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Saturday 3rd May 2008

7.45pm PlayPolitical: Boris Johnson acts the clown as he becomes London Mayor

6pm ToryDiary: Thursday night's other winners and losers

4.15pm PlayPolitical: What do the Tories need to do to satisfy Michael Portillo?

3.45pm Dr Crippen on CentreRight: "I would cast Boris as the Fool in King Lear. Lovers of King Lear are not deceived by the Fool’s antics. Full of wit and insight, he is the most intellectually talented character in the play. Boris Johnson may well be the most intellectually talented member of the Conservative hierarchy. Whether or not you agree with that, he is now without doubt the most powerful Conservative in the country. He is David Cameron’s Fool.  King Lear could not control his Fool. We shall see whether Cameron can control his."

1pm Harry Phibbs on CentreRight: Guess who first suggested that Boris run for Mayor?

11.15am ToryDiary: When was the last time the Tories had such a good night?

ToryDiary: Boris wins the mayoralty

Platform: Paul Goodman MP says that in defeating Ken Livingstone Boris Johnson also defeated Islamic extremists

PlayPolitical: Watch David Cameron leap for joy as Boris' victory is announced

Over at CentreRight, Hamish Marshall notes how the international media are already biased against Mayor Boris

> And now let's win Crewe and Nantwich

Labour's dusk

"On Thursday the voters told Labour to - well, let us say “push off”. By their votes and abstentions they indicated that they don't like the Government any more. They said they've gone off the new Prime Minister in a big way. They didn't mention anything about being ready to change their minds and I don't for a moment believe they are disposed to. It's over." - Matthew Parris in the Times

"No prime minister has ever recovered from as bad a set of local election results as Labour had on Thursday and won the subsequent general election. Gordon Brown has very few options, apart from waiting, and hoping, unless he wants to undermine his hard-won reputation for prudence and long-term stability." - Peter Riddell in the Times

"We suggested on Thursday morning that the voters of England and Wales might wish to give Gordon Brown a punch on the nose. In the event, they delivered a right hook. Whether it presages a knock-out blow depends on what the Prime Minister does in the two years he has left before he must hold a general election. But it is impossible to escape the impression that he is mortally wounded, about to be overwhelmed by forces he can no longer control." - Telegraph leader

On May 2 2008 it was a wake at City Hall, witnessing a defeat that seemed to confirm what a day of results had already suggested: that after an era of dominance that has endured since the mid-1990s, Labour is about to enter the twilight. It threatens to be a slow death, as Labour decays steadily towards defeat in 2010. That, at least, is what plenty in the party fear after a horror show of a performance in local elections across England and Wales." - Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian

New Labour is dead - John McDonnell in the Guardian

Stephen Carter's diary of the week - Hugo Rifkind in the Times

David Cameron's "Tony Blair moment"

"David Cameron's local election victory has been hailed as a "Tony Blair" moment, as the party's triumph at the ballot box appeared to echo the wins ahead of the 1997 Labour landslide. The Conservative leader yesterday embarked on a celebratory tour across England and Wales, after his party secured a massive 44 per cent of the vote, against Labour's 24 per cent." - Scotsman

"David Cameron hailed a string of victories in the North of England yesterday as he celebrated a stunning electoral breakthrough." - Times

No election next year

"Gordon Brown, on the ropes as never before, will play for time as he struggles to save his party’s skin and prevent himself becoming the first Prime Minister since James Callaghan never to win a general election." - Times

"[The results] are genuinely seismic in their implication. If Gordon Brown is eventually defeated in his bid to take Labour to a fourth term, then this is the moment which historians will determine marked the beginning of the end of his spell as Prime Minister. These local elections also mean that the ultimate battle is unlikely to occur before May 6, 2010." - Times leader

Labour control same number of councils in Wales as Tories

"Labour was humiliated in the local elections, keeping overall control of just two councils in Wales – no more than the Conservatives. Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon Taf are all that remain of the Welsh Labour heartland that used to be considered impregnable. Even bracing themselves for a bad night, party activists were shocked to see authorities like Newport, Torfaen and Flintshire unexpectedly fall from their clutches." - Western Mail

Brown must go to save Labour

"I'm sure Labour would give anything to be offered the chance that the Tories were in 1995: a referendum, two years before a general election, on the leadership of a man who has plainly proved he is not up to it, and who is regarded as incapable even by his own core supporters. I doubt, as they recall the fate of the Tories, that they would be quite so kind to Gordon Brown." - Simon Heffer in the Telegraph

"The answer that stares these MPs in the face is that, echoing Cromwell, they should tell him: "In the name of God, go." Brown has not rescued Labour from its post-Iraq decline under Tony Blair. He has made it decisively worse." - Martin Kettle in the Guardian

Brown's former allies infighting and plotting behind the scenes - Toby Helm in the Telegraph

Unfavourable comparisons with Major

"Unlike Mr Brown, Mr Major came to power as the result of a contest, and as soon as he did so, his appeal for a country "at ease with itself" was both authentic in relation to his own personality and a widely welcomed change from the strenuous demands of Mrs Thatcher. It is a very odd thing about a man who has spent more than 20 years in the front line of democratic politics, but Gordon Brown is someone who has gone to enormous lengths to avoid exposing himself to the bracing winds of political competition. It shows." - Charles Moore in the Telegraph

Boris's style of governance

"London's mayor, unlike New York's, does not control the police. But like New York's, he could bypass the police and give the citizens more information. All of us should know what the crime levels are in our street, our area, and how the police plan to tackle it. All of us should know how the mayor spends his budget. The Assembly is too weak to hold the mayor to account, so Londoners should have the information." - Camilla Cavendish in the Times

Boris and Cameron's relationship, from Eton to now - Francis Elliott in the Times

Well done, Stuart Wheeler

"Stuart Wheeler is a patriot of the best and most unassuming kind. Having made a tidy sum of money by popularising spread-betting in the United Kingdom, he has given much of it away to good causes, including anti-torture groups and Euro-sceptic campaigners. Most recently, he has gone to court to challenge Labour's cancellation of the referendum on the European Constitution that it promised in its manifesto. Few gave him a chance, but Mr Wheeler knows a thing or two about odds." - Telegraph leader

> Wheeler wins first stage of legal battle

Full EU embassies discussed for the first time

"The "Embassies of the Union" would be controlled by a new EU diplomatic service created by the Lisbon Treaty. The Daily Telegraph has seen a high-level Brussels document discussing plans for a "European External Action Service" (EEAS) which was proposed under the new EU Treaty, currently being ratified in Westminster." - Telegraph

The most influential political pundits in the US - Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Wednesday 30th April 2008

4.15pm Seats and Candidates: Should selected candidates be subject to compulsory re-adoption in the event of a by-election?

3.30pm Parliament: Nick Herbert picks up on the Government delaying the release of figures on early-release prisoners... nothing to do with tomorrow's election

3pm LondonMayor: Livingstone's shredding period

12.45pm PlayPolitical: Harriet Harman gets into a muddle about whether Kate Hoey is supporting Livingstone

Noon CentreRight: Samuel Coates on why Christian Peoples Alliance candidate Alan Craig should endorse Boris

From noon: Live blog of PMQs

11.30am PlayPolitical video: 'Least said, soonest elected' - Rory Bremner paints David Cameron as an opportunist

LondonMayor: Simon Heffer does Red Ken's work for him

Jeremy Wright MP: The challenge of treating dementia

ToryDiary: Tory policies on crime are most likely to help win General Election

Local government: Labour haven't binned rubbish tax plans... they'll return after polling day

PlayPolitical videos:

• Watch David Cameron campaign in the north and explain why he gets angry with Gordon Brown
• Rory Bremner's sympathies for Ken Livingstone come out in this Sky News slot

Have your say in ConservativeHome's April survey

Click here to take part in ConservativeHome.com's monthly survey: In additions to the regular questions we are asking for your views on the health of the Conservative Right, the criteria you use to select parliamentary candidates and membership levels in your Association.

By-election to choose Gwyneth Dunwoody's successor will be on 22nd May - BBC

Boris Johnson emphasises compassionate agenda on eve of poll

"Tory mayoral hopeful Boris Johnson says he wants those who earn "stonking quantities of dosh" in London to give more to poorer communities around them." - BBC

If Ken Livingstone wins it will pose big strategic questions for Labour

"A Ken victory will embolden Labour in its conflict with the Conservatives, to be sure, but it will also have a profound effect on the continuing struggle within the party. For if Livingstone manages to defy a national trend, winning when Labour was losing everywhere else, it will tip the scales in what has, until now, been an evenly matched argument. Ranged on one side, broadly identified with the Progress group, is the uber-Blairite view that victory lies in ever-tighter targeting of the handful of swing voters in southern marginal seats that shifted to Labour in 1997. In the other corner, associated with the Compass thinktank, is a strategy that says Labour needs to win back the 4.5 million voters it has lost since 1997 - a coalition that, according to Jon Cruddas MP, includes "urban intellectuals", ethnic minorities, public sector workers and the traditional working class." - Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian

Brown to offer activists a say after poll results (Guardian) and a barrage of new policies (Independent).

Evening Standard responds to Polly Toynbee's criticism of its Mayoral coverage - Letter to The Guardian

Government accused of "pimping" - Western Mail | Yesterday's ToryDiary

YouGov: Support for independence slumps in Scotland

"A poll conducted for The Daily Telegraph by YouGov – the most in-depth analysis yet of attitudes to constitutional change – shows that only 19 per cent of Scots would support independence in a three-option referendum. Nearly three quarters backed keeping a devolved Parliament, either with its present powers or with more responsibilities." - Telegraph

UK house prices now falling year-on-year for first time since 1996 - Telegraph

WPP may join business exodus from high tax Britain - Telegraph

Secret tax adds £200 to cost of running family cars - Times

EU ready to censure Britain for fiscal ill-discipline - FT

It's opinion polls, not local elections, that count - Danny Finkelstein in The Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Tuesday 29th April 2008

10.15pm PlayPolitical: Barack Obama disowns pastor's remarks

5.15pm ToryDiary: ConservativeHome in GQ

4.15pm ToryDiary: Should Job Centres advertise work in the sex industry?

3.45pm ToryDiary: Labour's failed the working class on university admissions

3.15pm LondonMayor: Can you help get out the vote over the next 48 hours?

