Friday 31st March 2006

4.30pm: CCHQ announces the names of its lenders

HAVE YOU VOTED YET IN CONSERVATIVEHOME'S MONTHLY SURVEY OF CONSERVATIVE OPINION?

Mid-afternoon updates:

• ToryDiary: William Norton's lastest review of the movies
• Taxpayers' Alliance: "Following the strike by local government workers on Tuesday, the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) has called all its supporters and fellow taxpayers across the country to join a retaliatory one-day Council Tax strike on Saturday."
• Tim Montgomerie, Guardian: "Political parties need to break their addiction to suspect income sources and stop spending money so badly and negatively."
• Peter Franklin, Guardian: "The PM appears to be siding with some of the Kyoto protocol's bitterest enemies."

Noon ToryDiary update: Discouragement for Brown and Cameron in latest YouGov survey 

BLOGS

NEW CONSERVATIVEHOME FEATURE - INTERVIEWS:

• Ann Widdecombe answers your questions
• Any questions for Peter Hitchens?

ToryDiary: Media, Electoral Commission and Scotland Yard finally force disclosure of Tory loans

Community: Annabel Herriott is now featured.

Platform: Neil Johnston on Northern Ireland - Time for a better beginning.

"OLD PEOPLE WOULD BE BETTER CARED FOR IN AFRICA"

Tom Utley in The Telegraph: "In our supposedly advanced society, we treat our old people in a quite extraordinarily neglectful way. This is not only wicked of us, but terribly short-sighted. All the figures show that more and more of us are going to live into extreme old age"

Telegraph leader: "Politicians, like the rest of the taxpayer-supported workforce, depend for their subsistence on the productivity of the private sector. We pay their wages: let them live like we do. MPs' pay and pensions should rise no faster than private pay and pensions. Then, one hopes, they would have more regard for those who featherbed their retirement."

TaxPayer's Alliance blog: "The politicians are showing exactly how you go about securing your retirement. You need real money in a real bank. The very last thing you should do is rely on funny money promises made by...er, politicians."

TORY LOAN DISCLOSURE

Guardian: "The Tory leader, David Cameron, has been been forced to release the information as the Electoral Commission, the independent watchdog, demands that the party hand over all contract details of the loans or face court action. The Tories had refused to release the list, claiming that lenders had been promised complete confidentiality. However, it is understood that for the past fortnight the party has privately been seeking to persuade them to be named publicly."

West Midlands and Staffordshire: "Property tycoon Roy Richardson confirmed today that he and his twin brother Don had loaned the Conservative party £1 million in the past."

---> Discuss in today's ToryDiary

DAVIS CRITICISES ASBO FIGURES

Telegraph: "The Government faced criticism from the Tories who said the total had fallen short of the predicted target and four in 10 orders were breached. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "Asbos could be a useful weapon in the war on crime and yob behaviour but only if they are properly enforced."

BROWN ON EU COMPETITIVENESS

Times: "The Chancellor told the Commons Treasury Select Committee that the recent leap in the cost of gas was “the most obvious example” of the impact of this restrictive behaviour within the EU, and that it was probably boosting Britain’s gas costs by £10 billion."

OTHER NEWS & COMMENTARY

BBCi: Condoleeza Rice lands in Liverpool.

Times leader: "Forty per cent of Patricia Hewitt’s latest budget increase went on NHS pay. The most conspicuous beneficiaries were consultants, whose minimum pay under the new contract rose from £42,000 to £71,000 per year."

Conservative Party: Cameron's speech to Councillors: "Councils are the most obvious mechanism through which power can be devolved down to people on the ground. Local decisions should be made locally - not in Whitehall. That's why local government is important."

Times Thunderer: "If members of the Lords were elected, they would be drawn from exactly the same shallow pool of political obsessives and ambitious attention-seekers who already sit in the Commons."

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Thursday 30th March 2006

2.30pm ToryDiary update: Spectator interview with Liam Fox

THE CONSERVATIVEHOME MEMBERS' PANEL - MARCH SURVEY

The March survey is now live.  Alongside the regular monthly questions we ask your opinion on manifesto ideas.  Please take the survey now and email other Conservatives - encouraging them to have their say.

