ConservativeHome

Friday 30th November 2007

5.15pm ToryDiary: Tories 9% ahead in new Ipsos-MORI survey

3pm PlayPolitical's pick of latest White House '08 videos:

• Rudy warns that the Democrats will raise your taxes (and that he will save you from King Kong)
• Log Cabin Republicans attack Mitt Romney as another Massachusetts flip-flopper
• Fred Thompson ad blasts Romney's record on abortion, Huckabee's record on tax and Giuliani's record on guns

10am BritainAndAmerica: The special relationship within the special relationship

- Tim Montgomerie, Editor of ConservativeHome.com, writes for The Weekly Standard about Tory-GOP relations.

Columnist Theresa May: The questions Harriet Harman still has to answer

ToryDiary: Labour's reputation for competence and integrity is lost and Nominations for Internationalist

Interviews: Any questions for Michael Gove?

John Leonard on Platform: Strengthening and sanitising our democracy

Seats and candidates: Nigel Huddleston selected for Luton South

Tories 11% ahead

"The Conservatives have opened up their biggest lead over Labour since Margaret Thatcher was at the height of her powers as Prime Minister almost 20 years ago.  An exclusive YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph puts the Tories on 43 per cent - 11 points ahead of Labour, who have sunk to just 32 per cent.  Only two months ago the Tories trailed Labour by 11 points and were facing the prospect of a landslide defeat in an early election." - Telegraph

"The poll was conducted between Monday and Wednesday, but it’s important to note that in YouGov’s online polls at least half the responses tend to come in on the first day. While the story of David Abrahams’ donations to the Labour party was broken by the Mail on Sunday, the story has progressed through the week and most of the respondents to this poll would have filled it in before this had become the major crisis for the Labour party that it undoubtedly had become by mid-week. That means this probably isn’t reflecting the full damage that the funding row will end up doing…things are likely to get even worse for Labour." - UK Polling Report

Yesterday's ToryDiary on the poll.

DODGY DONATIONS

• The Met police to begin investigation with Yates of cash-for-peerages returning
• Harriet Harman blames Brown camp for her role in dodgy donations
• Peter Hain admits undeclared donation
• Scottish Labour Transport spokesman quits after soliciting donation from tax exile

How The Sun sees it >>

"Gordon Brown was facing a full police investigation into Labour’s donations scandal as his campaign team admitted yesterday that it had links with David Abrahams." - Times

"The detective who led the cash-for-honours investigation is to play a key role in the latest inquiry.  Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates will have "oversight" of the investigation, to be formally launched today when police receive a dossier from the Electoral Commission." - Daily Mail (on this page there is a useful summary graphic of where the police investigation might lead)

"The Labour fund-raising scandal has escalated into open warfare between Gordon Brown and his party deputy Harriet Harman after she blamed the Prime Minister's inner circle for her decision to accept an illegal donation." - Telegraph

"There were "real doubts" about whether Harriet Harman could retain her jobs as Labour party chair and Commons leader, the Tories said last night, after it emerged she solicited the name of a proxy donor from Gordon Brown's leadership campaign team." - FT

"Pious Harriet Harman asked for £5,000 from a go-between she had never met — after winning her deputy Labour crown.  Last night she did Mr Brown no favours by revealing she did so on the advice of his campaign manager.  This plot is thickening faster than quick-dry cement.' - The Sun Says

"Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain has said he failed to register a £5,000 deputy leadership campaign donation, blaming an "administrative error".  In a statement, Mr Hain said: "In the light of recent events, it has come to my attention that a donation from [party fundraiser] Jon Mendelsohn to my deputy leadership campaign was mistakenly not registered with the Electoral Commission."" - BBC

The Guardian identifies the five key figures in the whole scandal: Chris Leslie, John Mendelsohn, Jack Dromey, Peter Watt, Lady Jay.

"Wendy Alexander faced calls for her resignation as leader of the Scottish Labour Party last night after admitting breaking the law by accepting an illegal campaign donation." - Scotsman

"Charles Gordon quit as Labour transport spokesman at Holyrood just hours after an investigation by The Herald revealed his involvement in securing a payment from a multi-millionaire tax exile." - Herald

And as Labour falls apart...
Bush and Murdoch want to be associated with Cameron

Not ConservativeHome's opinion but that of The Independent in a leading article: "Bush, having famously dismissed the present leader of the British Conservative party as "never heard of him" at a time when the Tories were persona non grata in Washington for their distancing over Iraq, has almost certainly been told about Cameron now. Like the Murdoch press, the White House likes to back a winner, whatever it thinks of him personally."

"Tony Blair’s close relationship with Mr Bush also helped keep the Tories at bay. But this dynamic has changed under Gordon Brown’s premiership, not least after Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, said Washington and London should not be “joined at the hip”." - FT

Yesterday's two ToryDiary entries on the visit:

• Cameron reflects on thirty minute meeting with President Bush
• Cameron reaffirms special relationship

David Cameron's Balkans speech

"David Cameron urged action to prevent "a new crisis in the Balkans by Christmas" in a key Washington speech where he also tried to assure America he represented "a new generation" for the Conservatives.  Speaking at the liberal Brookings Institution thinktank, Cameron said that the United States, Europe and Nato had to act swiftly "to pave the way for Kosovo's independence, and to ensure that the threats to stability are contained".  Some of Nato's dedicated operational reserve should be used to reinforce a military presence in the region now, he said." - Guardian

Paul Goodman MP is unconvinced by the nature of Government-sponsored oversight of Britain's mosques - Telegraph

Chris Mullin MP attacks Tory-military links

"There is an umbilical link between the military wing of the Tory party and the military - puzzling to me really because when last in office the Tories cut defence spending and we have increased it, albeit modestly.  Since the Tories at every election promise to cut taxes and public spending they don't seem the obvious party to increase defence spending." - quoted in ePolitix.com

New Australian PM pledges to withdraw his nation's troops from Iraq by mid-2008 - BBC

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Thursday 29th November 2007

9.30pm ToryDiary: YouGov gives Tories 11% lead

8pm ToryDiary: Cameron reflects on thirty minute meeting with President Bush

5.45pm ToryDiary: Cameron reaffirms special relationship

5.30pm ToryDiary: Something to look forward to...

2pm ToryDiary: Another day, another Labour scandal?

2pm Seats and candidates: Simon Hoare adopted in Cardiff South and Penarth and René Kinzett selected for Swansea West

ToryDiary: Nominations for Local Hero and Brendan Nelson is new leader of Australian Liberals

Columnist Louise Bagshawe: Football clubs must pay to protect rail passengers from yobs

Bernard Jenkin MP on Platform: A defence policy for the UK that matches commitments and resources

Related link to Bernard Jenkin's piece: "Britain is in danger of losing its status as a global military power unless the armed forces are given an extra £15billion over the next five years, a Tory pressure group warned yesterday." (ThisIsLondon)

The CNN/ YouTube Republican debate

BritainAndAmerica: McCain shines during YouTube/ CNN GOP debate

PlayPolitical: Romney and Giuliani clash on immigration then Romney and McCain clash on waterboarding

Vince Cable's Bean jibe wins him the PMQs honours

"The big winner of Prime Minister’s Questions was Vince Cable. Yes, Vince! Not Gordon Brown, the man who has launched a thousand inquiries but often doesn’t seem to know right from wrong. Not David Cameron, the boy wonder who is mastering the art of fighting dirty. But Vince - the man who escaped from a Dickens novel only to find himself cast in the role of acting leader of the Lib Dems." - Times

George Osborne calls on Mendelsohn to resign - Guardian

"Gordon Brown faced the threat of a lengthy inquiry with echoes of the cash-for-honours affair as Jon Mendelsohn, the man he appointed as general election fundraiser, admitted knowing for two months about the circumstances of David Abrahams' hidden gifts. Brown has acknowledged that obscuring the true source of the cash was "unlawful"." - Guardian

'Harriet Harman's political career was hanging by a thread last night over the £5,000 donation to her deputy leadership campaign by David Abrahams.   And her husband Jack Dromey, the party treasurer, came under attack from senior party figures after claiming he knew nothing about the secret donations scandal." - Daily Mail

And now... Labour's Scottish leader, Wendy Alexander, becomes embroiled in new donor questions - Scotsman

The two things Brown must do next...

"Mr Brown must abandon his obsession with micro-management and concentrate on the big issues.  That means becoming more collegiate, allowing his Cabinet greater autonomy.  He must also acquire his own man of affairs, a heavyweight figure - possibly from outside politics altogether, in line with his ambitions for a government of all the talents - with the clout and authority to ensure the Brown writ runs.  Crucially this figure must be able to tell the Prime Minister when he is getting things wrong. Mr Brown still has time to change. The question is: does he have it in him to change?" - Telegraph leader

Giles Chichester elected Chairman of Tory MEPs delegation - conservatives.com | Yesterday's ToryDiary

Bill Newton Dunn, the Conservative MEP who became a LibDem MEP, defends Saj Karim's right to defect in a letter to The Guardian.

A teddy bear called Mohammed

Boris Johnson urges Britain's Muslim leaders to take the opportunity of the imprisonment of Gillian Gibbons to show that they are moderate - Telegraph

"The proposed Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (Minab) says it has come up with minimum standards for Islamic institutions.  The standards include counter-extremism programmes, community relations schemes, support and proper conditions for imams and greater condemnation of "un-Islamic" activity." - BBC

The new women in the Conservative Party are confident, successful and don’t defer to their husbands - Times

Michael White on Cameron's Washington visit - Guardian

"Hague has said the visit is about "engaging with political America - not just with the Republicans, with Democrats as well"." - ePolitix.com

"Western forces, which could include British troops, must be sent into the Balkans to prevent Russia sparking a new European war, according to David Cameron.  Speaking in Washington, the Conservative leader will issue a stark warning that Russia's increasingly assertive foreign policy is jeopardising Britain's national security." - Telegraph

Anticipating ConservativeHome's coverage of the visit.

Have you had your say in November's ConservativeHome survey? - If not, click here.

