Wednesday 30th November 2005

Afternoon update: MICHAEL HOWARD'S LAST PMQs

conservatives.com: "While the PM proclaimed that his eight years in office had produced record job levels, record investment in hospitals and schools, and record police numbers, Mr Howard put the record straight. Pointing out that Labour's real legacy was higher taxes, more crime, dirty hospitals, more means testing, increased truancy, higher borrowing, plus reduced levels of savings, productivity growth, competitiveness, manufacturing employment, and crime clear up rates - plus a blocked reform programme."

Also see: Sky News | Daily Mail

BLOGS

Leadership blog: John Jenkins reports from the Welsh Hustings and Yorkshire Post endorses David Cameron.

TONY BLAIR PREPARES TO COMPROMISE ON BRITAIN'S EU REBATE

The Telegraph: Tony Blair is preparing to dismantle Britain's annual rebate from the European Union budget - secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 - in a move that will cost the taxpayer billions of pounds.  He is ready to split it into parts that he can defend as "fair" - including Britain's rebate from the Common Agricultural Policy - and others that are less easy to justify, including spending on enlargement, Whitehall sources said.

TURNER'S PENSIONS REPORT

ePolitix.com: "Lord Turner will today publish his key report on the future of UK pensions.  The peer will present the findings of his government commissioned review following three years of consideration.  However his expected conclusions, including detailed recommendations rather than just a range of options, have already come under fire from the Treasury which has warned that they may not be affordable.  According to leaked extracts, the Turner commission will recommend the restoration of the link between state pensions and earnings, ending the means tested pensions credit - a move the chancellor has repeatedly rejected."

CONSERVATIVE NEWS & COMMENTARY

Telegraph: "David Cameron will keep George Osborne as his shadow chancellor and offer William Hague the post of foreign affairs spokesman if, as now seems virtually certain, he becomes Conservative leader next week."

Daniel Finkelstein in The Times: "A Black Skies party is itself viewed as dark, threatening, likely to bring about precisely the problems it warns against. The public slays the messenger that brings it bad tidings.  It doesn’t have to be like this. My mother likes to describe pessimists as those who can only see the holes in the Emmenthal. It’s time for the Tory party to wake up and see the cheese."

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