10pm Seats and Candidates: Alexander Ellis selected for GLA North East
4pm ToryDiary: Gordon Brown
3.30pm ToryDiary: Tony Blair's handsome tribute to Gordon Brown
1.15pm ToryDiary: Please let it be true... (2.40PM: HARRIET HARMAN CONFIRMED AS DEPUTY LABOUR LEADER)
1.15pm Seats and candidates: Three selections we have missed
10.30am ToryDiary: Helpful as ever, Portillo warns of "Tory collapse"
THE OBSERVER: CAMERON'S HONEYMOON IS OVER
"A 'liberated' Gordon Brown will take over as leader of the Labour party today as a new poll reveals that Labour has pulled ahead of the Conservatives for the first time since October. The survey for The Observer, which will be of deep concern to the Tories, reveals the first signs of a 'Brown bounce' and the end of David Cameron's honeymoon with the British people." - The Observer
"'Brown makes David Cameron and George Osborne look like a boy band,' one senior financier said. Such remarks will be relished by the Brown camp, who know their man will never ape what he has dismissively called the 'celebrity' of the Blair era. But they hope that an earnest Brown, more humble and relaxed, will appeal to voters, a point which may be borne out by today's Ipsos Mori poll which shows him enjoying an 18 point lead over David Cameron on the question of who is best placed to be Prime Minister." - Nicholas Watt in The Observer
BROWN CABINET SPECULATION
"Gordon Brown is preparing to offer Alan Johnson the "poisoned chalice" of the Home Office if the Education Secretary is installed as his deputy today. The Prime Minister-in-waiting has pencilled in Johnson for one of the most taxing jobs in his first government as a "reward" for winning the Labour deputy leadership, to be decided at a special conference in Manchester this afternoon... With Brown's close ally Alistair Darling expected to succeed him as Chancellor, the other key cabinet post - Foreign Secretary - would go to Jack Straw." - Scotland on Sunday
BLAIR'S PLAN TO SACK BROWN
"An explosive Cabinet Office document reveals that the departing Prime Minister had no intention of making a 'smooth transition' of power to Gordon Brown. Political Editor Marie Woolf reveals the detailed plans to sack his bitter rival and break up the Treasury in an exclusive report that reveals an extraordinary breakdown at the heart of government." - Independent on Sunday
DAVID DAVIS ATTACKS BROWN ON CRIME
In an article for The Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative Home Affairs spokesman attacks Brown on underfunding of prisons, his support for a longer detention-without-trial period, ID cards and failure to fund border control.
BLAIR'S RESIGNATION PACKAGE
"Blair will receive a severance package from the state worth some £300,000 a year. Thanks to some astute lobbying by other ex-PMs, Blair will get a car, a police driver and round-the-clock special branch protection. He will also receive an immediate prime-ministerial pension of almost £64,000 a year as well as a further £84,000 to run his office - on top of what he makes as an MP." - BBC
IAIN DUNCAN SMITH ON PMQs AGAINST BLAIR
"Lloyd George once said to Eamon de Valera: 'Dealing with you is like trying to pick up mercury with a fork.' 'Ah,' de Valera replied, 'then why don't you try using a spoon?' It seems to me that whether it was William, Michael, David or me, all of us have been searching, with limited success, for that all-important spoon." - The Observer
CAMERON NEEDS TO GET TOUGH
"Mr Cameron is keen not to be seen as Blair Mk2 but large parts of his speech this week echoed the outgoing PM’s hollow, Lefty thinking. Weasel-words such as ‘choice’, ‘diversity’ and so on are part of a New Labour vocabulary that should be consigned to history: they should not be part of any Tory leader’s speech or party manifesto. Such words do not conjure up, as he might believe, an image of hope and opportunity but vanity, uncertainty and lack of statesmanship. It has been said so many times before it has become a cliché but like many clichés it’s true: Britain is crying out for strong forthright, moral leadership. I don’t believe most right-thinking people want power handed back to them. the millions who are not sensible, the ones to whom Cameron is trying to appeal, have simply taken it anyway. What we want is for power to be wielded responsibly by Government, something that has never happened under New Labour. We want discipline in our schools, order on our streets. We want criminals to be punished properly. We want to know we’re living in a society in which the responsible, law-abiding and taxpaying majority are put first. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?" - Martin Townsend in The Sunday Express
A LEADER IN THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH EXPLAINS WHY A REFERENDUM IS NECESSARY ON THE DRAFT EU TREATY
Mark Formosa, our candidate in Taunton Deane, has become the second candidate to sign the Better Off Out pledge:
"I support the Better Off Out campaign to withdraw from the European Union, a view which I have publicly held for many years. We must be self-governing, and run our own affairs."
SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE
"Demands for a referendum on Scottish independence have received support from the country's business community, according to another Conservative figure who is backing the radical plan. John McGlynn, founder and chairman of Airlink group, and a leading Tory fundraiser, said he too supported the idea of a referendum in order to clear the air over Scotland's constitutional future." - Scotland on Sunday
WILL THE TORIES DELIVER ENOUGH FOR ZAC GOLDSMITH ON THE ENVIRONMENT?
Our Richmond Park candidate is interviewed in The Observer: "This [a Cameron-led Conservative government] could be the greenest in the developed world. Out of a thousand units of policy [put forward by Zac and his colleagues on Cameron's Quality of Life group], I'd be happy if only half of it was accepted.' Let's hope they don't let him down... I don't think he'll put up with being a bauble on their (sustainable) Christmas tree for ever... A windmill on a Notting Hill roof is not going to impress him for very long."
RESTARTING SOCIAL MOBILITY SHOULD BE GORDON BROWN'S PRIORITY - Peter Lampl in The Sunday Times
Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...