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Wednesday 28th November 2007

9.45pm ToryDiary: Mr Bean posters

5.45pm ToryDiary: DC in DC

5.15pm PlayPolitical: Watch Cameron question Gordon Brown's integrity at PMQs and also up is John Howard's concession speech

4.45pm ToryDiary: Away from the Labour meltdown, Gove and Herbert are building the case for a Conservative government

3.15pm ToryDiary: Giles Chichester is new leader of Tory MEPs

11.45am ToryDiary: Live PMQs blog from noon - Cameron questions the integrity of the man Vince Cable calls Mr Bean

11.45am Seats and candidates: Jeremy Brier selected for Luton North

ToryDiary: November readers' survey is now live and Nominations for New Media

Patrick Cusworth on Platform: Free speech does not mean that we are therefore encouraged to promote or support those who preach a dogma of hate

Columnist Peter Franklin: We need a Cabinet Minister dedicated to delivering financial stability

These are difficult times for Labour supporters and to help them remember happier days here's a link to PlayPolitical's Collection of Tony Blair videos

BritainAndAmerica: Mark Steyn on Barack Obama

Donorgate

"Gordon Brown is facing the prospect of a criminal inquiry into Labour's fundraising scandal after he admitted that the party has received hundreds of thousands of pounds in "illegal" donations.  The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that it had been asked to look into whether there were grounds for a police investigation into £673,975 given to the party by David Abrahams, who used four go-betweens to hide his identity." - Telegraph

PlayPolitical: Video of Brown attempting to defend himself

"The woman named as the fourth go-between in the Labour donor row has spoken of her dismay that David Abrahams had used her name to give £25,000 to the party.  Janet Dunn, a Tory voter whose husband Anthony has worked for Mr Abrahams in the past, said she was told only on Monday night that the donation had been made in her name in 2003." - Telegraph

"Harman was apparently so desperate for cash to pay off her campaign debts that she threw caution to the wind.  The funding fiasco is going to cost cash-strapped Labour £650,000 in repaid donations.  It may yet cost Harriet Harman her job.' - The Sun Says

PDF: Theresa May's 19 questions for Harriet Harman

"If this row had come out of a clear blue sky, it would be very bad news for the Prime Minister. Coming as it does after a series of catastrophic displays of government incompetence which have sent Labour crashing in the polls, it is potentially devastating." - David Hughes in The Telegraph

Telegraph: "Tony Blair regrets attacking the Tories so hard over allegations of "sleaze" in the final years of John Major's government."  You bet he does!

Daniel Finkelstein predicts how things could get worse for Brown - The Times

How long before Labour MPs turn on Brown?

"George Osborne, shadow chancellor, claimed: "Everything Gordon Brown promised about his premiership - competence, honesty and change - has been blown away in the last few weeks."€  Mr Brown's response to claims his government is on the slide is to laugh. But with opinion polls suggesting otherwise and an election getting closer, his backbenchers may soon stop seeing the funny side." - FT

Good reviews for David Cameron's speech to CBI

"Compared to Alistair Darling's faltering performance in front of an audience best described as lukewarm, the leader of the opposition made all the right noises. He came over all business-friendly on enterprise, regulation, public spending, tax, education, infrastructure and the environment without ever really pinning his colours to the mast." - Business comment in The Telegraph

"Exploiting Government turmoil over planned hikes to capital gains tax, the Tory leader vowed to reduce the main rate of corporation tax if he wins the next election." - Daily Mail

Cameron shifts Tory emphasis on nuclear power

"David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, signalled a key change of approach towards nuclear power yesterday by saying that it should be able to compete on a level playing field with other forms of energy.  Previously, the Tories had said that they viewed nuclear as a last resort." - Times

"Four sites were earmarked for the new generation of nuclear power stations yesterday as Gordon Brown gave the clearest signal so far that he will give the go-ahead in the New Year for a major expansion of Britain's nuclear power output." - Independent

Has Team Cameron over-briefed the meeting with President Bush?

"The White House, although wary of some members of the Government such as Lord Malloch-Brown, the former British Ambassador to the UN, is determined not to upset the British Prime Minister who remains an important ally. One source in London yesterday suggested that Mr Cameron’s aides had been ordered to “shut up” about the visit." - Times.  This is a story which has Tom Baldwin's name attached to it.  It should be treated with great scepticism, therefore.

Irwin Stelzer: Tories must be more different

"Voters are eager for an alternative to a tired Labour Party. The Tories' problem is that they won't have very much to offer when it comes to running the economy. Never mind that any good ideas - and even bad but popular ones such as reducing inheritance tax - will have been stolen by whoever replaces poor Alistair Darling.  More important is the box into which the Tories have put themselves by promising to spend as much as Labour if they are entrusted with the keys to the Treasury.  They have also promised not to lower taxes lest, and this is the risible excuse, lower taxes produce economic instability.  They have promised to follow the same tax-and-spend policies that Brown has inflicted on a public groaning under the burden of successive tax increases, watching its money disappear without any significant improvement in public services." - Telegraph

New Labour, New Union Flag

"The culture minister, Margaret Hodge, has said she will consider a redesign of the union flag to incorporate the Welsh dragon. Her surprising commitment was made in the Commons during a debate on the frequency with which the union flag flies above public buildings." - Guardian

Rising immigration could double population of Britain by 2081 - Daily Mail

Seventeen years ago today, Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street - BBC

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Tuesday 27th November 2007

3.45pm: Speaking about the British teacher, Gillian Gibbons, who faces 40 lashes, a large fine or time in jail, after allowing the children in her class in Sudan to name a teddy bear Mohammed, Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague said: “To condemn Gillian Gibbons to such brutal and barbaric punishment for what appears to be an innocent mistake is clearly unacceptable.  We call on our government to make it clear to the Sudanese authorities that she should be released immediately.”

1.45pm ToryDiary: Labour has become indifferent to the law says Cameron

ToryDiary: Nominations for Culture Warrior and Scotland's Tories are relevant again (but at what price?)

Sam Freedman on Platform: Conservative education policy is going in the right direction

Columnist Andrew Lilico: On advisory juries

PlayPolitical:

• Nick Griffin attacks "pathetic" police but welcomes publicity gained for BNP by Oxford Union debate
• Al Gore and George W Bush meet again at White House event for Nobel Prize winners

Police fail to provide security for Oxford Union debate with Nick Griffin - Guardian

"Michael Howard, a former leader of the Conservative Party, added his voice to the criticisms yesterday. "The Oxford debating union should not have given these people that platform," he said. "Obviously, they are entitled to their views – everybody has a right to free speech – but there is a separate question as to whether you give people like that a platform, and that is undesirable." - Independent

Tories open up 13% lead over Labour

"The Conservatives have opened a commanding 13-point lead over Labour, their biggest for 19 years, according to the latest monthly poll by ComRes for The Independent."

Yesterday's ToryDiary: Labour crashes to 27%

Peter Riddell counsels that it's all about the economy in the long-term - Times

Douglas Alexander and Harriet Harman implicated in Labour donations scandal - Telegraph

"Peter Watts, the party's general secretary, has resigned claiming that, although he had been aware that these gifts were given through second parties, he had not realised that there was a legal requirement to report them. This seems an extraordinary admission of incompetence from a senior party official." - Telegraph

"Do ministers really expect us to believe that they accepted £540,000 in donations from three individuals in the North without inquiring into their background?  This latest episode in a long catalogue of party funding scandals is yet further evidence that this Government cannot be trusted to regulate the way politics in Britain is funded. Despite constant promises to clean up its act, Labour continues to behave in a manner certain to undermine what little respect remains for our politicians." - Edward Heathcoat-Amory in The Daily Mail

Tories 'would halt early prisoner release by building extra prisons' says Nick Herbert - Daily Mail

ID cards review

"Plans to bring in identity cards will be "reassessed" in the wake of the child benefits fiasco, a Government minister said last night.  Michael Wills, the data protection minister, said the loss of the personal details of 25million individuals had been "deplorable".  He said a review will now be carried out into the way officials store and use data - putting the future of the £5.6billion ID cards scheme under review." - ThisIsLondon | Also see Sky News

Devolution doldrums

"More than half of Scots do not think devolution has given them a stronger voice, a survey revealed yesterday.  A total of 55 per cent of those questioned seven years after the historic settlement said that their influence over government had not changed as a result." - Scotsman

MPs warn that national parliaments might be marginalised by EU Treaty - BBC

17 years ago today, John Major became Prime Minister - BBC

PlayPolitical: Four videos about John Major

More rioting in Paris - Guardian

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Monday 26th November 2007

9.30pm ToryDiary: Reihan Salam re-introduces David Cameron to America's conservatives

8pm ToryDiary: Labour crashes to 27%

Labour's General Secretary has resigned over the 'hidden' donations to the party - BBC

George Osborne's reaction: "Despite today’s resignation serious questions remain unanswered about the circumstances of this murky affair.  If the General Secretary knew, when did the Chairman of the Labour Party and the Prime Minister first find out about how the money was being given?  What’s perfectly clear now is that incompetence not only runs through this Government but it also runs through the Labour party.  For Peter Watt to reveal that he was aware of the donation arrangements and yet did nothing about it until the Mail On Sunday broke their story is beyond belief. Everything Gordon Brown promised about his premiership – competence, honesty and change – has been blown away in the last few weeks.  Gordon Brown’s Government is now officially in crisis.”

3.30pm PlayPolitical: John McCain's 'I didn't go to Washington to win the Mr Congeniality award' ad

1.15pm ToryDiary: Should Sajjad Karim be fast-tracked to the top of the North West list?

ToryDiary:

• LibDem MEP joins the Conservatives
• Can devout Christians be PM?
• Nominations for Next Generation

Andrew Haldenby and Laura Kounine on Platform: Michael Gove should fund but not manage the nation's schools...

"Michael Gove made the case that diversity raises standards better than any politician since Tony Blair.  He rightly rejected the Government's inputs-led approach, which would judge education on the numbers of pounds spent and the numbers of years taught, not on outcomes.  Real reform can be achieved if Michael Gove stays true to his convictions, does his utmost to relinquish control over schools and endeavours to fund but not to manage education."

