a Labour administration being formed on the casting vote of the new Labour mayor." - Southern Daily Echo
7.30pm ToryDiary: 1922 meeting goes badly for David Willetts
6.30pm ToryDiary: Gordon Brown almost certain to be unopposed
5pm YourPlatform: Mark Field MP argues that the problem with grammar schools is that there aren't enough of them
5pm BritainAndAmerica: Joseph Loconte reviews Radio 4's series on Anti-Americanism
3:30pm ToryDiary: David Willetts to ConservativeHome readers - The headlines don't tell the full story
>>> Conservatives fail to abolish Home Information Packs in Commons (Guardian)
3pm ToryDiary: Grammar schools policy is "unforgivable" and "bleak moment" for Conservative Party
12.45pm ToryDiary: PMQs - Prescott's last stand?
12.00pm ToryDiary: David Cameron works as a classroom assistant
11.15am BritainAndAmerica: Use force to prevent a nuclear Iran says John Bolton
ToryDiary: Cameron and Willetts say no to new grammar schools
Seats and Candidates: Tim Archer selected for Poplar & Limehouse
YourPlatform: Dr Andrew Lilico asks if it is time to reconsider opposition to the euro
MOST LIBDEMS WANT MING OUT
"More than a half of Liberal Democrat voters believe that Sir Menzies Campbell should be replaced as party leader as he seeks to assert his authority in face of a squeeze from Labour and the Tories. A new Populus poll for The Times, undertaken over the weekend, highlights the decline in his personal rating after a second year of poor local election results." - Times
"The Lib Dems have not been at such a low ebb in years and the leader’s personal rating is now at a level not witnessed since the traumatic days when Iain Duncan Smith headed the Conservatives." - Times leader
CAMERON IS A SITUATIONALIST
"So the Tory policy chief Oliver Letwin thinks that his party is making “a shift from an econocentric paradigm to a sociocentric paradigm”. What ridiculous language. How does he expect anyone to understand what he is going on about? Surely he realises that the real shift for the Conservatives is from being dispositionalists to being situationalists. Simple enough." - Daniel Finkelstein in the Times
SIGN OF THINGS TO COME?
"Gordon Brown may have talked last week about his putative Government being "more open and more accountable to Parliament", but already he stands accused of breaching basic parliamentary protocol. Launching his leadership campaign last Friday, he rolled up in Enfield Southgate, media circus in tow, without informing the local Tory MP - a courtesy extended by MPs when making official visits to each others' constituencies. "If he didn't take that parliamentary convention seriously, why should we believe he'll do anything else to restore power to Parliament?" blasts David Burrowes, the MP in question." - Telegraph Spy
ELYSEE PALACE STRATEGY
"If Brown concludes that he really is not as effective on television as either Blair or Cameron, there is another option. He can be on TV less often, making sure that his interventions are less frequent but of a higher quality. Like a French president, he can leave it to lower-level surrogates to address the small stuff, reserving his own appearances for the moments that really count." - Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian
TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR DEFENCE MINISTERS
"Before we undertake any more military interventions, in Iran or elsewhere, we need to ask serious questions about our planning for the Iraq war and its aftermath. "The only true wisdom in a general is determined courage," said Napoleon. Two of Britain's most experienced, retired generals have recently displayed such courage in speaking of the Iraq war and the insurgency." - Alan (sic) Mallinson in the Telegraph
HOW NOT TO BUILD COALITIONS
"A council coalition has suffered its first fall-out hours after the Tory group leader was accused of pushing an Independent councillor off his chair. Councillor Dave Paterson has now pulled out of the power-sharing deal between Independents, Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives in Scottish Borders Council" - Scotsman
FREE SUU KYI
"Three former US Presidents and two former British Prime Ministers have signed a letter to the head of the military regime in Burma calling for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Baroness Thatcher, Sir John Major, and former US Presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton joined 54 other former presidents and prime ministers from countries in all continents in urging Senior General Than Shwe to free the Nobel Laureate from house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the National League for Democracy (NLD) to victory in the elections in Burma in 1990, has been under house arrest for more than 11 of the past 17 years. Her current period of house arrest is due to end on 27 May 2007." - Christian Solidarity Worldwide
INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING - Guardian
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