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...
