ConservativeHome

Friday 29th February 2008

11pm PlayPolitical video: Barack Obama 'judgment video' provides quick response to 'Clinton's 3am ad'

5.45pm: Over at CentreRight Jim McConalogue and Andrew Lilico disagree with the 'recall MPs' idea.  Douglas Carswell is very supportive, however.

5pm PlayPolitical MUST WATCH video: New Hillary ad asks... Who do you want answering the White House phone at 3am?

4pm: Should the UK withhold its contributions until the EU's budget is successfully audited?

3.30pm ToryDiary: The February survey is now live

2.30pm: Should members be able to rank incumbent MEPs?

Some CentreRight selections:

• Is there anyone funny on the right?  Simon Chapman is asking.
• Should sceptics worry more than non-sceptics about climate change?  Andrew Lilico wants to know.
• Louise Bagshawe promotes the Beautiful Britain website.
• Tim Montgomerie thinks that Nick Clegg is becoming ridiculous.

Noon: Should a Conservative government hold a retrospective referendum?

11am: Should Turkey join the EU?

Seats and Candidates: MEP candidates answer the first of five policy questions

ToryDiary: The 2005 Conservative intake recommends new powers for voters to remove ethically questionable MPs

Bernard Jenkin MP on Platform: The total lack of scrutiny of the Lisbon Treaty shows British democracy is becoming an elective dictatorship

LondonMayor: Rattled Labour plan negative campaign against "odious" Boris Johnson

Fallout from Andrew Lansley's NHS spending interview

"It was Mr Lansley’s frank admission that funding health rises while meeting the Tory tax pledges meant that other public services would have to be cut in order to fund health rises, while meeting the Tory tax pledges, that caused most internal tension.  It is understood that the Shadow Health Secretary went beyond any formulation agreed in the Shadow Cabinet. There is already tension between Mr Osborne and Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, over spending plans. " - Times

"Labour dispatched public letters to several Tory frontbenchers suggesting that a Conservative government would have to cut spending on defence, education and policing to pay for the increased health expenditure.  Yvette Cooper, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said Mr Lansley's pledge showed that "George Osborne has lost control and is allowing the Tory frontbench to make wild and rash tax-and-spend pledges without thinking how they would be paid for"." - Telegraph

"On the day the National Audit Office reported that the new GP contract has cost the taxpayer £1.76 billion more than planned, can a Conservative front-bench spokesman seriously argue that more cash should be poured in without even pausing to suggest that better value could be extracted from the billions already being spent?" - Telegraph leader

Tory donors unhappy that George Osborne opened up Pandora's box on taxing non-doms

"Some of the Conservative Party’s highest-placed City donors are thought to be livid that it was the Tories who raised the possibility of a flat-rate tax for nondoms. The Tories proposed a £25,000 annual charge, but, unlike the Government’s plan, they did not intend to include scrutiny of offshore assets owned by nondoms.  One donor said: “When the Conservatives came up with the idea of a charge I know a lot of people were very, very annoyed because they felt that the party was opening up Pandora’s Box and giving Labour the opportunity to move on the issue.”" - Times

"Police chiefs last night demanded to be called in to probe Tory MP Derek Conway for hiring his son using public cash" - The Sun

Brown issues ultimatum to supermarkets on charging for plastic carrier bags - Daily Mail

Britain has 12 elected mayors, Hazel Blears wants more - FT

Benefits must be time-limited for welfare reform to succeed

"America's welfare revolution worked partly because benefit was time limited. In those areas where there has been a sustained increase in jobs over the past ten years, and starting with young claimants first, benefit should be time limited. The word needs to go out to every young person that living on benefit is no longer a career option.  The guy I buy my coffee from in the morning has run the franchise also for ten years. Every day during this time at least two and may be as many as five young people come in asking for a job. Not once has any of those young people been British." - Frank Field in The Telegraph

Clegg seeks to double the number of Scottish LibDem MPs - BBC

Profile of Matt Drudge, the man who broke the Prince Harry in Afghanistan story, as 'the world's most powerful journalist' - Telegraph

Spain's conservative opposition hopes on Socialist abstentions for unlikely victory - FT

And finally...

Tara Hamilton-Miller lists the musical tastes of leading Tories - New Statesman

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Thursday 28th February 2008

7pm CF Diary: Latest developments in CF elections

CentreRight selections:

• Matthew Elliott is very supportive of the Tories pursuing an anti-politician strategy
• Jim McConalogue notes media silence on Europe.
• Dan Hamilton argues that Obama is a foreign policy lightweight

7pm: David Cameron's statement on Prince Harry: “Like all the troops currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan Harry has been incredibly brave. He has pursued his desire to get on the front line and serve his country with huge determination and courage. I applaud the British press for not breaking the story and risking his life and others around him.”

5.45pm: Commenting on the news that Prince Harry has been serving on the frontline in Afghanistan, Shadow Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, said: “It’s clear he wanted to do his duty and to carry out the work he was trained for. He is a brave young man amongst many brave men and women who are putting life and limb on the line for the security of our country. We are proud of them all.”

11.30am ToryDiary: Tories DO NOT plan to spend more on health than Labour

10.45am ToryDiary: Different messages for different newspapers

Seats and Candidates: Questions to MEP candidates

Throughout the day we'll be posting answers from candidates around the country:

• South East
• Eastern Area
• London
• Wales
• North West
• South West
• East Midlands
• West Midlands

ToryDiary: Coming soon - A daily poll of political insiders

Harry Benson on Platform: Would a wise woman pop the question tomorrow?

PlayPolitical videos: Protest on roof of Parliament at Heathrow expansion plans exposes security failings and McCain attacks Obama's promise to send troops back to Iraq if al-Qaeda establishes a base there after a US withdrawal

Become 'a friend' of the Conservative Party for as little as £1

Writing in The Times David Cameron explains how the new Tory recruitment drive is inspired by Radiohead.

Yesterday evening's ToryDiary profiled the Tories' new friends campaign.

"David Cameron put immigration at the heart of his election campaign for the first time last night.  The Tory leader lifted a ban imposed under his leadership by using the "i-word" in a Tory advertising blitz that promises to tackle the issue." - Daily Mail

David Cameron persuades Tory MEPs to come clean on pay and perks - Times

'The Tory education revolution'

"Fraser Nelson reports on the radical Swedish system of independent state schools, financed by vouchers, that has transformed the country’s education performance and is now inspiring the Conservative party’s dramatic blueprint for British schools." - The Spectator

Tebbit takes on the Cameroons

"Lord Tebbit has tonight launched a ferocious attack on David Cameron, accusing him of alienating voters and "planting the poisonous tree of Blairism" in his shadow cabinet." - Guardian

Yesterday's ToryDiary on the row: The Chingford skinhead mugs Michael Gove

Conservatives shift to a more positive approach to green issues

"The Conservatives unveiled a significant shift in their green agenda on Wednesday, admitting the public will swallow green taxes and restrictions on behaviour only if they are sugared with financial incentives." - FT

FT: Tories right to follow Labour's spending plans

"The Conservatives have tied their own hands over tax. They were right to do so. They volunteered to stick to Labour spending plans in order to banish a reputation for preferring tax breaks for the rich over high-quality public services. They have constrained their room to manoeuvre, but only for the first half of the next parliament at most. Like the pledge to make no unfunded tax cuts, this was a necessary step in electoral rehabilitation." - FT leader

But this is where Labour's spending plans are taking us: GPs' pay up 58% but work down 5% - Guardian

Andrew Lansley wants Tories to spend more on the NHS than Labour - Times

Times' survey highlights rising council tax and household bills

• "£1,374.26 Band D council tax bill for 2008-09
• £659 Annual household bill for landline and mobile phones
• 7.8% proportion of annual earnings spent on utility and council tax bills, up from 6.9 per cent in 1997
• 3.9% annual increase in Band D council tax
• 99.5% increase in council tax since 1997"

More in The Times.

Rod Liddle ridicules luvvies-for-Livingstone

"The battle to become Mayor of London is getting dirty. Someone from Boris Johnson’s campaign team — or maybe Boris himself — put a hilarious spoof letter in the Guardian this week. It purported to be from 100 ‘academics’, luvvies, lesbians and professional agitators, all of them aghast at the notion that the ‘right-wing and reactionary’ Boris might actually win. It was a quite brilliant work of parody — long-winded, witless, sanctimonious and marvellously self-important. What Boris had done, with panache, was exemplify the extraordinary arrogance and naivety of a certain tranche of liberal opinion. After all, who would give a monkey’s that Baldrick from Blackadder and some bloke called Ivor Gaber, the visiting professor of media studies at the Central Polytechnic of Dollis Hill or something, thinks that Ken should win the election? Well, clearly Baldrick and Ivor Gaber..." - The Spectator

"Scotland Yard has privately conceded that it blundered in launching an investigation into the alleged theft by Boris Johnson of a cigar case owned by Saddam Hussein's former deputy prime minister, according to sources." - Telegraph

The shadow of Mrs Thatcher still hangs heavy over the party of David Cameron - Steve Richards in The Independent

A third of Brown's Cabinet are campaigning against their own Government's Post Office closures when they impact their own backyards - Telegraph

Exclude tips from wages, Brown urged - Herald

Nick Clegg orders LibDems to abstain on Lisbon referendum - Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Wednesday 27th February 2008

10pm ToryDiary: "You can get it if you really want" (and become a friend of the Tories)

6.45pm PlayPolitical video: West Wing's Matt Santos = Real Life's Barack Obama

5.30pm CentreRight selections:

• Jim McConalogue highlights amendments from Bill Cash to the Treaty of Lisbon that demand the supremacy of the UK Parliament.
• Samuel Coates highlights a campaign against video nasties by Julian Brazier MP.
• Tim Montgomerie notes the death of the great American conservative, William Buckley.
• Louise Bagshawe bemoans the clubby, backward character of much of today's Commons.
• Peter Franklin is impressed with David Cameron's less Punch'n'Judy PMQs performance.

