ConservativeHome

Thursday 31st July 2008

6.15pm ToryDiary: Parallels with 1995-97 (and differences)

4.30pm Seats and candidates: Labour's John Austin MP will quit at next election

Top-up payments for healthcare and a stronger role for matron are two of the ideas in our special Platform on the future of Tory healthcare policy. Simon Chapman, Nadine Dorries MP, Andrew Haldenby and Dr Rachel Joyce all contribute.

Greg Hands MP on CentreRight wants his DNA back:  "A new report shows that I am one of more than a million entirely innocent people on the DNA database, which also includes 100,000 children."

Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: Sky's new opinion poll tracker

Three PlayPolitical videos:

• David Miliband fails to rule out leadership bid during press conference
• McCain seeks to exploit Obama's Berlin speech in new attack ad
• Ehud Olmert steps down as Israeli leader

Steve Richards: The Labour leadership battle has begun

"Brown is trapped in a narrative from which there is no escape. The polls will not improve greatly in the autumn and yet this period is now being seen as his defining test. Meanwhile the leadership question drowns out all other ministerial messages. Suddenly one question overwhelms all others: How to end the noise? There is a single answer. Fairly or not, and whatever the risks, only cathartic change brings the chance of calm. Miliband's intervention makes it more likely than not that Labour will have a new leader by the end of the year." - Steve Richards in The Independent

Brown's allies brief against Miliband

"Gordon Brown's allies yesterday accused David Miliband of self-serving disloyalty and weakening the prime minister's authority after the foreign secretary provoked a firestorm of speculation over his leadership ambitions with an article in the Guardian calling on Labour to find a new forward vision to defeat the Tories." - Guardian

Writing in The Sun George Osborne accuses Labour of putting political ambition before the urgent interests of the nation.

The Telegraph profiles the team behind Miliband.

A Times leader worries about his commitment to the state: "His years at Mr Blair's side have made him a reformer, but one who believes firmly in government action. His article yesterday asserts the need for “government to act as a catalyst”, describes “the political creed of the Labour Party” as “combining government action and personal freedom” and suggests that social justice and better public services are inconsistent with deregulation and lower spending. His confidence in the State is striking."

A Government minister questions the timidity of Brown's first year

"The only way forward now is bold Labour. What we want to see is the Gordon Brown of Bank of England independence, SureStart and Make Poverty History. I think that his responsibility is to provide the bold and decisive leadership that we now need." - Ivan Lewis MP talking to The Independent

Ian Blair hits back at attempts to oust him

"Sir Ian Blair yesterday warned that his post as commissioner of the Metropolitan police was becoming increasingly politicised and that plans by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, to take more control of the force could ultimately be damaging.  The commissioner was speaking as it emerged that an aide to the mayor had to be reined in by a lawyer from seeking Blair's suspension over allegations of cronyism." - Guardian

Tory press officer attempts to fix newspaper poll - Independent

Is the Conservative Party cooling on the green agenda?

"Green campaigners smelt a rat in May after Mr Cameron failed to mention the words "environment" or "climate change" in a 1,200-word statement about his priorities for government." - Andrew Grice in The Independent

John Whittingdale leads MPs' call for internet firms to police 'dark side' of web

"The internet industry must take more responsibility for protecting young people from the "dark side" of digital content relating to abuse, violence and suicide, according to a committee of MPs... The committee chairman, John Whittingdale, criticised YouTube for not going far enough with proactive measures, beyond a pledge to take down material when it is "flagged" up by users." - Guardian

"Both Labour and the Conservatives have abandoned the less privileged and created an 'underclass'" - John Rutherford in The Guardian

Vince Cable urges the end of higher charging for pre-payment energy users - Independent

We'll pay a high price for free-trade failure - Peter Mandelson in The 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 July 2008

3.15pm PlayPolitical: David Miliband tells Sky News that his controversial Guardian article was an attack on David Cameron, not Gordon Brown. Anyone believe him?

3pm Andrew Mitchell MP updates ConHome readers with a progress report from the Conservative social action project in Rwanda

2.45pm Peter Cuthbertson on CentreRight: In Hobbesian Britain, carrying a knife is often rational

2pm Martin Parsons on CentreRight: Labour are undermining at least 50% of Britain's historic core values

11am Dan Lewis on CentreRight: In economic policy, is Obama to the left of Gordon Brown?

10am PlayPolitical video: Watch Ed Balls skipping

ToryDiary: Labour's leadership crisis

Farmer David Eyles, writing for The Platform, worries about charging people for merely possessing a knife.

Two PlayPolitical videos:

• Sayeeda Warsi previews the Birmingham social action project that will be taking place on the margins of the autumn party conference
• Damian Green MP reacts to Government's loss of 3,000 blank passports

David Miliband: Labour needs to change and change now

"David Miliband, seen as a frontrunner to succeed Gordon Brown if he resigns, today intervenes in the debate about Labour's future saying "the times demand a radical new phase" from the government if it is beat the electoral odds and win a fourth term." - The Foreign Secretary doesn't mention Gordon Brown once in an article for The Guardian

Cameron focuses on local media while holidaying in South West

"David Cameron relaxed into his British beach holiday yesterday with a televised shopping trip, a national radio phone-in and an interview with 70 readers of a local newspaper." - Times

"Conservative party leader David Cameron today set out his pitch for Westcountry votes in a unique event with Western Morning News readers. In a wide-ranging hour-long session he fielded questions on the European Union and water bills, rural housing and post office closures tearing the heart out of rural areas.  He backed the use of wind farms to help the environment, criticised the cost of the new logo for the Cornwall super-council and said a cull of diseased badgers could help to tackle TB in cattle herds in the Westcountry." - Western Morning News

