Tuesday 6th May 2008

8.30pm BREAKING NEWS:  55% of LABOUR voters want Brown to resign

8pm (until 9pm): Iain Dale is hosting a live chat with Eric Pickles MP

6.15pm CF Diary: Student wing of CF launched

6pm PlayPolitical: Alan Duncan says Labour's young guns are a liability and John McCain argues that only he will stop activist judges being appointed

5.30pm CentreRight: Samuel Coates reviews Diary of an On-Call Girl and Lee Rotherham notes the benefits to be had for a country holding an EU referendum

2.45pm ToryDiary: Boris and Ray Lewis to introduce "respect schooling" as part of the war against knife crime

1.30pm ToryDiary: Nadine Dorries MP launches cross-party campaign to reduce abortion limit to twenty weeks

Noon ToryDiary: 1st May, a celebration in pictures

ToryDiary: Tories accuse Wendy Alexander of "knee-jerk panic" after she supports early referendum on Scottish independence

Seats and candidates: Conservatives can win Crewe (with YOUR help)

Dan Hannan MEP on Platform: Four pro-EU "Charities" got £34,597,219.16 last year

Local government: Wakefield's Cllr Mike Walker explains how he turned wards run by Labour for 26 years into Tory wards with four figure majorities

Boris Johnson's mayoralty begins with inspirational appointment...

"Mr Johnson, elected on Friday, announced the appointment of Ray Lewis, an inspirational black community leader, as a deputy mayor with a key role in tackling youth violence. Mr Lewis, a former prison governor, runs a successful school for troubled youths, which he predicts will educate Britain's first black prime minister." - Telegraph

"On his first official day in office, Johnson asked the "inspirational" Ray Lewis to deliver his "dynamic but strict approach" across London. Lewis, 44, who was educated in Walthamstow, north-east London, after moving to Britain from Guyana, is a former governor of Woodhill prison in Milton Keynes. He set up the Eastside Young Leaders' Academy, which encourages black boys to be leaders in business and law, after being appalled by the number of black youngsters who end up in prison." - Guardian

...and he may bring in New York police guru

"Mr Johnson is reportedly considering taking on Bill Bratton, the US police chief, to advise on policies to cut crime rates in London, which would further strain relations with Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. None of Mr Livingstone’s key advisers is expected to be retained." - Times

Will there be tensions between Cameron and Johnson on immigration and the environment? - Daily Mail

Talksport sack James Whale for urging listeners to vote for Boris - Daily Mail

Tories vow to save £100m from lottery waste

"New figures seen by The Daily Telegraph show that hundreds of millions of lottery tickets have to be sold to pay for the running costs of the 15 organisations which distribute the money. The costs have grown from £145 million in 2003 to £205 million this year. This means that for two months every penny spent on tickets is absorbed by the bureaucrats." - Telegraph

The Tories need to behave like a government-in-waiting

"The challenge for the Conservatives is to position themselves to take maximum advantage of the new interest in them, to create a sense of inevitable momentum sweeping them to power.  They need to form broad alliances with charities, businesses and leading personalities, taking them on board on commissions and policy groups, creating as wide a buy-in as possible to the Conservatives forming the new government." - Telegraph

Brown accelerates help for losers from 10p tax abolition - Independent

Polly Toynbee: Labour has become the stupid party

"It is Labour that has become the stupid party - dumb, directionless, depressing. That's why the voters gave them that 24% sucker punch: it wasn't about ideology, it was about basic political competence." - Guardian

The world needs a Britain in control of her own destiny

"It remains to be seen whether David Cameron as prime minister would embark upon a major confrontation with the European Union, but if he does so he will be remembered as a leader who changed the course of British history and reasserted Britain's place as an independent nation state. He must also be prepared to reverse years of defense cuts that threaten to cripple Britain's hugely overstretched armed services, currently suffering from the lowest levels of defense spending since the 1930s. And Cameron must work to strengthen the Anglo-American Special Relationship, a unique partnership between two great nations that has been considerably weakened under Gordon Brown. The world needs a Britain that is more powerful, self-confident, and in control of her own destiny, and for the next prime minister these must be top priorities." - Nile Gardiner writing for The Weekly Standard

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

[Iain]

The Telegraph reports that England is about to become the most populous country in Europe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/06/dl0602.xml

I have raised the issue of over population several times on ConservativeHome, pointing out it is an obvious fit with Cameron’s green agenda, and a route to raise the issue of immigration without being called racist. Unfortunately even though our MP's are supposed to be our representatives, none of the 600 odd sitting in the Commons have ever bothered to raise the issue. Can any of them really think being the most over populated country and still trying cram millions more into the country is sustainable?