5.30pm LondonMayor: Ipsos-MORI put Livingstone 2% ahead

3.45pm ToryDiary: The Chingford skinhead mugs Michael Gove

1pm Local Government: Windsor Conservatives set council tax 1.5% below inflation in their first budget

CentreRight: 69 MPs back Parliamentary motion praising Fidel Castro

Noon ToryDiary: Liveblog of PMQs

10am Local government: All you need to know about this May's local elections

Platform: Dan Munford on the importance of the IWAR ballot in Aberconwy

See our Events page for details of the mass lobby of Parliament today

ToryDiary: How the EPP have shackled the Tories before (and how they intend to do so again)

Stephan Shakespeare on CentreRight: We shouldn't be surprised that MPs look after themselves

Parliament: Jeremy Hunt attacks Labour's zig-zagging approach to gambling

PlayPolitical: Deputy Speaker orders Ed Davey out of the Commons

Tax breaks for green investors

"Millions of investors will be able to buy tax-free shares in green firms like Tesco and M&S under Tory plans. They will be allowed to buy up to £10,000 worth each year and shelter them in tax-free savings accounts." - Sun

"Savers who invest in environmentally responsible companies would get significant tax breaks under plans being outlined by the Conservatives today. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne will pledge to introduce a new Green Individual Savings Account - or GISA - if the Tories win the next election." - Mail

"Shadow chancellor George Osborne will today propose that green technology incubators be rolled out to universities across Britain to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into businesses. He will announce the appointment of David Mott, co-founder of Oxford Capital Partners, to lead a working group to draw up the Conservatives' plan by the end of the year." - Telegraph

"Doubts over how the Tories will fund their flagship tax cut policy have left them “exposed” to charges that they are promising more than they can deliver, experts warned on Tuesday, as the party prepared to unveil more fiscal pledges." - FT

Sharia law would breed extremism

"David Cameron yesterday issued a stark warning that allowing the influence of Muslim sharia law to grow in Britain would undermine society and breed Islamic extremism. The Tory leader launched a blistering attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury for saying there should be more recognition of the Islamic legal code." - Express

"A "cultural cloak of sensitivity" is preventing figures in authority, including police, teachers and social services, from protecting basic human rights for fear of upsetting certain ethnic minority communities, David Cameron warned yesterday." - Guardian

Iran condemned by its self-serving elite

"Dr Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, has spelled out his view on Iran during a visit to St Andrews University, claiming a self-serving elite are “condemning it to economic failure, inflation and international isolation.” At a public lecture to university staff, students and townsfolk on relations with Iran, the Conservative MP said a crucial test of the ability of the system to evolve from within would be in the Parliamentary elections next month." - Dundee Courier

Portillo documentary criticised

"He was once the Tories' golden boy and was talked of as an heir to Margaret Thatcher. But this week Michael Portillo's stock among his former party colleagues has reached rock bottom after his BBC film on Lady Thatcher backfired spectacularly. The 90-minute documentary — Thatcher: The Lady's Not For Spurning — was billed as a pro-and-anti examination of her premiership, but senior Tories accused Portillo of serving up a drastically one-sided version of events." - Mail

Boris Johnson, criminal mastermind

"Boris Johnson, Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, is accused of purloining invaluable "Iraqi cultural property" in 2003 - to whit, a cigar case owned by Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister... In a way, this ridiculous investigation is a compliment, for it shows that Mr Johnson's enemies are running scared. Yes, his tough-on-crime credentials may be mildly bruised, but it is their reputation - and Scotland Yard's - that will suffer more." - Telegraph leader

Muslims are trying to prove their loyalty - Dan Hannan MEP in the Telegraph

Brown faces defeat on 42 day terror law - Times

Why does the Left worship communist dictators like Castro? - Daniel Finkelstein in the Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Tuesday 26th February 2008

7pm ToryDiary: Conservatives visit Auschwitz and Birkenau

BORIS MOVES AHEAD IN RACE FOR LONDON MAYOR.

4.15pm ToryDiary: Lord Forsyth backs ConservativeHome on public spending

3pm ToryDiary: Could we get a referendum after all?

CentreRight selections:

• Conor Burns reflects on last night's Portillo documentary on Margaret Thatcher
• Louise Bagshawe notices that McCain is gaining on Obama
• Tim Montgomerie posts two videos that make a subtle case for protection of unborn human life

ToryDiary: Learning the right lessons from America and ComRes gives Tories 11% lead

"Tony Blair's record on humanitarian intervention will forever be overshadowed by the problems in Afghanistan and Iraq.  But his earlier foray into using British military force to do good in Sierra Leone should be judged more kindly by historians."

Andrew Mitchell MP on Platform: The issue of conflict resolution must be central to our international development agenda

100,000 children fail to get into their first choice secondary school

"As more than 560,000 families in England await the results of admissions day on March 4, when parents find out if they have a place at their favoured state secondary school, the figures suggest that nearly one in five is likely to be disappointed. This could rise to about half of children in parts of London and to four in ten in large cities or areas with grammar schools... Michael Gove, the Shadow Children’s Secretary, said: “These figures show that for large numbers of parents the idea that they can choose a school for their children is a myth. At the moment there aren’t enough good school places to go round. The most acute problems are in inner city areas, which means that it is the poorest children who miss out.”" - Times

Simon Carr salutes the one MP who stood apart from yesterday's solidarity with the Speaker - Independent

"There are also growing questions about his competence. He forgot to call Nick Clegg at the right moment in his first outing as leader to Prime Minister's Questions. He has been accused of favouring Labour over Tory MPs. He seems to drift off during Commons debates, then suddenly gets over-excited at the wrong moment. He dragged his feet for too long following the Derek Conway affair." - Rachel Sylvester in The Telegraph

"When the scandal over Derek Conway's misuse of allowances broke last month, this newspaper called for a small committee of senior parliamentarians to look at ways of restoring public confidence in our elected representatives.  Just such a group was convened - unfortunately, of its six members, only one has not been the subject of investigation into his financial affairs. This is not quite what we had in mind, though how typical it is of the way MPs view their activities." - Telegraph leader

MPs' pay

"They just don't get it, do they? In a breathtaking display of contempt for public opinion, MPs are considering awarding themselves a massive pay rise as a "solution" to the scandal over fiddling their expenses." - Daily Mail leader

Britain needs a strategic defence review

"The government is promising to publish a comprehensive national security strategy. I am not sure we should hold our breath. More encouragingly, officials are engaged in serious talks to step up co-operation with France if and when Paris returns to Nato’s military command. What is really needed, though, is someone able to deliver a speech in Munich setting out government’s view of the strategic purposes of Britain’s defence forces." - Philip Stephens in the FT

Portillo's Margaret Thatcher documentary

"Ultimately, I think the broad conclusion that the Tory party still cannot escape her pull is incorrect and the Conservatives have Gordon Brown to thank for it. He reminded Cameron that the mood has changed, she is to be respected and beyond advocates of class war (who are mainly middle class) she is viewed by many Britons as being all but above party politics. A vocal minority will always despise her, but so what?" - Iain Martin at Three Line Whip

Yesterday evening's live blog on the programme.

Jacqui Smith will offer Parliament bigger scrutiny role in bid to pass 42 days detention law - Guardian

"Plans to seize the assets of suspected drug dealers before they are convicted has been criticised by the Conservatives and civil liberty groups." - Telegraph

Government to give go-ahead for sixteen regional casinos - BBC

Mayor Ken Livingstone’s close aide Lee Jasper failed to declare position - Times

"London has a treasury of unused tunnels. Why not use them, like other cities do?" - Kit Malthouse, Tory GLA candidate, in The Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Monday 25th February 2008

11.30pm ToryDiary: ComRes gives Tories 11% lead

6pm CentreRight updates:

• Cameron Watt on a new play starring ex-cons
• Conor Burns in praise of Clare Short
• Harry Phibbs in defence of Chelsea tractors
• Jill Kirby has a problem with "divorce by email"
• Peter Franklin is depressed by BBC presenters

5.30pm ToryDiary: Portillo programme on Thatcher

4.30pm PlayPolitical: Hillary Clinton mocks Obama's rhetoric and is compared to an obsessive student running for school president

12.30pm ToryDiary: 51% agree that Brown is a ditherer

10.15am Local government: Westminster Council works with supermarkets to tackle street drinking

ToryDiary: David Cameron pledges to vote for lower abortion limit

Elizabeth Truss and Laura Kounine on Platform: The academies programme should be deepened and widened

PlayPolitical video: Sarkozy caught on film insulting member of public who wouldn't shake his hand

>> Don't miss our live blog from 9pm tonight for Michael Portillo's documentary on Margaret Thatcher.

The future of The Speaker and the reputation of the Commons

"The Speaker of the House of Commons has manoeuvred himself into an untenable position. He stands accused - not directly, but effectively - of misleading the public about taxi bills incurred by his wife and charged to the taxpayer; of using Air Miles acquired on official business to buy air tickets for his family; and of claiming expenses to help to cover the cost of a home in Glasgow on which he does not have a mortgage. At the same time it has fallen to the Speaker to order a review of alleged abuses of Westminster's complex and ill-defined expenses system by his fellow MPs. His approach has been widely and rightly criticised as lacking both urgency and independence. In these circumstances it is not just difficult to see how Michael Martin can honourably retain his post. It is impossible." - Times leader

"Until the Speaker goes, our faith in Parliament can't be restored" - Melanie Phillips, Daily Mail

"The salaries of MPs could rise by more than £20,000 a year in return for the second-home allowance being scrapped, under plans being examined by a committee chaired by the Speaker." - The Times

CentreRight: Who should replace Speaker Martin?

Tory MEPs resist David Cameron's call for transparency on employment - Daily Mail

George Osborne aims to create first trading market for green technology companies - FT

David Davis warns against comprehensive National DNA Database

"Conservatives called yesterday for improvements to the Government's national DNA database, but warned that extending it to all Britons would create a "nation of suspects".  David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, floated the idea of past criminals being added to the database, and said more needed to be done to ensure that all current offenders were included." -  Independent

24-hour drinking has fuelled 25% increase in early hours violent crime

"Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "This is a shocking indictment of the Government's failure and it is the public who are paying the price.  Alcohol-fuelled crime is on the increase yet Labour's response has been pitiful.  Despite unleashing 24-hour drinking on all our towns and communities they have simply failed to enforce the law against alcohol related offences."" - Daily Mail

Nick Herbert warns against lax bail conditions

"Jack Straw faced calls to tighten restrictions on people facing trial yesterday after figures showed that dozens of people charged with murder were freed on bail last month.  Nick Herbert, the shadow Justice Secretary, called for action after officials confirmed that 60 out of the 455 defendants charged with murder were freed on bail at the end of January. Only six out of 41 people charged with manslaughter were held in custody. Last week the prison population rose over the 82,000 maximum capacity." - Independent

£1 million cost of NHS pensions

"Research by the Institute of Economic Affairs has also found that 8,449 NHS employees have retired on an annual pension of at least £33,000 - equivalent to a pension pot of about £1 million.  Last year it emerged that nearly 4,000 retired civil servants had pension pots of more than £1 million." - Telegraph

Much more at the TaxPayers' Alliance.