BritainAndAmerica: Der Spiegel doesn't like George W Bush's America and Britain and America's shared economic interests

PlayPolitical: Four videos that capture the Ron Paul phenomenon

MP quits Oxford Union in BNP row

"A senior Conservative MP has resigned his membership of the Oxford Union as the pressure mounted on the organisers of tonight's debate on free speech to withdraw an invitation to Nick Griffin, of the British National Party, and Holocaust denier David Irving.  Julian Lewis, the shadow defence minister, turned in the membership he has held for 37 years following the Union's controversial invitation. He said he was "ashamed" of the students' decision. Others attacked the invitation as "juvenile provocation" and a "festival of anti-Semitism"." - Telegraph

Yesterday's ToryDiary: Julian Lewis resigns from Oxford Union in protest at BNP-Irving debate

William Hague writes to David Miliband to protest at failure to stop EU super-president - Telegraph

Bruce Anderson warns David Cameron against complacency

"Once voters have stopped listening and started laughing, a Government is dead. Last week, the Brown government began to die. But there are Liberals, Ukip, abstentions. David Cameron cannot rely on a moribund opponent to bring him to power." - Independent

New Statesman apologises to David Davies MP for reporting that he brandished a Taser gun for the cameras - Independent

The real culprits behind the Government's recent crises are tax cuts and deregulation - Johann Hari in The Independent

Tebbit blasts Des Browne - Express

Another Labour funding story undermines Brown's standing

"Labour is facing fresh investigations into its funding after questions were raised about whether a series of loans totalling more than £380,000 were lawful because intermediaries were used to shield the identity of a major donor.   David Abrahams, a wealthy property developer, yesterday admitted he used the names of "friends and colleagues" in an attempt to avoid publicity when donating substantial sums over a four-year year period to the Labour Party." - Independent

The Telegraph urges action to end funding sleaze: "Political parties must learn to live within their means. Yet they show few signs of doing so. They throw money at media agencies while their membership continues its decades-long decline. Our message to all the parties is: learn some humility. Instead of cultivating multi-millionaires, build up a mass base of loyal members who believe in your message enough to pay for it. Then we might trust you to run the country."

Not content with stealing Tory policies, Gordon Brown is now using David Cameron's tailor - Richard Kay in The Daily Mail

Virgin is preferred bidder for Northern Rock

"Virgin's bid includes an immediate repayment of £11bn of the £25bn the bank owes the Bank of England, with the rest to be repaid within three years." - BBC

Growing the north

"A leading think-tank has set out a plan to revive the economy in the north of England.  The Institute for Public Policy Research North said in a report on Monday that improving transport links, expanding the private sector and improving welfare-to-work policies could all help reduce the £30bn 'output gap' with the rest of the country." - ePolitix

Alan Milburn talks about the lessons for Labour from the victory of Australia's Kevin Rudd - Guardian

ToryDiary reflects on The end of the John Howard years.  PlayPolitical has Kevin Rudd's victory speech.

Columnist Cameron Watt argues for a treatment tax on alcohol.

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Sunday 25th November 2007

8.30pm ToryDiary: Julian Lewis resigns from Oxford Union in protest at BNP-Irving debate

3pm BritainAndAmerica: Richer Americans are Democrats

2.30pm ToryDiary: Any questions for you?

ToryDiary: Nominations for National Campaign

Columnist Graeme Archer: Sex and the Single Woman

PlayPolitical: Kevin Rudd's victory speech and Russian authorities disrupt anti-Putin demo led by Gary Kasparov

New opinion polls bring more gloom for Brown

"Two months ago Labour had a 12 point lead over the Tories on managing the economy. At the last election it was 30%. Now it is zero: they are neck and neck.  And among the under-25 Labour are a staggering 16 points behind (31% vs 47%)." - Fraser Nelson at Coffee House

"In a BPIX poll for The Mail on Sunday, David Cameron's Conservatives are five points ahead of Labour. But when people were asked how they would vote if Mr Blair was still Prime Minister, both parties score 37."

Yesterday's ToryDiary on the poll.

Tories urge ministers to ditch new child database over safety concerns as six more disks go missing - Independent on Sunday

Cameron will promise full campaign against CGT changes in speech to CBI - Observer

"It is understood that the Tories are close to finalising plans for a cut in capital gains tax from 18 per cent to 10 per cent for people selling small businesses on their retirement." - Sunday Telegraph

Cameron urged to sack councillor who praised Ian Smith - Sunday Times

Britain's armed forces crisis

"The army has suffered an unprecedented exodus of more than 1,300 officers in the past six months amid anger about government cost-cutting and equipment shortage." - Sunday Times

General Charles Guthrie will chair the launch of a Conservative defence policy report on Wednesday - Observer

MPs say Labour sneaked out plans to co-operate with US on missile defence - BBC

Tories want to sell inner city prisons

"Prisons on prime inner-city land should be sold and the profits used to build more modern institutions elsewhere, the Tories are to propose.  Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, is expected to make the disclosure in a speech tomorrow. The sale of Victorian jails could net the government £350m to help build new specialist units." - Sunday Times

Bush-Cameron meeting confirmed

"A foreign policy adviser to the White House said: "The Bush administration is pretty down on Brown, so they would be happy to meet Cameron. Bush was utterly loyal to Blair and wouldn't have talked to or promoted any rival. With Brown, they feel no such obligation." - Sunday Telegraph

"George Bush will this week challenge David Cameron to support his threat to attack Iran over its nuclear weapons building programme." - Mail on Sunday

Google paid for Cameron's California visit - Observer

"A relative of David Cameron, who resigned from Neville Chamberlain's cabinet over his policy of Nazi appeasement, was honoured when the Tory leader visited the Czech Republic last week." - Observer

The curious affair of the SNP-Tory love-in - Scotland on Sunday

Shock! Tony Blair talks about the importance of his Christian faith - Independent on Sunday

Tony Blair: Mention God and you're a 'nutter' - Sunday Telegraph

Greybeards Hoon and Straw to break into Brown's inner circle of advisers - Observer

Labour MP says that this week wasn't as bad as Tories' ejection from ERM - Sunday Telegraph

Archbishop of Canterbury launches strong attack on US imperialism - Sunday Times

The end of John Howard's premiership

"When a generation of voters have never known tough economic times, as has been the case in Australia for 15 years, there is no inoculation against a mood for change." - Simon Benson in The Sunday Times

"However, Mr Howard's defeat in Australia is undoubtedly part of the slow unwinding of the failed worldview that was the mistaken response to the horror of 9/11. As the leaders who promulgated that view leave the stage, the world has the chance to rebalance both the rhetoric and the rules." - Independent on Sunday

What the IoS doesn't say is that Schroeder has been replaced by Merkel, Chirac by Sarkozy, Chretien by Harper... It's not one way traffic!

"There is no danger the Liberal Party will unravel following yesterday's heavy electoral defeat, its federal director Brian Loughnane said today... Mr Loughnane said although going into opposition would place significant financial burdens on the party, it would not fall apart." - The Australian

Andrew Bolt: It couldn't be much worse for Australia's Liberals

Yesterday's ToryDiary: The John Howard years are over

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Saturday 24th November 2007

11pm ToryDiary: More voters now oppose ID cards

3.15pm Seats and candidates: Leah Fraser re-adopted for Wallasey

2.15pm ToryDiary: The John Howard years are over

ToryDiary: Nominations for Innovative Policy

Columnist Cameron Watt: Time for a Treatment Tax on Alcohol...

"Alcohol is now responsible for four times as many deaths as illegal drugs. Nearly half our 14-15 year-olds, and a quarter of all men, binge drink at least once each month. Alcohol related death and disease has doubled in 25 years. And while they’re wrecking their health, problem drinkers make life miserable for the rest of us. Half of all assaults and most night-time admissions to hospital are drink-related."

Parliament: Elizabeth Howlett AM on the importance of community projects

PlayPolitical: John Howard's Election Day YouTube and Rhodesia's Ian Smith remembered

Cameron attacks freedom's enemies in Prague speech

"The UK's Labour government and European Union bureaucrats are "enemies of freedom", the Conservative leader is to tell an audience in the Czech Republic.  David Cameron will attack those he says are preparing "a renewed assault on our liberty" and who must be "derailed".  He will cite the proposed national identity register in the UK as one example of "bureaucratic over-reach".  He will also attack EU plans for tax harmonisation, at the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) conference in Prague." - BBC

Labour back to last days of Blair in new Guardian poll

"But the results contain warnings for the Conservatives too, suggesting they have failed to take advantage of Brown's most recent woes, that voters are yet to be convinced by David Cameron and that there remains a powerful anti-Tory majority among the electorate. Both major parties slumped in this week's poll, but the Tories extended their lead by one point as their support fell by one point less than Labour. The Tories are on 37% (down three points), and Labour on 31% (down four)." - Guardian

This poll was discussed on yesterday's ToryDiary.

Britain's underfunded armed forces

"Gordon Brown said that he would “do his duty” by the Armed Forces yesterday after an apparently co-ordinated assault on him by five former defence chiefs that overshadowed his first trip to a Commonwealth summit." - Times

"The truth is Our Boys are starved of equipment and housed in slums with their pay and morale at rock bottom." - The Sun Says

"Since I voiced my criticisms of government policy towards our Armed Forces during Thursday's defence debate in the Lords, many people have asked whether the five former defence chiefs who stood up were taking part in a planned ambush against the Government. They seem to think we all met up at Starbucks and plotted to give everyone in it a bloody nose.  In fact, the opposite happened. Far from being a co-ordinated plot, this was a spontaneous eruption from a group of people who find themselves at the end of their tether regarding the treatment of our Armed Forces." - Charles Guthrie writing for The Daily Telegraph

Yesterday's ToryDiary: 'Des Two Jobs Browne' is not the main problem facing Britain's armed forces

BBC Scotland's Political Editor comes to the defence of Des Browne - BBC

Business leaders lose confidence in Darling - ComRes survey in The Independent

Is Gordon Brown up to the job?

