Thursday 24th April 2008

8.15pm ToryDiary: David Cameron's Chief Speechwriter leaves for charity work

6pm ToryDiary: Tories surge to 18% lead in first poll after 10p row

5pm: LondonMayor: Boris Johnson's latest email bulletin

4.30pm ToryDiary: Six must-adopt ideas to tackle social injustice

3pm PlayPolitical: Watch Yvette Cooper get the Jeremy Paxman treatment

2.30pm: Simon Chapman on CentreRight on the unravelling of Brown's 10p climbdown

12.15pm ToryDiary: Unless we address the West Lothian Question the United Kingdom is in great danger warns Sir Malcolm Rifkind

12pm CentreRight: Harry Phibbs misses the pre-postal vote days and Alex Deane laments the over-reaction of transport bureaucrats to overcrowding

ToryDiary: Unthinking environmentalism costs taxpayers, costs jobs and costs lives

Daniel Kawczynski MP criticises negative coverage of Polish immigrants: BBC wrong to single out Poles

Parliament: Andrew Lansley on reforming GP services and David Ruffley on tackling crime in London

PlayPolitical videos:

• Watch Simon Heffer and Iain Dale debate an English Parliament
• Gordon Brown tells Sky's Adam Boulton why he has compensated victims of his 10p tax changes
• Home-made video attacks McCain for his wealth
• Republican ad that attacks Obama's links with his controversial pastor

GORDON BROWN'S ST GEORGE'S DAY MASSACRE

Gordon Brown had no choice but to retreat on 10p - Philip Webster in The Times

"In the end it took a face-to-face meeting between Gordon Brown and Frank Field last night to end the 10p revolt.  But if the government thinks it’s out of the woods, it should think again. Backbenchers are ready to use their newfound clout over other issues: the next big one being 42 days terror suspect detention without trial." - Jim Pickard on the FT blog

Brown warns he won't back down on 42 days - Daily Mail

> David Gauke MP: What does Labour's 10p retreat tell us about Gordon Brown?

The right solution to the 10p tax mess is higher thresholds

"There is a good case for getting rid of the 10p starting rate and simplifying the tax system. But this way is the wrong way. The Government should increase allowances to take more of the low-paid out of tax altogether.  Mr Brown's approach is to make even more Britons beholden to him as the grand dispenser of taxpayers' largesse. He said yesterday that Labour's task was to lift people out of poverty. In which case, let the poor keep more of their own money." - Telegraph leader

"Taxing with one hand and giving credits with the other is confusing and bureaucratic.  We need long-term solutions.  And the Tories must suggest some too as well as attacking the PM.  Why not take the low-paid out of tax altogether?  Wouldn’t that be simpler and more transparent than complex credits?" - The Sun Says

Tebbit: Cameron should be wooing the voters who stopped supporting the Tories - not Blair's voters

"At the last election that Labour lost, in 1992, Neil Kinnock's vote was 11.6 million. In 1997, Tony Blair scored 13.5 million, an increase of 1.9 million. John Major's vote fell from 14.1 million to 9.6 million - a loss of 4.5 million. The Liberal Democrat vote also fell by 0.8 million, most of which, one might guess, supported Mr Blair.  So, even if Tony Blair recruited not a single voter who had abstained in 1992 - a very unlikely scenario - no more than 1.1 million Tories deserted to New Labour. In all likelihood the total was less than half a million." - Read Lord Tebbit's full letter to The Telegraph

> Tebbit is responding to this story

Obituary for "staunchly Thatcherite" Conservative MP for Newark, Richard Alexander - Independent

Schools minister vows 'no retreat' as NUT strike - PoliticsHome transcript service

New Tony Blair portrait unveiled - Times - Click to enlarge >>>

Latest Mayoral race news

Matthew d'Ancona writes the case for Voting for Boris - Spectator

Boris Johnson attacks Ken Livingstone on youth crime record - Telegraph

Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell have both been advising Ken Livingstone on re-election - Guardian

Who will run a Johnson London? Dave Hill notes that supporters wish Boris had named more appointees - Guardian

Boris in sleaze row over undeclared shareholding - Independent

Bill to force all peers to pay tax in UK will be debated today - ePolitix

Why I'm standing to be a local councillor - Kelvin Mackenzie in The Spectator

800 US troops now in Basra - FT

Boris is in the top twenty most popular politicians in the world on Facebook, just behind Sarkozy... Join his group and invite your friends! 

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