[James maskell]

Looking at the Independents article on the compensation for the 10p abolition, young people will get an increase in wages (which will drag more people into the system through fiscal drag) and pensioners will get winter fuel payments.

Whats going to happen for us part timers who cant claim tax credits?

Personally, its too late for the Government to sort it out and grab back some of those lost votes. They must have known about the potential damage. Either they are completely out of touch or horrendously incompetent.

[Bazzer]

Brussels turns to gods for climate change!!

"Brussels officials have turned to religious VIPs to help spread the gospel of an environmentally friendly society and increase awareness of climate change in their parishes, as well as promoting tolerance between different confessions in Europe.

Twenty high-level representatives – 19 men and one woman - from European Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations met in Brussels on Monday (5 may) to discuss the sensitive issues of climate change and reconciliation between peoples."

They are desparate - there's been no warming for the past 10 years and unlikely to be any for at least the next 10 years so they have to find some way of justifying Green Taxation

http://euobserver.com/9/26083

[Dean]

This seems an extraordinary claim from John Mann the Labour MP for Bassetlaw mentioned in this article:-

The Times -Gordon Brown must learn to empathise like David Cameron, says MP

he released analysis which showed that the BNP polled more votes than Labour in Ed Balls’s constituency in West Yorkshire

[David Belchamber]

James Maskell at 09.24:

"Personally, its too late for the Government to sort it out and grab back some of those lost votes. They must have known about the potential damage. Either they are completely out of touch or horrendously incompetent.

You are quite right and even the much slated Polly Toynbee agrees with you:

"... it wasn't about ideology, it was about basic political competence." - Guardian

"Incompetence" sums Nulab up in a word and it goes back to the middle Blair years; he had some good ideas but just couldn't translate them into effective practice.

It is difficult enough for any government to give taxpayers real value for their money (though Boris seems to being making a good stab at doing so) and a socialist government is almost bound to fail.

The only thing I disagree with you about, James, is the allocation of blame for this fiasco; you can't really blame "the government". Brown brought this measure in when chancellor and it is he, no-one else, who has been in complete denial about the whole matter over recent weeks.

Who used to keep telling us what a magnificent chancellor Gordon Brown was? I think you will find that the answer was mainly - Gordon Brown!

[Dave B]

Article on The Register suggests that NASA temperature figures are suspect, Is the Earth getting warmer, or cooler?

[Tony Makara]

Here are a few bumper stickers to support the democratic campaign in the states. Notice the middle sticker in the second row which claims rich white people are destroying America. The ugly face of liberalism promoting racism and class-hatred.

http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/TLS-stickers.html

[Mark Wadsworth]

Bazzer, nice one!

[Dave B]

"Interesting too to hear that Salter lost control on Friday when the results were coming in, sticking his face into that of Alok Sharma the Reading West Conservative candidate and shouting "You won't have Reading, Reading is MINE"" Jane Griffiths

[michael mcgough]

Dithering Cameron put up a very poor showing when confronted about the 10% tax issue in Crewe shown on BBC.He must be modelling himself on Brown now that Blair has gone.

[Sean Fear]

Dean, it's worse than that. Labour came fourth in the wards making up Ed Balls' seat, behind Morley Independents, BNP, and Conservatives. They only won one out of the five wards, with an 11 vote lead over the BNP.

[Tony Makara]

FROM YAHOO NEWS:

LONDON (AFP) - Embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces more potential poll humiliation -- as Madame Tussauds waxwork museum said Tuesday opened a vote on whether they should bother making a model of him.

The London tourist attraction said Brown's office had failed to respond to requests for a sitting, so they were now asking punters whether they thought he should be represented alongside other world leaders.

And -- given the battering his governing Labour Party took in local elections last week -- maybe he would not be in power long enough to make it worth the effort, general manager Edward Fuller said.

Madame Tussauds chiefs originally stalled on making a waxwork of Brown when he took over from Tony Blair last June, as he was not elected into office.

But when visitors asked where the British premier was, they decided to ask Downing Street for a sitting.

"Since then we have had no response and, reflecting the climate after the government's performance in the recent local elections, our guests have become decidedly split about whether we should feature Mr Brown at all," he said.

He added: "There are those who think the UK prime minister should be here, regardless of whether they have been voted in to office.

"However an increasing number are telling us that Mr Brown should not be included unless the British public elects him. Well, we're giving them the chance to do that."

Brown's ruling Labour party suffered its worst poll defeat in 40 years in local elections last Thursday, even losing control of City Hall in London.

The public has until next Tuesday to register opinions either at the museum or online as to whether Brown should be immortalised in wax.