"After a dreadful week, following a dreadful month, crowning a disappointing season, Britain should be mulling over a very simple possibility: that the Prime Minister isn't up to the job. In the cliché of management consultancy, Gordon Brown is finding his new post more challenging than had been expected, and it may soon be time to draw a line, let him go, and move on." - Matthew Parris in The Times

Hard to win, a reputation for competence is easily lost - Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the FT

Jack Straw calls for 70m Turks to join EU to prove 'West and Islam can live together' - Daily Mail

Murdoch: I decide The Sun's politics

"Rupert Murdoch decides the political line of the Sun and News of the World, but not the Times and the Sunday Times, he has told a parliamentary committee." - BBC

The Chairman of The Daily Mail is in talks to sponsor a City Academy - Guardian

Nick Clegg? Chris who?

"The latest Populus poll for The Times, undertaken online on Wednesday evening (for more details see www.populus.co.uk), shows that 80 per cent of the public has either no opinion or does not know enough to have a view on whether Chris Huhne or Nick Clegg would be most likely to improve the party’s prospects. Even 63 per cent of declared Lib Dem supporters say they do not have a view (including 54 per cent who say they do not know enough)." - Peter Riddell in The Times

LibDem leadership contenders tour country in last dash for votes - Independent

The Independent profiles Evan Davis, a new voice of BBC's Today programme

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary... 

Friday 23rd November 2007

10.45pm ToryDiary: "One does begin to wonder if Gordon Brown is cut out for the top job. He does not have a great deal of natural charisma and at times seems a little, well, plodding," writes Adam Boulton

7.15pm ToryDiary: LibDems up to 21% in new ICM poll

4pm Local government: LibDems gain two seats from Conservatives and Adam Tugwell on pensions deficits

2pm ToryDiary: 'Des Two Jobs Browne' is not the main problem facing Britain's armed forces

2pm Columnist Theresa May: What does this Government actually know?

"There were 2,111 security breaches at HMRC last year.  This latest incident was the third in a recent string of embarrassing events.  And there are reports that two more CDs are missing.  Make no mistake – this was down to systemic failure in HMRC – a department set up by Gordon Brown himself."

2pm PlayPolitical:  Rory Bremner delivers a mock Boris Johnson speech and A distraught Australian begs voters to leave John Howard alone

Writing in The Times, Tory GLA candidate Kit Malthouse argues that Heathrow is in the wrong place.

ToryDiary:

• Now is not the time for a big shift in Tory policy on the EU
• The week it all went wrong for Gordon Brown
• Nominations for One to Watch

Rob Wilson MP on Platform: Jacqui Smith has form when it comes to dissembling

Parliament: Ministry of Defence comes bottom of league table for answering questions promptly finds Mark Harper MP

Cost-cutting looks to be a key cause of lost HMRC data

"A desire to cut costs at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) may have contributed to the fiasco in which the sensitive personal data of 25 million people was lost, it has emerged.  Emails disclosed last night also suggested that a senior manager at HMRC was informed about the decision to send the information to the National Audit Office (NAO), the public spending watchdog. The Tories claimed this undermined the Government's attempt to blame a 23-year-old junior official." - Independent

Brown under attack from former defence chiefs

"Prime Minister Gordon Brown has treated the armed services with "contempt" and "disinterest", a former chief of the defence staff has told a Lords debate.  Admiral Lord Boyce said the decision to give one person - Des Browne - the jobs of both defence and Scottish secretary was an "insult" at a time of war.  Another former defence chief, General Lord Guthrie, said Mr Brown had been "unsympathetic" to the military." - BBC | Daily Mail | See ConservativeHome's Parliament blog for key quotations

Taxpayers lost tens of millions from rushed sale of QinetiQ

"The Ministry of Defence has been severely reprimanded over the rushed privatisation of its research arm.  According to the National Audit Office, it could have made "tens of millions" more for the taxpayer from the sale of QinetiQ." - Sky News

Edward Leigh MP is quoted by ePolitix: ""The MoD backed themselves into a corner before they had even started... and the department went on to sell a larger share of the business for less money than they initially agreed."

Is there a massive hole in Northern Rock's assets? - The Guardian investigates

Tory lead over Labour up to 9% according to YouGov - Telegraph | Yesterday's ToryDiary

"The number trusting Mr Brown and Mr Darling to deal with any economic problems has plummeted from 61 to 28 per cent since early September. But trust in David Cameron and Mr Osborne has only risen from 27 to 34 per cent with a trebling to 37 per cent in the number saying they trust neither team or they don’t know. By a narrow margin of 44 to 40 per cent, voters say they believe Mr Darling should lose his job rather than stay." - A Populus survey for The Times

Voting has begun in the race for the LibDem leadership - BBC | The Independent endorses Clegg

PlayPolitical: Chris Huhne is interviewed by Telegraph TV and Nick Clegg explains why he's prepared to go to court rather than have an ID card

Green Party referendum on appointing a single leader is "nail-bitingly close" - Guardian

Alex Salmond backs Gordon Brown's idea of reviving Home Nations Tournament - Herald

Young Britain is cocaine capital of the world with more abuse than US for first time - Daily Mail

New poll shows dramatic tightening of Australian election - The Australian

PlayPolitical: Two final ad campaigns from John Howard

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Thursday 22nd November 2007

7.30pm ToryDiary: Tories 9% ahead in new YouGov survey

2pm Columnist Louise Bagshawe: Nine questions for a Government that is falling apart

ToryDiary: David Cameron to visit Bush in Washington and Nominations for Best Writer

Michael Fallon MP on Platform: Gordon Brown is the architect of the Northern Rock and HMRC crises

A third Labour scandal

"A week that began with two major disasters for the Government is set to end with a third.  As if Northern Rock and the loss of the Child Benefit database were not enough, ministers will face stinging criticism tomorrow over their grossly negligent handling of the sale of the Defence Ministry's research arm, QinetiQ.  A long-delayed National Audit Office report will find British taxpayers were scandalously short-changed when the firm was sold for a fraction of its value." - Mail leader

Soaring public borrowing is new headache for Darling - FT

BritainAndAmerica: Which Bush era foreign policy will work best in the long-run?

PlayPolitical: Rudy ad promises to change Washington as he changed New York and Four presidential candidates criticise the verdict in a Saudi rape case

Boris Johnson's verdict on 'discgate'

"What is so appalling about the present episode is the casualness, the condescending indifference on the part of the state towards the privacy of British people.  This is how they treat vital personal information - allowing a junior official to burn it on to several discs, and then losing it in the mail.  How dare these people continue to make the case for ID cards? How dare they claim that they can be trusted with any more of our data?  The argument is lost, and before the Government wastes £10 billion of our money, it should run up the white flag and withdraw the Bill. I'm sorry, Darling, but it's over." - Telegraph

Tory education plans are genuinely exciting - Iain Martin in The Telegraph

ConservativeHome.com will be writing its own commentary on the education plans in the next few days.

English votes for English laws

"A referendum could be held on banning Scottish MPs from voting on English laws, Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat leadership contender, has suggested." - Telegraph

Law chiefs see no case for longer detention of terrorist suspects - Times

Third runway for Heathrow

"Greenpeace accused the airport operator BAA and the Government of "extraordinary collusion" over the launch today of the consultation exercise that is expected to approve Heathrow's third runway." - Independent

On this day in 1990: Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister - BBC

Video: How the BBC covered the resignation at the time.

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Wednesday 21st November 2007

1pm PlayPolitical videos:

• Alistair Darling: We've lost the personal data of 25 million people
• David Cameron explains the two key elements of Tory education policy

12.30pm BritainAndAmerica: Thanksgiving in War Time

11.15am ToryDiary: Live blog of PMQs

ToryDiary: Good morning Prime Minister, here are today's newspapers and Nominations for Best Book

Robert McIlveen on Platform: Liberal interventionism – naïve, dangerous and profoundly un-Churchillian

Columnist Peter Franklin: Consensus confounded

PlayPolitical: President Bush pardons the Thanksgiving Turkey and If women ran the world, there'd be no problems (apparently)

Conservatives promise a supply-side revolution in education

"David Cameron said further changes in "structures" were needed on top of Labour's city academies. He aims to portray Gordon Brown, who wants to focus on "standards not structures", as an opponent of reform. The Tory plans to create more than 220,000 places over nine years would meet demand for places from parents of children in the most deprived boroughs who lose appeals to win admission to their first-choice secondary school." - Independent

The Telegraph summarises the new Conservative education proposals:

1. "Provision of 220,000 new school places
2. A legal presumption that any "fit and proper persons" — including parents, charities and businessmen — should be able to set up their own schools
3. Shake-up of planning rules to release excess land for education purposes
4. Allow smaller schools to be built
5. Divert more money to children from disadvantaged areas
6. New rewards for teachers educating the poorest pupils
7. A ban on mixed-ability classes to ensure all subjects are "set" by ability
8. A new reading test for all six-year-olds to identify those struggling with basic literacy
9. Renewed focus on the back-to-basics phonics method of reading
10. Reforms to the school inspection regime to provide more "scrutiny of under-performance"
11. New rules on discipline banning independent appeals for pupils expelled from school"

"Sloppy dress is at the root of poor discipline in schools, David Cameron said yesterday in a policy document on education.  Teachers should act to stop children who walk around with their shirts hanging out or ties askew. The paper suggested that pupils should stand up automatically when a visitor enters the classroom, and that schools should all appoint head girls and boys." - Times

"The Conservatives' new education policy marks nothing less than a revolution in the supply side of schooling provision.  Modelled on the Swedish system, which permits a wide variety of organisations such as charities, voluntary groups and parents' co-operatives to open and run government-funded schools, this Tory initiative offers a serious structural alternative to local education authority domination of state education." - Telegraph leader

David Davis explains why he called for Ian Blair's resignation - Guardian

Donations to parties fall despite poll speculation - FT

Number 10 'muzzled' Foreign Office, say Tories - ePolitix

Huhne's reaction to the 'Calamity Clegg' messages put out in his name suggest a certain unpreparedness to run anything important...