3pm: Click here to take part in ConservativeHome.com's monthly survey: In additions to the regular questions we are asking for your views on the health of the Conservative Right, the criteria you use to select parliamentary candidates and membership levels in your Association.

12.30pm Parliament: John Redwood urges UK to follow Irish model of lower corporate taxation

Important 11am update on our Kate Hoey story here.

10.45am Local government: ConservativeHome will be in CCHQ on elections night

10am CentreRight: Peter Whittle observes the BBC and ITV retreat again in the face of Muslim supremacists

BREAKING NEWS: LABOUR MP KATE HOEY WILL ADVISE BORIS ON SPORT IF HE WINS

ToryDiary: Cameron admits that he hasn't been able to end Punch and Judy politics

Platform: Jonathan Caine reviews David Trimble: the Price of Peace' by Frank Millar

PlayPolitical videos: Sky News profiles Boris Johnson and David Cameron talks about the causes of poverty

Some key facts about Labour's Britain:

• Official stats: Labour has increased government advertising by 400%
• Royal College of Nursing: One-fifth of nurses' time is spent on paperwork
• Mike Denham: Public sector workers 100 times more likely to strike than private sector workers

Help us add to this new directory.

Cameron doubles poll lead as election looms - Independent | ToryDiary

This latest poll has the Tories in majority territory but yesterday Nick Clegg set out his terms should his party hold the balance of power: "Nick Clegg said that he would expect a high price for his party's support in the event of a hung parliament after the next general election, demanding a "complete reinvention" of the political system.  That would mean reforms to campaign finance laws, electoral reform and the devolution of power away from Whitehall." (Quoted in The Telegraph).

Clegg supports compulsory English language in schools - BBC

George Osborne promises to deal with trade union power... but qualification follows

"George Osborne provoked a confrontation with the unions last night by suggesting that a Tory administration could introduce new measures to curb their power.  The Conservatives were considering reforms to employment legislation as a matter of “urgency” because of the threat of widespread unrest in the public sector over pay, the Shadow Chancellor said yesterday.  “I think the public service unions have grown too powerful. We would also look at any changes that need to be made in employment legislation. We are still in the process of looking at what the changes might be,” he told reporters on a visit to a business conference in Liverpool." - Times

"The Tories were on Monday night forced to row back from a suggestion by George Osborne, shadow chancellor, that they will look at changes to employment legislation to curb the growing number of strikes." - FT

Cameron short on policy detail - An FT analysis

Tory plan for free money adviser will be financed by levy on financial sector

"The Tories believe that the service is "urgently required", given the deterioriating economy and the increasing difficulties many people are facing.  While acknowledging that the idea has been around for several years, they said ministers had been "dithering" and had failed to implement it." - Telegraph

Brian Paddick remembers being wooed by the Conservatives

"Mr Paddick, a former senior Metropolitan Police officer, sent David Cameron an email asking if speculation that the Tories wanted him to be their man was true. The Tory leader quickly dispatched Francis Maude, a Shadow Cabinet member, for talks."They promised me the Earth, all the money I could spend and professional back-up," said Mr Paddick. He turned the Tories down after discussing their offer with his mother, who said her own mother would have been appalled." - Independent

Ken Livingstone launches women's manifesto - MayorWatch

Sky photo gallery of all the mayoral candidates.

Steve Richards: Cameron hasn't taken the tough decisions

"When Mr Cameron was asked to name a tough decision he had taken in relation to public spending the Tory leader responded comically by saying he had proposed the reduction of MPs' expenses. Mr Cameron would not get away with such casual trivialisation of the biggest theme of the lot, tax and spending, if the Government was not in such trouble: "I have taken the tough decisions on public spending. I plan to cut MPs' expenses. Thank you and good night"." - Steve Richards in The Independent

Parish council levies hide true council tax rises

"The true level of council tax rises is being disguised because parish councils are imposing levy increases above inflation, the Conservatives claim in a report to be released today. English families now pay up to £174 a year to their parish councils. The total amount raised by the levies has increased by 124 per cent over the past decade to £323 million." - Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Monday 28th April 2008

7.45pm ToryDiary: Tory lead doubles to 14% according to ComRes

6.30pm ToryDiary: Voices of the right

5.30pm LondonMayor: Dirty tricks Ken starts throwing the mud

3pm: Latest Boris PEB online, includes new scene on small businesses

2.45pm Peter Franklin on CentreRight: "Brown's colleagues must surely realise that the idea of presenting the country with a second unelected Prime Minister in the space of year is unconscionable."

11.45am Local government: Our placards are bigger than yours!

11am Harry Phibbs on CentreRight:

Boris lead up to 11%

9.30am ToryDiary: A day in the life of David Cameron

ToryDiary: Can anyone sum up in one memorable sentence what the Cameron-led Tories stand for?

Platform: Ryan Shorthouse advocates mixed-age classrooms

Parliament: Highlights of Ed Vaizey's speech about obesity

PlayPolitical video: Gordon Brown tries to impress Condi Rice but is outclassed by Nicolas Sarkozy in the latest Headcases comedy sketch

Mayoral and local election news

Boris Johnson answers questions from The Independent

Labour MPs don't want Brown on the campaign trail with them - Daily Mail

Tories must make 200 gains - Professor Colin Rallings in The Telegraph

"The councils to watch are Reading, where Labour could easily lose overall control, and councils now with no overall control that the Tories could capture on a small shift of seats, such as Cheltenham, Vale of Glamorgan, Bury and North Tyneside." - Peter Riddell in The Times

Electoral fraud

Joseph Rowntree report says UK elections fall short of international standards on integrity - BBC

"Rowntree is not the first organisation to point out the shortcomings of the British democratic process. The Council of Europe, the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Reform Society have all highlighted serious defects" - Times leader

A Tory councillor has been found guilty of using bogus postal votes to ensure he was voted into office - BBC

Only 22% of businesses believe that they'd be a Conservative priority

"Fewer than one in four companies have faith in David Cameron to deliver for them, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce. The Populus poll found only 22 per cent of businesses believed the Conservatives would make the needs of business a priority.  Labour’s rating was even worse, at only 14 per cent, in a survey revealing a deep-seated corporate cynicism about politicians’ ability to grasp business needs." - FT

> Richard Spring MP recently wrote for ConservativeHome about how "Strong business relations have been integrated into the Party"

Janet Daley: The Conservatives must do more to enthuse

"If the electorate is forced to choose between a party it has come to hate, and another that it regards as vacuous, it is more likely to stay at home. And what is going to be critical for a Tory victory both this week, and in the eventual general election, will be a high turnout." - Janet Daley in The Telegraph

Bruce Anderson: Public services for all will be David Cameron's priority

"Shortly before Nicolas Sarkozy became President of France, he visited London and told David Cameron how much he admired the economic reforms which Margaret Thatcher had pushed through in the 1980s. Mr Cameron was struck by this. Afterwards, he said that he hoped that the day would come, perhaps in the 2030s, when a French presidential candidate would tell a Tory leader how much he admired the public service reforms of the 2010s." - Bruce Anderson in The Independent

Brownite Smith Institute and IDS' Centre for Social Justice to co-operate on early intervention - Independent

LibDems ought to be doing better says Vince Cable - ePolitix.com

"I did not come into politics to be an annexe to the Labour party or an annexe to the Conservative party." - Nick Clegg on Today, PoliticsHome.com

Ministry of Defence overwhelmed by combination of commitments and budgetary restrictions - FT

ToryDiary: Who deserves the credit for the Tory comeback?

Peter Franklin on CentreRight: Muslim supremacist is the expression we should use instead of Islamist etc

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Sunday 27th April 2008

7.30pm PlayPolitical video: Watch Harriet Harman admit to Adam Boulton that her username for her hacked blog was "Harriet" and her password was "Harman"

7pm ToryDiary: Gold, silver and bronze: Who deserves the credit for the Tory comeback?

4.45pm ToryDiary: April questions

10am ToryDiary: I will never sanction a Budget that singles out the working poor for a tax rise says Cameron

LondonMayor: Two of the four final polls point to a victory for Ken Livingstone

Platform: Graeme Archer finds the best reason on Earth to vote for Boris Johnson

ToryDiary: Our new opinion poll graphic shows Tories 2 seats short of a majority according to the latest ICM poll but heading for a majority of 26 according to the ConservativeHome poll of polls

PlayPolitical: Ann Widdecombe tells Sky News that prison officers shouldn't be able to strike

Matthew Sinclair on CentreRight: Obama's protectionist policies should make him unacceptable to British Conservatives

Blair doesn't believe Brown can beat Cameron, says Lord Levy

Tony Blair believes Gordon Brown "could never beat" Tory leader David Cameron in a General Election and is "disappointed" by Labour's slide under his successor.  The devastating verdict is revealed by Blair's controversial chief fund-raiser, Lord Levy, whose sensational memoirs are serialised in today's Mail on Sunday... Levy tells how Blair ended up believing that Brown was a "liar" who tried to use the scandal as a weapon to unseat him." - Mail on Sunday

Brown: 'Mandelson's telling people I'm gay... and I am NOT GAY' - Mail on Sunday

Watch The Mail on Sunday's Simon Walters interview Lord Levy.