Let children drink at home, says David Cameron

"Some of the friends I had, the ones who had the biggest problems, were the ones who actually were never allowed to drink anything at home - whereas the ones who drink responsibly were the ones who were given a glass of wine or a small glass of beer or a shandy or something. That's the right way to do it in the home." - Speaking to Radio 1 yesterday, quoted in The Telegraph

Boris Johnson's aides plot to suspend Met Chief Blair - Times

Andrew Grice's five part review of Tory policies turns to schools and hospitals today - Independent

Part 1 on the broken society | Part 2 on the economy

Reuben brothers give Tories nearly £200,000 - FT

Grant Shapps accuses Labour of using HIPS to deliver backdoor council tax revaluation

"Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps, said: "Behind the smokescreen of HIPs, Labour's real agenda is to build up a property database of every home. Property Information Questionnaires are most likely just another way of conducting Labour's controversial council tax revaluation and re-banding by the backdoor.
"The public will be clobbered twice – once for a costly Home Information Pack and then again in the form of higher council tax bills for home improvements and their parking spaces."" - Telegraph

"How tax credits hit the rocks" - Sue Cameron in the FT examines the failure of one of Brown's flagship policies

Labour's English problem

"With all the political attention paid to the Celtic fringe of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, Labour sometimes lost sight of the simple fact that four-fifths of the British population live in England. And the English are once more ceasing to vote Labour.  This may be the single most important fact about the last general election. Labour won another national majority of seats, and indeed they won a large majority of English seats - but the Tories gained marginally more popular votes than Labour in England. The full result was startling. In May 2005, Labour won 286 out of 529 English seats with 8.05m votes, or 35.5% of the popular vote; Tories 194 seats with 8.10m votes or 35.7%, Liberal Democrats 47 seats, with 5.201m or 22.9%." - Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The Guardian

Failure of Doha

"The failure of the talks is economically disastrous and could be politically destabilising. A deal could have been worth several hundred billion dollars in increased global activity, a fillip that national economies could use now." - Telegraph leader

PLEASE NOTE: Samuel Coates is no longer working for ConservativeHome.  All email to Tim Montgomerie please.

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 July 2008

Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: How and why the Church of England will split

5pm ToryDiary: Conservatives to the right, LibDems to the left, SNP to the north

5pm PlayPolitical videos: McCain ads attack Barack Obama for (1) inexperience, (2) hypocrisy

4.30pm CentreRight updates:

• Tim Montgomerie on William Wilberforce
• Graeme Archer on the Quietus: "For all the theorising about who might do what with whom, about what Great Event may happen at Conference, we all know that they’re not going to do anything, that all this talk is just that – talk, a displacement activity. They are metaphorically locked into a vessel which is no longer seaworthy, which is slowly but surely taking on more and more oily, toxic water, which no-one is bailing out."
• Alex Deane compares Mr Brown to Thatcher, Major and Blair

1pm PlayPolitical videos: Harriet Harman explains why she wants to toughen the law for men who kill unfaithful wives and soften the law for wives who kill violent husbands and Should Brown step down?

Lunchtime updates on CentreRight: Tim Montgomerie isn't worried about overpopulation and Peter Whittle is looking for cultural distractions from economic difficulties

11.15am Seats and candidates: James Morris adopted for Halesowen and Rowley Regis

10.45am Suleiman R Shah writes his first entry for CentreRight: Wake up and smell the Lassi: "The Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, described the Afghan-Pak border region as the "the current international hotbed of terrorism" in a press conference with Condi Rice last week. This was an understatement. It's not just the border region, but increasingly Pakistan proper."

10am Graeme Archer on CentreRight: A disabled health service

ToryDiary: Could a Miliband-Johnson 'dream ticket' revive Labour?

Greg Hands MP on CentreRight: Why are guidebooks so left-wing?

Chris Grayling MP on Platform: We must end the extreme deprivation of Britain's cities

Local government: Pickles attacks plans to re-unionise local government

PlayPolitical video: Pro-Obama advert from MoveOn.org is aimed at youth market and is set to air on Comedy Central, 'Hope could happen to you'

SNP and Tories deny reports of secret talks

"A senior Salmond aide said: "It is a ludicrous report and the exact opposite of the truth. The SNP is currently the only party the Tories are not having discussions with, given that they are in the Calman Commission with Labour and the Liberal Democrats." - Herald

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Annabel Goldie denies secret talks with the SNP

"The Labour Party in Scotland will be more independent of party bosses in Westminster in the future if the three main contenders for the leadership get their way" - Scotsman

Andrew Grice continues his week-long examination of Tory policies with a focus on the economy - The Independent

Labour has stolen the Tory policy of crime mapping, they should also steal the elected police chiefs policy - Telegraph leader

The Guardian says Labour MPs are not ready to go public against Brown

"The Labour party appeared to rally round its troubled leader yesterday, as MPs sought to deny the existence of a list of names being sent to the cabinet calling on them to urge Gordon Brown to quit." - Guardian

But Rachel Sylvester, in The Times, finds little loyalty for Brown: "There is little residual loyalty towards the Prime Minister among his Cabinet. “I don't think Gordon would die in a ditch for me so why should I die in a ditch for him?” one minister said."

