Thursday 1st September 2005
7.30pm update: Desperate Central Office try to salvage Michael Howard's rollback of party democracy
6pm update: Editorial: An anti-Iraq war Ken Clarke is credible... but an anti-Iraq war Conservative Party is incredible
6pm update: David Cameron's speech - 'Where is the most civilised place on earth?' - conservatives.com
6pm update: Mark Steyn explains why he remains an optimist about Iraq - Spectator
Blogs
Leadership blog: Telegraph pours cold water on Ken Clarke's leadership ambitions
Conservative News & Commentary
Times suggests the following publicly declared backers for each of the candidates: David Davis (29); David Cameron (12); Ken Clarke (10); Liam Fox (8); Sir Malcolm Rifkind (5); and David Willetts (4).
Welsh Tory MPs David Jones and David Davies confirm their support for David Davis - icWales
David Cameron writing in The Times: (1) The revival of Britain's urban centres requires the election of mayors and visionary civic leaders and (2) We must make childcare easier and more affordable.
'Clarke launch' forces action from rivals - FT - David Cameron breaks from his holiday, Liam Fox to launch campaign in a fortnight and Malcolm Rifkind unveils campaign team
Ken Clarke writes for The Telegraph on 'the three key battles I can win to lead this country forward': "We must challenge the very basis of Gordon Brown's claim to holding the top job - his boast of sound economic management. It will be a central issue in the election. And we must start doing it now. We must re-assert our own reputation for economic competence and demolish Labour's. I believe that I am well equipped to lead this battle. I have a track record of economic success in government and credibility with the business and financial community which has been wooed so assiduously by Labour. Under my leadership we must recapture the central economic battleground."
Telegraph leader asks four questions of Ken Clarke's leadership bid:
- What will Mr Clarke do to stop ever closer union in Europe?
- Why won't he support democratisation in the Middle East?
- What will he do about the centralisation of power within the British public sector?
- Why doesn't he support rank-and-file party members having a say in the Tory leadership race?
Times leader says that Ken Clarke, jazz enthusiast, is still offering the Conservative Party the wrong tune: "Mr Clarke’s backers contend that his recent admission that the euro had “failed” and the derailing of the EU constitution mean that his pro-Brussels instincts do not matter. Life is not that simple. It is conceivable that either British membership of the euro or a slightly different version of the constitution might become contentious issues once more in this Parliament. Even if they did not, other questions relating to the EU plainly could. If Europe remained dormant, the relationship between Britain and the US will surely be revived again and here too, as demonstrated by his hostility to the intervention in Iraq, Mr Clarke is a deeply divisive figure."
Kenneth Clarke will today gamble his Tory leadership bid on his opposition to Iraq - Guardian
Other Commentary
Peggy Noonan: Bloggers have performed a heroic role after Hurricane Katrina: "In February I wrote that bloggers will help get America through a national crisis. They just did. Nothing has the immediacy and believability of local reports by citizen journalists living through a local story. Terry Teachout performed a public service linking to Katrina blogs; Glenn Reynolds offered links to relief organizations. The Times Picayune's live-blogging has been solid. Local bloggers were great until they started losing electric power and couldn't send anymore. Mr. Teachout told me at the end they were blogging by BlackBerry. As power comes back the greatest blogging should begin--what it was like, what the recovery is like, what is happening on the streets. Thanks in advance." - Wall Street Journal
Froma Harrop: The phoney environmentalists of Nantucket Sound who oppose windfarms - RealClearPolitics.com
Austin Bay: This month's Afghan election will continue the democratic surge - TechCentralStation.com
Other News
Three days of mourning for Iraq's 965 stampeded dead - CNN
Andrew Lansley says spending on NHS red tape = hospitals overspending - Telegraph
Have I missed any important story?
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