BLOGS

ToryDiary: DAVID DAVIS VOWS TO MAKE ID CARDS A GENERAL ELECTION ISSUE

Social Affairs Unit blog: Trust is the defining issue of politics today, argues Watlington. To win the next election David Cameron must prove to the British public that he can be trusted. He has not yet done so.

Ellee Seymour: Boris blogs for free but David Miliband's blog costs £6,000

TORY LOANS

Guardian: "The Conservative party will be forced to disclose details of all its loan contracts to the Electoral Commission, the independent watchdog, to prove that it has no "under the counter" deals with donors, it emerged last night.  The commission is planning to use its powers for the first time under election law to make the party hand over the information."

BBCi: "The Guardian highlights difficulties facing the Conservatives over the loans they received from wealthy backers.  The paper says if the Tories fail to supply all the details requested by the Electoral Commission, the watchdog intends to take them to court.  The Daily Mail, meanwhile, concentrates on Labour's problems.  It says that Scotland Yard is believed to be ready to question Tony Blair's chief fund raiser, Lord Levy, and even the prime minister himself."

THE BATTLE OF THE STAND-INS (OR WAS IT THE STAND-UPS?)

Brendan Carlin, in The Telegraph, reveals the long preparations that allowed John Prescott to 'out-quip' William Hague at PMQs yesterday:

"The Deputy Prime Minister may have out-quipped and out-thought Mr Hague for the first time in the Commons yesterday but it took a superhuman effort to do it.  Five days of homework, a team of up to 14 aides and advice from Mr Blair, Gordon Brown and two other Cabinet ministers were all part of his preparation."

Have your say on the ToryDiary about yesterday's clash of the Deputy Leaders.

CAMERON LOSES AN ADMIRER OVER BUDGET RESPONSE

Mary Ann Sieghart, The Times: "A friend of mine — typical floating voter, well-educated professional woman, just the type the Tories need to win back — was watching the Budget live on television last week. As that nice David Cameron got up and launched into a snarling, attack-dog speech full of personal insults to the Chancellor, she thought to herself: “I think I’ve gone off him already.”  I had a similar reaction. Here was the leader who had promised an end to Punch and Judy politics. Here was the man who was determined to rid the Conservatives of their “nasty party” image. Yet he was attacking not the Budget but Gordon Brown himself, in a peculiarly aggressive way."

CLIMATE CHANGE

New Statesman: "The dinosaurs have woken. After an easy start, David Cameron is facing a challenge from the Tory old guard in one of his most prized policy areas: the environment. While enlightened Tories such as Tim Yeo call for cross-party action, the Conservative Party's inherent distrust of science and environmentalism has surfaced in an extraordinary article by Nigel Lawson in the Spectator. In an argument riddled with dodgy science, the former chancellor attempted to make the economic case against the Kyoto accords and against doing anything about greenhouse gases. In doing so, he lined up with his former cabinet colleague, the one-time Enron director John Wakeham..."

The Times: "Tony Blair was accused last night of caving in to American pressure by proposing a watered-down replacement for the Kyoto Protocol that relies on new technology rather than binding greenhouse gas cuts as the solution to climate change."

VINCE CABLE IS MING'S DEPUTY EMPEROR

Guardian: "Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable has been elected the party's deputy leader... A former chief economist at oil giant Shell, Dr Cable, 62, is seen as a leader of the right-leaning Orange Book group of MPs who wish to see the Lib Dems shed their tax-and-spend image."

OTHER NEWS

Peter Riddell in The Times: "Do not expect an early agreement on Lords reform. Lord Falconer of Thoroton’s attempt to end the stalemate seems as doomed to failure as the many previous searches for a consensus since 1910.  There is an inherent conflict between defending the supremacy of the Commons and making the composition of the Lords more “legitimate”, less aristocratic and more democratic."

The Sun: "The Queen and Prince Philip made a private trip by cab to the theatre — to see a play that gives Margaret Thatcher’s government a bashing. Rather than arrive in a limo, they turned up in the Duke’s own taxi to see musical Billy Elliot, set during the miners’ strike."