Britain's biggest companies warn Darling about tax burden

"Britain's biggest companies have told Alistair Darling that he should not add to the scale and complexity of the corporate tax burden in next month's Budget... Overall, taxes paid by Britain's largest corporations soared by nearly 11 per cent last year from 2006 and by more than a third compared with levels in 2004, according to the survey for the Hundred Group of finance directors of leading companies." - Times

Nick Clegg confirms call for in-out of EU referendum

"The debate about Europe has been a thorn in the side of British politics for decades. Now the wound has become infected. Europhile and Eurosceptic trading blows about the Lisbon treaty in grand rhetoric that obscures the facts. If you're pro-European, as I am, you're accused of being a sellout. If you're anti-European, like most Conservatives, you're accused of being a headbanger. It isn't new, but it isn't edifying either.  It's time we pulled out the thorn and healed the wound, time for a debate politicians have been too cowardly to hold for 30 years - time for a referendum on the big question. Do we want to be in or out? Nobody in Britain under the age of 51 has ever been asked that simple question. None of them were eligible to vote in that 1975 referendum. That includes half of all MPs. Two generations have never had their say." - The LibDem leader writing in The Guardian

CentreRight: Louise Bagshawe notes how LibDem David Heath is running scared of his Europsceptic Tory opponent

Labour luvvies join together to campaign against Boris Johnson - Guardian

If you'd like to donate £2 to the Boris campaign by SMS, text BORIS then your email address to 60777. Messages cost £2 and will appear on your next bill. Click here for full details

Green & Blacks chocolate money deployed to counter Ashcroft effect in marginals - Telegraph

How ex-Labour ministers are cashing in on their connections - Daily Mail

Forget Fairtrade - only free trade can help poor - Janet Daley in The Daily Telegraph

Raul Castro has been unanimously selected to succeed his brother Fidel as Cuban leader - BBC

ToryDiary: The politics of small promises: A reflection on Team Cameron's belief that limited promises are the best way to regain voter trust.

Local government: Government did nothing about up to 400,000 homes being in wrong council tax bands

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Sunday 24th February 2008

CentreRight selections:

• Greg Hands MP discovers another twist to the Northern Rock saga.  Still operating in Denmark, the UK taxpayer is effectively underwriting favourable rates for the savers of Copenhagen!
• Peter Whittle wonders why left-wingers like Diane Abbott are allowed to get away with praising mass murderers like Mao Tse Tung.
• Tim Montgomerie says that hawks should prefer Hillary to Obama and Nile Gardiner notes Obama's affection for Labour minister, Mark Malloch-Brown.
• Sir Alan Hazelhurst is current favourite to succeed Speaker Martin amongst visitors to CentreRight.  Peter Cuthbertson is strongly opposed to the idea of Frank Field becoming Speaker (he wants him to be Work & Pensions supremo).  And your choice for the big green chair...?

ToryDiary: The politics of small promises

Local government: Government did nothing about up to 400,000 homes being in wrong council tax bands

Alex Deane on Platform: A letter to Republicans inviting them to vote for John McCain

PlayPolitical video: Hillary Clinton hits Obama hard with a 'Shame on you' attack

Tories shift to “can do” strategy of Arnold Schwarzenegger on green issues

The Sunday Times has seen a paper by Shadow Environment Minister Greg Barker (pictured) calling for a more consumer-friendly approach to environmental issues.

Mr Barker has previously written approvingly of Governor Schwarzenegger's green approach for The Telegraph.

MPs embrace eco-home movement - Independent on Sunday

Chris Grayling promises action against child poverty

"Britain today should not be a country where child poverty remains endemic. But it is. I have no doubt that Gordon Brown believed he would solve the problem, but he has failed, and now the problem is getting worse, not better. It will fall to the next Conservative government to take decisive steps towards eliminating child poverty. It is a challenge we intend to meet." - Chris Grayling writing for The Sunday Telegraph

Michael Portillo: The Tory opinion poll rating is "unimpressive"

But David Cameron will become PM at the next election but one says the former Defence Secretary in The Sunday Times.

CCHQ's attempts to recruit Castaway star to run Conservative Future

"An allegation that David Cameron was involved in attempts to ensure an attractive blonde who starred in TV's Castaway became head of his party's youth wing have been probed by Tory chiefs... They wanted to give Clare Hilley, a contestant in last year's BBC1 Castaway, which was set on a remote island near New Zealand, the chance to get the job as part of Mr Cameron's drive to promote more women." - Mail on Sunday

CF Diary covered this story earlier this week.

How drink destroyed Charles Kennedy, by Menzies Campbell

The Mail on Sunday has a preview of the former LibDem leader's autobiography.

Britain needs to spend more money on its infantry, not on unnecessary equipment - Simon Jenkins in The Sunday Times

Plans to reduce British forces in Iraq are shelved as security forces fear final showdown in Basra - Observer

Speaker claimed £75,000 for home he already owns

"Martin Bell, the former independent MP and anti-sleaze campaigner, said: "If you live free in a grace-and-favour home, you shouldn't need public help to run your second home." - The Sunday Telegraph

CentreRight: Conor Burns questions the silence of MPs with regard to the Speaker who needs to be replaced

Has Nigel Farage done 'a Conway'?

"The leader of the eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence party (UKIP) is employing his son as his assistant, using taxpayers’ money, despite the young man being in full-time education." - Sunday Times

IWantAReferendum's mass lobby of Parliament

"A mass lobby of Parliament in support of a referendum on the EU Treaty of Lisbon is to take place this week.  Organisers hope hundreds of supporters will attend the rally on Wednesday, pressing Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs to support an amendment to the ratification Bill going through Parliament." - The Sunday Telegraph

If you want to take part in the lobby click here.

Britain's prisons system close to crisis

"At the end of a week in which the prison population rose above the critical 82,000 mark for the first time, Anne Owers [Chief Onspector of Prisons] said she was not sure how long the system 'can contain this kind of huge pressure'... She warned that disturbances within the prison system were rising as a result of overcrowding. 'My impression is the level of incidents in prisons is increasing - an indication of a system operating too near to the knuckle,' she said." - Observer

Sean Connery believes that Scotland is "within touching distance" of independence - BBC

"UK ministers and business chiefs are calling for Alex Salmond to be stripped of his ability to block nuclear power stations and Trident warheads in Scotland, as part of a major review of Holyrood's powers." - Scotland on Sunday

And finally...

David Cameron, Con-surf-ative leader, had to swim and run from an encounter with a shark - Mail on Sunday

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Saturday 23rd February 2008

7.30pm CentreRight:

• Louise Bagshawe notes David Heath MP is running scared on the referendum issue
• Conor Burns notes that MPs are privately critical of the Speaker, but never publicly
• Alex Deane notes the difference between opposing multiculturalism and opposing multiracialism 

7pm ToryDiary: Time's up, Mr Speaker

6pm ToryDiary: America needs to restore its moral authority in the world says William Hague

CentreRight selections:

• In his first post for CentreRight, Martin Parsons warns that Hezbollah is threatening Israel with open war;
• Nile Gardiner fears that Hague's remarks on US foreign policy risk reigniting Tory tensions with the White House;
• And much more locally, Harry Phibbs objects to road humps.

12.30pm ToryDiary: 300 Labour members set to defect to Derby Conservatives?

11.45am Seats and candidates: Boris Johnson will resign as MP for Henley if he ousts Ken Livingstone

Robert Colvile on Platform: How the internet will change the way politics works

Hague says US needs better image in the world

"America needs to restore its 'moral authority' in the world, William Hague says today. The election of either John McCain or Barack Obama as United States president would elevate US politics in the eyes of a global audience, the Shadow Foreign Secretary says. In a move that will anger the Bush Administration but which highlights Tory unease at the way American foreign policy has been run in recent years, Mr Hague also reveals he has been talking to Democrat "policy makers" in Washington." - Telegraph

William Hague interview - Telegraph

Auschwitz trip funding

"Leading Jewish groups and MPs have rounded on Conservative leader David Cameron after he dismissed funding to send schoolchildren to visit Auschwitz as "a gimmick". His intervention was described as "sick and ignorant" by the Government and "a low form of politics" by Lord Janner, the chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust." - Telegraph / Times

ToryDiary summary of reaction / Samuel Coates and Greg Hands MP comment

Brown benefiting from handling of Rock

"Voters have refused to endorse Tory attacks on Gordon Brown over his handling of the Northern Rock crisis. Two polls showed growing support for the Government's decision to nationalise the stricken bank, despite David Cameron's warning that it would be a calamity for the economy." - Mail

Adopting the co-op

"In one of his boldest attempts to colonise Labour territory, David Cameron has adopted the humble Co-op as a central plank of new Tory thinking. This week the Conservative Co-operative Movement, inaugurated by Mr Cameron three months ago, recommended a range of tax breaks for local co-operative services and started a publication on how to set up a retail food co-operative." - Times

The Lady's Not for Spurning

"What Portillo reveals is that many Tories, especially male Tories, were indeed deeply in love with Mrs Thatcher, and could not bear what was done to her - or what they had helped do to her - in the autumn of 1990. The Conservative Party itself, says Portillo, became - and may still be - the victim of their feelings of hatred and guilt." - Times (we will set up a live chatroom for Monday's programme)

Former MP Sir Ralph Howell has died

"Ralph Howell was an outspoken and unashamed right-wing Conservative from farming stock, and a successful farmer in his own right. He recaptured Norfolk North for the Conservative Party in 1970 and held the seat until 1997." - Independent

24hr drinking fuels rise in crime

"Labour's laws on 24-hour drinking were condemned by police yesterday as new figures showed that officers were having to deal with thousands of extra alcohol-related crimes a month since restrictions were relaxed." - Telegraph

Michael Martin should step down

"Over the seven and a half years that Michael Martin has been Speaker, the House of Commons has fallen to an unprecedented low in public esteem. MPs have ceased to be authoritative, and become contemptible." - Telegraph leader

MPs have given overwhelming support to proposals for an increase in the rights of agency workers, despite a lack of Government backing - Sky News

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Friday 22nd February 2008

6.15pm ToryDiary: Blogosphere reaction to CCHQ's Auschwitz gaffe

5.30pm Events next week:

• Merton & Wandsworth drinks with Boris
• Mass I Want a Referendum lobby of Parliament
• Conservative Local Government Conference
• Come and hear Zac Goldsmith in beautiful Dorset

4.30pm MUST WATCH PlayPolitical video: David Cameron talks about Margaret Thatcher's visit to Tory HQ and the unveiling of a new bust in her honour

1.30pm Robert Colvile on Platform: How MPs can use the internet to become more relevant

1pm ToryDiary: YouGov confirms disappointing week for George Osborne

ToryDiary: There are only 21 places left in Britain's prisons

Platform: Peter Noordhoek, a member of the Christian Democratic Party in the Netherlands, makes the case for a more positive approach to Brussels

PlayPolitical video: Barack Obama defends himself against charges of plagiarism; Hillary Clinton accuses Obama of offering 'change you can Xerox'

Nationalisation Bill wins approval after Lords ends resistance to Commons' will

"The bill to allow Northern Rock bank to be nationalised has become law after peers backed down in their demands for extra safeguards." - BBC

On ToryDiary yesterday evening we noted a Times poll of 519 voters that suggested 49% to 40% support for nationalisation.