Boris Johnson sees two years of leadership speculation ahead

"For most of the next two years, it can be confidently predicted, the story of the Labour Government will be about coups and plots and Cabinet rivals warring for succession. One day we will be told that the armies of Hattie Harperson are mustering in the wings; the next day the media will be talking up the claims of Geoff Hoon - "Who Hoon?", as Lenin so pungently put it.  One day a female columnist will announce that Miliband has the magnetic good looks to see off Cameron; and the next day a rival female columnist will proclaim that, on the contrary, James Purnell is the man, what with his sideburns and his interesting views on welfare reform." - Boris Johnson in The Telegraph

Is it Brown? Darling? Harman? Who's in charge?

The Telegraph reports on confusion as to who is running the country during the PM's summer break.

Cheeky youths collar Gordon Brown for photo-op - Times

"Business cheers Brown's policy on unions"

"Gordon Brown was on Monday praised by business for resisting “the worst” union demands on policy, but urged to stand his ground in the run-up to this autumn’s politically charged party conference season... The relaxed business reaction was in stark contrast to a Tory briefing document that on Monday proclaimed the resurrection of a Labour party in hock to its historic paymasters." - FT

Harriet Harman wants softer sentences for domestic abuse victims who murder their partners - ePolitix

The Sun wants tax cuts

"UNIONS and Leftie MPs want Gordon Brown to hammer the rich and impose a windfall tax on banks and energy moguls... The Treasury already grabs a huge slice of the cash pouring into Britain from these giants. And if we hit high earners, we will lose some of our biggest wealth creators.  As a nation, we already pay too much tax. Too much is squandered by incompetent ministers.  What we need is value for money, an attack on waste — plus the TAX CUTS such a policy could deliver." - The Sun Says

Welsh Assembly making too frequent requests for transfers of power from Westminster - Western Mail

PLEASE NOTE: Samuel Coates is no longer working for ConservativeHome.  All email to Tim Montgomerie please.

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 July 2008

Alex Deane on CentreRight: A second Labour MP calls on Brown to go

5.15pm ToryDiary: Annabel Goldie denies secret talks with SNP

3.15pm PlayPolitical: A taste of things to come... Harriet Harman is (Acting) PM?

3pm Alex Deane on CentreRight: Our train network is a total disgrace

12.45pm ToryDiary: The right and wrong ways to attack Labour

10am Matt Sinclair on CentreRight lifts the veil on the huge advertising budgets now enjoyed by the "eco-socialists"

ToryDiary: Ten opinion poll findings

Stephen O'Brien MP on Platform: The end of life care strategy

Two PlayPolitical videos:

• John Prescott uses LabourHome blog to urge activists to support Gordon Brown
• Photographs of Barack Obama's 'world tour' set to music

Brown faces massive leadership speculation...

Labour needs a new leader, even if that means a coup - Jackie Ashley in The Guardian

Choose Harriet Harman says William Rees-Mogg in The Times: "Labour has to change the climate of debate. It seems to me that a woman candidate would, from her gender, have a better chance of doing that than any of the men."

"It is almost impossible for Mr Brown to cling on. It is also almost impossible to displace him." - Bruce Anderson, in The Independent, explains why he can't see Brown winning or being ousted.

Janet Daley, in The Telegraph, can see Brown being dumped and looks forward to a Labour Party that challenges the Tories with a reforming agenda.

Tory defector Shaun Woodward becomes unlikely confidant to Brown - Telegraph

...as he offers concessions on minimum wage and time off to his union paymasters

Weakened Gordon Brown gives in to union demands - Times

Melanie Phillips: The Tories are still following, not leading

"What are the Tories saying, for example, about the fundamental onslaught upon the integrity and identity of the United Kingdom posed by both devolution and our membership of the EU, which aims to reduce nations to regions controlled from the centre by the super-state of Euroland? They are silent. What are they saying about Labour's ruinous levels of public spending? Pledging to match them. What are they saying about the obsession with global warming which has produced ruinous policies on land use which have pushed up the cost of food? They share it. Far from providing a clear and principled alternative, the new model Tories still defer too much to fashionable opinion; are still terrified of offending that opinion - particularly in the BBC; and are still following rather than leading." - Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail

Chris Grayling: Gulf between rich and poor wider  than Victorian times

"The Conservatives claim their research, based on Government figures produced by Oxford University, shows the scale of the divide. In areas of central London 99.55 per cent of children are officially classified as living in poverty, whereas in other parts of the same area the figure is just 0.64 per cent." - Telegraph

"Can Cameron's formula fix the 'broken' society?"

Andrew Grice writes an extended examination of Tory social policy in The Independent

Cheryl Gillan defends continuation of Welsh Office...

"Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said: “I think the role should exist and I would argue the case for it because I think Wales needs a strong voice at Cabinet level. If you’re suggesting they get rid of Gwydyr House [the Wales Office’s London headquarters] and downgrade Wales in any way, I would be disappointed. Quite frankly, if Labour does make that move it will say everything about what Wales means to Labour. In Wales, we will have to see how David Cameron wants to respond to it. He must do as he sees fit, but he’s never given me the impression that he wants to downgrade it in any way.”" - Western Mail

...while the SNP plan for independence:

"Alex Salmond has demanded the drawing up of plans to help prepare for independence by splitting the Scottish civil service from its UK-wide structure." - Telegraph

Derek Conway given twelve months to repay money paid to his son

"Shamed Tory MP Derek Conway has been given a year to repay taxpayers' cash he wrongly used to bankroll his family. Mr Conway was ordered to hand back £13,160 from wages he paid to son Freddie after an inquiry found no evidence the student had done any work as a researcher. But Commons officials are letting the MP repay the cash in 12 instalments of £1,096 taken from his monthly pay." - Mirror

Energy firms conspire to raise prices says Cttee of MPs chaired by Peter Luff - Times

38% of voters most blame Government for rising fuel prices - ePolitix

Surge in equal pay claims is causing financial headache for local councils - FT

Is Barack Obama for real?