"I was as shocked as anyone... You can't keep tabs on running a big campaign. One thing I have learnt in running an organisation is you have to delegate and trust people." - Independent

Clegg attacks Ashcroft's funding of the Conservatives

"Labour wants a settlement on party funding because it has been spooked by the Ashcroft millions – money currently pouring into marginal constituencies across Britain from the non-domiciled peer. The Conservative party used to be "made in Britain" but now appears to be "assembled in Belize"." - Independent

The former prime minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith, has died aged 88 - BBC | Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Tuesday 20th November 2007

10pm Parliament: George Osborne attacks "catastrophic" loss of 25 million people's personal data

9.45pm BritainAndAmerica: The New York Times notes the improving security situation in Iraq

9.45pm PlayPolitical: Make John Howard smile

1pm ToryDiary: This Government couldn't run a bath

12.30pm ToryDiary: Seventeen years ago today Margaret Thatcher failed to win the first leadership ballot by enough votes

12.30pm Seats and candidates: Mark Bowen selected for Feltham and Heston

ToryDiary: Nominations for Outstanding Parliamentarian

Peter Cuthbertson on Platform: Voters aren't crying out for a party of free market social liberals

Columnist Andrew Lilico: Why trade is green

"If we were to accept the urgings of anti-trade greens, and stop buying imports that needed to be transported, the result would typically be that production of the same goods domestically would involve much greater use of resources — more land built upon, more energy (and hence more CO2 emissions), more trees felled, more minerals dug up.  And all in the name of being green."

Parliament: George Osborne responds to the Chancellor's statement on Northern Rock

PlayPolitical: American Apache gunship fires on suspected Iraqi insurgents and  Ming Campbell's resignation

Tories will emphasise setting, not streaming

"Streaming means pupils are judged on all-round academic ability, with the brightest put in the top group for all subjects, just as grammar schools admit only the best pupils.  But Mr Cameron will today signal a shift towards setting, where pupils are assessed on a subject-by-subject basis.  The new emphasis on setting was signalled last night by Michael Gove, the Tory shadow schools secretary.  "Children should be given the opportunity to learn in accordance with their particular aptitude and ability, so that the brightest pupils are stretched and those who might be struggling are given extra support," he said.  We want to see more teaching by ability so we can begin to narrow the gap in achievement between those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and the rest." - Telegraph

"The Conservatives say they will expand the number of academies in England to create at least 220,000 "good school places" over the next nine years." - BBC

James Gray survives another deselection attempt - BBC

Brown needs a wider circle of advisers - Rachel Sylvester in The Telegraph

"This government is a one-man band. Gordon is the Don Partridge of politics, banging the drum, clattering the cymbals between his knees, while simultaneously strumming a guitar and playing the Red Flag on the kazoo." - Richard Littlejohn in The Daily Mail

Clegg accuses Huhne of testing voters' patience

`'In an interview with The Independent, Mr Clegg warned that the public would turn its back on Britain's third party if its leadership election slips into a divisive battle between the two men. He accused his opponent of manufacturing a false divide to portray Mr Clegg as on the right." - Independent

"Liberal Democrat leadership contender Nick Clegg wants to put education at the centre of his party's policies, raising the money spent in state schools to private school levels and giving more money the poorest children." - Guardian

Holocaust denier David Irving and BNP leader invited to address Oxford Union - Telegraph

Sarkozy's confrontation with France's unions is an echo of the Thatcher-Reagan years - Independent

Lords to reject new Embryo Bill - Independent | Times | Express

"Roman Catholic Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly last night refused to back Gordon Brown’s plans to make it easier for lesbians to have test-tube babies." - The Sun

"Lord Darzi, the top surgeon appointed a Health Minister by Gordon Brown, is being hailed as a hero by peers after dramatically reviving a Labour peer who had a heart attack during a House of Lords debate.' - Sky News

On this day in 1990 Margaret Thatcher failed to win the first round of her leadership battle against Michael Heseltine - BBC

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Monday 19th November 2007

10.30pm PlayPolitical: Gordon Brown promised British jobs for British workers... a Republican presidential hopeful is promising American jobs for American soldiers.

5pm: BritainAndAmerica: Iain Murray has some thoughts for Thanksgiving Week

1pm ToryDiary: Patrick Mercer on the "appalling" reaction of Tory supporters to his working for Brown

12.30pm PlayPolitical: "Calamity Clegg" - A three minute must-watch video of Clegg and Huhne getting stroppy with each other on BBC1

Noon ToryDiary: Nominations for Lifetime Achievement

ToryDiary: The good news is that Labour is in trouble (the bad news is that so is Britain) and Conservative Movement Awards 2007/08

Columnist Stephan Shakespeare: Politics is still a matter of life and death

Jack Perschke on Platform: Why voting Blue has always meant going Green

Two more Australian ads on PlayPolitical:

• The differences between Kevin Rudd and John Howard
• The unions will stuff our economy

No mobile phones in the classroom, says Michael Gove

"Mobile phones would be banned from the classroom under a crackdown on school discipline by the Tories.  The measure is contained in an education policy document intended to help hand back power to teachers." - Daily Mail

"The Conservatives are to try to seize the education choice agenda from Labour this week by proposing that most schools be freed from the control of local authorities along the model of city academies." - The Guardian

Yesterday's ToryDiary: Tories "happy" for fight with education establishment in order to implement national reading test for six and seven year-olds

William Hague answers Independent readers' questions

Asked 'What was your biggest mistake as Tory leader?', William Hague replied: "I think I underestimated how many times you have to say something before anybody really notices. As a result, I moved too rapidly from one approach to another, thinking whatever I had tried just didn't work, when sometimes it just needed persistence."

Read the whole Q&A here.

LibDem leadership race turns ugly...

"In a rowdy exchange on the BBC One programme The Politics Show, Chris Huhne accused Nick Clegg of “flip- flopping” on issues such as Trident and school vouchers, but he denied helping to produce a dossier compiled by his campaign team titled “Calamity Clegg”, which detailed alleged policy shifts by his rival." - Times

"Senior Liberal Democrat officials are to consider a complaint by leadership contender Nick Clegg over a document describing him as a "calamity"." - BBC

Strong recommendation to go to the BBC page above and watch the Clegg-Huhne clash... Can someone please post it on YouTube?  Now done - it's on YouTube!

...as do relations between Brown and Miliband

"David Miliband's relationship with Gordon Brown was under strain last night after Labour insiders blamed him for a campaign to "destabilise" the Prime Minister.  A Whitehall row over spin was in danger of escalating after the Foreign Secretary was accused of reviving his ambitions to challenge for the leadership." - Daily Mail

"Mr Miliband insisted he and the Prime Minister were working hand-in-hand... Mr Miliband said in a radio interview: “It is absolutely wrong to suggest there is any breach.  “I am proud to be serving under Gordon’s leadership. And he and I — talking very often, working together very closely — are giving Britain a foreign policy that is clear and coherent.”" - The Sun

Brown goes green in fightback speech

"Gordon Brown will call today for urgent action to combat climate change at home and abroad as he tries to regain the political initiative for the Government.  His first big speech on the environment as Prime Minister comes amid growing disquiet over the direction of his premiership and Labour's poor performance in the polls." - Independent

Lord West in new security row

"Lord West, the security minister, was at the centre of a fresh row last night after he was accused of contradicting the head of MI5 by saying that the terrorist threat against Britain would soon be "steadily declining".  His comments appeared to challenge recent remarks by Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, who said this month that the terrorist threat had not yet reached its peak." - Telegraph

Tim Yeo plans to move the clock

"A leading Tory has relaunched his attempt to move British time forward by an hour, using his high position in the ballot for private members' bills at Westminster and risking renewed opposition from Scotland." - The Herald

Labour MPs seek revival of English regions plan to tackle West Lothian Question - Scotsman

Bill for Northern Rock rescue could reach £45billion - Daily Mail

Darling to address Commons later today on Rock's future - BBC 

It is time to revive Britain’s interest in the Commonwealth - Times leader

"MPs have warned that "important work" being undertaken by the Foreign Office is at risk from Treasury spending restrictions." - ePolitix.com

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Sunday 18th November 2007

9pm BritainAndAmerica:

• We now need a political surge in Iraq
• Video overview of opinion polling for the Republican race

7.15pm ToryDiary: Ben Brogan's favourite website is...

1pm LondonMayor: Tories approached me to be their mayoral candidate says Paddick

1pm Seats and candidates: John Bell selected for Clywd South

ToryDiary:

• New poll confirms that the Tories have become a 40%+ party
• Tories "happy" for fight with education establishment in order to implement national reading test for six and seven year-olds

Martin Callanan MEP on Platform reflects on the French President's recent defence of protectionism and concludes: It's time to get out of bed with Sarkozy!

Columnist Graeme Archer: Common People

Trimble criticises Rifkind's English votes plan

"Nobel peace prize winner David Trimble has criticised former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind's proposal to let only English MPs vote on English issues at Westminster, saying the plan could potentially threaten the union." - Observer

"Now they want to abolish fatherhood - how changes in IVF laws could erase the need for Dads" - Iain Duncan Smith writing in the Mail on Sunday

Profiles of leading Tory candidates - Mail on Sunday

Rosie Millard finds Jonathan Aitken purring with pleasure at being in the Tory limelight again - Sunday Times

LibDems call for takeover of Northern Rock - BBC

...but do the LibDems matter?

John Rentoul says yes (and he's right): "Whether it is Huhne or Clegg, do the Lib Dems matter? Yes, they do, for the simple arithmetical reason that the chances of a hung parliament at the next election are greater than ever. Of course, predicting what might happen over the next one and a half to two and a half years is a mug's game, but the fundamentals point in that direction. The Tories are likely to do better on new boundaries and under Cameron rather than Michael Howard. And, as long as the Lib Dem vote doesn't collapse, there will be about 50 Lib Dem MPs, who are likely to hold the balance of power." - Independent on Sunday

Miliband 'not happy' with Brown

"A split between Downing Street and the Foreign Office, which stretches back to the appointment of the outspoken Lord Malloch Brown as a senior minister, has deepened after David Miliband reacted furiously to an intervention by Number 10 over a pro-European speech the Foreign Secretary made last week." - Observer

"Mr Miliband was said to be furious with Number 10 and to have claimed that sources close to the Prime Minister had been "crudely briefing" against him in a "disloyal manner"." - Sunday Telegraph

Gordon Brown's strategy on terror suspects has fallen to pieces - Matthew d'Ancona in The Sunday Telegraph

The Blair Rich Project

If it is all going wrong for Gordon Brown, Tony Blair is getting wealthier and wealthier on the lecture circuit.  The Independent on Sunday has been investigating Mr Blair's lucrative life after Downing Street.