"Tony Blair went "bright red" when confronted over the long massages he was said to be receiving from the former topless model Carole Caplin, Lord Levy claims." - Independent on Sunday

Mayoral and local election stories

The Camerons and the Johnsons campaign together in London's East End - BBC

Livingstone offers to give Boris a job and train him up - Observer

Livingstone to offer 'LibDems for Ken' manifesto in battle for 2nd preferences - Independent on Sunday

How to assess the results of this week’s local elections - Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher in The Sunday Times

Sunday comment

The work that David Cameron still needs to do: "Most voters know their limitations. They can’t work out whether one policy is better for the country than another. But when one is advanced they try to read between the lines. They want to know whether the Tories really care, is it part of a coherent, costed message and, above all, is it being proposed for the good of everyone. So far, Cameron’s spokesmen have come up with some interesting thoughts about welfare reform and extending school choice as well some offputting jargon about “the post-bureaucratic age”. The latter is scheduled to be a big idea, but nobody out there knows what the hell it means.' - Martin Ivens in The Sunday Times

These are Labour, not Tory times: "Osborne goes through the motions, but what stymies him is that he is a believer in the very policies and attitudes that have delivered the crisis. It seems a matter of personal incredulity that free markets, in which he has invested so much political capital, deliver irrational credit booms and busts. In his mind, regulation is always the problem not the solution. Public intervention and ownership are always wrong... Even if he were less wedded to the old-time religion, he would still have his party to contend with, along with a powerful right-wing commentariat who, some honourable exceptions aside, are unreconstructed Thatcherites." - Will Hutton in The Observer

Labour is losing the will to govern: Matthew d'Ancona in The Sunday Telegraph

Celebrities warm to the Conservatives

Matthew Vaughn, Kirstie Allsopp, Allison Pearson, Dylan Jones; The celebrities who are endorsing the Conservatives - James Delingpole in The Sunday Telegraph

Devolution stories

Plaid Cymru should hold their noses and embrace a minority Tory Government - Matt Withers in Wales on Sunday

Mark Field MP attacks Ken Clarke's answer to the West Lothian Question as "inadequate and unworkable" - Scotland on Sunday

Lord Laidlaw, major Tory donor, admits to orgies and sex addiction - Scotland on Sunday | News of the World

Compensation boost for severely injured soldiers - The Sunday Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Saturday 26th April 2008

8.30pm ToryDiary: Tories 10% ahead according to ICM

7pm ToryDiary: Labour set to lose 131 seats

5pm LondonMayor: Extravagant Livingstone, and his heavy-handed minders

4.15pm CentreRight selections:

• 'Muslim supremacists' is Peter Franklin's preferred expression to describe the evil men who bomb and murder in the name of Islam.
• Peter Whittle previews his new book - Look At Me; an exploration of Britain's runaway obsession with the need to be extraordinary, special or visible.
• Tim Montgomerie notes Ken Livingstone's support for a Labour-Green-Galloway coalition against the Conservatives

10.45am ToryDiary: Politics need not be brutal

Platform: Mark Prisk MP looks at how technology will change our way of life

ToryDiary: 'Fleet Street' is becoming friendly again and Jonathan Oliver awarded with Scoop of the Year

Shadow Cabinet may have to name those who fund their offices

"David Cameron and his shadow cabinet are expected next week to be ordered by John Lyon, the parliamentary standards commissioner, to publish the names of the wealthy donors who bankroll their private offices. This follows an investigation sparked by two Labour MPs into the failure of the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, to disclose the names to parliament of five wealthy donors who put up nearly £500,000 last year to pay for his office staff. The five donors are the carpet millionaire Lord Harris, Lady Serena Rothschild, the financier Sir John Beckwith, Sir Jeremy Isaacs and Julian Schilds." - Guardian

Welsh visit

Cameron and Brown get the same train by accident - Guardian

"While Gordon Brown skulked in Swansea, David Cameron bounced into Barry with all the enthusiasm one would expect of a man riding a 21-year-high lead in the polls. Making the most of the Prime Minister’s apparent avoidance of mixing with members of the public further west, the Conservative leader looked to go the opposite way as he conducted his whistlestop tour of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan." - Western Mail

"Plaid Cymru last night opened the door to a post-election deal with David Cameron in the event of a hung parliament. Adam Price, the MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr and the man credited with negotiating the Assembly coalition deal with Labour, said Plaid would talk to all parties on an equal footing." - Western Mail

It's the paypacket, stupid - Tomos Livingstone in the Western Mail

Are we prepared for government?

"The best prospects for the Parliamentary Labour Party, though dismal, are to hold its nerve, bite its tongue, cleave to the leader it has and try to keep him upright and on his feet... The party's second-best prospects would lie in dispatching Mr Brown tomorrow, decisively and cleanly, and hoping to anoint a successor. Labour's worst prospects lie in leaving Mr Brown in place but sniping at him and undermining him until he almost literally cannot stand up any more. It is this third prospect, the worst of all worlds, that looks to me likely. So are the Tories ready yet - and perhaps quite soon - to take over?" - Matthew Parris in the Times

Mayoral stories

"The Tory candidate is targeting the Conservative neighbourhoods surrounding the capital's Labour inner-city boroughs, in what has been dubbed a "doughnut strategy". His campaign is seeking to overcome a trend identified in recent years whereby Tory voters in outer boroughs opt out of mayoral elections because they do not identify with the issues important to those in the centre of the city." - Telegraph / Independent

"The thrust of Mr Johnson's policy suggestions on crime, transport and planning are sensible. His candour is welcome. His energy, enthusiasm and appetite for the role are much needed, particularly as London's economy heads into a testing few years. He is alive to Londoners' very deep concerns about drugs, stabbings and gangs, disappointment about persistent poverty and housing shortages." - Times leader endorses Johnson

"The choice facing London is not a happy one, but Mr Livingstone is the better option." - Guardian leader

"Ken Livingstone’s only declared donation to his last election campaign was a single £356,413 payment from the London Labour Party, prompting fresh questions about transparency. With six days to go until election day, Mr Livingstone was accused in Parliament of engaging in “dirty politics” by failing to list all the backers of the mayoral election campaign in his returns." - Times

"Mr Livingstone has had some successes: the Oyster card, better buses. But the argument he made when first seeking office - that incumbency leads to cronyism and corruption - has been amply vindicated. London is the world's greatest city. It surely deserves better. Enough is enough, Mr Livingstone. It's time for a change." - Telegraph leader

"With most of our politicians, confined as they are by their knowledge of only one language and only one time - the present - the best one could hope for would be an admiring reference to what Rudy Giuliani or Michael Bloomberg have done in New York. Instead, this classicist takes us back to the first flowering of democratic politics in Athens: his hero is Pericles, leader of that city state in its golden age in the fifth century BC." - Andrew Gimson in the Telegraph

> WATCH CONSERVATIVEHOME'S 'LIVINGSTONE THE MUDTHROWER' VIDEO

Brown is a Tory asset

"Another Tory reason for wanting Mr Brown to fight the next election as Labour leader is his virtually pathological dislike of voting contests... In these last weeks, he has campaigned for the Labour candidate in the London mayoralty election with whatever is the opposite of barn-storming. In short, Mr Brown has never led his party into any national electoral contest, and does not like the thought of it. So the Tories should." - Charles Moore in the Telegraph

Heseltine tops ST Rich List in Northamptonshire - Northampton Chronicle

Motorists urged to stay calm amid fuel strikes - Times

Brown criticises strikes - Guardian

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Friday 25th April 2008

8.30pm ToryDiary: Conservatives lead by 9% according to Ipsos MORI

5.30pm LondonMayor: Unison-funded MORI poll puts Livingstone 6% ahead with second preferences

3.45pm CentreRight: Peter Franklin wonders what would happen to Brown's poll rating if the economy fell off the cliff...?

3.15pm ToryDiary: Religious faith is needed to help tackle today's greatest injustices says William Hague

2.30pm PlayPolitical: David Cameron and Boris Johnson talk about the crime mapping idea

1.15pm LondonMayor: The Case Against Ken Livingstone (and images of Boris' biggest backer)

ToryDiary: IDS says voters must see conservatism as good for them and their neighbour and Brown "obsessed" with Andy Coulson

LondonMayor: Ken "Mudthrower" Livingstone: The Video

Platform: John Leonard questions the regionalisation solution to the Union question

Tory lead hits 21yr high

"The Conservatives have opened up their biggest opinion poll lead since Margaret Thatcher's heyday. David Cameron's Tories now have an 18 point lead according to a YouGov poll for the Telegraph, which discloses the extent to which Labour's electoral prospects have been damaged by the 10p tax revolt." - Telegraph

"It was to be expected that the so-called "feel-good factor" would be seriously damaged by the impact of the credit crunch, the fall in house prices and concerns about the economy. But these fears have even convinced people who will stand to benefit from Mr Brown's tax reforms that they will lose out. It requires an extraordinarily inept political touch to disgruntle losers and winners in equal measure." - Telegraph leader

> Tories surge to 18% lead in first poll since 10p tax row

Cameron backs nationwide release of crime hotspots

"Secret "crime maps" should be made public to let residents see how many assaults, muggings and burglaries are committed on their doorsteps, David Cameron has said. Most forces currently only publish details of crime broken down on a borough by borough basis - and have resisted publishing more detailed information because of data protection concerns." - Telegraph

Boris signals tentative support for "medicinal use" of Cannabis

"Boris Johnson has become one of the first senior Conservative Party politicians to call for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use. In an interview for Telegraph TV, the candidate for London mayor responded to a question from a reader about his personal views on the use of marijuana by sufferers of chronic conditions such as arthritis." - Telegraph / Telegraph TV interview

Leaders woo Wales

"Gordon Brown and David Cameron storm into Wales today as they battle for support in next week’s high-stakes local elections. Mr Brown, who will be in Swansea, is desperate to put the 10p tax band row behind him and today promises a “relentless effort” to help low-income families. Tory leader Mr Cameron ventures into Gavin and Stacey territory in the Vale of Glamorgan – a council the Tories are desperate to win." - Western Mail

Light infantry battallion to be sent to Kosovo

"Britain is to deploy hundreds of troops to Kosovo in a move likely to revive claims that the government is demanding too much from its armed forces. Senior military and defence officials have agreed to a request from Nato to send a battlegroup based on 2 Rifles, a light infantry battalion of about 600 soldiers, to help maintain "public order" in the newly independent Balkan state." - Guardian

Tories should be as angry as the voters

"There is a rich vein of support to be tapped from people who may not yet like the Tories, but are coming to dislike Labour even more. They see a prime minister whose mouthing of platitudes about "stability" and "making the right long-term decisions" cuts no ice. Their income tax bills have increased by £200 and their council tax has done the same. There's a rising tide of anger among an increasingly volatile electorate. That anger needs to be reflected by Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition." - Iain Dale in the Telegraph

Mayoral race stories

"Boris Johnson has raised £1m in his campaign to unseat Ken Livingstone as mayor of London, allowing the Tories to run a highly effective "outer boroughs" campaign that is unsettling Labour ministers." - Guardian

"As important as Ken Livingstone's bid to remain London Mayor is to New Labour's fate, Gordon Brown can hardly be accused of being a towering beacon of support. This week, both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have appeared on the London-based radio station LBC... But, with just over a week until the vote, securing a commitment from someone high up in the Government's ranks proved more problematic." - Independent Pandora

"A strong Johnson showing would provide the first electoral evidence that the modernised Tory party is reaching far beyond its usual comfort zones. "London is totemic and will grab the headlines on May 1," said one member of the shadow frontbench. If Johnson wins, the debt he will owe to Associated Newspapers, and Wadley in particular, will be huge." - Guardian

Fictional drama about Thatcher's parliamentary selection

"Everyone is going to have an opinion about Andrea's portrayal of Thatcher in the BBC drama The Long Walk To Finchley, a fictionalised account of Maggie's tenacious trek to win her first Parliamentary seat and how she overcame the clubby Tory men who tried to block her way. Whatever political views you hold, I defy anyone not to be spellbound by the actress's riveting exploration of the determined woman who became a landmark in our culture." - Mail

Bob Spink at odds with UKIP over 42 days - Guardian diary

Kelvin Mackenzie stands against his local Conservatives over parking charges - Telegraph

New Local Government Network calls for scrapping of GLA - Times

More than 100 MPs employ relatives - Independent

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

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! 