BBCi: "Elderly people must be guaranteed a minimum level of state-funded social care, the government has been told.  The current system of means-testing for care needs like washing, dressing and cleaning must be scrapped, the Wanless review of social care has said."

Gay.com: "The international charity Christian Aid has infuriated Christian conservatives by dissociating itself from the ‘ABC’ (Abstinence, Be faithful, use Condoms) approach to HIV prevention that is promulgated widely around the world and particularly in Africa."

The UK Press Gazette interviews Matthew d'Ancona.

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Wednesday 29th March 2006

7pm ToryDiary update: Are Cameron's Conservatives now opposed to privatisation?

12.30pm updates:

Platform: Robert H Halfon reflects on Israel's elections

ToryDiary: PMQs - Prescott Vs Hague

BLOGS

Throughout the day ToryDiary will be posting answers to questions on party organisation and democracy - as answered by candidates to the Conservative Party Board Board.

ToryDiary: "Anyone who has been involved in the selling of peerages should be shaking in their shoes."

ToryRadio interviews IDS.

ISRAEL'S ELECTIONS

• BBCi: Ehud Olmert's Kadima wins the biggest share of votes in Israel's election, and the acting PM details his plans.
• CNN: Likud suffers 'body blow'
• New York Times: "Kadima's leader, Ehud Olmert, will become prime minister, but his support proved tepid and he will find it harder than expected to impose his agenda on a larger coalition."

Later today Robert Halfon of Conservative Friends of Israel will be writing about the election results for ConservativeHome.

'DESIGNING OUT CRIME'

Times: "Housing estates built under a Conservative government would have private gardens and nearby parking to encourage a sense of community and fight crime, David Cameron announced yesterday.  The Tory leader claimed that existing planning guidelines can make council estates six times more likely to be the target of antisocial behaviour and criminal gangs."

Conservatives.com: "David Cameron and Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, have highlighted how the design of housing estates can radically affect the local crime rate, and have proposed practical steps to be taken to reduce the opportunities for crime in new housing schemes..."

OTHER CONSERVATIVE NEWS & COMMENTARY

Independent: "David Cameron is facing an embarrassing "cash for policies" row after it emerged that three members of his party's economic policy group donated money to his Tory leadership campaign."

Scotsman: "Tory Mary Scanlon is to stand down from Holyrood to seek election first-past-the-post as an MSP.  Ms Scanlon, a list MSP for the Highlands and Islands, is to seek selection as the Tory candidate in the Moray by-election triggered by the death of the SNP's Margaret Ewing. The selection meeting will be held tonight in Elgin."

CLIMATE CHANGE

Conservatives.com: "Peter Ainsworth has condemned the Government's environmental policy as "half hearted, piecemeal, and timid" after ministers effectively abandoned their commitment to cut carbon emission by 20 per cent, and adopted a new climate change programme amounting to little more than a series of recycled announcements."

Times: "Tony Blair was accused last night of caving in to American pressure by proposing a watered-down replacement for the Kyoto Protocol that relies on new technology rather than binding greenhouse gas cuts as the solution to climate change."

BLAIRITES ATTACK BROWN...

Telegraph: "In a clear criticism of the way the Chancellor has relied on tax credits to reduce poverty, Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, told MPs that social mobility had decreased during Mr Brown's time at the Treasury."

Guardian: "Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers, two leading architects of New Labour, yesterday made a pitch for the post-Blair agenda, warning that the chancellor's policy of widening means testing in pensions and tax credits may go too far and make working less attractive, as well as leading to a reduction in social mobility and a deeper poverty trap."

...BUT CLINTON PRAISES BROWN

Independent: "Gordon Brown's ambition to be the next Prime Minister has been boosted by Bill Clinton, who praised his handling of the British economy after both men crossed a union picket line to attend a conference at the Guildhall in London."

UNIONS ON THE MARCH IN UK AND FRANCE

Telegraph: Strike protests in Paris and London

SCOTTISH REGIMENTS MARCH INTO HISTORY

Telegraph: "It was out with the old and in with the new yesterday as six Scottish infantry regiments were consigned to military history."