How Tories are wooing the City - Tara Hamilton-Miller in the New Statesman

Gordon Brown faces biggest rebellion since becoming leader

"Gordon Brown could face his biggest Commons backbench rebellion since becoming prime minister over a bill to give agency workers more rights.  More than one million people are employed via agencies, which means they do not get benefits such as sick pay.  MPs are due to debate a private member's bill which aims to give them the same rights as permanent staff." - BBC

Brown is no Tony Blair when it comes to reform

"What Blair came to recognise, and what Brown still rejects, is that reform requires a constant application of pressure to the accelerator. The sheer power of inertia, the accumulated strength of special interests, the resistance from producer forces and trade union voices, all mean that to coast or slow down on reform is to lose the momentum necessary to effect change. Under Blair, opponents of reform came to know his velocity. Under Brown, they know they won’t be challenged by the Man Who Came to Dither." - Michael Gove, The Spectator

Cameron encourages Bradford to choose elected Mayor

"Bradford should be allowed to "drive itself forward" through the introduction of an elected mayor, according to David Cameron.  And the Conservative leader wants to see a financial bonds scheme to fund major regeneration projects." - Bradford Telegraph & Argus

Dominic Grieve questions Britain's "surveillance society"

"Ministers faced anger over the advance of Britain's "surveillance society" as an official report confirmed that police had bugged a the private conversations of a Labour MP... Dominic Grieve, the shadow Attorney General, said: "This also raises wider issues about the extent to which we now have a level of surveillance society where a very large number of areas of intrusive investigation are being authorised by police officers at a senior level but carried out and monitored by police officers at a very junior level."" - Independent

Do MEPs deserve any more power?

"Are we going to hand 60 new fields of policy to an organisation that is visibly inept and often crooked? MPs must search their consciences. Do they really believe that their constituents will be better off when further powers are transferred from Westminster to Brussels?" - Dan Hannan MEP in The Telegraph

The MEP gravy express must be made to hit the buffers - Times leader

Binge-drinking Britain: The Telegraph urges strong legal action to tackle the nation's alcohol addiction

Britain heading for slow-growth decade

"The UK could experience its most “significant and sustained” slowdown in a decade as the economy adjusts from consumer-led growth to a greater reliance on investment and exports, a Bank of England policymaker said on Thursday." - FT

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Thursday 21st February 2008

8.15pm ToryDiary: 49% of public back nationalisation of Northern Rock

CentreRight selections:

• Harry Phibbs on public support for the death penalty.
• Tim Montgomerie highlights a list Labour's top fifty achievements. It doesn't mention Iraq or Northern Rock!
• Douglas Carswell warns against throwing money at an undisciplined defence budget.
• Stephan Shakespeare warns against hoping for too much from opinion polls when it comes to settling the 'should we cut taxes?' question.

6.45pm LondonMayor: Boris Johnson sets out campaign themes in after lunch talk to journalists

5pm ToryDiary: Government suffers Lords defeat on Northern Rock

Noon Platform from Robert Colvile: How the internet is empowering grassroots movements

ToryDiary: What public enquiries should the next Conservative Government initiate?  An idea from Paul Goodman MP.

LondonMayor: Boris for Mayor - the unofficial theme tune

Platform: Cllr Chris Hossack looks at the value of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington

CentreRight selections:

• Tim Montgomerie: Britain's underequipped armed forces are asked to reduce expenditure on equipment
• Hamish Marshall sees Barack Obama as the Disneyland candidate; Alan Mendoza highlights a video of an Obama supporter being unable to mention any legislative achievements by the Illinois Senator.
• Peter Cuthbertson responds to Dan Hamilton's warning about the level of anti-social behaviour in today's Britain.

Parliament: Davis Davis dismisses new tax on immigrants as "gimmick"

Taxpayers come last when it comes to Northern Rock, say Tories

"Taxpayers have been left with just the “rubbish bits” of nationalised Northern Rock, the Tories claimed yesterday.  They pointed out £40billion of the bank’s £100billion mortgages had been sold off to a mystery private firm called Granite.  Taxpayers were exposed to the less secure loans which the Rock failed to offload, critics claimed." - The Sun

The ten big losers from Northern Rock - John Gapper in the FT

"Northern Rock, along with the wider international banking crisis, has discredited the post-Thatcherite faith in unbridled market forces and triggered a debate about the necessary role of government in managing a market economy. The pendulum of opinion is manifestly swinging away from market fundamentalism and towards a closer symbiosis between the private sector and the State. This shift of opinion should offer an enormous political opportunity to Labour." - But it is a shift, says Anatole Kaletsky, that Gordon Brown is failing to master - The Times

Food co-ops chime with Tory values

"Guardian readers are a calm, well-educated bunch. Nevertheless, the mere conjunction of the words "conservative" and "cooperative" may have them spluttering into their muesli. Yet this week the Conservative Cooperative Movement (CCM) is publishing a book called Nuts and Bolts, on how to set up a retail food co-op." - Jesse Norman in the Guardian

77% of Labour's money comes from unions

"Labour depends ever more on the unions, which provided £4.5m, or 77 per cent of its money. The Unite super-union, whose £2.8m accounted for nearly half of Labour’s donations, is leading the campaign to win greater rights for agency workers in the UK." - FT

"David Cameron faced fresh questions over Conservative donors yesterday after accepting nearly £3 million from a controversial peer who refuses to pay taxes in Britain.  The gift was a converted loan from Lord Laidlaw, who has taken a leave of absence from Parliament after failing to abide by a promise he made on taking up his peerage to bring his finances on-shore." - Telegraph

Yesterday's ToryDiary: Conservative donations almost double Labour's

The brain drain is back

"We now learn from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that we lead the world in exporting talent, with a higher proportion of highly skilled professionals emigrating from this country than from any other (except Mexico)." - Telegraph

"More than 250,000 UK passports could be handed out to foreigners every year under new proposals." - Daily Mail

"Foreigners living in Britain will be expected to go through a new expanded citizenship process or leave the country, under new plans outlined by ministers today." - Independent

Tories consider making forced marriages illegal - BBC

Patrick Mercer slams BBC 'slur' on Iraq heroes

The BBC is to accuse the most highly decorated battalion in the Army of torturing and executing six Iraqi prisoners in cold blood... The accusations, to be aired on Monday, have caused fury among top brass who believe they were fabricated by militants to embarrass the British Government... Tory MP Patrick Mercer, an ex-Army officer, said: “It is totally unacceptable.” - The Sun

"Two inquiries, by the Royal Military Police and the International Red Cross, have found not a shred of evidence.  The Iraqi police chief in Basra and the local Muslim Imam both back up Our Boys.  But none of this is good enough for the BBC. It plans to press ahead with the show next Monday." - The Sun Says

Douglas Alexander goes to both Ghana and Sierra Leone a week after Andrew Mitchell did the same - Telegraph Spy

Mutualise Scottish Water

"The Tories are calling for Scottish Water to be mutualised, claiming it costs the country £180 million a year to keep it in the public sector. The Tories are demanding ministers review the organisation's structure and operations." - icScotland

Unexpected boost to budget forecasts

"A surge of income tax and corporation tax revenues in January alongside a large downward revision to government borrowing figures for the end of last year have transformed the assessment of public sector deficits this financial year. However, economists warned that the longer-term health of the public finances continued to be poor." - FT

Rev Ian Paisley, Northern Ireland's first minister, expected to stand down within months - Guardian

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Wednesday 20th February 2008

CentreRight selections:

• McCain is al-Qaeda's choice according to the BBC's Justin Webb. Tim Montgomerie has the story.
• Samuel Coates notes the launch of a new right-of-centre publication, Stand Point.
• Dan Hamilton's experience of the ASBO generation on the 10.07
• Jim McConalogue on how UK business is sunk beneath £46.89 billion of EU regulation

5.15pm Parliament: The speeches from William Hague and Liam Fox during today's Parliamentary debate on Europe and defence.

4.45pm ToryDiary: Michael Gove becomes the latest Tory MP to start blogging

4pm Today's MUST WATCH PlayPolitical video: Margaret Thatcher receives a birthday cake from TVAM when she was Prime Minister

3pm ToryDiary: Conservative donations almost double Labour's

2.20pm CF Diary: Ballot duplications

1.45pm Platform: Britain's political parties have yet to grasp the internet's potential

10.45am ToryDiary: Join us for a liveblog of PMQs

10.30am ToryDiary: Owen Paterson's tribute to John Biffen

ToryDiary: 67% tell ICM their taxes are too high

Parliament: Ken Clarke rejects English Parliament

Platform: William Norton on the "election fever" hitting Cuba...

LondonMayor: One of the following headlines did not appear in the taxpayer-funded (re-elect Ken) Londoner newspaper...

Scottish Tories rushed in poll tax

"Kenneth Clarke, the former chancellor, has insisted that the Scottish Tories were to blame for the implementation of the hated poll tax north of the Border. Mr Clarke insisted Margaret Thatcher was unfairly blamed for using Scots as guinea pigs for the unpopular tax, which was introduced in 1989." - Scotsman

John Redwood for Chancellor

"The Tories suffer from Mr Cameron's refusal to put in the job of shadow chancellor the man best qualified to it. Go to the internet, look at John Redwood's blog, which clearly sets out the policy the Tories should be following on Northern Rock. But, then, as well as being the cleverest man in the stupid party, Mr Redwood has worked in the City, his career before politics not having been confined to life as a special adviser or living off his trust fund." - Simon Heffer in the Telegraph

Tories must show their hand to widen their lead

"Lack of clarity is sometimes permitted to oppositions. But Cameron's unwillingness to show his hand too soon (look how Labour pinched Osborne's inheritance tax ideas) feeds a sense that electors don't yet have a proper reason to vote for the nice young man from Notting Hill. The dreaded word, narrative, is not yet visible." - Michael White in the Guardian

Northern Rock nationalisation

"The "nationalisation" of Northern Rock is no such thing. It is a period of pragmatic public stewardship until market conditions improve when, in one form or another, it will be unwound. This pragmatism resembles that of the postwar nationalisations - an uncomfortable truth that neither Old Labour nor David Cameron's Conservatives are willing to accept" - Will Hutton in the FT

"The concept of nationalisation is so stuck in the state ownership mindset of the 1940s that its death and reincarnation as state control over the past two decades passes unnoticed." - Simon Jenkins in the Guardian

"The Government is squaring up for a showdown with Northern Rock’s banking advisers over fees owed for advice on the failed sale of the stricken mortgage bank." - Times

"Alistair Darling has been accused of trying to cover up Government plans for Northern Rock after introducing legislation to exclude the bank from Freedom of Information laws." - Telegraph

Tobias Ellwood stoned

"A top Tory MP was pelted with stones and suffered a torrent of abuse as he confronted a gang of youths bent on causing trouble. Shadow Minister Tobias Ellwood, 40, told yesterday of his anger over the late-night attack." - Express

Role of civil society

"As we look towards the future, and the possibility of a new government, both Labour and the Conservatives are vying to tell us the important role that civil society will play in the UK of tomorrow. This comes at a time when civil society is thriving." - NCVO Director in the Guardian

The life of Lord Biffen

"Distinguished Conservative figures turned out to commemorate the life of Lord Biffen, the former Tory cabinet minister, at a memorial service in Westminster yesterday. John Biffen, who was MP for Shropshire and leader of the House of Commons for five years, died last August at the age of 76." - Telegraph

The new way for Conservatives: Blood, bats and bonding - Daniel Finkelstein in the Times

Should Lembit Opik be taken more seriously? - Times interview

Jacqui Smith to announce plans for an immigrant tax - Telegraph

Labour's Mary Honeyball MEP says the Tories need more female MEPs - FT

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Tuesday 19th February 2008

4.30pm ToryDiary: Darling appoints his former Chief of Staff to Board of Northern Rock

4.30pm MUST WATCH PlayPolitical: Ken Livingstone loses his rag in the GLA

1.30pm CF Diary: Why the Manager of Conservative Future should be fired

11.30am CentreRight selections:

• 'What is the most difficult question you'd like to see asked in Parliament?'  Tim Montgomerie wants to know.
• Matthew Sinclair is worried that Labour are trying to resurrect Northern Rock via nationalisation.
• Greg Hands MP has written to the Speaker requesting a monthly question time on Northern Rock.
• Jesse Norman on setting up a food co-op.
• Samuel Coates is delighted that Castro is stepping down.
• The Diana inquest has cost £6m so far.  Charlie Elphicke wants Fayed to pick up the bill.