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

St George's Day 2008

4pm Platform: David Gauke MP asks us what the 10p climbdown tells us about Gordon Brown

2pm CentreRight: Harry Phibbs posts key extracts from Livingstone's biography

11.45am ToryDiary: Brown U-turns on 10p just minutes before PMQs

11am ToryDiary: Headcases

10.45am PlayPolitical video: Watch Hillary Clinton promise to "obliterate" Iran if it strikes Israel

9.45am Local Government: Another day, another LibDem defection or two

ToryDiary: The taxpayer gives £1.75bn extra to politics and the politicians still want more

LondonMayor: Steve Norris may become Boris Johnson's head of London Development Agency

Mark Harper MP on Platform marks St George's Day by examining the incoherent devolution settlement: "People living in English border constituencies like mine have only seen the costs of devolution.  They have yet to see any benefits, either for them or for the Union."

PlayPolitical: Highlights of Hillary Clinton's victory speech and Bob Spink talks to Sky about joining UKIP

Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: Even conservative critics are praising Hillary's stamina

From the launch of the Quilliam Foundation, Ben Rogers advocates engagement with ex-Islamists

Gordon Brown says rising food prices are as big a threat as credit crunch - Sky

£1.2bn in unclaimed tax credits could fun £1bn compensation for 10p victims says Frank Field - Guardian

St George's Day

On St George's Day, EU wipes England off map - Telegraph

"We have 529 MPs who sit in the parliament at Westminster.  On certain days, so long as the Union lasts, the Union Flag should be lowered on the Victoria Tower of the Palace of Westminster and replaced by the Cross of St George; and the 529 MPs should meet as an English parliament.  They could elect their own English speaker and hold to account ministers from the majority party in England." - Simon Heffer in The Telegraph

And for some light relief: Happy St George's Day from MEPs Roger Helmer and Chris Heaton-Harris

> 10 Downing Street flies St George's flag today

Graham Brady MP exposes how Labour's new airplane tax will hurt British industry - Telegraph

Livingstone may win, based on a focus group of just ten - headlines The Times

For the first time in her life... Allison Pearson is thinking of voting Conservative

"David Cameron, toff or no toff, shows remarkable signs of coming up with policies that voters actually want. Abolishing Stamp Duty for first-time buyers on purchases of up to £250,000.  A commitment to support streaming and discipline in schools, including giving head teachers the freedom to exclude disruptive pupils.  A British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities that will protect victims, not offenders.  Scrapping the insane ID cards plan, thus freeing up billions to be spent on something that matters - paying mums to stay at home and look after their own children if they feel like it, for instance.  Above all, the new Tories have shown they understand a fundamental truth: a happy, stable family is the basis of a good society." - Daily Mail

David Cameron is back in his tortoise shell

"In keeping with Cameron's emphasis on the "tortoise" approach, the party is playing a measured game, focusing on campaigning in the marginals, and approaching the tax rebellion with delicacy. On the latter front, to overplay their hand would be to scare Frank Field's ragtag rebels back towards Brown, so the Tories are stepping back from any hardened proposals of their own, and hoping that a Labour revolt feeds into the narrative of the government's irreversible decline. The script remains the same: to weather blips, keep calm and maintain the run of success that began last autumn." - John Harris, The Guardian

The woman likely to become Wales' first female Tory MEP explains her opposition to the system that selected her

“Within the Conservative Party we are probably under-represented by women. I understand that our only female MEP is retiring. However I can hand on heart tell you that I campaigned with senior members of our party to not have the system we have just gone through with our members’ ballot. I didn’t approve of any automatic first ranking being given to a female candidate, and would have preferred an open and fair ballot where we would have been able to go round and speak at hustings to convince members of our merits." - Western Mail

> How most women in top MEP slots received fewer votes than their male rivals

MEPs vote not to employ relatives - BBC

"Members of the European Parliament voted yesterday to cover up a report showing widespread abuse of allowances worth £125 million every year." - Telegraph

The Commons remembers Gwyneth Dunwoody - Times sketch

Stress ball scores direct hit on George Galloway - The Independent

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Tuesday 22nd April 2008

7.30pm ToryDiary: Number Ten to fly flag of St George's tomorrow...

7pm Local Government: Sedgemoor LibDem leader joins Conservatives

6.30pm CentreRight: Jill Kirby urges a British audit of the cost of family breakdown

6pm PlayPolitical video of the mayoral candidates as you've never seen them before: George as Boris, Zippy as Ken and Bungle as Paddick

5.45pm ToryDiary: Another unfortunate Whitehall logo

Today on CentreRight:

• How should the Conservative Party distance itself from white van man? Peter Whittle is disturbed that the question is even being asked.
• Douglas Carswell MP doesn't think political parties should get special funding from the taxpayer.
• Tory MP defects to UKIP. 'Is this the shape of things to come?' asks Jim McConalogue.
• Harry Phibbs examines Muslims4Ken's racist slur against Boris
  

3pm ToryDiary: The NUT won't be a Conservative government's only 'enemy within'

3pm PlayPolitical: Ron Paul calls for isolationism in slick animated video

2pm upcoming Events:

• This evening - ERC debate on the welfare state
• This evening - CWO Forum debate on the value of universities
• This evening - CNES on education from the Lords' perspective
• Wednesday afternoon - CPHRC hearing on child soldiers
• Wednesday evening - CPS lecture on the West Lothian question

11.30am ToryDiary: Villiers criticises BAA's "monopolistic grip" on airports

10.30am ToryDiary: Can the Courts force politicians to keep their promises? Stuart Wheeler attempts to force a referendum on Lisbon.

Parliament: David Davis on Chinese security guards in London, Philip Hammond on Labour's broken promises on tax and Gerald Howarth on the "undesirable alien"; Mohamed Al-Fayed.

LondonMayor: The Sun backs Boris

ToryDiary: Bob Spink becomes UKIP's only MP

Simon Burns MP on Platform: Hillary's still in it to win it

PlayPolitical videos:

• Who has what it takes? Barack Obama and Hillary Clinto trade ads on the day Pennsylvania votes.
• McCain has a "good shot" at winning California says Schwarzenegger
• President Bush appears on 'Deal or No Deal' to wish Iraq hero luck

ICM: Tory lead down to 5% - Guardian | Osborne less popular than Darling

Kate Hoey refuses to endorse Livingstone

"She refused to back Mr Livingstone, adding: "I'm a Labour MP and I'm not endorsing anybody." - Telegraph

> Yesterday's confusing events where a "sick" Kate Hoey dropped out of Boris' meeting... but managed to attend other events.

Boris Johnson interviewed in The Sun

"The Tory hopeful revealed his plan as he announced five key promises, for his first day in office if he wins the race to become Mayor on May 1.  He vows every pound spent by his office will be accountable on a Mayor’s website.  Buses will be safer with police support officers doubled.  Alcohol will be banned on the Tube network.  A Mayor’s fund backed by mega-rich Londoners will help keep youngsters off the streets.  And he wants to stop the scandal of developers concreting over back gardens to build new housing." - The Sun

Livingstone pursues Polish vote - FT

"The NUT, our largest teaching union, is today's equivalent of the National Union of Mineworkers"

"The NUT cannot turn off the nation's lights, but it can certainly dim children's prospects. And just as Margaret Thatcher's defeat of the NUM decided our economy's future, David Cameron's battle against the NUT will decide the future of our children." - George Bridges in The Telegraph

Michael Gove singles out David Taylor, Lindsay Hoyle and Rob Marris as MPs in the Gwyneth Dunwoody tradition - Times

Brown promises Labour MPs review of the impact of the abolition of the 10p tax rate - Guardian

But, reports The Independent, it won't be enough for the rebels led by Frank Field.

Don't be fooled... the banks aren't victims of bad luck - Vince Cable in The Independent

MPs attack "unrealistic" cost planning for the Olympics - BBC

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Monday 21st April 2008

11pm ToryDiary: Voters prefer Darling to Osborne in ICM poll

3.15pm CentreRight: Liam Fox MP cites figures showing the UK grows more opium poppy than Pakistan and Dr Crippen offers his thoughts on polyclinics

2.15pm PlayPolitical comedy videos: Headcases mocks Cameron, Hague and Osborne and Rory Bremner targets the private lives of the Mayoral hopefuls

Lunchtime on CentreRight: Mark Field MP has "deep misgivings" about today's Bank of England bail-out

11.45 LondonMayor: 'Sick' Kate Hoey pulls out of Boris event

11.30am CentreRight: Latest poll puts Boris 6% ahead on second prefs

ToryDiary:

• Ken Clarke to recommend that MPs from Scotland and Wales should retain final say on English laws
• David Cameron launches campaign to save 1,600 GP surgeries

LondonMayor: Ten reasons to vote for Boris Johnson

PlayPolitical video: Boris Johnson faces hostile questioning on gay issues at Stonewall hustings

Elizabeth Truss and Lucy Parsons on Platform: Moving from a "why bother" to a "can do" economy

Seats and candidates: How many people in today's politics have run a business or served in their country's armed forces?