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Tuesday 28th March 2006

11.15pm ToryDiary update: Caspar Weinberger has died, aged 88

5.15pm ToryDiary update: Questions for Ed Vaizey MP

12.30pm ToryDiary update: Cornerstone's Robert Goodwill MP urges speedy exit from the EPP

11.30am update: Two articles on the Wall Street Journal editorial pages discuss green issues:

• Pete du Pont argues that technological advance - not the Kyoto approach favoured by Cameron's Conservatives - will address environmental problems.
• Al Gore and David Blood call for companies to start accounting for environmental costs.

BLOGS

ToryDiary: Lords reform.

On the Platform blog - as part of our Emerging Conservative Movement series - Alex Deane argues that 'We need Fox News'.

WASTE

On the Books blog, William Norton reviews The Bumper Book of Government Waste.

The Sun on current BBC and NHS waste:

"The casual ease with which publicly-funded monoliths squander our money is stomach churning.  Somehow the “cash-strapped” BBC, currently slashing 3,000 jobs and £400million from programme costs, has found £4million to buy modern art.  Nearly £900,000 is for a large cone at Broadcasting House which, thankfully, viewers will never see.  Make no mistake: This is YOUR money, raised through the compulsory licence fee, a tax on TV owners. How dare the BBC fritter it away.  At the NHS, where a cash crisis is laying off doctors and nurses and closing wards, workers get £150 a time for flower-arranging courses.  A reminder to the bosses of the NHS and BBC as they wallow around in public money: The NHS is there to treat the sick, the BBC to make programmes.  Forget anything else."

COUNCIL TAX

Telegraph: "Average council taxes have almost doubled in England since Labour took office in 1997, figures published yesterday showed."

Guardian: Conservative-controlled Medway council faces capping threat.

BLAIR'S PRE-RESIGNATION: PART 2,186 IN A CONTINUING SERIES

Independent: "Tony Blair is coming under pressure from MPs to make a clear public statement about when he will step down as Prime Minister.  Suspicions that Mr Blair could be changing his mind about quitting have grown among Gordon Brown's allies after he admitted in Australia that he may have made a mistake by announcing he would not fight a fourth election. They are insisting there is "no secret deal" between the two men."

Times: "David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said that Mr Blair was “creating a lot of uncertainty” at home while half way round the world in Australia.  “Every organisation needs a succession plan and the Government of Britain is no different. At the moment we have got a Prime Minister desperate to stay, a Chancellor desperate for him to go and a Cabinet who do not know whether to follow the leader today or wait for the leader tomorrow, and as a result we have got bad government,” Mr Cameron said."

FIRST THEY MISSED THEIR CHILD POVERTY TARGETS...
THEN GORDON BROWN USED CREATIVE ACCOUNTING TO MEET THE GOLDEN RULE...
...AND NOW LABOUR MISSES ITS CLIMATE CHANGE TARGET...

Guardian: "The government will admit today that it will fail to meet its much repeated manifesto commitment on cutting carbon dioxide emissions.  Labour had set a target of reducing CO2 levels by 20% by 2010, but Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, will say it is no longer possible. The totemic policy has been an important weapon in Tony Blair's claim to be a world leader willing to go further than others on climate change, and the admission is likely to provoke fury from environmentalists."

Also see ePolitix.com.

OTHER NEWS & COMMENTARY

Telegraph: "The Conservative Party will today seek to change the Government's controversial "one-way" extradition treaty with America which has been criticised for targeting British businessmen rather than terrorists."

Conservatives.com: How Tories will help first-time buyers.  On ePolitix.com the Nationwide Building Society and the Campaign to Protect Rural England respond to Labour and Tory housing plans.

Guardian: "Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, is to set out a new direction for British foreign policy today that will shift the balance towards the growing economies of China and India.  Mr Straw will be speaking at a "leadership conference" in London of 200 British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and other Foreign Office staff brought back from their posts worldwide."

Bloomberg's Matthew Lynn on Crunchy Conservatism.

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