Parliament: George Osborne responds to Chancellor's statement on nationalising Northern Rock

Robert Colvile on Platform: Searching for a new internet-based politics

Photographs of Margaret Thatcher's visit to Conservative HQ last night, on the unveiling of a sculpture of the former PM to sit in CCHQ's reception.

Barack Obama, Plagiarist?

PlayPolitical video: Barack Obama, Plagiarist?  The Illinois Senator appears to be using another man's speech.

We may only be at the beginning of the Northern Rock drama

Alex Brummer of the Daily Mail warns of the horrors still waiting in the wings.

"Ministers face the threat of litigation from shareholders whose holdings will probably become worthless.  Brussels will take an interest in a state-owned bank that will inevitably have a significant advantage over other lenders because it has the Bank of England behind it. Taxpayers will become liable for Northern Rock's bad loans, its pension liabilities and redundancy payments (for job losses look inevitable)." - Telegraph leader

Be in no doubt, NR's nationalisation is legalised theft - Dan Lewis on CentreRight

Will nationalisation distort Labour's policies for the housing market? - CentreRight

Will Northern Rock produce a new era of tougher regulation?

"Such was the political mood before the convulsions of the late summer that the Conservative MP John Redwood advocated an even lighter touch in the regulation of banks as one of many proposals in a report for his party. Some of Redwood's proposals caused controversy, but not this one. The British debate revolved around whether banks should be freer still, a climate which explains but does not justify the complacency of the regulatory bodies in relation to the reckless activities of Northern Rock.  Suddenly, a different set of questions is being asked. Why were Northern Rock's activities not regulated more intensively? Why did Brown not act earlier to nationalise the bank? How serious is the economic situation in the US? Is the British economy more vulnerable compared with its European counterparts because it functions in similar ways to the US?" - Steve Richards in The Independent

Bad reviews for George Osborne's response to Northern Rock statement

"Presented with an easy tap-in, George Osborne managed to miss. He spoke with relish about "the slow, lingering death of Northern Rock and of Britain's reputation as a financial centre... The prime minister and chancellor have dithered their way to disaster. He will never recover his reputation for competence; he is now politically a dead man walking.  It wasn't bad; it just sounded slightly hysterical. And of course the Tories don't have a policy of their own — or rather, they have several contradictory policies of their own." - Simon Hoggart in The Guardian

"The consensus is that Dave's call for Brown to sack Darling was misjudged, and that George Osborne over-egged things by claiming we've gone back to the 70s." - Ben Brogan

"Osborne first called for Alistair Darling to consider his position six days ago after the u-turn on non doms. Yesterday the volume was still turned up to 11 - announcing economic confidence in the government was "dead" - and again today when he called Darling "politically a dead man walking... We're at least 15 months out from a general election, so where do the Tories go next when something goes wrong with the economy (which it will)?" - Sam Coates, Times

The Speaker must go

"Anyone who cares about parliamentary democracy should be deeply unsettled by the latest in a long line of disturbing revelations about Michael Martin.  As Speaker, he is the guardian of the good name of the Commons and the man responsible for cleansing the House of sleaze. Yet now it emerges that he is up to his neck in it himself." - Daily Mail leader

Iraq dossier was written by spin doctors

"The "dodgy dossier" on Iraq which the Government claimed gave the intelligence agencies' case for war bore a striking resemblance to a draft by a Government spin doctor, it emerged on Monday." - Telegraph

William Hague's statement: "“This is yet further evidence that spin doctors, not intelligence analysts, were leading from the first in deciding what the British people were told about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.  Just last week David Miliband admitted that mistakes were made on Iraq.  Spinning the case for war was one of the biggest.  It is crucial that we all learn from the mistakes made.  However this will not be possible on the basis of the piecemeal release of some documents and not others.  What is really needed is the full-scale Privy Council Inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Iraq War which we have been calling for now for over a year.”

The Sun welcomes £20m cash boost for children's hospices

"Kids’ hospices are a Godsend to patients and their families.  They offer priceless care and comfort at the most desperate of times.  We welcome Gordon Brown’s £20million for hospices in support of The Sun’s campaign.  But we’ll go on fighting — so next year the cash is doubled." - The Sun Says

It's grim downunder for Australia's Liberals

New Liberal leader's ratings fall to single digits - The Australian

A new documentary reveals the backroom divisions that preceded John Howard's big defeat in last November's Australian election - ABC News

Clegg prepares to be tough with EU rebel

Clegg will force David Heath to leave LibDem frontbench if he insists on voting for EU Treaty referendum - Guardian (Background ToryDiary)

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Monday 18th February 2008

7.45pm ToryDiary: David Cameron and Margaret Thatcher unveil sculpture tribute to the Iron Lady

6pm ToryDiary: Cameron highlights need for food security

2pm: Live blog - Cameron-Osborne press conference

2pm: On CentreRight today...

• Hamish Marshall: The Democrat candidates are bribing superdelegates
• Peter Whittle: Self-hatred is the driving force of multiculturalism
• Robert Halfon: Learning from Obama, and Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Douglas Carswell MP: The internet and the rise of anti-politics
• Tim Montgomerie: Osborne misrepresented Thatcher's approach to spending
• Robert Halfon: Coalitions that the government has offended (continued)
• Peter Cuthbertson: Business start-ups are more successful than government ones, obviously
• Simon Chapman: Is Labour's bank nationalisation legal?
• Peter Cuthbertson: The limited appeal of McCain's record

1pm ToryDiary: Keeping it in perspective

ToryDiary: Fleet Street's swing voters divide on Northern Rock 

London Mayor: Five years on from the Congestion Charge's introduction, Phil Taylor has more analysis of how much it has cost to set up and maintain

Platform: Jeremy Hunt MP on Andy Burnham's ill-thought out "five hours of culture"

ToryDiary: Euroscepticism is a "very nasty patch of poisonous fungus" on David Cameron's blue-green tree

CF Diary: Why Karen Allen is standing for NME

Conservative dossier on youth dependence on benefits

"The figures show that nearly one in three young people - an estimated two million 16 to 24-year-olds - are living below the poverty line. With youth unemployment rising, one in six youngsters in Britain is claiming unemployment benefits, while nearly one in 10 are officially classed as NEETs - not in education, employment or training." - Telegraph

NFU conference this week

"Gordon Brown and David Cameron will be competing to see who can offer the most hope, each trying to persuade suppliers of food - and in the future, biofuels - that they are the farmer's friend. Cameron, a known supporter of hunting and field sports, is likely to be their favourite, and his address to the conference will attack supermarkets (the farmer's bête noire) by suggesting an extension to farmers' markets, where farmers can get higher prices but food can also be sold at a discount by cutting out the middleman." -
Guardian

"David Cameron is to warn of Britain's vulnerability to a "global food crunch" as he sets out a package of measures to support home-grown farming.' - Ananova

Waste is key

"Messrs Cameron and Osborne will remain cautious about promising tax cuts without explaining how they are to be funded. In one respect, however, the Tories can benefit from a change in the public mood. Over the past two or three years a lot of voters have come to believe that this government is wasting a lot of money. As a result, it should now be possible for Tories to argue that a tighter control of public expenditure could lead to a more effective use of public funds." - Bruce Anderson in the Independent

Still the nasty party when it comes to Europe

"The change is not complete. In the shade of the blue-green tree (the party’s emblem), a very nasty patch of poisonous fungus lingers on: it is Europe – and Mr Cameron now needs to address it because it could threaten the future success of his project. On Europe, the party has received no encouragement to move on from the negative mood of the Thatcher era. While calls for Britain to leave the European Union altogether are still confined to an eccentric minority of Tory peers, MPs and MEPs, most exhibit a mood of exasperation and hostility towards the EU. Party activists tend to be EU-allergic. The referendum issue fuels this fatalism." - Caroline Jackson MEP in the FT

Cameron's family holiday in South Africa - Sun

James Murdoch et al against breaking PSB monopoly

"A Conservative plan to make the BBC share the £3.4 billion proceeds of the licence fee has run into opposition from commercial broadcasters. David Cameron has ordered a rethink of the proposals, which he was sent for final approval last month, after ITV and BSkyB made clear that they were unhappy at the prospect of being required to take public funds." - Times

Northern Rock nationalised

"in an important break with British orthodoxy, it is the Conservatives who are isolated politically in their opposition to state ownership. This is an odd political moment for them. On one level it is a crisis that an opposition can only dream about, a government forced to nationalise a bank against its instincts. Yet the Conservatives' credibility is being tested too." - Steve Richards in the Independent

New Labour founders on the Rock - Telegraph leader

Absolutely, incredibly, utterly wrong - Anatole Kaletsky in the Times

Tories to advocate US-style National Security Council - Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Sunday 17th February 2008

10.30pm ToryDiary: Liam Fox avoids answering the 'will you spend more on defence?' question

5.45pm ToryDiary: Tories will vote against Labour's plans to nationalise Northern Rock

5.30pm PlayPolitical: Hillary Clinton issues video attacking Barack Obama

"I spent an entire morning, from 8am until 1pm, with Padoh Mahn Sha in his home just three days before gunmen came to kill him. I sat on the veranda where he was shot. I had lunch with him. He was not only someone I greatly respected - he was someone I could call a friend..."

5pm CentreRight: Ben Rogers remembers those who have died in the defence of democracy and human rights

ToryDiary: Nick Clegg's first big test and Tories 9% ahead in new YouGov poll

Graeme Archer on Platform: "“Why don’t immigrants learn English?” – hmmm. Quite how a man who works 50 hours a week in a Bengali-speaking kitchen, for less than the minimum wage, is going to find the time or the money for language lessons, was not a matter I had previously considered. But I will now."

Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: Barack Obama, Messiah

David Cameron reflects on the election that never was

"David Cameron has taunted Gordon Brown for pulling out of a snap autumn Election by admitting that the Tories would probably have gone down to another defeat." - Mail on Sunday

David Cameron: The surfer

The Mail on Sunday has photographs of the Tory leader holidaying in South Africa.