“The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.”  That’s brilliant. We all want that. Except that it ain’t gonna happen any time soon. Certainly not this century. Even under a new Messiah.  It is this sort of overblown idealistic rhetoric that makes me worry — and the evidence that people are gullible enough to swallow it." - Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun

"Mr Obama has almost single-handedly resurrected the importance of proper speech-making" - Michael Gove in The Times

Yesterday on CentreRight: Essential reading for Obamacons

And finally, our Hello! moment for the day...

The Sun has photographs of the Camerons relaxing on holiday.

PLEASE NOTE: Samuel Coates is no longer working for ConservativeHome.  All email to Tim Montgomerie please.

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 July 2008

11pm Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: Bush, The Dark Knight?

8.45pm Peter Cuthbertson on CentreRight: Muslim extremists are a substantial minority

7.15pm Seats and candidates: Mark Reckless readopted for Rochester and Strood

4.45pm Two PlayPolitical videos: Cameron gets his bike back and Brown insists he is getting on with the job as his critics plot

9.45am ToryDiary: Eight Tory lessons for the US Republicans

ToryDiary: Does it matter that 19 of 29 shadow cabinet ministers are millionaires?

Phil Taylor on Platform: Boris is prioritising crime, efficiency and quality of life in London

Two PlayPolitical videos:

• Barack Obama in Downing Street: Film of his meeting with Gordon Brown and full Downing Street Q&A with media
• Hard-hitting John McCain ad accuses Barack Obama of cancelling visit to wounded troops because he wouldn't be filmed by TV cameras

Obama and the Tories

Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight highlights some "essential reading" for pro-Obama Tories.

• The Sunday Times has a good photo of David Cameron and Barack Obama below Big Ben.
• The Sunday Express notes Cameron's conclusion: 'He'd beat me'
• Yesterday's WebCameron video of Cameron meeting Obama.

Today's must-read: The world's problems won't end when Bush goes

"In January, Bush will be history, leaving liberals all alone in a frightening world. Little else will change. Radical Islam will still authorise murder without limit, Iran will still want the bomb and the autocracies of China and Russia will still be growing in wealth and confidence. All those who argued that the 'root cause' of the Bush administration lay behind the terror will find that the terror still flourishes when the root cause has retired." - Nick Cohen in The Observer

Tories 24% ahead in key marginals - Sunday Telegraph | ToryDiary

Visit this page on the Telegraph website for how the political map of Britain is set to change.

David Cameron gets his stolen bike back... courtesy of the Sunday Mirror

Or did The Mirror steal it in the first place, wonders Guido?

Will it be Straw V Milliband?

"It emerged that two of the youngest stars in the Cabinet, James Purnell and Andy Burnham, will give Mr Miliband a free run for the top job in the event of a contest. Mr Purnell in particular had been tipped as a strong contender to rival Mr Miliband.  The move – dubbed the "Primrose Hill Pact" for its echoes with the purported 1994 Granita deal between Tony Blair and Mr Brown – allows the Foreign Secretary to emerge as a clear contender from the Blairite, modernising wing of the Labour Party.  The left, meanwhile, are coalescing around the Justice Secretary, Mr Straw." - Independent on Sunday

...ahead of a "suicide election"...

"Senior figures disillusioned with Gordon Brown want a senior Cabinet minister to take over the party leadership and head immediately to the polls either this autumn or next spring, even if defeat is the likely option.  They believe such a move would be better than Brown clinging on to office until 2010 when, they fear, the party would face a wipe-out on the scale of that inflicted on the Tories by Labour in 1997." - Scotland on Sunday

...and still more unhappy holiday reading for Gordon Brown

"If Gordon Brown goes with dignity he will retain the respect of his party as a man who gave it his best shot but was big enough to recognise that modern political leadership requires qualities he just doesn’t have. If he is forced from office or, worse still, leads the party to a catastrophic defeat, the judgment will be just about as harsh as it gets." - Lance Price in The Sunday Times

"A man who looks like a winner waved from the doorstep of Number 10 yesterday morning, but his name wasn't Gordon Brown. When Barack Obama's visit was put in the diary, I guess the hope in Downing Street was that he would sprinkle some of his stardust over his besieged host. The actual effect of the encounter was to paint an excruciatingly painful contrast for Labour MPs between the senator's magic touch and their leader's dead hand." - Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer

The future of the UK

Simon Jenkins, The Sunday Times, says that the real message of Glasgow East may be that the United Kingdom is coming to an end.

Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday, predicts no more talk of 'English votes for English laws' from David Cameron as he starts to think of needing the votes of SNP MPs after the next General Election.

And finally...

The Speaker had his official portrait changed after he complained that his nose had been painted too large - The Sunday Times

PLEASE NOTE: Samuel Coates is no longer working for ConservativeHome.  All email to Tim Montgomerie please.

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 July 2008

8.30pm ToryDiary: Labour are in third place in key marginals

7pm Peter Franklin on CentreRight disagrees with Louise Bagshawe: Brown will carry on until the sticky end

3.45pm Hot off the press: Short WebCameron video of the Tory leader meeting Barack Obama

2.30pm ToryDiary: Cameron tells Obama to take a break

1.30pm MUST WATCH PlayPolitical: Gerard Baker reads out his brilliant column on Obama's world tour for Fox News, one of the best pieces of political satire in recent years

12.30pm ToryDiary: This sceptical isle

"Today, over 100 Conservative volunteers will come together in Rwanda for the start of Project Umubano 2008, continuing the work started there by the Conservative Party last summer."

