9pm ToryDiary: Two-thirds of voters believe that taxes could be cut without harming vital services
10am ToryDiary: Peter Ainsworth questions Labour over Foot and Mouth incompetence
- Follow the lead of the Kent Conservatives - organise EU Treaty rallies
- Shireen Ritchie assures 18DoughtyStreet.com that the party will have candidates in place for an autumn election
Christopher Mahon on LondonMayor: Londoners pay more but get less with Livingstone
Daniel Kawczynski MP on The Platform: The positive role of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East peace process
Tories draft emergency manifesto with real fears that there might still might be an autumn poll - Guardian
The Guardian also reports union leaders warning Brown against an autumn election.
Lord Sainsbury drops £2m into Labour's warchest - Telegraph
David Cameron promises support for marriage AND for gay couples; to battle for the NHS AND against crime; for a greener AND a less taxed Britain…
“David Cameron has hit back after a week of renewed criticism of his leadership, insisting that he would not make a "false choice" between traditional values and modernisation. He attempted to stage a fightback with a highly personal speech after a summer marred by party in-fighting, defending his belief that the party could combine support for marriage and gay rights as well as promoting both wealth creation and quality of life.” – The Independent
"As one Tory MP put it: "David has upset everyone, modernisers and traditionalists alike. Neither side knows whether he is one of them." When will the real David Cameron stand up?" - Andrew Grice in The Independent
Cameron makes pledge to gays - The Sun
Andy Coulson in the spotlight for his role in refining the Tory message
"Those at the top concede [Coulson] has been inserted right into the long-standing Cameron, George Osborne and Hilton decision making triumvirate. Coulson and Hilton are not quite chalk and cheese, but nor are they exactly a seamless whole. If the mercurial marketing man Hilton is North London, radio 4, modernising, and utterly convinced there is no future in the Tories fighting a fourth election from the right, the more ruthless Coulson is working class Essex, Talksport, besuited, tabloid and heavily attuned to what represents a story that will give Mr Cameron projection where it matters. Yet they have similarities. They are both streetfighters, creative, anti-establishment and not public school products. It is clear from his speech today that Mr Cameron intends to ride the tiger he has created by appointing Coulson and retaining Hilton." - Guardian
“Not only the Telegraph but the Daily Mail – that other bulwark of Tory values – has swooned in admiration for Mr Brown’s hardworking seriousness. Paul Dacre, the Daily Mail’s editor-in-chief, is an admirer of Mr Brown as a politician of substance (he deplored Tony Blair’s fixation with celebrity).” – The FT examines the Tory leader’s difficult relationship with the once right-wing press
David Cameron is answering Telegraph readers’ questions as part of an attempt to heal the Tory-Telegraph relationship
The aftermath of 'the defections'
Michael White analyses the Eliasch move and other recent (and forgotten) defections - Guardian
The Daily Mail (as discussed on yesterday's ToryDiary) reports Sir Malcolm Rifkind's 'lashing out' at Brown's cynical wooing of Tories.
Also in the Mail, Peter Oborne writes that Brown is no Margaret Thatcher: "He says that he is a conviction politician, but, in reality, he is acting like a politician who wants to be all things to all men."
Cameron makes another attempt to give up smoking – Telegraph
John O’Sullivan finds parallels between British and Gorbachev-era Soviet politics – Telegraph
Brown has given jobs to seven of the ten Labour MPs who supported the 2006 coup against Blair - Telegraph
A Times interview with Ming Campbell begins with a question about Facebook poking.
Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...