Would you kiss Gordon Brown for £10,000? - The Mail on Sunday has the story on the bank employee who did and won

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Saturday 17th November 2007

"On leaving [Washington Dulles] airport, it’s uplifting to see that a new lounge has just opened for the exclusive use of American servicemen and their families. Can you imagine that at Heathrow? Later in the week at a shopping mall, I notice mobile phone provider Cingular is offering special deals to service personnel. BAA and Vodafone – please take note..."

3.45pm Columnist Cameron Watt on the Second 'Conservatives for Social Justice' international gathering (in Washington DC)

ToryDiary: Mr Brown can't play within a team, can't pick a team and can't manage a team

Walaa Idris on Platform: Is child labour in countries we trade with unavoidable?

BritainAndAmerica: Blair fears West lacks determination to win war on terror

PlayPolitical: "Tested" - Rudy's 'It's morning again in New York' ad

Seats and Candidates: Andrea Stephenson selected for Linlithgow & Falkirk East

George Osborne seeks reassurances over Northern Rock

"The Conservatives are demanding government assurances that taxpayers' interests are being safeguarded over Northern Rock bank.  Their calls come after the bank's chief executive, Adam Applegarth, resigned." - BBC

Tories attack Labour's skills reannouncements

"Gordon Brown's latest initiative to create "British jobs for British workers" was denounced as spin after it emerged that hundreds of thousands of new training places pledged by ministers will be open to foreign nationals.  The Government came under further fire from the Conservatives, who claimed that three quarters of the posts pledged yesterday had already been announced." - Telegraph

"Mr Denham's proposals have a powerful unintended consequence. Their provision of £6.8 billion for “learning places” for school leavers, and a further £1.5 billion for “first steps skills” for adults, is a bleak indictment of the failure to equip teenagers with the most basic academic skills in schools, where this £7.3 billion surely would have been better spent." - Times leader

"Today, the number of so called "Neets" - young people not in education, employment or training - is rising remorselessly, especially among 16 to 18-year-olds... Were politicians truly serious about British jobs for British workers, they would embark on major reforms in education and welfare." - Daily Mail leader

Neville-Jones wants to stop Hizbollah broadcaster entering Britain

"The head of a "viciously anti-Semitic" Lebanese television station must be stopped from coming to London for a peace conference, the Tories have demanded." - Telegraph

Brown ordered Miliband to remove pro-European sections from Bruges speech - Times

Peter Oborne discusses Gordon Brown's "deeply flawed methods of man management" - Daily Mail

Clegg could be housewife's choice, warns Patrick Mercer...

"Mr Mercer said: "I saw how he performed as MEP for the East Midlands, and he was an extremely impressive figure.  "He made a very favourable impression in an area with no tradition of support for the Liberal Democrats, and I hate to say it, but he was the housewife's choice."  He added: "He is talked about extremely favourably among the voters of Newark, who are prevalently Tories." - Telegraph

...and The Guardian endorses Nick Clegg

"He is articulate, energetic and capable of presenting the Liberal Democrat case in a way that neither of its last two leaders were able to manage. He also has the support of the majority of his parliamentary colleagues - including those, such as Steve Webb, who are to his ideological left. He can speak with a fluent, engaging intelligence. There is reason to hope that under Mr Clegg's leadership the party would find a new vibrancy, challenging Mr Cameron and Gordon Brown. If this newspaper was to cast a vote, it would be for him." - Guardian leader

Photograph of David Cameron playing tennis at Wimbledon - Daily Mail

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Friday 16th November 2007

10.15pm BritainAndAmerica: More than rain in Georgia, a faith-friendly BBC would be a real miracle

5pm BritainAndAmerica: 'How Can We Raise Awareness In Darfur Of How Much We're Doing For Them?'

2.30pm ToryDiary: Can Cameron end the Labour Party's "special relationship" with black voters?

Noon Columnist Theresa May: Protecting women from sexual violence

Noon Parliament: Roger Evans AM writes a report on the huge problem of fare dodging on London buses

Oberon Houston on Platform: St Pancras represents all that is good about our future, and our past

Parliament: Michael Fallon tops ballot for introducing Private Members' Bills

PlayPolitical: 'How do we beat the bitch?' - John McCain is asked about besting Hillary Clinton

One British citizen is emigrating every three minutes - Telegraph

George Osborne's New Enterprise Council

"The Tories have formed a New Enterprise Council of leading entrepreneurs in a move that puts further political pressure on the Government to rethink its capital gains tax plans.  Easyjet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Brent Hoberman, of lastminute.com fame, and Jimmy Choo shoes founder Tamara Mellon are among the 16 entrepreneurs who will advise shadow chancellor George Osborne on policies to encourage enterprise and business investment." - Telegraph

"The focus on entrepreneurs means the Tory council is more representative of the population as a whole than the 14 "men in suits" - and one woman - on Mr Brown's advisory body.  The 10 men and seven women on the Conservative body include entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s, as well as two leading Asian business people." - FT

"The Tory move comes two days after Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, the entrepreneur behind Cobra Beer, waded into the debate about the Government's plans to amend capital gains tax by saying they had "outraged" and "dismayed" entrepreneurs and had led to a "rift" between business and government." - Independent

MPs fail to uncover Michael Ashcroft's tax status

"A forthcoming constitutional reform bill could include measures to stop tax exiles from sitting in the House of Lords, the cabinet secretary said yesterday amid further questions about the tax status of the millionaire Tory donor Lord Ashcroft." - Guardian

Patrick Mercer warns of Labour's "counterproductive" efforts at counter-terrorism - Interview with the FT

Britain's record on rape is not as bad as Tories claim - The Economist

Nick Herbert Versus Dominic Grieve

The Spectator's Fraser Nelson discusses the battle between the Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Attorney General about Nick Herbert's wish to "terminate the authority of the European Court of Human Rights": "Dominic Grieve, the shadow attorney general, has made clear that the adoption of Mr Herbert’s much more radical proposal would result in his resignation."

Miliband's EU speech

"David Miliband on Thursday flew to Bruges to proclaim the death of the idea of a European superstate, in a symbolic attempt to slay the eurosceptic “demons” invoked by Margaret Thatcher in the same city almost 20 years ago." - FT

"Europe's top priority should be "to keep our promises on enlargement", Mr Miliband said. He backed Turkish membership of the bloc, warning: "If we fail to keep our promises to Turkey, it will signal a deep and dangerous divide between east and west."" - Independent

A leader in The Independent expresses disappointment at the Foreign Secretary's failure not to argue for Europe.

Gordon Brown will be defined by Northern Rock - Jeff Randall in The Telegraph

Is Brown going slow on public service reform?  Peter Riddell sees evidence of placating the public sector unions - The Times | The Daily Mail has the background story

Spectator Parliamentary Awards - The Telegraph spotlights Margaret Thatcher's award

Alex Salmond who won Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year also won The Herald's Scottish Politician of the Year prize.

The LibDem leadership candidates on Question Time - BBC has a review

"Nick Clegg, a candidate for the Liberal Democrat leadership, has warned against Britain "sleepwalking" into a conflict with Iran and called on Gordon Brown to rule out any prospect of supporting military action by the United States against the country." - Independent

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Thursday 15th November 2007

3pm ToryDiary: George Osborne is the Politician of the Year

OVER LUNCHTIME VISIT THE SPECTATOR WEBSITE TO WATCH THEIR ANNUAL PARLIAMENTARY AWARDS LUNCHEON

12.45pm ToryDiary: Don't risk it, Australia

ToryDiary: Labour MPs in marginal seats make good use of their Parliamentary communications allowance... at election time

Seats and Candidates: Latest tranche of seats open for selection

Local Government: Cllr Brian Silvester, Leader of Crewe & Nantwich Council, highlights the unreported overhaul of county councils, resulting in the closure of 35 councils:

"This proposed major local government upheaval in many parts of the country has been festering away for over a year with precious little recognition in the press or other media. You can’t help feeling that if this had been happening in the shires around London the media would have been more interested."

Columnist Louise Bagshawe looks at one of Labour's most damaging legacies: The collapse of the police force

Conservative spokesman on EU budgets Richard Ashworth MEP explains on the Platform why the EU's books aren't balanced, for the 13th time:

"The entire multifaceted European Union budget is tackled in a blanket approach, which gives us no clue as to where the real weaknesses lie. This approach is like saying your car has failed its MOT but not telling you whether it’s the lights, the brakes or the engine. Unless the auditors tell us in depth which areas are worse than others – while naming and shaming the agencies and individuals who misspend our cash – we as elected politicians will struggle to know how to resolve it."

Buckinghamshire Conservatives to build first Grammar in 50 years

"The massive expansion of Aylesbury, where 16,800 new homes are proposed over the next 20 years, means that several new schools are likely to be needed and the county council is working on outline plans including a new grammar school and two "upper" secondaries. The town has three existing grammars." - Guardian

PMQs

"David Cameron today sought to hammer home the Conservative party's attack on the home secretary, who yesterday faced claims that she had tried to cover up the employment of 5,000 illegal immigrants in high-profile government security posts." - Guardian

"The fist happened to be attached to David Cameron instead. I exaggerate a bit. Cameron doesn't clunk so much as duck and weave, jab and prod. He succeeds against Gordon Brown by getting him off balance, making him look defensive and evasive - if not on the ropes, at least stumbling in that general direction." - Simon Hoggart's sketch in the Guardian

ToryDiary's live blog

Osborne: Darling is weak and indecisive

"Alistair Darling was accused by the Tories yesterday of showing weakness, indecision and poor judgment at a time of mounting economic uncertainty. George Osborne opened the last day of debate on the Queen’s Speech with a blistering attack on the Chancellor. Mr Darling responded in kind, claiming that a black hole existed at the heart of the Conservatives’ spending plans and accusing them of having no vision for the future of Britain" - Times

Boris: Crack down on plastic bags and chewing gum

"When I saw that London councils had unanimously decided, with cross-party approval, to do away with the plastic bags given out free in the capital's shops and supermarkets, I am afraid that my heart sang. I felt a pagan oneness with nature, the green instinct to preserve the planet that is at the core of every human being." - Boris Johnson in the Telegraph