Been away? Click here for ConservativeHome's one page guide to all recent developments in our party.

Tories consider paying mums to stay at home - Daily Mail

David Cameron woos Tony Blair's inner circle

Lord Adonis, Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers all praised by the Conservative leader - Telegraph

Will the SNP put David Cameron into office?

"Alex Salmond yesterday promised to force "Westminster to dance to a Scottish jig" by more than trebling the number of SNP MPs.  The First Minister set a target of winning 20 seats at the next General Election, a total which he claimed could give the party the balance of power in the Commons." - Telegraph

"The polls suggest a stronger-than-usual chance that Labour and Conservative could be close run, and that the LibDems risk losing ground. If either of the dominant parties need support, they are going to have to do deals, and the LibDems are not the only potential suitors. The SNP or Northern Irish votes could become crucial. That reflects the other proposition: that the SNP grows from its current six seats to Mr Salmond's new target of 20." - The Herald

Iain Duncan Smith Q&A

Q. Do you regret backing Tony Blair on Iraq?

A. "No. I believe it was the right thing to do. I am sorry that the post-invasion strategy in the first six months was so woeful and that in that period we let the terrorists gain a hold. A stable and prosperous Iraq is worth striving for. No one shed too many tears for the 5,000 to 10,000 children a month that were dying before the invasion as a result of our failed sanctions that also allowed Saddam Hussein to stay in power and murder his people."

Read the other Q&A in The Independent

Amir Khan complains of being used by Labour

"The Labour Party will tomorrow receive a call from Amir Khan's management, querying the boxer's appearance on campaign leaflets for next week's local elections. Khan, 21, is pictured with Labour candidate Amina Lone on pamphlets for the Manchester ward of Whalley Range, a fiercely contested seat which used to be a red-light district but now has a significant Muslim population.  Khan and his management, including promoter Frank Warren, are so careful to avoid politics that the puncher cannot even campaign for his uncle, Shahid Mahmood (father of the cricketer Sajid Mahmood), who is standing for the Conservatives in Bolton." - The Independent

Prescott's bulimia

"John Prescott's struggle with bulimia is no laughing matter. This is a serious psychological condition with potentially dangerous consequences. But in the Fat Controller’s case, it was surely a wrong diagnosis. Prezza blames pressures of high office and says he spent every waking hour working or “stuffing my face” (and, occasionally, Tracey’s).  More likely, he was just a greedy incompetent who gobbled every tasty treat going." - Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun

Yasmin Alibhai Brown lists the reasons she won't be voting for Boris - The Independent

The 10p tax con

"To tax the dustman to provide the Duke's opera, or the nursery nurse to feed the Navy, as we do, might be objectionable, but to tax the poor so that bureaucrats can give money to the poor is simply ludicrous. We should stop doing it." - Tim Worstall in The Times

TUC leader slams Brown over 10p rate - Guardian

Taxing the rich will be counterproductive

"The Institute for Fiscal Studies said it had “new, albeit tentative” evidence that ratcheting up income tax rates for those earning more than £100,000 was likely to be counter-productive, based on the evidence of the past 40 years.' - FT

Seats and candidates: Conservative candidates who are making headlines

ToryDiary: Are the Conservatives planning a £700m rescue package for the 10p tax victims?

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Sunday 20th April 2008

7.45pm The best YouTube of the presidential campaign so far? Watch Obama as Rocky take on Hillary.

3.45pm ToryDiary: Are the Conservatives planning a £700m rescue package for the 10p tax victims?

3.30pm Seats and candidates: Conservative candidates who are making headlines

ToryDiary: Conservatives are 10% ahead in Populus poll and How should David Cameron target "Tony's Tories"?

LondonMayor: Boris' big leads "may have evaporated"

Graeme Archer on Platform: "I’ve been in Verona all week, where most of the region voted for the Lega Nord. It’s fascinating to contrast the politics of Italy with those of the UK – it’s like Britain through the looking glass. In Italy, the rich and industrial north resents the taxes it sends to Rome, in order to subsidise (as they see it) profligacy in the southern regions. So they form a party demanding separation of the two, with fiscal autonomy for the north. In the UK, the flow of money is more or less in the other direction, but the demands for separatism come from the poorer northern area (Scotland), rather than the richer south. Well – that used to be the case. How much longer, I wonder."

Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: "Can't we now just let Powell and his speech and what it "really" meant rest in peace and get on with the debates of our own time?"

Matt Sinclair on CentreRight: "Colombia is second only to Israel for being unfairly singled out by the the international Left."

PlayPolitical video: I had a pet alligator and delivered the Congestion Charge and Oyster Card ID schemes on time and on budget says Ken Livingstone and Berlusconi pretends to point pistols at reporter who asks Putin about his love life

Policy Exchange report recommends more support for stay-at-home mums

"Mothers should be paid to stay at home if they want to when their children are young, according to a report to be launched by the Conservatives' shadow minister for the family tomorrow." - Observer

Head of Lottery Fund forced to apologise to Jeremy Hunt - Mail on Sunday

Interview with Nigel Lawson, climate change sceptic - The Sunday Times

"Take the electricity and the light to read by and worry about malaria and monsoonal rains later." - Iain Murray quoting The Breakthrough Institute on India and global warming

The Tory baseball cap is back!!! - Scotland on Sunday

Buy the Scottish Conservatives' merchanise here.

Politics, party funding and the internet

"So let’s have no more money for party bureaucrats. Let Labour and the Tories enthuse us all with their policies so that they can raise money by their own efforts on the web, bolstered through tax relief on small donations." - Martin Ivens in The Sunday Times

Gordon Brown in denial over abolition of 10p tax band

PM insists "noone will lose out" from 10p decision - Mail on Sunday

"Gordon Brown embarked on a seven-day charm offensive yesterday to win over rebels opposed to his tax policy in an attempt to defeat the most serious threat to his leadership so far." - Independent on Sunday

Robert Chote in The Sunday Telegraph offers a remedy for the 10p losers: "A more popular way to reduce the number of losers would be to raise the personal allowance people can earn before they start to pay income tax and National Insurance. This would also be more cost-effective, as it would partly unwind the reform that created the losers in the first place. Raising the allowance by £100 would remove 1.3 million losers and cost £800 million; by £300 would remove 3.3 million losers and cost £2.5 billion; by £750 would remove almost all the losers and cost £6 billion."

David Miliband acknowledges that Labour is now the political underdog - BBC

The Prime Minister will be a handicap at the next election - John Rentoul in The Independent on Sunday

John Prescott has confessed to suffering from the eating disorder bulimia - BBC | Sky

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Saturday 19th April 2008

11.15pm ToryDiary: Populus puts Labour in double-digit deficit for the first time

Noon ToryDiary: The Triumph of the Political Class is your book of the year

Noon PlayPolitical: A Democrat plays the age card against John McCain in a video which portrays the GOP candidate as older than FM Radio, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and Burger King...

CentreRight: Cabbies for Boris, America doesn't notice Broon meeting Boosh, and quotes from John Howard

Congestion charge blackmail

"Announcing a new transport policy as part of his local elections campaign, Tory leader David Cameron accused Ministers of "blackmailing" councils into introducing congestion charging if they wanted funding for other transport improvements. Last summer the Yorkshire Post revealed councils in the region, including Leeds, were being forced to put congestion charging back on the agenda despite having publicly ruled it out, in order to win money from the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF)." - Yorkshire Post

Helping the elderly hang on to their homes

"Pensioners may not have to sell their homes to pay for residential care under plans being considered by David Cameron. In a question-and-answer session in Yorkshire yesterday, the Conservative leader said it was one of the "great unfairnesses" that people who had saved money and "done the right thing" were then more likely to fail a means test and face having to selling their home." - Telegraph

Labour MPs aiming to axe all grammar schools

"Labour MPs are preparing to call for academic selection to be scrapped in a move which will reignite the debate over the future of grammar schools. Up to 50 MPs are believed to be backing an amendment to Government legislation which would pave the way for existing grammars to be axed. They want the 11-plus entrance examination to be abolished and claim it condemns poor children to an inferior education. Their move places a fresh question mark over England's 164 remaining grammar schools." - Telegraph

Boris Q&A

"What is your earliest memory? My tree house in Washington DC. Which living person do you most admire? My wife. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? An excessive and almost hysterical attention to detail. What is the trait you most deplore in others? The arrogant waste of London taxpayers' money." - Guardian

Review of Ferdinand Mount's autobiography

"Ferdinand Mount is a baronet who prefers not to use his title, a former nanny to the children of American millionaires who later headed Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street Policy Unit, the most scrupulously intelligent man ever to be appointed as an editor by Rupert Murdoch" - Telegraph

I wish Gwyneth Dunwoody was with us forever

"The death of Gwyneth Dunwoody robs Parliament of one of the last true champions of backbench independence. A brave Euro-sceptic, Right-wing Labour MP, "Gunboats Gwyneth" was as opposed to Trotskyists as she was to tokenism for women. When the so called Blair Babes objected to their working conditions at the Commons, after the Labour landslide in 1997, Dunwoody's response was typical. "If they can't deal with it, they should go back home and do some knitting."" -  Andrew Pierce in the Telegraph

Brown faces "train wreck", "headache" and "gathering storm"

"Gordon Brown returns to Britain to face trouble on the home front after his tour of the US, with the prospect of what one MP described as a parliamentary "train wreck" over the abolition of the 10p starting rate of tax. The Treasury was last night signalling that it was considering a range of longer-term options to compensate those who might lose out over the tax reform, including using instruments like tax credits and the minimum wage." - Guardian

"A defiant Gordon Brown will fly back to Britain today determined to face down a gathering storm of protest over his abolition of the 10p tax rate. The Prime Minister is privately furious at what he regards as misrepresentation of the effects of the tax change and the activities of a handful of malcontent backbenchers." - Times

"Mr Brown has so far failed to exhibit the gravitas he was thought to possess, developing instead a reputation for dithering over decisions, while amply proving that he lacks the easy, if often phoney, empathy of his predecessor. A sure sign of prime ministerial weakness is when domestic difficulties intrude upon an overseas visit, as they so often did on John Major's. Ignominiously, Mr Brown found it necessary to interrupt his discussions in Washington to persuade a junior member of his government not to resign in protest at plans to abolish the 10p tax rate on the lowest paid." - Telegraph leader

