Sunday 27th November 2005

BLOGS

Leadership blog: Sunday Telegraph endorses David Cameron and calls for George Osborne, Liam Fox and David Davis to be his key colleagues.

Commentators blog: Nicholas Kristof - reporting from a worsening situation in Darfur - asks: How Much Genocide Is Too Much?

CONSERVATIVE NEWS & COMMENTARY

The Observer: "The Tory leadership front-runner David Cameron vowed yesterday to block any return to Conservative Party politics by Lord Archer... 'David Cameron's view is that Lord Archer's days as an active politician are over,' a spokesman for Cameron said. 'Therefore, there is no question of his taking the Conservative Party whip in the House of Lords.'"

Gerald Warner, Scotland on Sunday: "With Davis, what you see is what you get. He is about as ambiguous in his intentions as Margaret Thatcher. University tuition fees? Hand him a waste-paper basket. Patient opt-outs from the NHS? Right on! Tax cuts? You betcha - £38bn, to be precise: not £37bn or £39bn. Love him or loathe him, this man can hardly be accused of Blairite evasion.  It is interesting that one of the main attack points by his opponents is to accuse Davis of making wildly precise (if that concept is not too Irish) fiscal commitments at least four years before he could ever be in a position to honour them. That is one charge that certainly could not be levelled at Cameron. His policy declarations are crafted in terms of generality... The bottom line is, both the party membership and the media have gone overboard for Cameron on grounds that have nothing to do with his policies and everything to do with his looks, deportment and image. Yet are not these the same people who ruefully deplore how badly they were taken in by Tony Blair in 1997? Now they are on the same lemming stampede again, as groupies for a one-man boy band."

New Mori poll gives Labour a 10% lead over Tories - Observer.

LIBERAL BRITAIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Shaun Bailey was born on the west London estates that have been linked to investigations into the murder of WPC Sharon Beshenivsky.  In today's Sunday Times he describes how pop culture and liberal politics have created a feral generation hooked on drugs, crime and violence: "The more liberal we’ve been, the more the poor have suffered.  Poor people don’t need all this liberalism. They need direction. Everybody talks about “my rights” — but there is some point when your behaviour needs to be balanced by your duty to your community.  The working class look to rules. The rules are important to them. Take away the rules and they are left in limbo. So they form their own: the kind that are driven by pop economics and lead to crime.  The liberal intelligentsia relax the rules for themselves, not for us.""

A leader in The Sunday Times welcomes Mr Bailey's intervention and calls on David Cameron to rethink his own relaxed view of drugs.

The Independent: "Teenagers are facing what medical experts warn is "a mental health time bomb" caused by the abuse of drugs and alcohol.  New figures show that the use of drink and drugs has become common among children as young as 13, with one expert saying alcohol, cocaine and marijuana are "as ubiquitous as traffic on the streets"."

NUCLEAR ENERGY

The Business: The case for going nuclear

Fraser Nelson, Scotland on Sunday: Blair needs to power on and go nuclear

OTHER NEWS & COMMENTARY

Wall Street Journal: James Q Wilson writes a speech President Bush should give about Iraq...

Britain breaks ranks with America on need for UN reform - Sunday Telegraph

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