"Nick Boles, former head of the Policy Exchange think tank, insists it was Samantha who dragged her husband into “seeing the world through her eyes, or through other people’s eyes”.  He added: “It took someone like Samantha, who is not naturally party political – not even political – but is intensely interested in modern life, modern taste and modern attitudes, to explain ways in which the Conservative Party had to change. In truth, I think David only fully started to understand that in the last two or three years.”" - Sunday Express

More debate of the Tory spending pledge

"The Tory leadership frets that spending less - or even slowing the growth of public spending - would look irresponsible. But the tax burden is now doing such damage to our economy, that it's irresponsible not to rein in spending." - Liam Halligan in The Sunday Telegraph

"The government is cutting the growth of spending from 4% a year in real terms to 2% and can expect squeals of protest. There is little mileage at the moment for the Tories to come in with a lower figure." - Sunday Times leader

More tax powers for Scotland?

"Gordon Brown has performed a dramatic U-turn that has opened the door for Holyrood to be handed new tax-raising powers." - Scotland on Sunday | BBC

Darling to decide on 'Sharia bonds'

"Alistair Darling will announce in his Budget next month whether Britain will press ahead with plans for so-called "Sharia bonds" to attract money from the cash-rich Middle East, it was revealed last night." - Independent on Sunday

Andrew Rawnsley praises quality of Tory frontbench

"The Prime Minister is right when he tells friends that the Tories have finally mastered the arts of opposition. David Cameron is good at tormenting him in the Commons. The number of ministerial scalps hung from the belt of David Davis testifies to his skill as shadow Home Secretary. William Hague is a class act. I bet he gets a speech of the year award for the performance in which he brilliantly lampooned Mr Brown's reaction to the prospect of Mr Blair becoming President of Europe. George Osborne took apart Alistair Darling over the missing data discs. Person for person, the senior Tory frontbenchers don't come off worse in comparison with their Labour counterparts. You can picture the senior Cameron team sitting in government limos and carrying red boxes." - Observer

Boris Johnson explains his crime agenda

"We can make our streets safer, if we get more police out on the street, if we deal with the root causes and steer kids away from crime and the hell and expense of the criminal justice system, and above all if we stop pretending that people's everyday experience of crime is somehow a figment of their imaginations.  That's why I will be making sure that there are regular well-advertised monthly meetings between borough commanders, council leaders and the public, so that we can put our point of view across to the police. I will also be inaugurating cheap and effective New York style crime-mapping for London, so that we can all be armed with the real data about what is happening in our neighbourhood." - The Sunday Telegraph

Armed forces heading for 'train crash' because of underfunding

"A senior defence official has warned that the armed forces are heading for a “train crash” because the government is starving them of funds for vital equipment... Gerald Howarth, Conservative defence spokesman, said yesterday that the way in which funding for defence had been cut was “an absolute scandal of catastrophic proportions”." - Sunday Times

"Britain's overstretched Armed Forces are to send as many as 1,000 troops to the Balkans in a move that will see the military's last remaining reserve unit deployed on operations." - The Sunday Telegraph

"Britain's Armed Forces are seriously overstretched. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has insisted that the case for our continued military presence in Afghanistan is overwhelming, both morally and from the point of view of our national interest. We do not dissent from his claim. But it makes the failure to fund our troops properly more, not less, inexcusable and unforgivable." - Sunday Telegraph leader

On yesterday's Platform: Mark Allatt of Conservative Way Forward argues that it is time to invest in our armed forces before it is too late

More questions about The Speaker's ethics

"Michael Martin, the House of Commons Speaker, faced a fresh storm over his expenses last night after it emerged that he used air miles earned on official business to fly relatives from Glasgow to London over new year." - The Observer

Greg Hands MP's complaint against Gordon Brown wins more attention

It has now been taken up by the Mail on Sunday.  More background here.

Charles Kennedy sets out case to become Glasgow University rector - Sunday Herald

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Saturday 16th February 2008

9.45pm ToryDiary: Tories 9% ahead in new YouGov survey

11.30am ToryDiary: 'What does David Cameron really think?' - Key points from this morning's Radio 4 profile of the Conservative leader.

ToryDiary: The importance of George Osborne

Greg Hands MP on CentreRight encourages George Osborne to look at the example of Hammersmith and Fulham where taxes have been cut and Tories have prospered (despite Labour 'cuts' scares).

Also on CentreRight, Harry Phibbs encourages Boris Johnson to plant more trees and lower council tax.

Mark Allatt on Platform: Time to invest in our armed forces before it's too late

The Sun, too, calls for more defence spending

"The Sun has said repeatedly that our troops are treated shamefully.  In 2003 Sgt Steve Roberts died  in Iraq for lack of a flak jacket.  If squaddies want decent boots, they often have to buy their own.  Politicians like Browne make grand speeches about our Services.  But once the cameras stop rolling, they scuttle back to their desks and let requests for kit gather dust.  PM Gordon Brown cannot escape his share of the blame.  He has rigidly controlled the defence budget since Labour came to power in 1997.  Defence spending has not risen beyond two per cent of what the nation has earned every year.  That is HALF the level of when we won the Falklands War in 1982.  The Sun believes that the lives of our troops are priceless.  The Government must prove they believe this, too." - The Sun Says

Conor Burns reflects on the needless death of his friend, Captain James Philippson whose inquest reported yesterday.

George Osborne's tax reform speech

"By repeating his pledge to offer no unfunded tax cuts, Mr Osborne has made it likely the next election will be fought by the main parties committed to the same overall level of taxation." - FT

"Mr Osborne's three-year spending-pledge is likely to expire not long after the next election. Tory sources said this might give "wriggle room" for tax cuts over the following years.  The Shadow Chancellor - who is rumoured to favour a bolder approach on tax to Mr Cameron - indicated that a cut in corporation tax to help business is top of his list." - Daily Mail

Andrew Grice encourages Labour to take more tax from the rich - Independent

"A survey of wealthy UK residents from the Indian sub-continent has found that almost half are preparing to leave Britain because of the proposed tax crackdown on non-domiciled people." - FT

Telegraph readers get different messages on 'Tory boldness'

"Trust in the Tories is not so high that they can afford to be bold. Their emphasis on "stability" has allowed them to creep up from being 23 points behind Labour on economic competence two years ago to seven ahead today.  This is the time in the economic cycle when spending cuts could deepen recession. As it is, the Government is reducing its planned growth in spending, and public sector employees are getting cross. If the Conservatives now promised to be tougher than Labour, Mr Brown would at last have something to attack." - Charles Moore in The Telegraph

"Taxpayers sense that, even though we may be on the verge of a slowdown, the Government wastes money that would be better left in their pockets, spent more productively or directed at the national debt. Making that case now is the prerequisite for delivering the tax cuts Britain will need in the future." - Telegraph leader entitled 'Tories must be bolder'

Derek Conway loses premium salary from Commons

"The disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway has been sacked from a prestigious post in the House of Commons, losing his £13,000 extra salary.  The Speaker, Michael Martin, wrote to Mr Conway yesterday to remove him from the elite chairmen's panel of senior members after The Independent revealed the MP had held on to the coveted position despite being suspended from the Commons and stripped of the Conservative whip following an inquiry into his decision to employ his sons as researchers." - Independent

Ken Livingstone's suspension of Lee Jasper

"Ken Livingstone suspended one of his most senior advisers yesterday and referred allegations against him to the police as he struggled to put an end to an affair that threatens his re-election campaign." - Times

Yesterday's LondonMayor: Lee Jasper suspended pending police investigation

OTHER NEWSLINKS

British prisons are only 102 places away from reaching their 82,020 capacity - Sky News

The British government was powerless to resist the Saudi threats that forced it to close down the BAE corruption investigation - Guardian

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Friday 15th February 2008

6pm CentreRight:

• Jim McConalogue: Why would Turkey want to join the EU?
• Conor Burns: The inquest into the death of my friend, Capt James Philippson
• Peter Cuthbertson: Is some of the pay gap down to Labour legislation?
• Cameron Watt: China and Darfur
• Matthew Elliott: Thoughts on George Osborne's speech

1pm ToryDiary: George Osborne promises simpler and flatter taxation

Noon ToryDiary: George Osborne defends spending pledge

11am LondonMayor: Lee Jasper suspended pending police investigation

10.45am: Over at CentreRight Robert Halfon wants you to help him with his list of coalitions that Labour has upset.  Also Liam Fox MP posts a second review of the Munich Security Conference.

10am LondonMayor: Boris Johnson on green issues

Platform: Douglas Carswell MP explains why "sharia-lite" is wrong

Interviews: Andrew Lansley MP answers your questions

Lord Howe to lead Tory tax review

"Former chancellor Lord Howe is to lead a review of taxation policy for the Conservative Party. Shadow chancellor George Osborne is also expected to propose setting up an Office of Tax Simplification." - BBC

"The shadow chancellor is to address pressure from party MPs and activists for a more radical stance on tax and spending by promising a ‘fundamental rethink’ of the system" - FT

Women in the World report

"Millions of mothers have been "pressured" by Labour to return to work, the Tories claimed yesterday as they unveiled a raft of new proposals designed to capture female votes. A major report ordered by David Cameron said the Government's approach to working women had been to "compel, to lecture and to condescend"." - Mail

UK a soft touch for terrorists

"Britain has become a "soft touch" for home grown terrorists because ministers have failed to tackle immigrant communities that refuse to integrate, warns a report released today. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a body of the country's leading military and diplomatic figures, says the loss of British values and national identity caused by "flabby and bogus" Government thinking has made the country vulnerable to attack from Islamic extremists." - Telegraph

"Defence and security must be restored as the first duty of government" - Gwyn Prins in the Telegraph

"We remove defence and security from the cut and thrust of the party battle at our peril" - Telegraph leader

Forfeiting the respect of business

"In politics, as in business, hard-won reputations can be lost in a flash. In the case of Labour's reputation for economic competence, it was Flash who lost it. Gordon Brown's short spell at Number 10 has produced a disastrous collapse in his party's relationship with commerce and finance. Along with his colossally inept Chancellor, the Prime Minister has destroyed the Government's credibility inside British boardrooms and the City." - Jeff Randall in the Telegraph

Brown's contract out of poverty

"Extra cash payments worth about £2,000 a year could be made to the lowest income families if they look for work, go on training schemes or acquire fresh skills, under plans being considered by Gordon Brown. In what the Prime Minister terms a new programme to tackle child poverty, he will tell Labour activists today that he is looking at ways in which the Government can intervene – as in Scandinavia and New York – to help problem families to help themselves." - Times

For all our sakes, Boris must win

"Boris now needs to show us that he really believes he can win. This campaign is about ridding London of the malign influence of one of the most devious politicians this country has ever seen. If Boris can do that, he will have performed a public service to the whole country, with the added bonus that Ken Livingstone's political career will, like so many others, have ended in failure." - Iain Dale in the Telegraph

