8.30pm ToryDiary: Tories 15% ahead in ICM poll
8pm ToryDiary: Anthony Browne leaves Policy Exchange to become Boris Johnson's Policy Director
7.30pm Louise Bagshawe on CentreRight: Left-wing bias at the New York Times
4pm Peter Franklin on CentreRight discovers what "literally" must be the biggest story of American cruelty this year ever.
2pm PlayPolitical: In the first of a series of video profiles of the shadow cabinet, Conservatives.tv profiles Michael Gove
1.45pm Jim McConalogue on CentreRight: UK must not work with French to bully the Irish
12.30pm ToryDiary: Michael Gove launches inquiry into testing and qualifications
12.30pm Seats and candidates: Poor health forces Tony Wright MP to step down at next election
ToryDiary: Sky high ratings for David Cameron among Tory grassroots
Platform: Gareth Sutcliffe says Defined Benefit pension schemes are bad for the economy
- Matthew Sinclair: Pierre Manent and Direct Democracy
- Andrew Lilico: Reforming (or ditching) Brown's fiscal rules
David Willetts: Employers would get £2,000 bonus for training apprentices as builders, plumbers and electricians - The Times
Unemployment will be two million by the end of 2009
From CCHQ: "Responding to the Ernst & Young Item Club quarterly report, which forecasts that unemployment will rise from 1.6m to 2m by the end of next year, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond said: "The Item Club has an excellent track record of forecasting changes in the economy, so this report is especially worrying. So far, the story has been one of slowing growth, soaring inflation and out-of-control Government borrowing. But if the Item Club forecast is right, the focus of attention will switch to rapidly rising unemployment as the credit crunch reaches the workplace. This is precisely why the government should now adopt Conservative plans to reform insolvency law, which will protect sound companies and high quality jobs. Once again, Labour isn't working.""
"Irrespective of psephology, the economy's problems will force the Tories into a rhetorical adjustment. This is grim, grey, storms, sou'westers and battened-down hatches political weather. The Tories now have to prove that they are serious men for serious times." - Bruce Anderson in The Independent
"Mr Brown was a DIY Chancellor who rejected expert advice, knocked down load-bearing financial walls and hollowed out traditional support mechanisms. So we ended up with Northern Rock, a pensions collapse and the disastrous merger of tax and customs, to mention but a few. He tinkered with the wiring but failed to rebuild worn-out systems and created an NHS monster which costs more to feed than it delivers. Then he tunnelled under the foundations, leaving piles of debt all over the place and a risk that the whole enterprise will be condemned." - Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun
Clegg stands by his £20bn tax-cut plan - Herald
Anne McIntosh MP seeks full prosecution of shoplifters - Daily Mail
Benefit claimants could be forced to pick up litter and clean graffiti - BBC
Labour 17% ahead in Glasgow East - Scotsman
Obama and Europe
"American policy towards European integration should be based on the principles of the American Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Americans should not help European bureaucrats to impose on us a European constitution that they would not dream of accepting for themselves." - William Rees-Mogg in The Times
And finally... Michael Gove says there are only really three answers to political questions
1. My statistics are bigger than your statistics...
2. I may smell, but the other guy's a skunk...
3. I refuse to recognise your premise and will say what I want anyway...
More in The Times.
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