ConservativeHome: Sunday 9th September 2007

Columnist Graeme Archer on Bob Crow, Ian McEwan and wire flowers

Quality of Life report coming soon

"We haven't shirked the difficult issues. Unlike Michael O'Leary, we haven't suggested that aviation should be excluded, nor pretended that we can continue to be mastered by the car. We relish the fullness, excitement and opportunity of modern life, but we all want to share it at a cost that the planet can bear. That is the essence of a green revolution and we see the Quality of Life report as its blueprint." - John Gummer in the Observer

"The Conservatives are proposing to offer tax cuts worth thousands of pounds to householders who make homes more energy efficient. A policy group set up by David Cameron is recommending rebates in stamp duty, reductions in council tax and cuts in the Vat levied on materials that save energy." - Sunday Times

"Gummer, whose constituency includes the Sizewell B nuclear power station, will also signal Tory support for nuclear power. Tests will be set for the industry, but Cameron will be given an escape route from his description of nuclear power as an option of 'last resort'." - Nicholas Watt in the Observer

"Rampant material consumption, boosted by images of celebrities flaunting their wealth, is having "detrimental psychological effects" on people and making them unhappy, a policy document by the Conservative Party will warn this week." - Independent on Sunday

Door opens for migration debate

"Gordon Brown has made another move to dominate the centre ground of British politics, the turf where the next election will be won and lost. As we report exclusively today, he will pledge to tackle immigration by tightening the language restrictions on immigrants. The rule that workers coming from outside the EU for high-skill jobs must be able to speak English will be extended to those coming for medium-skill jobs. The Prime Minister also will "consider" imposing it on all non-EU migrants." - Sunday Telegraph leader

Lurching to the right is for losers

"The only thing that needs to be said about Mr Cameron and "lurching to the Right" is that he had better not. "Lurching" is a luxury for losers, leaders who are content to stay in the Tory comfort zone, warm in the adulation of those for whom the party is a black tie heritage club, not a movement for gaining power and changing the country." - Matthew D'Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph

Cameron needs to look tougher

"Voters look forward more than back. If we are losing the war against Islamist extremism and if economic hard times lie ahead, electors may want to cling to the strong man. To stand a chance, Cameron needs to look tougher than he does. That will not be easy while he cannot control even his own party." - Michael Portillo in the Sunday Times

Gove vs Balls

"Gove and Balls are fighting over exactly the same territory. They both make much of their own children going to state schools. They both celebrate existing good schools but neither regards more selective schools as the way forward. They are both focused on raising up underperforming children in underperforming schools. The main difference between them is biographical." - John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday

Cameron was desperate to stop Eliasch leaving and Mercer claims constituency backlash

"David Cameron made a series of desperate bids to persuade Johan Eliasch, the Conservative Party's former deputy treasurer, from signing up as an adviser to Gordon Brown. It was claimed that Mr Eliasch, a millionaire businessman, was contacted as many as 15 times by Mr Cameron as the Tory leader made a vain effort to dissuade him from defecting to the Prime Minister... Meanwhile Mr Mercer broke his silence by telling The Sunday Telegraph that he feared deselection by local Tories in his constituency of Newark and that he and his wife, Cait, had been subjected to a campaign of vilification by Tories since news of his recruitment by Mr Brown had broken." - Sunday Telegraph

"A thin, lanky man bristling with nervous energy, Eliasch is in the habit of surprising his friends. “He’s a classic money man – he always wants to bank on a winner,” said one acquaintance." - Sunday Times profile

Livingstone's attempts to woo the Jewish vote

"Livingstone has not only given £16,000 of ratepayers’ cash to fund a Jewish festival in Trafalgar Square next weekend, but appears in a full-page advert in The Jewish Chronicle to wish everybody a happy Rosh Hashanah. Unfortunately, the Chronicle spoils the effect by running a big interview in the same issue with Tory rival Boris Johnson, flourishing a Jewish great-grandfather." - Sunday Times Atticus column

Brown's sacrificing his integrity

"Instead of launching his attack on traditional Labour territory - where the Cameron forces were mustered in expectation - Brown has completely outflanked his enemies by targeting his assault on the Tory heartlands. But he has paid a price for this audacity - his integrity." - Peter Oborne in the Sunday Mirror

Discrediting impartiality by enforcing it in the wrong places

"Impartiality is vital to factual programming and reconstructions. But fiction is a different matter altogether. If the BBC succeeds in importing the principles of impartiality to its drama department, that will be the end of watchable drama on the BBC. I also fear that it will discredit the whole principle of impartiality by making the attempt to enforce it look ridiculous." - Alasdair Palmer in the Sunday Telegraph

Pasta advert

"The Tory MP Ann Widdecombe is breaking decades of parliamentary tradition to become the first politician to appear in a nonparty political television commercial since Clement Freud fed Chunky Meat to his bloodhound Henry in 1967." - Sunday Times

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