Rivers of blood legacy

"Sunday is the 40th anniversary of perhaps the most significant speech made in British politics since the Second World War: Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech. It is also, therefore, near to the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest lies in British politics since the Second World War: that this remarkably accurate prediction of the dangers of enforced multiculturalism has "prevented" a rational debate on immigration, since anyone who seeks to engage in it will be branded as a "racist"." - Simon Heffer in the Telegraph

We need to learn to take more risks - Janice Turner in the Times

Faith schools must retain their liberty - Abraham Pinter in the Guardian

Parliament is a lifeless institution - Simon Carr in the Independent

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Friday 18th April 2008

6pm CF Diary: New CF Exec blog and Help Boris, win a prize

4.15pm upcoming events in our listings:

Monday lunchtime - Policy Exchange debate on financing childcare
Monday evening - IEA lecture on lessons from American welfare reform
Monday evening - Con. History Group looks at Rivers of Blood 40yrs on
Tuesday lunchtime - Launch of the Quilliam Foundation

Tuesday lunchtime - Policy Exchange debate on American welfare reform

Tuesday evening - ERC debate on the welfare state
Tuesday evening - CWO Forum debate on the value of universities
Wednesday afternoon - CPHRC hearing on child soldiers
Wednesday evening - CPS lecture on the West Lothian question

3.45pm ToryDiary: Call for papers on the Conservative Party

11.30am CentreRight: David Lidington MP remembers Gwyneth Dunwoody MP

LondonMayor: Watch Boris' new broadcast

Nick Herbert on Platform: We must act now to avoid growing conflict between politicians and judges

ToryDiary: Gwyneth Dunwoody has died

Julia Manning on CentreRight: Give GPs a break!

Cameron: Impotent Brown isn't taking action on the economy

"Mortgage repayments are certainly rising at a time when take-home pay is falling and, added to that, the cost of the weekly shop, filling up the car and paying utility bills is multiplying. Families are uneasy about what lies ahead for their jobs, homes and livelihoods. But have these worries galvanised the Prime Minister into serious action? No. All we get is dithering and delay. His call for banks to be transparent about their off balance sheet debts might carry more weight if he were transparent about his own government's borrowing." - David Cameron in the Telegraph

Householders paid an extra £4k on council tax under Labour

"Tory leader David Cameron yesterday laid out his plans for his party to break new ground in Wales in the local elections. Speaking during a trip to North Wales, Mr Cameron suggested that at a time of growing economic uncertainty the battle would be won and lost over council tax." - Western Mail

"Householders have shelled out an extra £4,000 each in council tax since Labour won power, Tory figures revealed yesterday. Bills have more than doubled in some areas – leaving almost half of low-paid workers worse off. " - Sun

Shaun Bailey, Charlotte Leslie, and David Bull

"The Tories have succeeded in recruiting candidates from what would once have been thought of as enemy territory. But while the black security man, the woman boxer and the gay TV presenter may be closer to the people, are they still at arm's length from Team Cameron?" - Damian Thompson in the Telegraph

The choice facing Londoners

"For many Londoners, the mayoral election appears as a choice between my record in delivering for London and Boris Johnson's affable TV personality but evident lack of competence to run one of the world's largest cities. But that choice is conditioned by far deeper issues." - Ken Livingstone in the Guardian

"London is one of the world's great cities yet it has an antiquated infrastructure that is on the point of breaking down, its transport system is more expensive to use than almost any other, and the crime problem is chronic. It will require a Herculaean effort by the new mayor, whoever it is, to rectify any of its problems. Over the next fortnight, we trust the Conservative candidate will be clearer about what he proposes to do and shows how much he really wants the job. We need to see more of the real Boris, not less." - Telegraph leader

The discovery of Margaret Thatcher

"Margaret Thatcher’s early promise as a rising star of the Conservative Party was first identified in a two internal party documents which have come to light for the first time in almost 60 years. The Daily Telegraph discovered the memos, which describe her as the most “outstanding” woman candidate party chiefs had ever encountered, in the Conservative Party archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford." - Telegraph

Thatcher and the Falklands

"It was a minor skirmish in a remote part of the world, but Margaret Thatcher’s triumph in liberating the Falkland Islands in 1982 set the seal on Britain reclaiming its status as a major world power. You have only to look at the crucial role British forces play today on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to grasp the significance of the legacy Margaret Thatcher created with her momentous victory in the Falklands in 1982." - Con Coughlin in the Telegraph

Former MP Rod Richards' explanation

"An unrepentant Rod Richards last night opened up on the doorstep fracas which landed him in a police cell for 18 hours. He said he had challenged the Conservative Party activist after the latter said he didn’t need to speak to him because a another canvasser had spoken to him days before. The conversation developed into a heated argument involving Mr Richards and four Tory canvassers." - Western Mail

Ministers need to be ready for an even worse month

"Mr Balls believes that administrations such as that in which he serves only lose elections when they have mishandled the economy, are divided among themselves and have lost touch with the concerns of the electorate. He is right about this. The next month will demonstrate how close the Government is to satisfying these conditions." - Times leader

Balls tells critics to stop the nonsense - Times

Downing Street joins Twitter - Guardian

Brown and Bush talk up the special relationship - Guardian

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Thursday 17th April 2008

10.45pm PlayPolitical videos:

• John McCain explains why he wants to cut taxes
• Obama attacks Hillary Clinton as "in her element" when politics becomes negative

9.15pm Martin Parsons on CentreRight: Ken Livingstone needs to come clean about his relationship with RESPECT.

5.45pm ToryDiary: PPS intends to resign over 10p band

5pm ToryDiary: Fraser Nelson, ConservativeHome Writer of the Year, on David Cameron as Prime Minister of England

11am Peter Whittle on CentreRight: A Tale of Two Cities

11am Local Government: Cameron launches local election campaign: Vote Blue, Go Green, Save Money

LondonMayor: Why are you voting for Boris?

ToryDiary: What would you like to see happen to The Telegraph's Comment pages?

Trenchant opinions on ConservativeHome's fastest-growing section, CentreRight:

• Ben Rogers: "What is it that the backers of suicide bombers, and the newt-loving, leotard-wearing, promiscuous, heavy-drinking champions of gay and women's rights have in common?"
• Simon Chapman: "'Sharing the proceeds of growth' has the potential to become the political opposite to Carlsberg: probably the most irritating sound bite in the world."
• Andrew Lilico: "The BBC is reporting that the Bank of England is close to finalising a scheme whereby British banks will be able to swap their mortgage-backed assets for government bonds.  The government hopes to avoid this turning into a taxpayer funded bailout of British banks.  This hope will fail."

PlayPolitical: Clinton and Obama are asked to agree to a joint ticket and Obama is asked what he'll do about Obama bin Laden

THE DISGRACEFUL ACCOMMODATION FOR OUR SERVICEMEN BEFORE THEY FIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN - The Sun

The Sun Says: "In Des Browne we have an inept Defence Secretary who carries no clout because he only does the job part-time. Browne will say the Treasury won’t let him have any money to improve conditions. Yet cash is wasted on a monumental scale every day by the armchair generals in Whitehall. Last November it was revealed that the MoD alone had blown £10m in entertainment expenses in the past two years — enough to repair Brize Norton several times over. The Government MUST sort this out, and fast. David Cameron calls the conditions at the base appalling. So let him confront Gordon Brown in the Commons and demand action. The Sun is proud to campaign to improve the treatment of our forces. We will not rest while a single squaddie is treated worse than vermin."

David Cameron to launch local elections campaign in Dewsbury with emphasis on housing and environment - BBC

Michael Brown goes back to his old seat of Cleethorpes and predicts that it will return to the Tories at the next election - Independent

A Boris victory can put the Tories on the path to national power

"The Tories now have a perfect opportunity to cure this paralysing disconnection between local and national government in Britain by taking the London election seriously and getting their candidate elected by committing themselves in advance to national decisions such as abandonment of Heathrow expansion or changes in the policing of London's streets. In doing this, the Tories would put themselves on the path to national power and create a suitable platform for Boris Johnson, one of their most able and charismatic politicians, to show what his party could achieve." - Anatole Kaletsky in The Times

Boris Johnson sets out his pro-business agenda in the Financial Times.

Tories want to protect small shops

"Describing specialist shops as the "lifeblood" of communities, Mr Cameron also promised to fight government proposals to relax the planning rules for out-of-town retail developments.  A Conservative commission chaired by Brian Binley, the MP for Northampton South, has called on a future Tory government to reject Labour's plans to remove the "needs test" from planning rules, which requires out-of-town supermarkets and shopping centres to prove there is a real necessity for them in the area." - Telegraph | ToryDiary

OTHER NEWSLINKS

Teenager cautioned for wiping snot on David Cameron's back - Telegraph | Mail has photo of boy

Former Tory minister Rod Richards arrested for alleged assault - BBC

74 Labour MPs have now signed motions criticising abolition of 10p tax band - Independent

Jacqui Smith vows to press ahead with 42 days despite expectation of defeat - Independent

Report reveals Iran seized British sailors in disputed waters - Times

Whitehall plasma TVs cost £1m - Telegraph

"The Electoral Commission has written to Labour's Harriet Harman to remind her that failing to report donations on time "is a serious matter". - BBC

Levy's explosive memoirs to follow 1st May - Herald

Wales gets its first Communist councillor since 1970s - Western Mail

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Wednesday 16th April 2008

9pm ToryDiary: What would you like to see happen to The Telegraph's Comment pages?

5.15pm CentreRight: Eight ways to tackle anti-Americanism

4.15pm ToryDiary: We're doomed if we don't sharpen our act says Darling

3pm ToryDiary: Saving small shops: Use 'em or lose 'em

2.15pm LondonMayor: "Suicide bomb backer runs Ken campaign" and Paddick launches strong attack on Livingstone

11.15am ToryDiary: McCain's economic prescription puts George Osborne to shame

11.15am PlayPolitical: Green Party's London election broadcast

"This is not just any old corporate race. British Energy is the core of our nuclear industry, and is a ready-made launchpad for a whole new fleet of power stations. Whoever gets it gets a head start. Issues of strategic national importance, such as security, affordability and carbon emissions all follow from who owns BE."