Platform: Andrew Mitchell MP on this year's Rwanda trip

Louise Bagshawe on CentreRight: Get ready for a general election

PlayPolitical: Brown's address to Labour's National Policy Forum

Brown undermined by Cabinet whisperings

"Although cabinet ministers said there would be no immediate attempt to oust the Prime Minister, some predicted he would face a concerted move to force   him to stand down in September – possibly before the Labour conference" - Independent

"Gordon Brown is being undermined by Cabinet ministers who are now publicly questioning his future as Prime Minister following Labour's disastrous defeat in the Glasgow East by-election." - Telegraph

"Cabinet ministers last night set Gordon Brown a two-month deadline to win back voters’ trust or face a full-scale ministerial revolt." - Times

"Most current ministers will never serve again. The next two years are their chance to leave a legacy by pressing ahead with serious reforms. As it happens, this is the right way to deal with the Conservatives." - FT leader

"Perhaps the men in suits will now find the courage to deliver their message. They need to remember one thing: from a disaster like this there really is no way back. Their choice is whether they go down fighting, or like lemmings." - Simon Heffer in the Telegraph

"Perhaps a reshuffle would reinvigorate his government and there are candidates aplenty for the chop; but again, if the policies remain the same, what national, as opposed to party, purpose would be served by changing personnel?" - Telegraph leader

"Will Labour face or duck that question? Among MPs and sympathisers whom I talk to there seem to be three opinions: 1. Carry on regardless; 2. Postpone the decision until after the party conference in the autumn; or 3. Start the ball rolling to replace the leader now. The real choice is between 1 and 3. To postpone the decision until autumn is a cop-out, a cloak for doing nothing. Next autumn equals never." - Matthew Parris in the Times

22% lead

"To add to Mr Brown's woes, the latest monthly survey by ComRes for The   Independent gives the Conservatives a 22-point lead over Labour, the biggest   they have ever enjoyed in a ComRes poll." - Independent

> A night cap to end a good day

Glasgow East

Cameron was the winner of Glasgow East - Western Mail

Result does Cameron no favours - Herald

Labour's cardiac arrest - Polly Toynbee in the Guardian

It's time to vote on the fate of the Union - Charles Moore in the Telegraph

Who can tell their Left from their Right in Scottish politics? - Alan Massie in the Scotsman

A recession is coming - Telegraph

"Families are paying £100 a month to heat and light their homes for the first time, after one of Britain's biggest energy suppliers increased its customers' bills by 20 per cent. EDF Energy which supplies more than five million homes, is increasing its dual fuel bill – for households that take both gas and electricity – by £207 to £1,211 a year. The changes, with equate to a 20 per cent increase, took place with immediate effect." - Times

Credit card rates hit 35% - Guardian

Hug a hoodie or kill a bike thief?

"First comes despair, and then comes black, black rage. The man or woman whose bicycle is stolen is afflicted, in my experience, by a unique anger. Bicycle theft feels not just like an offence against property, but an offence in the first place against the person, and in the second against civilisation itself. Empty my pocket, and earn my anger. Steal my bicycle, and earn my hate." - Sam Leith in the Telegraph

Millions of DNA profiles given to private companies - 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.

Friday 25th July 2008

11pm ToryDiary: A night cap to end a good day

6pm Martin Parsons on CentreRight: I hope Brown is allowed a quiet holiday

5.45pm Alex Deane on CentreRight: Cameron hasn't had an easy ride but has overcome every bump in the road

4pm PlayPolitical: Special video in which David Cameron reflects on the parliamentary year

3.45pm ToryDiary: Could Trimble be a Conservative foreign minister?

2.15pm Local Government: No councils have volunteered for Labour's bin tax pilot scheme

1pm Local government: 25% vote surge lifts Westminster Tories to victory in Labour heartland

Noon Alex Deane on CentreRight: Three anecdotes from Tony Benn

11.15am Simon Chapman on CentreRight offers nine quick reflections on Glasgow East

10am Charlie Elphicke on CentreRight: Will Brown stagger on to 2010 or might Labour be better off going to the country next year?

Seats and Candidates: David Cameron calls for general election following Labour's catastrophic defeat in Glasgow

"Because of this shift from the politics of either-or to the politics of more-or-less, policies need more than ever to pass the ‘Wednesday-Friday test’.  They have to be eye-catching enough to attract attention right up to the day before an election yet feasible enough to begin being implemented the day after."

