Monday 21st April 2008

11pm ToryDiary: Voters prefer Darling to Osborne in ICM poll

3.15pm CentreRight: Liam Fox MP cites figures showing the UK grows more opium poppy than Pakistan and Dr Crippen offers his thoughts on polyclinics

2.15pm PlayPolitical comedy videos: Headcases mocks Cameron, Hague and Osborne and Rory Bremner targets the private lives of the Mayoral hopefuls

Lunchtime on CentreRight: Mark Field MP has "deep misgivings" about today's Bank of England bail-out

11.45 LondonMayor: 'Sick' Kate Hoey pulls out of Boris event

11.30am CentreRight: Latest poll puts Boris 6% ahead on second prefs

ToryDiary:

• Ken Clarke to recommend that MPs from Scotland and Wales should retain final say on English laws
• David Cameron launches campaign to save 1,600 GP surgeries

LondonMayor: Ten reasons to vote for Boris Johnson

PlayPolitical video: Boris Johnson faces hostile questioning on gay issues at Stonewall hustings

Elizabeth Truss and Lucy Parsons on Platform: Moving from a "why bother" to a "can do" economy

Seats and candidates: How many people in today's politics have run a business or served in their country's armed forces?

Been away? Click here for ConservativeHome's one page guide to all recent developments in our party.

Tories consider paying mums to stay at home - Daily Mail

David Cameron woos Tony Blair's inner circle

Lord Adonis, Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers all praised by the Conservative leader - Telegraph

Will the SNP put David Cameron into office?

"Alex Salmond yesterday promised to force "Westminster to dance to a Scottish jig" by more than trebling the number of SNP MPs.  The First Minister set a target of winning 20 seats at the next General Election, a total which he claimed could give the party the balance of power in the Commons." - Telegraph

"The polls suggest a stronger-than-usual chance that Labour and Conservative could be close run, and that the LibDems risk losing ground. If either of the dominant parties need support, they are going to have to do deals, and the LibDems are not the only potential suitors. The SNP or Northern Irish votes could become crucial. That reflects the other proposition: that the SNP grows from its current six seats to Mr Salmond's new target of 20." - The Herald

Iain Duncan Smith Q&A

Q. Do you regret backing Tony Blair on Iraq?

A. "No. I believe it was the right thing to do. I am sorry that the post-invasion strategy in the first six months was so woeful and that in that period we let the terrorists gain a hold. A stable and prosperous Iraq is worth striving for. No one shed too many tears for the 5,000 to 10,000 children a month that were dying before the invasion as a result of our failed sanctions that also allowed Saddam Hussein to stay in power and murder his people."

Read the other Q&A in The Independent

Amir Khan complains of being used by Labour

"The Labour Party will tomorrow receive a call from Amir Khan's management, querying the boxer's appearance on campaign leaflets for next week's local elections. Khan, 21, is pictured with Labour candidate Amina Lone on pamphlets for the Manchester ward of Whalley Range, a fiercely contested seat which used to be a red-light district but now has a significant Muslim population.  Khan and his management, including promoter Frank Warren, are so careful to avoid politics that the puncher cannot even campaign for his uncle, Shahid Mahmood (father of the cricketer Sajid Mahmood), who is standing for the Conservatives in Bolton." - The Independent

Prescott's bulimia

"John Prescott's struggle with bulimia is no laughing matter. This is a serious psychological condition with potentially dangerous consequences. But in the Fat Controller’s case, it was surely a wrong diagnosis. Prezza blames pressures of high office and says he spent every waking hour working or “stuffing my face” (and, occasionally, Tracey’s).  More likely, he was just a greedy incompetent who gobbled every tasty treat going." - Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun

Yasmin Alibhai Brown lists the reasons she won't be voting for Boris - The Independent

The 10p tax con

"To tax the dustman to provide the Duke's opera, or the nursery nurse to feed the Navy, as we do, might be objectionable, but to tax the poor so that bureaucrats can give money to the poor is simply ludicrous. We should stop doing it." - Tim Worstall in The Times

TUC leader slams Brown over 10p rate - Guardian

Taxing the rich will be counterproductive

"The Institute for Fiscal Studies said it had “new, albeit tentative” evidence that ratcheting up income tax rates for those earning more than £100,000 was likely to be counter-productive, based on the evidence of the past 40 years.' - FT

Seats and candidates: Conservative candidates who are making headlines

ToryDiary: Are the Conservatives planning a £700m rescue package for the 10p tax victims?