Fortress Britain

"Train passengers face routine airline-style bag checks and body searches as part of a new counter-terror crackdown announced by Gordon Brown. He conjured up visions of ''Fortress Britain" as he unveiled a succession of security measures at airports, railway stations, sports venues and other public places. There is also to be a huge "hearts and minds" drive aimed at diverting young Muslims away from the influence of fanatics. " - Telegraph

"Do we really want to turn the country into a simulacrum of Belfast in the 1970s and 1980s, all barriers, turnstiles and searches, with free movement all but impossible? Won't the terrorists have won? That said, imagine the reaction if a failure to take sensible precautions allowed a terrorist attack to take place. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, Mr Brown has decided to play safe. But in truth, the terrorist threat is best met in the short term through good intelligence and public vigilance; in the long-term by rooting out extremism." - Telegraph leader

Anti-establishment Vivienne Westwood turns Tory

"The erstwhile wild child of fashion took a step towards the Conservative Party yesterday, praising the moral superiority of its leader, David Cameron, over the Prime Minister. As she plans to attend this year's Tory party Christmas dinner, some former fans may now believe her transformation from rebel to middle-aged Tory sympathiser is complete." - Independent

Job vacancies

• Press Officer / Caseworker - Mark Isherwood AM
• Events Manager - CCHQ
• Part-time Operations Assistant - CCHQ
• PA to Campaign Director - Broxtowe & Gedling
• Executive PA - Senior Shadow Cabinet member
• Policy Assistant - Conservatives in the EU Parliament
• Part-time Regional Manager - Cheshire & South Manchester
• Part-time Regional Manager - Cumbria & North Manchester
• DCMS adviser - CCHQ
• Director - Parliamentary Resources Unit
• Political Assistant - Medway Council Conservatives
• Print journalist - Pro-democracy newspaper in the Maldives
• Transcriber - Civitatis
• Research Fellow / Policy Analyst - Russell Group
• Junior Consultant - Community Innovation UK
• Office Manager - Community Innovation UK
• Boundary Review Assistant - Electoral Commission
• Resources Assistant - Centre for Democracy and Development
• Paid intern - Policy Exchange
• Caseworker - Daniel Kawczynski MP
• Unpaid intern - 2020Health.org
• Unpaid intern - Westminster North Association
• Unpaid intern - Stockholm Network
• Unpaid intern - CCHQ Campaigns
• Constituency assistant - Bernard Jenkin MP
• Fiscal Economist - CBI
• National Co-ordinator - CCF

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Wednesday 14th November 2007

3pm ToryDiary: Who was the best leader: Hague, IDS or Howard?

2pm Parliament: Nadine Dorries attacks abortion industry over vested interests and Heathcoat-Amory questions Johnson about junior doctors

11.30am ToryDiary: Live blog of PMQs

11.30am LondonMayor: Cameron makes light of Boris Johnson's campaign but donors express dismay to The Times

Seats and candidates: We ask our target seats candidates why they are Conservatives

11am PlayPolitical: Tancredo links immigration with terrorist attacks

10.45am Seats and Candidates: Will Gallagher selected for Alyn & Deeside

Columnist Peter Franklin on the use of the word Fascist:

"If someone calls you a fascist these days, and you’re not in fact of the goose-stepping persuasion, then the likelihood is that your accuser is a rightwing polemicist. For instance, should you have the temerity to deplore the rise in, say, obesity or excessive alcohol consumption, then it’s not because you’re concerned about the well-being of your fellow citizens, it’s because you’re a ‘health fascist’."

Platform: Amber Rudd reviews this year's Conservative Women's conference

Livingstone attacks Tories and Daily Mail for wanting Blair's head

"Clearly, the policy pursued by the Tories of reducing police numbers created the conditions for rising crime in London, and my drive to increase police numbers gave commissioners of the Metropolitan police the resources they required to begin to achieve ongoing cuts in crime." - Ken Livingstone in the Guardian

Latest immigration fiasco is worthy of a resignation

"Jacqui Smith, home secretary, came out fighting on Tuesday in the face of a new immigration scandal. Ms Smith claimed she was not guilty of any “blunder or failure” as the Conservatives accused her of covering up the news that illegal immigrants had access to sensitive Whitehall security jobs. Forced to appear before MPs, Ms Smith sought to avoid the fate of other home office ministers in recent years, hounded out of their jobs over their failure to get a grip on the issues raised by migration into Britain." - FT

Yesterday in Parliament: Davis accuses Smith of putting politics before public safety

"Miss Smith, with a display of chutzpah that Sir Ian Blair would envy, chooses not to quit, while Mr Brown chooses not to sack her. In public life today, the buck stops anywhere but with the person at the top; the honourable resignation has become as rare as hen's teeth. And our political masters wonder why voters are cynical." - Telegraph leader

"In a rare, rare moment we have caught a glimpse of what really goes on in the Home Office. We have discovered that they gave government security clearance to illegal immigrants, let them guard the Prime Minister and then covered up the story. Imagine the lesson learnt by politicians and the Civil Service if even a scandal like this, upon reaching the newspapers, turns out to have little or no consequence." - Daniel Finkelstein in the Times

Council tax plans criticised for not begin localist enough

"That a Tory opposition leader cannot trust his party, which is both dominant in local government and good at it, to account to its voters for an uncapped rate (or a business rate) is pathetic. A referendum with every excess rate demand is better than nothing, but is designed merely to enforce the cap." - Simon Jenkins in the Guardian

"Sounds very democratic? Not really. Central government, that is the Treasury, would still set the limits of what councils can raise in taxes, and therefore what they can spend. Local discretion would remain severely constrained. In practice under capping, most councils tax and spend up to the permitted limit." - Peter Riddell in the Times

"David Cameron’ plan to give residents powers to reject council tax rises in a referendum was yesterday denounced as an attack on democracy by Plaid Cymru." - Western Mail

No longer surprised

"The shocking thing is that we're no longer shocked. Yesterday, for the thirteenth consecutive year, the European Court of Auditors refused to approve the EU budget. If this happened to a government department, it would be front page news. If it happened to a private corporation, directors would be facing prison terms. But, because it's Brussels, we flex our shoulders in a shrug so disdainful as to be almost Gallic. Yup, the EU is corrupt. Et alors?" - Daniel Hannan MEP in the Telegraph

Tories/Labour don't make economic sense

"The Opposition has retreated from the "patients' passports" and tuition vouchers that would have empowered consumers and forced the sullen and incompetent among public service providers into retirement. Like Labour, the Tories shrink from applying the lessons taught by the sage of Kirkcaldy - the earlier one. Economic considerations alone should never dictate policy. But policy made in ignorance of its economic consequences becomes the pudding without a theme that is now on offer by both parties." - Irwin Stelzer in the Telegraph

Ashcroft story goes up a level

"The cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, is to face questions from MPs about assurances given by Lord Ashcroft, the multi-millionaire Tory donor, that he would return to Britain and pay UK income tax." - Guardian

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Tuesday 13th November 2007

4.45pm Parliament:

• Davis accuses Jacqui Smith of putting politics before public safety
• Hague responds to the Queen's speech
• Fox worries about the Balkans
• Hands examines the flaws of the EU Treaty

4.30pm Local Government: Cllr Robin Millar looks at what the council tax proposals reveal about the Conservatives' view of local government

4pm ToryDiary: CSJ launches new policy groups

1.15pm ToryDiary: The Government of no talent, in limericks

12.30pm LondonMayor: LibDems select Brian Paddick as their candidate

11.15am BritainAndAmerica: Gordon Brown delivers his first major foreign policy speech

Seats and Candidates: What do the new generation of Conservative MPs believe?

ToryDiary: Tories to require high-taxing local authorities to hold referenda

Columnist Andrew Lilico: The reform of state marriage

Harry Benson on the Platform explains what he sees as the fundamental flaws in sex ed:

"Because we have given in to the assumption that sex is inevitable, we are then teaching children how to say yes. But if we want to reduce incidences of sex and its consequences, we should be more interested in teaching children and young adults how to say no and why that is most often a sensible idea."

PlayPolitical: Spanish King tells Chavez to shut up

Another Home Office cover-up?

"Jacqui Smith was accused last night of trying to cover up yet another Home Office blunder. Leaked documents revealed that the Home Secretary was warned four months ago that thousands of illegal immigrants had been cleared to work in sensitive Whitehall security jobs. But she accepted advice from her officials for a news blackout on the affair, secret memos have confirmed." - Mail

David Cameron has this morning called for her to answer to Parliament

Left-leaning papers not impressed with statement on rape convictions

"The more serious a conviction may prove to a young man, the less a jury may want to convict on what is often disputed evidence between two witnesses who know each other very well. The same reluctance was evident when murder was still a hanging offence before 1965." – Michael White in the Guardian

"Cameron has done a typical Tory thing: invoke the disaster of rape for a moralistic, collapse-of-civilisation-as-we know-it populist agenda that has nothing to do with contemporary culture or policing." – Beatrix Campbell in the Guardian

"Yet, in May, Mr Cameron let his legal spokesman, shadow attorney-general Dominic Grieve, apathetically claim there was "no magic wand" and that low conviction rates were inevitable. And the Tory chief himself voted against laws to extend the use of DNA to catch rapists." – Mirror

C4 FactCheck: "Lowest conviction rate out of Europe's leading countries" statistic is 70% mendacious

Uncertainty about post-ratification referendum

"The Conservative party's uneasy truce on Europe was at breaking point last Monday night after William Hague, shadow foreign secretary, said a Tory government would not accept a new EU reform treaty that had not been put to a referendum. Mr Hague's comments renewed hopes among Tory hardliners that the treaty – a rehashed version of the constitutional treaty – could provide an excuse for Britain to renegotiate its membership of the EU." – FT

Yesterday's ToryDiary: Has Hague just said something significant about the EU Treaty?