Platform: Tim Bale on the "politics of support" vs the "politics of power"

Seats and Candidates: South London seats to select in one tranche

PlayPolitical: Obama's Berlin speech

CentreRight:

• Louise Bagshawe's post on the by-election result
• Andrew Lilico on "what makes us gay"

SNP take one of Labour's safest seats in surprise victory

"This is an astonishing result, tearing the heart out of Labour in Scotland and sending shockwaves all the way to Downing Street. Glasgow East was Labour's third-safest seat in Scotland, its twenty-fifth widest majority in the UK. It is the constituency of the great John Wheatley, a leading figure in the first Labour government in the 1920s. If they can't hold the line here, then Labour cannot hold the line anywhere." - Iain Macwhirter in the Guardian

"If Gordon Brown, as now seems likely, loses the next election to David   Cameron, this will be seen as the moment he knew the game was up. Too much is often read into by-elections, but for solid evidence that Labour's   support is at rock bottom it is difficult to think of more striking symbol   than surrendering this rock-solid seat." - Andrew Porter in the Telegraph

John Mason's victory speech - BBC video

Brown's scalp is the last thing we need

"There will be no moves against the Prime Minister as the torpor of the silly season takes hold, but Mr Cameron's main worry now is that Labour might still be tempted to dump Mr Brown at a later date. Be sure, however, that if there is any threat to Mr Brown's position, the Tories will be outside Downing Street with the oxygen mask and resuscitation unit. The Prime Minister's survival until polling day is crucial to the Tory general election strategy." - Michael Brown in the Independent

UUP co-operation

"There can be little doubt the new DUP leadership will be smarting at this implied rebuke... Indeed, if some Tory sources are to be believed, the added salt in the DUP wound will be that party leader Peter Robinson had himself appeared interested in the possibility of a relationship with Cameron's Conservatives. Moreover, Cameron's decision warrants serious assessment precisely because it does not appear tailored to his most obvious potential interests." - Irish Times

"After flirting with English separatism, he has been steered back towards unionism, not least by George Osborne. So he wants to extend his party's reach as a truly national party, battered since Lady Thatcher energetically alienated all the Celtic regions of Britain on a host of policies in the 80s." - Michael White in the Guardian

> The Conservative AND Unionist party

"The One" comes to London

Transcript of Obama's speech - RCP

"Barack Obama will bid farewell to Europe with a stopover in London that has been causing angst in Downing Street because of fears that David Cameron may steal the thunder from Gordon Brown. In contrast to Berlin, where-hundreds of thousands of fans turned out to see the Democrat nominee-presumptive, the London leg of the tour will be conducted almost entirely out of the public view." - Times

"And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant." - Gerard Baker in the Times

"Emerging problems will be an increasingly assertive Russia, an unstable Africa, nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, dislocation of the world economy through a glut of Asian savings and the scramble for resources in the Arctic. There are few such challenges that would not benefit from more US influence rather than less. This is a time for a renewed Atlanticism." - Times leader

Why I left the army

"The poor aftercare and the constant struggle to get the proper welfare provision for some of my wounded, once they had left hospital, caused me profound concern. It was exacerbated by the inadequate pay of junior soldiers, the substandard accommodation their families often live in and the lack of certain key equipment for operations. These concerns informed part of my decision to resign my commission on relinquishing command of 3 Para." - Lt Col Stuart Tootal in the Telegraph

Cameron says the future of Alun Cairns AM is still under review - Western Mail

Nicholas Winteron accuses Cameron mafia of trying to oust him - Telegraph

Labour has only itself to blame if the unions hold it, and us, hostage - Jeff Randall in the Telegraph

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 July 2008

1am Louise Bagshawe on CentreRight: Have the SNP won Glasgow East?

10pm Nile Gardiner on CentreRight is underwhelmed by Barack in Berlin

Daniel Kawczynski MP protests at Melanie Phillips' failure to recognise his opposition to talks with Hamas

PlayPolitical videos: Sky News reports on David Cameron's lost bike and David Cameron on helping people get through the credit crunch 

12.30pm ToryDiary: Introducing ConservativeVault.com - a wiki for all things Conservative, such as:

• Hague's foreign policy
• Questions to ask your council
• Timeline of Boris' mayoralty
• How Cameron won the leadership

...and, with your help much, much more! Can you add to the summaries of Conservative Party policies?

ToryDiary: The Conservative AND Unionist Party

Stephen Crabb MP on Platform: My colleagues on the international development committee are wrong to back talks with Hamas

CentreRight: Graeme Archer on sectarian Scottish politics

Local people should be able to veto lap dancing clubs

"Lap dancing bars, featuring naked or nearly naked women, are licensed in the same way as a pub or coffee shop, giving locals little grounds for opposing the establishment of a club in their community. But the Conservatives will say that local authorities should be able to determine whether any plan for a new lap dancing club "is appropriate in a certain area"." - Telegraph

Cameron's bike is stolen ahead of holiday in witch-cursed cottage

"The jinxed Tory leader was "stunned" when it vanished from outside his local Tesco in West London.  Onlooker Gary Yankee, 38, said: "He must have been looking around for about five minutes as if he couldn't believe it had gone. He just kept on saying... 'But I locked it'."... Mr Cameron, 41, wife Samantha and children Ivan, Nancy and Arthur are staying in a cottage which has been linked to FOUR deaths after it was reputedly cursed by an angry white witch 400 years ago." - Mirror

By-election day

"Scottish Labour officials believe they will narrowly win today's Glasgow East byelection but with a dramatically reduced majority after a fiercely-fought campaign by the Scottish National party." - Guardian

Boris says Crossrail won't take cash from tube upgrade

"London mayor Boris Johnson warned yesterday that the £16bn Crossrail line must not take priority over a £30bn upgrade of the capital's tube network, amid concerns over the level of public funding required to cover both transport projects." - Guardian

Alan Johnson criticises "Chingford meets Notting Hill" lecturing

"The health secretary, Alan Johnson, last night called for a national movement to combat obesity, arguing that it did not help the overweight to be told their problems were all their own fault." - Guardian

Apprenticeship proposals

"Business welcomed a £1.4bn ($2.8bn) Tory plan on Wednesday to create 100,000 more apprenticeships and shake up further education, but warned about the impact of the proposal to finance the initiative by diverting funding from ­training... The Tories asserted there was a correlation between the growth in “Neets” – people not in education, employment or training – and social breakdown, arguing people with a job were more likely to be able to hold down a relationship." - FT

> Launch of the Skills Green Paper

Congratulations Steve

"Steve Hilton, the architect of the Tory revival and David Cameron's right-hand   man, has quietly married his long-term girlfriend, Rachel Whetsone, after   their vicar talked them into it just a few days earlier." - Telegraph

Where are Labour's attack dogs?