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Comments

[BB]

The Banking Crisis

Some of the people in charge of our banks are as thick as two thick planks.

There was a reason why in the good old days when the wise old sages who once ruled our banks said "no more than twice your income is how much we will give you a mortgage for", then came the inexperienced "young things" who took over the Boards of the Banks and those who are government ministers who said no we will lend at 10 times your income. Result a fine old mess.

Take Sir Fred Goodwin and the Board of the Royal Bank of Scotland. They spent shareholders money like confetti to buy ailing Dutch investment bank ABN-AMBRO for 56 billion pounds and to top it a 10% share of the Bank of China.

Result the Royal Bank of Scotland now its knees with little liquidity has now come begging to its shareholders for rescue.

No doubt Sir Goodwin, like Northern Rocks Applegarth, will retire or be fired with a handsome golden handshake and bonus.

As for the clever bods at the Treasury and the Bank of England who supposedly have unlimited funds, well they thought of an intelligent idea of buying the risky investments and mortgages which the banks have no hope of reclaiming back, with falling house prices, in exchange for giving them 50 billion pounds of taxpayers money with a promise of more to come.

Its seems to me that the BoE is doing exactly what Citibank, Bear Stearns, UBS, RBS, Northern Rock and many others have done. The question is when will the BoE too sucumb to their fate?

Remember those who play with fire get burned by fire!

[BB]

Any truth that David Cameron's Conservatives are planning to re-introduce the 10% tax bracket?

[Bazzer]

Routine journeys carried out by millions of British motorists can be monitored by authorities in the United States and other enforcement agencies across the world under anti-terrorism rules introduced discreetly by Jacqui Smith.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/21/nspy121.xml

[Dave B]

The Kavanagh piece in The Sun (linked to above) is a very thorough attack on Labour's record.

[Dave B]

The National Journal (USA) has a very interesting article about how the Clinton/Obama campaigns use volunteers and IT.

(found via The Spectator's 'Americano' site.)

[Dean]

The Living Legacy of Maggie Thatcher: How the Politics of Conviction Saved Britain

[RobC]

Tim

It's a shame that you have given 'airtime' to the Sun's take on Prescott's eating disorder. You are supporting the stigmatism of mental illness and eating disorders. These are far too serious to be covered in such a flippant way. Yesterday you gave one line to the serious articles, today a whole paragraph to the Sun's 'humourous' view. Until society understands more about these illness, especially for men, then they will continue to be a problem for society. How about an 'And' theory on this. More research and better education on mental illness, and in particular eating disorders AND reform of the NHS to ensure services are delivered efficiently.

Finally, well done John Prescott for speaking out. Politically, I am a million miles from him. Emotionally, closer than Hull is to the River Humber!

[Dave B]

"NEWHAM LONDON Borough Council has scrapped the controversial 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) it signed with Microsoft in 2004 and drawn up a new agreement with a new set of deliverables.

The council decided Microsoft's flagship government contract failed to demonstrate its value, four years after it was signed." The Inquirer

[Dave B]

@RobC

Guido suggests that what Mr Prescott describes is gluttony, rather than bulimia.

[Mark Wadsworth]

"Tories consider paying mums to stay at home"

I haven't looked at the details, but it strikes me that as the existing tax/welfare system encourages single parenthood, reducing benefits paid to single Mums and paying the same amount to married Mums must be A Good Idea. It's a step towards a 'Citizen's Basic Income' welfare model.

Sure it will cost money, but it massively reduces the external/social costs (which IDS estimated at £102 billion - dunno where he got the £2 billion from!).

BTW, there are only a million or two 'stay at home married Mums, so the static cost would be tiny (£3 billion?) compared to existing welfare state (£80 billion, cash cost excl. pensions?). And studies have shown, cash payments to mothers are more likely to be spent on food/necessities than a corresponding tax-break for a working husband.