Platform: Alan Duncan MP looks at the issues surrounding the sale of British Energy

ToryDiary: Bribery is sometimes necessary, says Tebbit, when British jobs and security are at stake

CentreRight:

• Robert Halfon criticises Jonathan Freedland's dangerous "at least he makes the trains run on time" argument in favour of Livingstone
• Matthew Sinclair takes the food security debate back to WW2
• Martin Parsons on the Islamist who advises the Government on Islam

PlayPolitical: Anti-McCain ad paints him as out of touch on the economy and too similar to Bush

Sharp rise in unqualified teachers

"The number of unqualified, trainee and foreign teachers has risen five-fold since Labour came to power, according to the Tories. The figures from a parliamentary answer to a question from Michael Gove, the Conservative schools spokesman, mean headteachers are frequently filling vacancies with staff who are not qualified in the subject they are teaching. There are now 16,710 teachers working in state schools in England without qualified teacher status (QTS), up from 2,940 in 1997." - Independent

Osborne's remedy for the credit crunch

"As the Government in waiting, we have to show Sun readers we offer a real alternative to a Government fighting itself instead of fighting for Britain. If I walked into the Treasury tomorrow, the first thing I’d do is unblock the mortgage market. When the Bank of England cuts rates, that should flow down to families as lower mortgage bills. That isn’t happening at the moment because the financial plumbing – the international money markets – is blocked. " - George Osborne in the Sun

Pre-sentence rehabilitation a "soft-touch"

"The extension of a scheme giving young offenders a second chance to avoid prison, revealed by The Herald yesterday, has been decried by Tories as a "soft touch". The extension of the "structured deferred sentence" scheme to Glasgow and Tayside follows a successful trial in five areas. The approach is aimed at minor offenders with problems such as drug or drink abuse, learning difficulties, or unemployment." - Herald

Thatcher: the first celebrity politician

"Mrs Thatcher was the first British celebrity politician groomed for a television age. A Boadicea in crisp tailoring (always worn, on her patriotic boast, over M&S underwear), she was at her best among men in uniform, and preferably on a tank with hair blown back in the wind. As her terrified Cabinet acknowledged, she combined power with allure." - Nick Allen in the Telegraph

Clegg waters down denial of Tory past

"Mr Clegg's office at first denied the suggestion. But, after being faced with evidence, said he had "no recollection of joining the group". MP Greg Hands - who was a year above the LibDem chief at Robinson College, Cambridge - published his copy of the association's 1986-87 membership list on the conservative-home website." - Mail

> Greg Hands' evidence on CentreRight

Tebbit defends dodgy arms deals

"When the High Court ruled that the Serious Fraud Office had been wrong to halt its inquiries into allegations of unlawful practices by British Aerospace to secure the huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia, I felt like banging on the door of the courts and telling the judges to leave foreign policy judgments to democratically-elected politicians." - Norman Tebbit in the Mail

Guardian hosts article from SOAS student accusing Boris of racism, shocker

"The BNP's decision to align itself with Johnson is no accident. It shares with the Tory hopeful an obsession with national identity, or with "flying the flag for Britishness again", as the former Spectator editor would put it. It perceives in Johnson a familiar kind of racial and cultural superiority, an attitude given succour by Johnson's repeated caricatures of Africans, Chinese and Muslims." - Soumaya Ghannoushi in the Guardian

Radio 5 broadside

"David Cameron yesterday launched a searing attack on Gordon Brown for being “arrogant” and “out of touch”. He accused Labour of wasting money “on a gargantuan scale” since 1997 when it should have been preparing for tough economic conditions like those being experienced now." - Express

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Tuesday 15th April 2008

4.15pm ToryDiary: Nine out of ten political insiders say Brown is an electoral liability

CentreRight selections:

• In his latest despatch from Doha, David Lidington MP says we shouldn't be scared of sovereign funds
• Andrew Lilico notes a taxpayer-funded academic conference has already decided that colonialism is to blame for Africa's problems
• Alexander Deane wonders if there is a correlation between sky-rocketing STDs and Tesco selling padded-bras for seven year-olds

12.45pm PlayPolitical: David "Tory Tornado" Davies MP wins his debut boxing match against gay boxer Charles "Pink Pounder" Jones and UKIP's London broadcast

12.30pm CentreRight updates:

• David Lidington MP on Qatar newspapers' impressive coverage of foreign affairs and on not being afraid of sovereign wealth funds
• Jim McConalogue on the fixed referendum in Ireland
• Simon Chapman praises principled cricketeer Alistair Brown

12pm LondonMayor: Mayor Livingstone's press officer army is three times bigger than PM Brown's

11am ToryDiary: Michael Forsyth warns that voters will be denied a choice at the next election if Tories match Labour on spending

Greg Hands MP on CentreRight exposes Nick Clegg's Tory past

ToryDiary: Is David Cameron planning a summer clear-out of the Shadow Cabinet?

"It will harm our relationship with Russia, extending and worsening the new Cold War. It will diminish the prospects for stability and order in many parts of the world, not least in the Balkans as well as the arc of instability which rings the southern flank of Russia. It will result in a loss of credibility for Western diplomacy."

Platform: Bob Seely regrets Britain's support of independence for Kosovo

PlayPolitical: Brown wears a smile for his party, but will anybody come? and McCain ad promises to "ignite" US economy

Shadow Cabinet reshuffle on the cards

"David Cameron is planning a Shadow Cabinet clear-out this summer designed to sharpen up his front bench and show he is leading a "government in waiting". Only seven of the 30 politicians who make up his top team are safe in their jobs, leaving the rest facing either a move or the sack, the Daily Mail understands." - Mail

What Lady T means to DC

"The only area of Margaret Thatcher's legacy I regret is the centralisation of government which was performed in those days. Of course loony Left councils needed to be reined in - but the effect today is a diminished civic sphere and many communities deprived of the energetic local government they need." - David Cameron in the Telegraph

Lord Forsyth critical of 10p tax band

"David Cameron's decision to support rebel Labour MPs in their bid to retain the 10 per cent tax band has been condemned by the Conservative peer who chaired the party's own Tax Reform Commission. Lord Forsyth of Drumlean - whose commission published its proposals in October 2006 - has described the party's present policy as "mad". The former cabinet minister's report recommended abolition of the 10 per cent tax band, six months before Gordon Brown announced the measure in his final Budget." - Telegraph

> Forsyth backs tighter control of public spending

Osborne's speech on the economy

"George Osborne has signalled that a Tory Government may not be able to cut the tax burden on families until 2018. During a fierce attack on Gordon Brown's handling of the public finances, the Shadow Chancellor said there was no "quick fix" for the economy. He dismissed the "siren voices" of the Conservative Right demanding up-front promises of tax cuts." - Telegraph

> George Osborne: I can't promise any quick fixes for UKplc

What the Conservatives are learning from history

"They are the history boys. David Cameron and George Osborne are keen students of the recent past, perhaps because they are Conservatives, or perhaps because they studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, which is really History with Added Relevance. Whereas Gordon Brown is interested in history for its own sake, being an historian by training, and Tony Blair was interested in historical nuggets if they served the purpose of his argument, the Conservative leadership take a close interest in the lessons of history, because they might have to apply them." - John Rentoul in the Independent

SNP local income tax plans

"John Swinney, the finance secretary, hit back yesterday at opposition claims that average couples would be hundreds of pounds a year worse off under his local income tax plans. The Tories claimed at the weekend that a household with two people working full-time and earning the average wage – giving them a joint income of £53,290 – would be £289 a year worse off under the local income tax than they were under the council tax." - Hamish Macdonell in the Scotsman

Berlusconi wins election in Italy

"Neither Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the centre-Right coalition who emerged as victor last night, nor his main rival, Walter Veltroni, had put forward a convincing programme for cutting the country's huge budget deficit. Both promised to axe spending programmes while simultaneously dangling expensive new projects to entice the voters." - Telegraph leader

Brown urged to back new form of death tax - Guardian

Trade Minister Digby Jones says he'll quit rather than back Brown - Times

The UN "human rights expert" who compares Israel to Nazi Germany - David Aaronovitch in the Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Monday 14th April 2008

10pm PlayPolitical: A beer in one hand and a shot of whisky in the other... Hillary Clinton is out to prove she can reach the blue collar Democrats that Obama cannot

Early evening on CentreRight: Two must-read posts from Simon Chapman on the price of petrol and how to curtail judicial power.

3.15pm CentreRight updates:

• David Lidington MP sends despatches (one and two) from the Doha summit
• Greg Hands MP returns from the Arctic with some thoughts on climate change
• Matthew Sinclair on the pseudo-oligarchic parliamentary establishment
• Plan now for the day after Mugabe, says Conor Burns

2.30pm LondonMayor: Breakdown London report shows that half of children in Inner London live below poverty line

2.15pm ToryDiary: I can't promise any quick fixes for UKplc says Osborne

1.30pm ToryDiary: Scottish Conservatives call in police over missing £150k 

12.15pm Seats and Candidates: Our comprehensive list of links to constituency associations and their MPs/PPCs

10.45am CentreRight: Harry Phibbs reveals that Boris' lead is down 6%

10.45am Louise Bagshawe on CentreRight: Has Gordon sent Tony flowers?

10am Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: Why price-level targeting would have been better than Inflation Targeting at addressing the consequences of asset price misalignments

LondonMayor: Political insiders argue that Boris Johnson should emphasise his serious side in final stages of London campaign

Andrew Mitchell MP on Platform: China is not the only culprit on Darfur; the west is to blame, too

Local government: No Conservative should ever use the expression "post-code lottery" says Christina Dykes

Seats and candidates: Hazel Grove Tories to tour constituency with double deckered surgery bus

PlayPolitical video: Rory Bremner returned to Channel 4 last night and dished it out to "Boris, Boris, Boris" and Gordon Brown

Have you been away?  Catch up with the most important Tory news with ConservativeHome's one page briefing.

Attack, attack, attack: The scribblers pile on Brown

Britain no longer has a functioning government - Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail

Gordon Brown is a fabulous disappointment - Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun

The country cannot afford Labour's introspection when the economy needs fixing - Telegraph leader

Brown is less trusted on economy than any other major European leader - Independent

Osborne: Brown is to blame for Britain's economic woes

The Shadow Chancellor will make a speech this morning in which he'll say that the British people have lost confidence in Labour's economic competence - BBC

PlayPolitical: Watch George Osborne accuse Labour of failing to lead Britain through difficult times.

