11pm ToryDiary: A night cap to end a good day
6pm Martin Parsons on CentreRight: I hope Brown is allowed a quiet holiday
5.45pm Alex Deane on CentreRight: Cameron hasn't had an easy ride but has overcome every bump in the road
4pm PlayPolitical: Special video in which David Cameron reflects on the parliamentary year
3.45pm ToryDiary: Could Trimble be a Conservative foreign minister?
2.15pm Local Government: No councils have volunteered for Labour's bin tax pilot scheme
1pm Local government: 25% vote surge lifts Westminster Tories to victory in Labour heartland
Noon Alex Deane on CentreRight: Three anecdotes from Tony Benn
11.15am Simon Chapman on CentreRight offers nine quick reflections on Glasgow East
10am Charlie Elphicke on CentreRight: Will Brown stagger on to 2010 or might Labour be better off going to the country next year?
Seats and Candidates: David Cameron calls for general election following Labour's catastrophic defeat in Glasgow
"Because of this shift from the politics of either-or to the politics of more-or-less, policies need more than ever to pass the ‘Wednesday-Friday test’. They have to be eye-catching enough to attract attention right up to the day before an election yet feasible enough to begin being implemented the day after."
Platform: Tim Bale on the "politics of support" vs the "politics of power"
Seats and Candidates: South London seats to select in one tranche
PlayPolitical: Obama's Berlin speech
SNP take one of Labour's safest seats in surprise victory
"This is an astonishing result, tearing the heart out of Labour in Scotland and sending shockwaves all the way to Downing Street. Glasgow East was Labour's third-safest seat in Scotland, its twenty-fifth widest majority in the UK. It is the constituency of the great John Wheatley, a leading figure in the first Labour government in the 1920s. If they can't hold the line here, then Labour cannot hold the line anywhere." - Iain Macwhirter in the Guardian
"If Gordon Brown, as now seems likely, loses the next election to David Cameron, this will be seen as the moment he knew the game was up. Too much is often read into by-elections, but for solid evidence that Labour's support is at rock bottom it is difficult to think of more striking symbol than surrendering this rock-solid seat." - Andrew Porter in the Telegraph
John Mason's victory speech - BBC video
Brown's scalp is the last thing we need
"There will be no moves against the Prime Minister as the torpor of the silly season takes hold, but Mr Cameron's main worry now is that Labour might still be tempted to dump Mr Brown at a later date. Be sure, however, that if there is any threat to Mr Brown's position, the Tories will be outside Downing Street with the oxygen mask and resuscitation unit. The Prime Minister's survival until polling day is crucial to the Tory general election strategy." - Michael Brown in the Independent
UUP co-operation
"There can be little doubt the new DUP leadership will be smarting at this implied rebuke... Indeed, if some Tory sources are to be believed, the added salt in the DUP wound will be that party leader Peter Robinson had himself appeared interested in the possibility of a relationship with Cameron's Conservatives. Moreover, Cameron's decision warrants serious assessment precisely because it does not appear tailored to his most obvious potential interests." - Irish Times
"After flirting with English separatism, he has been steered back towards unionism, not least by George Osborne. So he wants to extend his party's reach as a truly national party, battered since Lady Thatcher energetically alienated all the Celtic regions of Britain on a host of policies in the 80s." - Michael White in the Guardian
> The Conservative AND Unionist party
"The One" comes to London
Transcript of Obama's speech - RCP
"Barack Obama will bid farewell to Europe with a stopover in London that has been causing angst in Downing Street because of fears that David Cameron may steal the thunder from Gordon Brown. In contrast to Berlin, where-hundreds of thousands of fans turned out to see the Democrat nominee-presumptive, the London leg of the tour will be conducted almost entirely out of the public view." - Times
"And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant." - Gerard Baker in the Times
"Emerging problems will be an increasingly assertive Russia, an unstable Africa, nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, dislocation of the world economy through a glut of Asian savings and the scramble for resources in the Arctic. There are few such challenges that would not benefit from more US influence rather than less. This is a time for a renewed Atlanticism." - Times leader
Why I left the army
"The poor aftercare and the constant struggle to get the proper welfare
provision for some of my wounded, once they had left hospital, caused
me profound concern. It was exacerbated by the inadequate pay of junior
soldiers, the substandard accommodation their families often live in
and the lack of certain key equipment for operations. These concerns
informed part of my decision to resign my commission on relinquishing
command of 3 Para." - Lt Col Stuart Tootal in the Telegraph
Cameron says the future of Alun Cairns AM is still under review - Western Mail
Nicholas Winteron accuses Cameron mafia of trying to oust him - Telegraph
Labour has only itself to blame if the unions hold it, and us, hostage - Jeff Randall in the Telegraph
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