Simon Hoggart impressed with CWO conference

"In recent years the Conservative Women's Organisation has attracted a sparse crowd. Yesterday they were up to 700. The average age has plummeted faster than a drunken bungee jumper; about a quarter were under 60. And several appeared to be men. On closer examination, many were men." - Guardian sketch

The cost of "listening" to the people

"Ministers spent £2.9m ($5.9m) on "listening" events this autumn, including £1.3m on a one-day public consultation on nuclear power, according to analysis by the Financial Times. The price tag for the nuclear consultation – nine "citizen deliberative events" held on September 8 – will fuel controversy over the exercise and raise questions about Gordon Brown's "new type of politics"."

"Now it has emerged that [Brown's crony Deborah Mattinson's] OLR, which runs focus groups, forums and polls for clients, won more than 90 per cent of the contracts to set up Mr Brown's "ask the people" juries. These have earned the company £1,393,681 of taxpayers' cash - an average of almost £10,000 a day since Mr Brown came to power in June." - Mail

Shock: Guardian editorial now welcomes Aitken appointment

"After years of public contrition, Mr Aitken deserves the benefit of the doubt on the question of whether he has changed. What is more doubtful, however, is whether the Conservatives as a whole have reformed in relation to crime." - Guardian

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Monday 12th November 2007

11pm ToryDiary: Tories to require high taxing local authorities to hold referenda

9.30pm Seats and Candidates: Ross Thompson selected for Gordon

5.45pm ToryDiary: Has Hague just said something significant about the EU Treaty?

4pm Seats and candidates: Some Halesowen and Rowley Regis Tories want to keep Nigel Hastilow

3.15pm Cllr Adam Tugwell explains on the Local Government page how the Government's bureaucratic approach to crime affects things at a local level:

"And so, to the first Agenda item. Yes you’ve guessed it, more assessments, a requirement to develop a new statutory ‘Plan’ for tackling local crime, with an absurd deadline and which will have to be completed by consultants as there is not the manpower within the local CSP to do it."

2.45pm ToryDiary: Zac Goldsmith attacks Government for pandering to the whims of the aviation industry

1.30pm BritainAndAmerica: Bush hasn't yet won anything bankable from his new friends in Europe

The image above has just appeared on Sky News. No indication yet of the cause although Scotland Yard is saying that incident is simply being treated as a fire.

1pm BBC report.

10.30am PlayPolitical:

• From the US: Senator Barack Obama inspires Democrats and The New York Times profiles Mike 'Nice Guy' Huckabee
• From Australia: The Australian mum is back with a second kitchen table rebuke for John Howard and in a video that will remind Britons of Winter of Discontent broadcasts by the Conservatives, New Liberal ad warns voters of union domination of Australia's economy

ToryDiary: Tories to review rape laws

Douglas Carswell MP on YourPlatform: Parliament isn’t working

Columnist Stephan Shakespeare: Get going now, Boris

Iain Duncan Smith warns of 'lost generation'

"Britain is in danger of creating a "lost generation" of wayward teenagers responsible for soaring levels of gun crime and drug and alcohol abuse, a Tory-backed group claims today. In a stark warning about the extent of the "broken society", it says a toxic combination of family breakdown and school failure is creating a violent and anti-social youth culture." - Telegraph

Telegraph leader: "Janet Daley writes opposite about the new ideological divide between the parties.  It is no longer socialism v capitalism, or nationalisation v privatisation or even higher v lower taxes.  It is to do, rather, with empowering citizens. Gordon Brown's approach to welfare is typical of his centralism: he believes, despite 50 years of evidence, that poverty can be eliminated by state agencies.  The Tories, who for too long left this agenda wholly to the other side, are now coming round to a convincing alternative critique.  The best way to insure against poverty is to anticipate the conditions that cause it. People should make the decisions likeliest to inoculate them from poverty, such as getting qualifications and getting married."

Jonathan Aitken's prison reform enquiry

"Duncan Smith, the Tories' chief turnip, believes that Aitken's expertise on penal matters counts for more than his past peccadilloes. Jonathan himself seems to have made the same sort of deal with the Almighty as did Tony Blair, whereby as long as Himself Up There tells him something is all right, it does not matter what mere mortals think. Here, indeed, is a flexible friend for fallen sinners. Whether it works for the Conservative party seems another story, however." - Max Hastings in The Guardian

>> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Time to give Aitken a second chance

Another day, another Ashcroft story in The Guardian

"Lord Ashcroft, the multimillionaire Conservative donor, showed his generosity to colleagues as well as candidates by treating David Cameron to a trip to the Rugby World Cup in Paris, it has emerged... Shadow home secretary David Davis and chief whip Patrick McLoughlin also benefited, while international development spokesman Andrew Mitchell and his wife flew both ways with Ashcroft. The details of the hospitality are revealed in the latest entries in the Register of Members' Interests." - Guardian

"Adolescent" Brown

"Gordon Brown had to be treated like an "adolescent son" by Tony Blair, an incendiary documentary reveals.  The then Chancellor was surly, uncooperative and "glared and growled" at Mr Blair during discussions about radical welfare reforms, it claims." - Daily Mail

"Tony Blair has claimed that he could have stayed on in Downing Street in a new documentary which reveals the tensions between the former prime minister and Gordon Brown. But he said he was not "bothered" about claims that allies of Mr Brown plotted against him. The three-part BBC series, The Blair Years, is likely to reopen debate about Mr Blair's record and his relations with his chancellor." - Independent

"Beware the Tories' Wisconsin welfare plan" writes Johann Hari in The Independent

Ted Hughes: An ideal Laureate for Thatcherism writes A N Wilson in The Telegraph

Bruce Anderson reflects on the Mark Malloch Brown affair and what it means for Brown's "big tent"

"It seems likely that Lord Malloch Brown will not last long as a minister. The restraints on expressing his opinions are bound to irritate a man who cannot be accused of excessive patience. But apart from its amusement value, the whole affair is instructive. It tells us what we should always have known: that despite some fleeting illusions to the contrary, Mr Brown cannot run a government of strong personalities, only a government of ciphers." - The Independent

The Spectator's original story on Malloch Brown

UK terror detention limit is longest of any democracy - Guardian

Peers help themselves to £300 a day tax-free - Times

Labour plans to make London a centre of Islamic finance

"The government will step up preparations this week for the launch of sharia-compliant bonds, known as sukuk, as it seeks to turn London into the world centre of Islamic finance.' - FT

Downunder: John Howard's keynote election speech | The Australian summarises | Andrew Bolt reacts

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...

Remembrance Sunday 2007

2pm ToryDiary: Time to give Aitken a second chance

Help the British Legion / Join the National Defence Association

ToryDiary: Immigration poll boost for Conservatives

Seats and Candidates: Stuart Penketh selected for Ellesmere Port & Neston

Local Government: Cllr Tony Sharp on campaigning all year around

The TaxPayers'Alliance's Corin Taylor reveals this year's Public Sector Fat Cat list on the Platform, and explains why it is compiled

"As always, the government promises to get tough on public sector waste. It should start by looking at those sitting round the tables in its own boardrooms, how much they are getting paid and what value they deliver."- Sunday Times leader

Lest we forget, they make that sacrifice today

"On a day like today, let's not forget the incredible bravery, dedication and professionalism of our soldiers serving in Helmand province and in Iraq. And at the same time as remembering them, we should ask: are we keeping the Military Covenant — the "unbreakable common bond of identity, loyalty and responsibility" which exists between the nation and its fighting men and women? I don't think we are." - David Cameron in the Sunday Telegraph

"An alliance of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and senior clergy rounded on Gordon Brown last night for failing to properly support British troops. On the eve of Remembrance Sunday, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leadership frontrunner, accused Mr Brown of breaking the Military Covenant between the nation and soldiers." - Sunday Telegraph

Britain's still worth fighting for

"In the 21st century we enjoy liberty, toleration, economic prosperity and a degree of opportunity unimaginable to those who went to the trenches in the first half of the 20th century. We inevitably tend to take for granted, to the point of hardly even noticing, the enormous benefits of the rule of law, an independent judiciary, of a media free from bullying or threats from the state, and of democratically elected and accountable government. In global terms, those all remain distinctly minority privileges: most states do not provide them, and most of the world's population does not enjoy them." - Sunday Telegraph leader

Aitken to head up prison policy group

"Jonathan Aitken, the former Tory cabinet minister who went to jail for perjury, has been rehabilitated into the political front line by David Cameron. The Tory leader has appointed Aitken to lead a study into prison reform, it emerged this weekend. Cameron is supporting Aitken to head a policy task force for the Centre for Social Justice, the think tank which advises the Tory leader on social issues." - Sunday Times

Anger - Brown's Achilles' Heel

"The strength of his position in the weeks after he entered Number 10 was that he seemed, at last, to have been released from his consuming jealousy and resentment of Mr Blair. But the liberation did not last long. He now appears no less offended and aggrieved by the Tory leader. It is as if, for Gordon, Mr Cameron has filled the Blair-shaped hole. When he cancelled the election, the PM claimed he needed time to set out his "vision" to the people. But no vision is worth much if it is fogged over by red mist." - Matthew D'Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph

Cameron lacks vision, too

"David Cameron is a prettier rhetorician than Gordon Brown, but the Tory leader is also struggling to convey a full definition vision of how a Conservative Britain would be different and better. His trope about 'social responsibility' has not struck a chord with most of the media or the public." - Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer

Conservative Co-operative Movement

"My in-box has been stuffed with e-mails from people of all political persuasions expressing interest in the project. I have had to explain that a movement is not what we are but what we aspire to become. Not only that, but co-ops are in many respects – hold on to your hat – a rather conservative, yes capitalist, idea. And they pinpoint what has gone wrong with Labour." - Jesse Norman in the Sunday Times

Rehman Chisti plotting Bhutto's revolution

"A controversial race adviser to David Cameron is playing a leading role in Benazir Bhutto's campaign against emergency rule in Pakistan under General Pervez Musharraf. Conservative Parliamentary candidate Rehman Chishti, 28, a close ally and former aide to Mrs Bhutto, has called for a 'revolution' in Pakistan. It flies in the face of the Tory Party's more cautious official policy of calling on General Musharraf to grant free and fair elections and release political detainees." - Evening Standard

On the Platform yesterday, Human Rights activist Ben Rogers said Bhutto may be the most progressive of the politicians but she is still synonymous with corruption and failed to stop the intelligence services funding extremists.

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...