4,000 estate agents in danger from credit crunch - Times

"Britain is a decade behind other countries on welfare reform"

"The report, from the centre-Right think-tank Policy Exchange, says that unemployment and incapacity benefit rates in the UK have been largely static for Labour's decade in power." - Daily Mail

Tories have to prove they are more than a one-man band - Tom Richmond in the Yorkshire Post

Denis MacShane calls on David Cameron to discipline Douglas Carswell MP for urging Speaker to go - Guardian

> ToryDiary on Douglas Carswell's agenda for post-Speaker parliamentary reform

Keith Vaz says Labour doesn't have the votes for 42 days pre-trial detention - BBC

Scottish Tories target SNP plans for a local income tax

"Double-income households will be an average of £289 a year worse off if the SNP succeeds in its plan to introduce a local income tax, the Tories claimed yesterday." - Scotsman

"Salmond ‘starting to win the argument for Scots independence’" - Herald

Alex Salmond's wife set to emerge from the background - Scotsman

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Sunday 13th April 2008

4pm CentreRight: Alex Deane on the BBC's slavish faith in the Gospel of Climate Change

Lunchtime PlayPolitical: Watch Mugabe deride Gordon Brown as a tiny, little dot on this world and David Davies MP getting fit in preparation for a boxing match against Britain's only openly-gay boxer

ToryDiary: Douglas Carswell MP calls for Speaker Martin to go

Seats and candidates: Ex-Tory candidate Nigel Hastilow accuses mainstream parties of driving voters into the hands of the BNP

Graeme Archer's Diary: Mind the Gap

CentreRight selections:

• The Republicans increasingly believe that Iraq could keep them in the White House, writes Tim Montgomerie
• Dr John Crippen exposes Gordon Brown's deep cleaning scam
• In describing Britain's 'judicial aristocracy', Matt Sinclair concludes that Lawyers don't think like 'normal' people.

Independent on Sunday leads speculation about Brown's leadership

Charles Clarke is planning a stalking horse candidacy against Brown's leadership if MayDay is bad - Independent on Sunday

Also in the IoS, John Rentoul calls for Miliband to be Labour leader: "Another friend of David Cameron told me that he thought Cameron would "run rings" round Miliband, but I do not agree. The Foreign Secretary would meet the Tory leader head on where he is strongest: youth, freshness and energy. When it comes to policy, Miliband can outflank him on the environment and knows his way around public service delivery."

Has Brown promised Ed Balls the Number 10 job? - Mail on Sunday

David Miliband is the favoured next Labour leader according to the PoliticsHomeIndex of political insiders.

On this day in 1992 Neil Kinnock resigned - BBC

YouGov: Tories ahead by 16%

Gordon Brown's standing plunges by record amount and at record speed - Sunday Times | ToryDiary blog

"Last summer, according to YouGov, he had a positive approval rating of nearly 50%; now nearly 40% think he is doing badly - almost a complete reversal. If Mr Brown was quoted on the stock market, a plunge like that would tell you he was about to go bust. Perhaps he is... We should not forget the Conservatives are pursuing a shrewd course as the government implodes. They are not overplaying their hand, aware that they could be seen to be gloating as people suffer in an economic downturn. Quietly, however, the party is building a reputation. No longer, given the youth and inexperience of much of the cabinet, does the opposition look like such a risk." - Sunday Times leader

The battle for London

Boris Johnson has narrow 2% MORI lead - Observer | LondonMayor blog

Boris summarises his priorities within a profile for The Sunday Times written by A A Gill: "You wanted my first three things I’d do in office. Um, er, accountability – I’d put all expenditure on the net. Er, two, police on the buses. Three: scrap The Londoner newspaper and plant trees all over London. Er, stop paying anarchist and communist collectives and all that rot, and then wi-fi – wi-fi everywhere, I’ll wi-fi, wi-fi everything.”

Tory gains on 1st May will probably come at the LibDems' expense

"Most of the seats being contested on May 1 were last fought in 2004. That was a terrible year for Labour - for the first time the party even trailed the Liberal Democrats when the results were projected into a nationwide vote. With so much ground lost already it is difficult to see Labour's vote falling further.  Still, there remains some opportunity for a Tory advance. The Liberal Democrats look as though they will struggle to repeat their 2004 success. Their national poll standing is three to four points down on four years ago, while their performance in last year's local elections was also some three points below 2004. Even if the Tories are no more than the principal beneficiaries of a Liberal Democrat decline, Mr Cameron will still be able to notch up some gains." - John Curtice in The Sunday Telegraph

Norman Lamont on the economy: The worst is yet to come

"Contrary to what the Government have been saying, the UK is not well positioned to withstand this crisis. Whether it be the rise in house prices, mortgage debt, the ratio of house prices to income or personal indebtedness, every weakness in the US economy exists in the UK, but to a greater degree." - The Sunday Telegraph

Gordon Brown writes for the News of the World about the credit crunch.

Frank Field accuses Ed Balls of "near criminal" attack on faith schools - The Sunday Telegraph

Tory report highlights truancy hotspots

"A study of 'persistent truancy' found that there were 12 local authorities, including Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Blackpool, Manchester, Hull and Islington, where more than one in 10 children skipped school at least once a week." - Observer

Cost of last year's Scottish elections doubled to £40m - BBC

The US sees Gordon Brown as lacking the stomach for a war on terror - Nile Gardiner in The Sunday Times

Ferdinand Mount describes the misfits that surrounded Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street - Sunday Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Saturday 12th April 2008

8.30pm PlayPolitical: Watch Hillary Clinton accuse Barack Obama of "looking down" on ordinary Americans

8pm LondonMayor: Boris ahead by 2% after second preferences according to Ipsos MORI

6.45pm ToryDiary: Tories 16% ahead

4pm PlayPolitical: Watch Telegraph TV's Thatcher special

12.30pm CentreRight: Tim Montgomerie writes: "We can look forward to getting rid of Gordon Brown by 2010 at the latest.  Activist judges are going to be a taller order."

11.15am ToryDiary: Cameron's task is harder than Thatcher's
***

"If Polly Toynbee bothered to take a closer look at Sweden, she would find a country where taxes have been cut and numerous reforms have been introduced since the change of government in late 2006. She would find a country where growth is stronger than in most Western European countries, where unemployment is down, and where the Government, unlike in the UK, can show a record budget surplus in its finances."

Platform: Gunnar Hokmark MEP says Toynbee should take a closer look at Sweden

ToryDiary: MigrationWatch wins Campaigner of the Year

PlayPolitical: Jon Snow as you haven't seen him before

Tories support Brown in blocking fraud investigations

"Gordon Brown yesterday won Conservative backing for a move that would allow the government to block future criminal investigations such as the corruption case against the arms company BAE Systems. Despite scathing criticism in the high court on Thursday, the Tories have chosen to support Downing Street in facing down critics who are keen for the BAE investigation to be reopened." - Guardian

"The Tories have backed government plans for new attorney general powers to halt inquiries in the national interest. The move comes after the High Court said the Serious Fraud Office acted unlawfully by dropping its corruption inquiry into the al-Yamamah arms deal. " - BBC

"At last, some sound and principled sense has been spoken on the matter of the Serious Fraud Office, BAE Systems and the Saudi arms deal. Fortunately, this sound sense comes from the High Court, in its judgment on the SFO's decision to drop its corruption inquiry into the multi-billion pound contract." - Independent leader

"The argument for turning a blind eye to corruption in the arms trade is much the same as the one applied against closing tax avoidance loopholes for the super-rich. And it is, for all that it gets dressed up in the pompous language of international realpolitik, a playground argument: if we don't do it, someone else will." - Sam Leith in the Telegraph

Where's this generation's Thatcher?

"No one, of any political persuasion, is asking for a new Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Jim Callaghan, John Major or Tony Blair. Especially at the moment, Britons are fascinated by the concept of a politician who can diagnose national ills and, by administering strong medicine, restore the country to economic and psychological health." - Telegraph leader

The Telegraph's DVD series on Thatcher begins today.  Free with every copy of the newspaper.

Fewer questions, more answers

"The Tories know it may take a hung parliament and a second election to prise Labour out. Their leader expects more ups and downs, in his own party as well as the opinion polls, as he strikes a difficult balance between launching an initiative a day and being accused of invisibility. But he can claim to be setting an agenda that the Government has been forced to follow: on inheritance tax, welfare reform, MPs' expenses, a free vote on embryo research and even meeting the Dalai Lama." - Andrew Grice in the Independent

Boris on super traffic wardens

"Dave is accosted by middle-aged women who see him as the perfect son-in-law, Zac attracts the leggy blondes, but Boris is hailed from across the street by bus drivers, builders and City boys. As he stands up to address a crowd, he turns into a performer, switching from jokes about Ken Leavingsoon to pledges about campaigning against a third runway at Heathrow. The people love it. Perhaps Old and New Boris can be combined." - Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson follow Boris on the campaign trail for the Telegraph

Will Brown last until the election?

"Poor wand-less Mr Brown isn't concealing or delaying his abracadabra moment. There's nothing there: nothing to get cracking with, nothing to communicate, nothing to explain. I think his premiership is disintegrating. With no belief in the human at its centre I doubt the disintegration can be halted or reversed. I think this will become plain by autumn. One way or another, and very possibly before the next election, I think Mr Brown will go." - Matthew Parris in the Times (PoliticalBetting responds)

"The thought of replacing Mr Brown is ludicrous: having imposed one unelected prime minister on British voters, Labour could hardly inflict a second, even if there were a better candidate available, and there is not. Dumping Mr Brown would hand the Conservatives a huge advantage, surrendering everything positive about the government's record over the last 10 years. The Liberal Democrats can get away with a serial exchange of leaders. Labour could not." - Guardian leader

Who was that next to George Clooney? - Liz Hunt in the Telegraph

Brown says he's "appalled" by developments in Zimbabwe - BBC

Council spy cases reach 1000 - Telegraph

I'm launching a campaign against fly-tipping and litter-bugs - Bill Bryson in the Times

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.