Wednesday 20th August 2008
9.15pm ToryDiary: Tories are 24% ahead
9pm ToryDiary: Does it matter who has the first Conference?
5pm ToryDiary: Georgia crisis prompts Conservatives to ditch 'Putin group'
4.45pm CentreRight updates:
3pm CentreRight updates:
- Peter Cuthbertson: Remembering Leo Abse
- Alex Deane: Union (in)activity in Scotland
1.45pm Tory Diary: Osborne: On fairness, "it is the right in British politics which is now making the running"
11.30am Charlie Elphicke on CentreRight: Theresa Villiers' judgment vindicated on BAA
9.45am Tory Diary: Tim Parker resignation overshadows Johnson's dismissal of broken society narrative
CentreRight: Suli Shah hails France after ten French troops are killed fighting in Afghanistan
AmericaInTheWorld: The second 'A World Without America' video is released today on YouTube
Tories 'best' to tackle poverty
"Shadow Chancellor George Osborne is set to claim the Conservatives are the party best placed to tackle poverty and create a fair society. In a speech to the think tank Demos, he is also expected to accuse
Gordon Brown of burdening future generations by reckless government
borrowing." - BBC
"[T]he modern Conservative party is now winning the argument that the best way to achieve progressive goals is through Conservative means." - George Osborne in The Guardian
Osborne on the Today programme, 7.50am - 'Listen again'
Pickles: It is "now impossible" for Labour to win the next general election
"Mr Pickles stressed that the Conservatives risk a hung parliament if they fail to make a convincing case for power. But he nonetheless read the last political rites over Gordon Brown."The analysis is that it is now impossible for [Labour] to win the election, but it's perfectly possible for us to lose it," he asserted." - FT
A quarter of teenagers left school this summer without a single good GCSE
Figures are expected to reveal around 150,000 failed to get a single grade C or better. Maria Miller, shadow families minister, said: "Eleven years after Labour came to power, almost two million children have left school without any good GCSE passes. The Government has let down an entire generation of pupils." - The Telegraph
"Britain's Olympic success is built on unashamed elitism. If only we could import some of that into our schools" - Alice Thomson in The Times
So what are the Tories regional policies? - Peter Hetherington in The Guardian
Cameron accused of hypocrisy over tough anti-Russian stance
Labour MP points out that Cameron leads the only major European party that works with the Kremlin in the Council of Europe - Guardian
Gary Glitter's return prompts tighter sex offender laws - The Times
Immigration under Labour has soared eight-fold compared with the last decade of Tory rule - Daily Mail
Politicians have no more power to abolish boom and bust than to control the weather
Michael Brown in The Independent: "It may be that the growing inevitability of a Tory victory will enable Mr Cameron to put on the record that, unless he seeks to retake powers over interest rates, exchange rates and prices and incomes, modern governments in free democracies are largely economically impotent. Telling voters what they do not wish to hear is the bane of politics, but such modesty now may serve to re-educate voters that when the next downturn occurs – on the Tories' watch – it won't be Mr Cameron's fault."
An Identikit parade of young pretenders
"A glance at the fresh-faced David Miliband, David Cameron, James Purnell and Nick Clegg might make you think that the policemen are getting younger, and they are - not in age but certainly in appearance, demeanour and experience. Our fortyish pretenders to power look nearer to 30 because they belong to a fortunate generation... Meritocracy having stalled, aspirants to high office come from an increasingly small circle. Like Tony Blair before them, Cameron, Clegg, Purnell and Miliband are privileged folk, the ease of their ascent against declining competition there to be divined on their smiling, self-confident faces. Three were privately schooled. Miliband went to an “Etonian” comprehensive and, despite poor A levels, to Oxford." - George Walden in The Times
Interview with Rachel Johnson, sister of Boris - The Guardian
Theatre review: Tory Boyz - The Guardian
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