The Economist wades in

"Conservative Home, an online forum frequented by Tory activists and elites alike, points to an emerging split within the party: “hares” urge more active and radically conservative opposition to the government, whereas “tortoises” favour caution, on the assumption that the government will defeat itself. Tim Montgomerie, a former party official who founded the website, says voters want “a change of direction not just a change of management”. Without a clear idea of how a Tory government would differ from Mr Brown's, voters disillusioned with Labour may plump for the Lib Dems (whose new leader, Nick Clegg, has helped engender a slight blip in support) or stay at home." - The Economist

Bush cites London attacks to defend waterboarding - Guardian

Obama should be a unifying President - John O'Sullivan in the Telegraph

Obama gets waxwork in Tussauds but no room for Gordon Brown - Telegraph Spy

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Thursday 14th February 2008

1. Establish a no-fly zone in Darfur
2. The UN and EU must impose further sanctions if the UN-AU force is not deployed in full
3. The UNSC should expand the existing arms embargo to cover the whole of Sudan
4. Launch a major diplomatic drive to secure additional helicopters for the UN African Mission
5. Give every support to the ICC in prosecuting Sudanese officials

4.15pm Platform: William Hague MP sets out the next steps urgently needed to be taken on Darfur

2.15pm Local Government: Defection of Respect councillor makes Conservatives the largest opposition in Tower Hamlets

11.30am CentreRight:

• Simon Chapman urges the Conservatives to stop talking about hares and tortoises and focus on the overloaded camels (the voters)
• Jim McConalogue on the EU Presidential race
• Liam Fox MP reflects at length about the Munich Security Conference, asking why UK Ministers still don't bother to show up
• Samuel Coates highlights some surprising Green Party policies

11am ToryDiary: Statement from Nigel Waterson MP

ToryDiary: We did not lose the last election because we promised tax cuts and Derek Conway to keep £13,000pa bonus job

Theresa May MP on Platform: Government defeat brings EU laws into the open

Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: Labour's Europe Minister backs Tony Blair for EU President

Seats and candidates: Gavin Barwell adopted for Croydon Central

Johnson puts crime at forefront of London mayoral battle

"Crime emerged as one of the main battlegrounds in London's forthcoming mayoral election yesterday as the Conservative candidate, Boris Johnson, pledged to put more police on the capital's transport network, punish youngsters who abuse their free travel entitlement, and introduce maps giving a local picture of crime levels." - Guardian

Yesterday's ConservativeHome on Boris Johnson's announcements.

UK might be on verge of recession, says Bank of England Governor - Guardian

This Government has lost sight of the big issues

"This has become such a busybody government because it seems to have hit the buffers in its attempts to tackle the most intractable issues - reforming a welfare system that rewards idleness and discourages work; producing a soundly educated workforce; delivering a health service that offers standards of care and treatment that can match the rest of Europe; creating a transport infrastructure worthy of the world's sixth-largest economy.  This is where Mr Brown and his ministers should be focusing their energies - leaving people to get on with their lives without a constant bombardment of headline-grabbing vacuities." - Telegraph leader

Audit Commission: NHS is not more efficient

"A watchdog has warned that a key NHS reform has made hospitals more business-like but has not yet increased efficiency." - ePolitix

The quangocracy favours the south

"The boards of quangos are packed by people from London and the south-east, leaving large areas of England unrepresented on influential bodies that spend £123bn a year" - Guardian

MPs spend £1.2m on foreign trips - Telegraph

Tessa Jowell says Olympics boycott would be counter-productive - BBC

Tory MEP Edward Macmillan-Scott has called for a boycott of Beijing: "China is a terror state and human rights do not exist there. It is an economic miracle but in terms of human rights, it is a disaster.  With nearly seven million in forced labour or prison camps, widespread persecution and ruthless suppression of any dissent, China is not a fit host for the Olympics." (Quoted in the Daily Mail).

Commons International Development Committee "disappointed" by Afghan President's criticism of Britain - BBC

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Wednesday 13th February 2008

7pm CentreRight selections:

• Dan Hamilton is sure that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.  Samuel Coates sees parallels between Senator Obama and Tony Blair.
  
• Dan Lewis worries that sticking to Brown's spending splurge is beginning to look like fiscal suicide.
  
• Jim McConalogue isn't convinced that we should take MEPs seriously.
  
• Further to Peter Franklin's post on the Laffer curve, Matt Sinclair makes his first CentreRight contribution by arguing that the "evidence that tax cuts and controlling spending will have a very positive effect on growth is quite well established".
  
• Charlie Elphicke argues for non-doms making "a fair contribution".  

4.45pm ToryDiary: Fisking Peter Riddell

Noon LondonMayor: "I want a London where the Home Secretary feels safe to walk down the street" says Boris Johnson

10am CF Diary (ballot papers should be hitting doormats today):

• Why Christian May is standing for NME
• Daryl Williams: Create a CF Training College
• Why Anastasia Beaumont-Bott is standing for NME
• Why Daryl Williams is standing for Chairman
• Why Matthew Richardson is standing for Chairman

Platform: Dr Charles Tannock MEP on why we need to take the European Parliament more seriously

ToryDiary: Michael Fallon challenges George Osborne to cut the "unsustainable" growth in the size of the state

This morning on CentreRight (comments now enabled!):

• Hamish Marshall on how offence is the best defence in Afghanistan
• Peter Franklin on the left side of the Laffer curve
• Dr Crippen on Commissar Burnham receiving the Order of Lenin
• Julia Manning on the Government increasing teachers' hypertension

Spending pledge is for buying time

"The Tory blogosphere and the party Right have become excited by reports that David Cameron is about to drop his pledge to match Labour’s public spending plans. This is wrong: no such shift will occur but that does not mean that the Conservative leadership is committed to following Labour's commitments for ever. It is all a question of timing, a crucial nuance that has become lost in the sound and fury." - Peter Riddell in the Times

"Every time we match a commitment to a tax cut with a commitment that we will increase another tax to pay for it, we undermine the moral case for low taxation. We give no hope to those people at the bottom of the heap - the worker in his first job at the minimum wage, the pensioner on a fixed income - that we understand the pressures on them and that we are determined to help them. Restoring our public finances will not be easy. It wasn't when we returned to power in 1979. But we began by being on somebody's side." - Michael Fallon MP in the Telegraph

Darling retreat on non-doms

"Following opposition from business leaders, City banks and Government advisers, the Chancellor has dropped many of his planned financial disclosure rules." - Telegraph

"If you let your opponent write the script, you cannot expect to enjoy the story. This is the harsh truth for Alistair Darling from the fiasco over plans for a tax crackdown on wealthy foreigners. Tuesday’s climbdown on the new regime for residents who claim “non-domiciled” status is the latest episode in a humiliating saga that began when the government allowed the opposition Conservative party to shape its financial statement last autumn." - FT

Yesterday's Platform: Michael Fallon MP on the dangers of taxing non-doms

Creative Industries Green Paper

"These [small] businesses have been hit hardest by Mr Brown's dithering on capital gains tax and his continuing silence on the problems faced by the children's television industry in the face of Labour's advertising ban. It is these small businesses that have had to cope with the red tape that has swamped business in the past ten years. Above all, it is these businesses that will be disappointed by the kind of micromanaged, small-scale ambition of this strategy paper." - Ed Vaizey in the Times

Governments do not make culture; artists and entrepreneurs do - Times leader

Miliband holds the torch for liberal interventionism

"David Miliband will attempt to recast British foreign policy in the post-Iraq era tonight, arguing that mistakes there and in Afghanistan should not derail the moral imperative to intervene abroad in the pursuit of spreading democracy." - Times

"Mr Miliband bravely accuses his friends on the Left of having allowed the Right to monopolise the case for democratic intervention. But he evades the awkward question of how a government that has refused its own population a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - one of the most profound constitutional changes in recent British history - can constitute an unblemished model of democracy. Nevertheless, his wider message is cogent, well-judged and morally unimpeachable." - Telegraph leader

Jack Cunningham providing access to gvot

"A former Labour cabinet minister has been paid to help secure meetings with the government, the Guardian can disclose. Jack Cunningham, now in the House of Lords, is paid £36,000 a year - for an estimated three hours' work a week - by the City of London Corporation to give political advice. The corporation said that as part of his consultancy, he calls ministers to arrange meetings with the authority when it is having difficulty securing one." - Guardian

Rise of the snoop

"More than a dozen Bills going through Parliament extend the powers of state inspectors to enter people’s homes, the Government has admitted. Despite a pledge by Gordon Brown last October that he would limit powers and introduce a liberty test, he has extended the right to enter property in planning, crime, environmental, education and health legislation." - Times

Growing concerns about China's threat to democracy

"Mr Miliband said China's economic success meant the advance of democracy could no longer be taken for granted and that people inside China and outside were rightly concerned about the next stages in political development. The Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott accused the Government of "Olympic humbug" by supporting the Beijing Olympics. He said China was the world's biggest country and its biggest tyranny." - Independent

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Tuesday 12th February 2008

5pm CentreRight selections:

• Dr Crippen sees Ken Livingstone's levy on Chelsea tractors as just another stealth tax.
• Matthew Elliott notes that Allister Heath, one of the stars of this generation, has been appointed Editor of City AM.
• After Nigel Evans' earlier post on the 'mosquito' product that deters groups of young people from gathering outside of shops and businesses, Julia Manning is more worried about real mosquitoes.

3pm BritainAndAmerica: Quickly retreating from Iraq could destroy the presidencies of Clinton or Obama

1pm Platform: The dangers of taxing non-doms by Michael Fallon MP

"Gordon Brown has been at it all along appeasing the agenda of ‘peaceful’ Islamist groups in the UK, who reject violence, but have stated they want to see a gradual move towards an Islamic state in Britain by means of a step by step alignment of British law with sharia."

Platform: Dr Martin Parsons explains Brown's hypocrisy in criticising the Archbishop's sharia comments

Local Government: Cllr Andrew Gilbert on incorporating a pro-family agenda into Cambridgeshire’s Sustainable Community Strategy

Seats and Candidates: Croydon Central shortlist

CF Diary: Matthew Lewis explains why he is standing for the CF Exec

Nigel Evans MP on CentreRight defends the 'mosquito' device that deters groups of young people from gathering outside of certain shops and businesses.

