Thursday 20th March 2008

CentreRight selections:

• Peter Franklin notes Mike Huckabee's defence of Barack Obama.
• Tim Montgomerie defends his support for the Iraq war. He's now hiding in a bunker awaiting your comments.
• Robert Halfon begins a diary from South Africa.

3.45pm PlayPolitical: Gordon Brown meets John McCain

12.45pm ToryDiary: Fox on defence procurement

11.30am CentreRight: McCain visits Brown and Cameron

Maria Miller MP on Platform sets out the Conservative ambition to make Britain the most family-friendly nation in the world.

Parliament: David Cameron responds to the Prime Minister's strategy on national security

Seats and candidates: The four Tory held seats needing a candidate

Dan Lewis on CentreRight: After 2011 - who should get a 0% increase in government funding?

PlayPolitical: Defeating our enemies in Iraq will make it less likely that we'll face them here at home says George W Bush

Jack Straw is considering plans that would see Lords replaced with 400 member Senate

"Much of the secret discussions revolve around the way in which the 350-400 members – fewer than the 540 mooted only a year ago – will be elected. It is agreed that the “senate” will be either 80 or 100 per cent elected.  Elections could be held at the same time as general elections, European elections, or Welsh and Scottish polls.  Batches of three or four senators would each represent 80 to 100 “multi-member” constituencies. Existing life peers would be gradually replaced as the senators are elected in stages every four or five years." - FT

Tories come within 20 votes of defeating Labour on Post Offices

The 19 Labour MPs who voted to stop the closures - BBC

Iain Martin: Tory tensions are a by-product of David Cameron's success

"As the Conservatives reach Easter, the broader Tory tribe should take the long view. Polls will go up and down between now and the next general election, but, for the first time in almost two decades, the challenges are born not of failure and defeat: Cameron's problems are a by-product of progress and success." - The Telegraph

Bercow to present interim findings of his special needs enquiry - ePolitix

Council tax rises under Labour equivalent to 4p on income tax - Guardian

Livingstone and London Greens urge supporters to give each other their second preferences - Guardian

The drop in Labour's support to 30% is the most significant feature of recent polls

"The rise in Conservative support to above 40 per cent is not the key change, music though it is to the ears of David Cameron in the face of complaints in the Tory blogosphere about “why aren’t the Tories doing better?” The Conservatives have already been above 40 per cent on nine previous occasions this year... The more significant shift is the sharp fall in Labour support, from an average of 34 per cent in five polls before the Budget to an average of less than 30 per cent in three polls since then." - Peter Riddell in The Times

McCain to meet Brown and Cameron - BBC (We hope to have Cameron-McCain photographs later)

Mary Riddell previews the Brown-Sarkozy summit

"The Brown/Sarkozy double act began last August, when they helped force through a UN resolution mandating 26,000 peace-keeping troops for Darfur. Shoulder to shoulder, they demanded "quick and decisive action" and promised further pressure. Some forces are in place, but the fighting in west Darfur is as bad or worse than it was then. There is no obvious leverage on Khartoum, no influx of helicopters and hardware, no end to death, no tough sanctions and no peace to keep." - The Telegraph

Hazel Blears leads 'stay Blairite' call to Brown - Telegraph

But there's another dispute within ministerial ranks over ministerial cars.  Miliband and Benn want colleagues to move to green hybrids but Hutton and Balls are opposed.  More in The Sun.

The whole corrupt system of postal voting should be ditched - Ross Clark in The Times

Below inflation rate pay rises are norm for majority of workers - Daily Mail

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

Comments

[Iain]

"Jack Straw is considering plans that would see Lords replaced with 400 member Senate"

I used to be in favour of having an elected second chamber, but in light of MP's acting like lobotomised lobby fodder, who have quite happily attempted to vote away our rights and freedoms, and who have reneged on manifesto promises, with the Lords the only bulwark against an over mighty executive, I have now come to the conclusion that our so called elected 'representatives' are pretty useless, and as such it would be a bad day for the people of this country if/when the Lords are removed.

[Malcolm Dunn]

I've changed my mind on the merits of an elected second chamber too.
Totally agree with Ross Clark in the Times. Postal voting is open to fraud. It should be abolished.

[Iain]

"Postal voting is open to fraud. It should be abolished."

Unfortunately the Conservatives seem to be passive watchers where constitutional reform is concerned, and where Labour are treating our constitution as their private play thing, the Conservatives only ambition seems to revolve around making Labours 'reforms' work rather than change them, starting with the West Lothian question, a matter on which the Conservatives have nothing to say.

[bexie]

An elected second chamber might work if it was based on geographical areas. The issue with the commons is that it degrades to dictatorship of the countryside by the cities, which leaves people outside of marginal constituencies/ city centres effectivly disenfranchised

[IRJMilne]

"Jack Straw is considering plans that would see Lords replaced with 400 member Senate"

This is dreadful if true.

[Harvester]

Postal voting fraud will be huge in the Mayoral/GLA election especially in certain communities.

[Iain]

"An elected second chamber might work "

Only if the Commons is sorted out, for with the Lords the only place able to put up any sort of resistance to the Executive, and even then limited, any changes made to the Lords has to come in with changes to the Commons to limit the power of the Executive, like remove the Party's patronage of the appointments to the select committees, and place the business administration of the Commons with the Speaker, not a Minister. The Commons has to be returned to being the territory of the Parliamentarians, not the Executives play thing.

[michael mcgough]

Bertie Ahern is looking vulnerable (see www.independent.ie)as his secretary on IR£67pw shovelled money converted into sterling into building society a/cs for his family.If he is found to have had UK accounts,possibly held jointly (with perhaps Manchester Hibernians) he will fall.If he falls so will the Lisbon Treaty in the Irish Referendum.

[Pisaboy]

Nice pic of McCain. Do you hang around Parliament all the time waiting for pics like that?

[Patsy Sergeant]

Nice to know that the Ministry of Education and der di der etc:, knows what is quite acceptable for our primary school children!

' A minister was jeered and heckled by teachers yesterday as he backed supersize classes of more than 70.' !!!

'In noisy scenes, Jim Knight was greeted with cries of 'NO!' as he INSISTED primary classes of 38 were manageable.'

'The schools minister went on to claim that groups of more than 70 were 'perfectly acceptable' if teachers were helped by classroom aides.'

'A leading member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers gave him a lengthy public dressing-down following his keynote speech at their annual conference yesterday.'

Further on the article continues with another quote from Mr. Knight, who said that he had visited a school in Telford where a 'charismatic' maths teacher was giving a lesson to more then 70 students, helped by big screens and teaching assistants. 'There was good learning going on,' he said. He insisted that evidence that children aged seven and over benefited from small classes was 'less clear'.'

Maybe Mr. Knight has cataracts coming!!!

The article is in today's Mail.

[James Maskell]

Regarding Knight, I have read of some classes being far larger than normal with no massive damage to standards/quality of teaching. There were double class sizes but with three teaching staff with the class. It may well have been the Telford school. There has been coverage in the past and its been generally positive. It was less than a year ago.

Still, stupid to bring up such an idea in front of a conference. Surely thats something where consultation would have been more appropriate?

[michael mcgough]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0320/mahon.html

another bad day for Ahern-------details of an English bank account could finish him and the Treaty.

[Peregrine]

Is there anyway we can stop portillo (various rude words self-deleted) being the BBC representative of the Conservative party?

I am starting to lose sleep after his awful performances on This Week.