"David Cameron has had the freedom to roam around without any credible Labour figure responding. Dig beneath the surface and the Conservatives are vulnerable on several fronts, as their more astute MPs realise. For some reason, Brown has chosen not to dig. Most cabinet reshuffles change nothing. If Brown gets them right the changes could make a difference for the better." - Steve Richards in the Independent

Beckett tipped for Cabinet comeback - Times

Brown to consider banning MPs' second jobs

"Support is growing among ministers for curbs on the traditional right of MPs to top up their £61,000-a-year salary with outside earnings after it emerged that 66 per cent of Tory MPs, 37 per cent of Liberal Democrats but only 19 per cent of Labour MPs have other jobs." - Independent

Pre-school choice - Telegraph leader

The Church agonises over trivial internal issues whilst a child dies of hunger every five seconds - Archbishop John Sentamu in the Times

Married Tory councillor suspended over public toilet sex act - Sun

Obama is not The One, nor is he a Reagan for our times - Iain Martin in the 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 23rd July 2008

10.30pm Harry Phibbs on CentreRight: The Boris Budget

6pm ToryDiary: Launch of the Skills Green Paper

5pm Jill Kirby on CentreRight: Who's life is it anyway?

4.30pm ToryDiary: Hague's eight-point strategy for "by far the biggest challenge we face today"

4.15pm ToryDiary: Tories hit 47% in Ipsos MORI survey

4pm Jim McConalogue on CentreRight: Will Cameron be able to form a eurosceptic political group outside the EPP?

12.30pm Douglas Carswell MP on CentreRight: It's time to scrap state-run SATS

Noon: Applications to join the ConservativeHome team have now closed

11.30am Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: House purchases are no longer the new marriage

10am ToryDiary: Information fundamentalism?

Alan Mendoza: Explain where you stand on hard vs soft power
Gary Streeter MP: Prioritise the promotion of good governance
Nile Gardiner: Embark upon a major renegotiation of EU treaties
Edward Macmillan-Scott MEP: Fight the democracy backlash
Benedict Rogers: Reform the UN, FCO and ICC

Platform: Our "Government Worth Having" series looks at foreign policy

ToryDiary: Cameron 'prayed' that there wouldn't be an autumn election and Rifkind and Willetts head a list of pro-Obama Tories

Parliament: Michael Gove condemns Ed Balls' incompetence

PlayPolitical: Jon Stewart mocks hype over Obama's trip to Europe

Conservative government would lead campaign against centralised EU

"An incoming Conservative government would lead a Europe-wide campaign against “the centralising ratchet” of the EU and seek to restore full British control over employment and social law, William Hague, shadow foreign secretary, has told the Financial Times. Hague... says a Cameron administration would seek to scupper the EU’s Lisbon treaty – if it has not already been ratified by Ireland and all other member states – and attempt to renegotiate parts of Britain’s membership of the club." - FT

Ian Taylor has written to The Times welcoming the US presidential candidates' interest in EU leadership.

Grayling to man summer offensive

"Chris Grayling... was happy last night to complain that Gordon Brown's ministers were getting worse and worse with their delays of awkward parliamentary statements until most MPs leave Westminster for the 11-week summer recess... most still claim to share Brown's conviction that there's still time to turn things round before the 2010 election. Grayling will be staying on in Westminster to undermine that hunch until late August when Cameron returns from the beach to resume heavy shelling." - Michael White in the Guardian

Anthony Browne & Policy Exchange

"So Anthony Browne, director of the centre-rightwing thinktank Policy Exchange, joins Team Boris. What a transformation. Just over a year ago he was a lobby journalist on the Times... Browne's appointment – the fourth from Policy Exchange to get a top job in the Tory party – marks a further high watermark in the influence of Policy Exchange on future Tory policy" - David Hencke in the Guardian

> Anthony Browne becomes Boris' Policy Director

Brown is like the school swot

"When Mr Brown is forced to mingle with his fellow men, he stumbles like a swot who has spent too many hours at his books, and too few learning how to get on with other people over a game or a drink. It is hard to think of a single occasion since becoming Prime Minister when he has saved the day by telling a joke." - Andrew Gimson in the Telegraph

Brown's PR trio on up to £140k each - Telegraph

I thought the Conservatives were there to be despised

"Conservative leaders used to be easily divided into the evil and the ineffectual... At the time I despised them all, but lately just as David Cameron has blown my evil/ineffectual classification system out of the blue water, so the old Tory leaders have slowly been rehabilitated... If identity is not only about who you are but also who you hate, then the harder it is to identify acceptable targets to hate, the less sure I become about who I am." - Sarfraz Manzoor in the Guardian

The Right won the debate on crime, so why does it insist it isn't working?