Spending pledge could last until a few months after a Conservative government

"David Cameron is to signal that the Tories are making no long-term pledge to match Labour's spending commitments. Senior sources insisted his undertaking to stick to the Government's spending proposals would not be reversed - but was likely to apply only to the first few months of a Conservative government." - Mail

"While the City fulminates, the Tories have been strangely silent, inhibited from attacking the plan because they thought of it first.  They insist their £25,000 levy is less onerous and intrusive than the Government's, a point the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is belatedly making clear. The Conservatives should be bolder.  The economic outlook has changed out of all recognition since these proposals were made. The Tories have already signalled they are ready to drop their ill-judged commitment to stick to Labour's spending plans." - Telegraph leader

Miliband to reassert Labour's liberal interventionist credentials

"The foreign secretary, David Miliband, will today set out the clearest exposition yet of Labour's recast foreign policy when he will argue that mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan must not cloud the moral imperative to intervene - sometimes militarily - to help spread democracy throughout the world. He will warn that the rise of China means that the world can no longer take "the forward march of democracy for granted", and that Britain must unambiguously be on the side of what he describes as "civilian surges" for democracy." - Guardian

Williams gets standing ovation from the Synod

"The Archbishop of Canterbury apologised to the Church of England yesterday for any “misleading choice of words” when he delivered his controversial speech on Islam, but insisted that he stood by his right to tackle such issues." - Times (video)

Gordon Brown backs him - Times

Rising prices

"Alarming increases in the cost of food and other goods were revealed in a new set of economic figures yesterday.  The prices companies must pay for raw materials soared at an annual rate of 18.9 per cent in January, the highest since records began 22 years ago." - Daily Mail

Health service reforms in full retreat

"Reform of the National Health Service is stalling as Britain continues to fall behind comparable countries in Europe, a report from the influential Reform think-tank concludes. " - Times

Yesterday's Platform: Authors Andrew Haldenby and Helen Rainbow write about their report

Time for The Speaker to go?

"As yet more damaging revelations emerge about MPs' expenses, there's never been a greater need for a strong Speaker to restore the battered reputation of the Commons.  Instead, the House finds itself saddled with Michael Martin - one of the least respected incumbents in the 600-year history of his office.  Far from tackling the scandal, doesn't he appear to be siding with the scroungers who want to hush it up?" - Mail leader

The Iraqi Government's obligations

"In the street, Iraqis are doing their utmost to get their country back on its feet. The Government must now urgently match this courage and resilience." - Times leader

British badminton star breaks Olympics contract in criticising China over Darfur - Guardian

Almost £500m of taxpayers' money has been spent on making 8,200 civil servants redundant - Independent

Job vacancies

• Business Relations Regional Manager - CCHQ
• Membership Assistant - CCHQ
• Political Assistant - Bath and North Somerset Council
• Agent - Bristol and South Glouc Conservatives
• Press Intern - West Mid Conservatives
• Office Manager - Adam Holloway MP
• Research Volunteer - Grant Shapps MP
• Research Assistant - Cheryl Gillan MP
• Parliamentary Assistant - Geoffrey Cox MP
• Volunteer - John Penrose MP
• Senior Transport Campaigner - CPRE
• Engagement Support Officer - Charity Commission
• Intern - CSJ
• Intern - Reform
• Intern - Stockholm Network
• Intern - Intelligent Giving
• Executive Media Assistant - LGA
• Policy and Information Officer - Families Need Fathers
• Parliamentary Campaigns Officer - The Ramblers

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Monday 11th February 2008

7.45pm PlayPolitical video: 'Can I come home from Iraq? Can I have medical cover? Can I afford my mortgage? 'No, you can't' says McCain'

4pm CentreRight selections:

• Robert Halfon lists the many groups that Labour have now managed to offend.
• Louise Bagshawe fears that the Republican right are embarrassing themselves.
• Simon Chapman on why radical reform of health and social care is inevitable.

ToryDiary: 'Ken Clarke would have been the Tories' McCain' and Is victory in sight on public spending?

Andrew Haldenby and Helen Rainbow on Platform: Reform is the only way to unlock value in the NHS budget

PlayPolitical video: Ken Clarke rejects "unworldly" Rowan Williams' ideas on sharia law

Chris Grayling seeks action to reach the Jeremy Kyle generation of dysfunctional young men

"Grayling will pledge that the Conservatives will promote positive role models, including more male teachers in primary schools, create more work-based apprenticeships, issue practical measures to tackle family breakdown and worklessness, and encourage "social entrepreneurs" to re-engage young men." - Guardian

Tories are under pressure to attack Labour's plans for taxation of non-doms

"In stark contrast to the furore over capital gains tax, in which the Tories vociferously backed business protests, the party has been conspicuous by its absence from the dispute over non-doms... The government’s proposal for a £30,000 levy came within weeks of a Conservative plan for a £25,000 fee. Industry groups fear Mr Cameron is holding back from criticising the Treasury move for fear any attack would be seen as an implicit admission of flaws in the Tory proposal.  A senior Tory backbencher has broken ranks, with an implicit criticism of his party’s proposals. Michael Fallon, a Thatcherite member of the Treasury select committee, said: “Chasing non-doms out of London is a huge mistake ... Why do we want to lose all that business to Luxembourg or Dublin or Geneva?”" - Financial Times

Breaches of Commons security

"The Tories accused ministers of covering up a "catastrophic failure of security" after an illegal immigrant, a Brazilian woman, was caught trying to gain entry to Parliament by using another person's security pass." - Independent

Alex Deane notes a "shocking coda" to the breach at CentreRight.com.

MPs favour move to scrap housing allowance and plough savings into higher pay - Independent

"Some have made the outlandish suggestion that the way to tackle abuse of the ACA is to incorporate the maximum sum available into MPs' basic pay, giving them all a £22,000 pay rise. This would, in effect, be a reward for errant behaviour." - Independent leader

Lord Ashcroft's tax status

"David Cameron has told Lord Ashcroft to clarify his tax position amid renewed pressure on the billionaire Tory peer to make a full commitment to the UK or lose his right to sit in parliament." - Guardian

Profile of Boris Johnson - The Guardian

The Sun Says: "We're not yet certain Boris Johnson has the gravitas to run our capital.  But his pledge of free bus travel for wounded troops is music to our ears."

The BNP are aiming to win votes by presenting themselves as community activists - Westminster Hour report

Gordon Brown pours cold water on idea of premiership teams playing overseas - Sky News

The biggest influences on Gordon Brown - The Telegraph is listing the top fifty, starting today.

Labour plan low spending limits for future internal elections - Times

Scottish watchdog to examine effectiveness of methadone programmes after Tory pressure - Herald

Tim Hames is dreaming of a McCain-Petraeus ticket - Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Sunday 10th February 2008

9pm CentreRight: Peter Cuthbertson lists five other reasons why Rowan Williams should retire.

3pm CentreRight selections:

• Harry Phibbs posts his first contribution to CentreRight.com - on Richard Nixon's wisdom on employing relatives.
• Peter Whittle fears the compartmentalising of this country into officially designated cultural/ racial areas.
• Tim Montgomerie notes the Republican's Ann Coulter problem.

1pm PlayPolitical video: John McCain = Dr Stangelove

ToryDiary: Are Kate Hoey and Frank Field about to be expelled from the parliamentary Labour Party?

LondonMayor: Harry Phibbs looks at what London's Labour MPs say about Livingstone

Platform: Graeme Archer's diary, on jury service and Rowan Williams

Seats and Candidates: East Midlands shortlist added

Questions over Davis' campaign funds

"A senior member of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet has been dragged into a fresh row over political funding after a Labour MP asked the elections watchdog to investigate a £20,000 contribution to his campaign team. David Davis faces the prospect of an Electoral Commission inquiry over a substantial donation that passed through several hands and was declared by four people, including Derek Conway." - Independent on Sunday

Michael Ancram claimed £20,000 for "running his country mansion" - Sunday Telegraph

Lord Forsyth criticises Goldie budget deal

"Former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth has attacked Conservative MSPs for backing the SNP in last week's budget, warning Britain now faced the real prospect of "disintegration". The Conservative peer and opponent of devolution said it was "extraordinary" Scots Tory leader Annabel Goldie had decided to back First Minister Alex Salmond's spending plans." - Scotsman on Sunday

Love bombing potential coalition partners

"Although the mask sometimes slips in private, it is difficult to get Cameron's inner circle to be rude about the Lib Dems. I am told that when one of the circle was asked if he were worried about Clegg competing in the young, posh and moderate market, he said no, not at all. No surprise there, although his reasons were unexpected. It helps to widen that space in politics and to emphasise the contrast with Gordon Brown, he said, and it allows the Tories to concentrate on "flags and fireplaces" – in other words, on presenting Cameron with the trappings of a potential prime minister." - John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday

Heathrow-on-sea

"The backlash against the blight of Heathrow has resurrected demands to switch the capital’s principal airport to the Thames estuary. Boris Johnson, the Tories’ London mayoral candidate, announced this weekend that Heathrow was a “planning error” and ministers should consider phasing it out, instead of pressing ahead with a third runway - and a possible sixth terminal." - Sunday Times

Time for a new airport - Sunday Times leader

Inflation news and government debts to take economy, and Darling's reputation, from bad to worse

"Another glum week – or at least a glum week for just about everybody except the Tory high command, which can hardly believe its luck, as the hapless Chancellor is being battered by blow after blow. Unfortunately for the rest of us, things that damage the poor Mr Darling are also things that damage us." - Hamish McRae in the Independent on Sunday

"Some MPs and civil servants suggested Darling might be replaced by Ed Balls, the schools secretary and Gordon Brown’s former chief economic adviser. Darling was jeered at two City events last week as concerns mounted over his handling of the Northern Rock crisis, reforms of capital gains tax, and plans for a £30,000 “nondom” levy on rich foreigners living in the UK" - Sunday Times

Why nothing is done when solutions to social problems are known

"Our entire Establishment don't care. They want the police handcuffed by rules designed by Left-wing lawyers.  They like mass immigration. They want to be free to smoke dope, or let their children do it. They can buy good education for their own young, but prefer egalitarian dud schools for your offspring, because it's a principle, see?" - Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday

Parallels with Obama

"Cameron is also intrigued by Obama’s glamour. Tory modernisers see an obvious parallel in his message “I want to be part of the future not the past”. The Cameroons, like him, want to move on from the old ideological battles. Obama transcends Vietnam and the culture wars; the Tory “Obamaniacs” think the polarising private versus public sector dichotomy of the 1980s is old hat." - Martin Ivens in the Sunday Times

Cameron backs laws that would strip Ashcroft of peerage

"In an unprecedented move, the Conservative leader in the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, publicly warned Lord Ashcroft, who has a multi-million-pound business empire based in Belize in Central America, that he must come clean about his tax status." - Mail on Sunday

Rowan Williams Sharia commentary continues

What was he thinking of? - Sunday Times leader

He's committed treason - Minette Marin in the Sunday Times

He has many qualities, but not good judgment - Sunday Telegraph leader

Judges to rule on legality of a Sharia marriage - Observer

Business socialites show up at B&W ball

"Relations between the Conservatives and business have been strained in recent years. David Cameron distanced himself from the money men while rebranding the party, snubbing the 2006 CBI conference and ignoring pleas for tax cuts. Company chiefs, for their part, sat on the fence, disinclined to back an unproven Opposition." - Sophie Brodie in the Sunday Telegraph

GPs have got Britain hooked on painkillers - Observer

Harman to advocate 2% of seats having all-black shortlists - Sunday Times

Phil Woolas warns of consequences of inbreeding amongst Muslim immigrants - Sunday Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...