[Mark Wadsworth]

Re Prescott: reminds me of Duke of Edinburgh's finest moment. At a place where they train guide dogs for the blind, he quipped "Amazing what you can teach dogs. I've heard that they're training eating dogs for anorexics."

[Yet Another Anon]

Lord Adonis, Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers all praised by the Conservative leader
All former prominent figures in the government, by praising them he adds nothing to the position of the government and while worrying many Conservative members, he also winds up Labour members and many Labour politicians who don't see these people as being one of them and rather label them as "Social Democrats" or even Conservatives.

I really don't think there is any chance of Alan Milburn or Stephen Byers defecting, in fact more recently they have been critical of the government for not being Socialist enough particularily over Tax Credits and Stephen Byers did go up in many Labour members estimation when he presided over the switching of the railway infrastructure from Railtrack to Network Rail.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Absolutely, Dave B @ 12.12! And as 'old habits die hard', one shouldn't ever forget a political motive in the story!

[bexie]

Nice to see the indie readers on the whole slating YAB's unpleasent (what's new) attack on Boris. What a nasty piece of work she is

[Dave B]

Writing in The Telegraph, on Mr Obama's recent 'bitter' gaffe in the USA Democratic primary race, Janet Daley says:

"Unlike in Britain, where the opinions of ordinary people are held in pretty much open contempt, at least insofar as they do not conform to the acceptable limits of what might be called BBC received orthodoxy, in the US (which takes mass democracy very seriously indeed) they are treated with immense, electorally significant respect.

So is there a lesson for Britain in any of this? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly, ordinary people here are much more inured to being insulted and condescended to by their political class and even by their unelected bien pensant broadcasters, but that does not mean that they are incapable of the same outrage as their counterparts in America.

Are they going to find their voice and take their revenge? For the moment, it's an open question."

[Martin Wright]

Editor, this must be worth a link.

The Evening standard continues its relentless campaign against Ken Livingstone. This lunchtime's headline is "Ken's Adviser is linked to Terror Group". This is a different accusation to the one last week. This time it is a former member of the now banned International Sikh Youth Federation. One of its members was convicted of the 1985 Air India bombing.

Allegedly, per the Standard, the successor organisation Sikh Federation UK glorifies "martyrs" in its 2008 calendar and needless to say the organisation gets funding from Red Ken.

Read for yourself at
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/

[Editor]

RobC: I'm sympathetic to what you write (1201) but the links aim to give people a relatively comprehensive view of how columnists/ papers are covering major stories. Not every link corresponds to material we agree with. Polly Toynbee would never get a look in if that was our policy!

Thanks Martin Wright: I think you've done the necessary!

Tim

[David Belchamber]

Editor - do you think we could get DC to suggest to the PM at PMQs that he sack the person directly responsible for causing the PM such embarrassment over the aboliton of the 10p rate?

[David Belchamber]

For passingleftie who, like Brown, is in denial about the real impact of the abolition of the 10p band, I see from tonight's news that something like 3.4M (out of the 5.3m) people will be worse off, as they are not eligible for tax credits.

[Dave B]

"[Labour] is not the party of the poorest, not any more. It is now the political wing of British state bureaucracy." Fraser Nelson, Spectator

[comstock]

Labour up 5 in the latest opinion polls. Gap appears to be closing (Labour 34 Tories 30 Liberals 19)

[comstock]

""[Labour] is not the party of the poorest, not any more. It is now the political wing of British state bureaucracy."

Which begs the question, what is the party of the poorest?

Certainly not any of the joke groups which claim to occupy old Labour terratory (Left List, RESPECT, SWP etc etc)

[Pete]

Must be said that UKIP's immigration stance is about protecting the weaker groups (rather than helping the nanny employing classes).

[Yet Another Anon]

From the Daily Telegraph:
Tory rebel Bob Spink becomes Ukip's first MP
Could be the first of a number of defectors, Castle Point even with Bob Spink standing in 2005 saw one of UKIPs best results and they must have good prospects of holding the seat in the 2009 General Election.