"There is too much crime. And crime could be falling faster. Repeat offenders still aren't being sent to jail for long enough. The police aren't being given enough time to do their job out on the street where it matters. We need to go farther, we need to go faster. But crime is falling. Sorry, but it just is." - Daniel Finkelstein in the Times

Redefining relationship between licensing and public order

"Attempting to locate even a trace of logic or consistency in the Government's approach to alcohol abuse is a near-impossible task. Here is an administration that enacted round-the-clock pub opening and liberalised the sale of alcohol from retail outlets, and then seems surprised that our streets and public places are frequently awash with inebriates." - Telegraph leader

Blair's farewell/vanity tour

"Blair's "farewell tour" of the globe as Prime Minister cost the taxpayer more than £700,000, official figures showed last night. The Conservatives condemned it as a "huge vanity affair"." - Herald

Surge in former ministers seeking jobs in the private sector - FT

The Thatcher era was 20 years ago, get over it - Gerry Hassan in the Scotsman

Things wouldn't be so bad now if we had listened to Frank Field - Simon Heffer in the 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.

Tuesday 22nd July 2008

10pm ToryDiary: Rifkind and Willetts head a list of pro-Obama Tories

7.30pm ToryDiary: Cameron to outline ambitious apprenticeships policy

7pm Douglas Murray on CentreRight: Brotherhood bias on the BBC

6pm Matthew Sinclair on CentreRight: Coal power, clean or not, is now essential

3.15pm Alex Deane on CentreRight wants to know if you agree with Boris' view that Tony Blair was "one of the most successful prime ministers since the war"...

1pm Seats and Candidates: Bournemouth West reopens

1pm Charlie Elphicke on CentreRight notes another Labour man getting a job in Quangoland

Noon Parliament: The long, long recess begins with ministers 'rushing out the trash'

Platform: Nadine Dorries says the next Conservative government needs to address the issue of poor and deteriorating teenage sexual health and behaviour

CentreRight: Andrew Lilico's 2004 prediction on house prices and Alan Mendoza on the arrest of Radovan Karadžić

Local Government: Town hall bosses' wages soar without improvements to local services

PlayPolitical: The gaffes of the 08 campaign so far

CameronDirect will be broadcasting live from Loughborough at 6:30pm tonight

Tories 15% ahead in ICM poll - ToryDiary

"Purnell's" welfare reforms

"Benefits claimants will be forced to pick up litter and clean off graffiti under radical U.S.-style welfare reforms designed to get millions back into work." - Mail

"The government may require lone parents to take part in training for a return to work even before their children are of school age in the most radical shake-up of the welfare system since the second world war." - Guardian

"James Purnell had to compete with two of his predecessors and his Conservative Shadow over authorship of the welfare Green Paper. All are partly right, though Mr Purnell has enhanced his rising reputation by being the minister to produce the package." - Peter Riddell in the Times

"Neither the Labour party nor the Conservatives are prepared to go the whole hog and introduce a system whereby benefit is lost automatically after a set period of time, say five years, if the claimant has not got a job... [Purnell's] assertion that a life on benefits should no longer be an option for those able to work will be welcomed by most taxpayers; but we fear he will be the latest in a succession of Labour ministers for whom radical welfare reform is easier to talk about than to achieve." - Telegraph leader

1. Build on the expertise of staff in local benefit office
2. Put a time limit on benefits
3. Give long-time claimants benefits for a year after they get a job

- Frank Field in the Times

> James Purnell steals Chris Grayling's ideas on welfare reform

Mustn't get complacent, mustn't get complacent

"David Cameron gave his final “I’m Not Complacent” speech before the summer break yesterday. I say final but, as there are still hours to go before the recess, I cannot be sure. The man is addicted to telling us he’s not complacent. It may be a medical condition. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dave soon had to attend Complacency Anonymous." - Ann Treneman sketch in the Times

SATs firm has a record of failure

"The American company at the centre of the controversy over national curriculum test blunders is also providing tests for would-be migrants to the UK in English skills, it emerged yesterday. David Cameron, the Conservatives' leader, said ETS should be sacked from its £156m contract to mark and deliver national curriculum test results." - Independent

"ETS, the company that has been running Sats examinations for all 11- and 14-year-olds, has been guilty of grotesque incompetence from the off. The markers on whom we rely to ensure these tests are robust reported that the system for guaranteeing standardised grades and the efficient delivery of papers was broken from the start." - Michael Gove in the Guardian

Cameron appoints Sir Richard Sykes to review exams system - Guardian

Shadow Pensions Minister Nigel Waterson says confidence in pensions will be eroded if Government doesn't help Equitable Life - Telegraph

Stuff Skegness, my trunks and I are off to the sun

"Some time before the end of August, I will grab a week's leave, like a half-starved sealion snatching an airborne mackerel, and whatever happens that leave will not be taken in some boarding-house in Eastbourne. It will not take place in Cornwall or Scotland or the Norfolk Broads. I say stuff Skegness. I say bugger Bognor.I am going to take a holiday abroad, and in my view it would be absurd, hypocritical and frankly inhumane to do anything else.." - Boris Johnson in the Telegraph

Foreign profits u-turn

"The immediate Tory response to the Treasury rethink on foreign profits taxation was succinct, if somewhat brutal: “Another day, another U-turn.” George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, attacked the “catalogue of cave-ins” by the government." - FT

The Left's venomous hatred for Thatcher, as seen in Guardian letters - Quentin Letts in the Mail

We will soon hate Obama too

"Just as bird flu is a disease from out of the East, runaway modernity is a scourge originating to the West. So Barack Obama, en fête around the world, will one day learn that there is no magical cure for the envy of others. What makes America the indispensable power (and even more indispensable in the era of the new China), is precisely what makes anti-Americanism inevitable." - David Aaronovitch in the Times

800,000 hospital admissions a year caused by drink, four times the official figures -