Friday 7th April 2006

11pm ToryDiary update: Newsnight predicts Tory losses in local elections

4pm ToryDiary update: Britain's two finest political speakers delight Tories gathered in Manchester

3.15pm ToryDiary update: Francis Maude urges Tories to be more like David Cameron

Noon ToryDiary update: There is such a thing as society

BLOGS

ToryDiary:

• Good Morning Spring Forum-ers
• Built to Last referendum should be scrapped
• No change on the Party Board

More Events of interest.

Interviews: Ed Vaizey answers your questions... do you have any for David Frum?

YourPlatform: Adrian Owens - What’s needed are effective welfare to work policies

HESELTINE: SCRAP CITY CHIEF EXECS

Ananova: "Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine has suggested electing "superbosses" as part of a Tory bid to revive the party's flagging fortunes in Britain's big cities. He will tell the Conservative Spring Conference in Manchester the days of unaccountable £200,000-a-year chief executives should be over. And he will suggest instead combining their role with that of elected council leaders."

FRANCIS MAUDE'S INTERVIEWS

Guardian: "There has to be much more change to come. All we have done is talk about the change. People really like David Cameron - I mean they really like him. They think he has got brains, courage, they think he gives his party strong leadership, which they want. They think he's willing to take tough decisions, they think he has got flair and charisma: all the qualities, actually, that they want to see in a future prime minister, so that's fantastic. They are not yet convinced that the party has changed, they are not yet convinced that what they are seeing is more than just David Cameron, and it is that that we need to persuade them of."

Telegraph: "Mr Maude's comments were greeted with dismay last night by senior Tories who had hoped the party would go into this weekend's spring conference in Manchester on the front foot. However, in an interview with the London Evening Standard, Mr Maude instead stressed the challenges the party faced over the next four years."

Times leader: "This tone might be too subdued for some but it has the virtue of realism. The greatest danger for Mr Cameron is that of excessive expectations. It fosters the notion that the Tories have only to engage in symbolic change (if at all) and can otherwise rely on his youth with a dash of glamour, and an inevitable boredom with the Government, to assume office in 2009-10."

MANDELSON PRAISES OLD EU CONSTITUTION

BBC: Peter Mandelson - "I think the present constitutional treaty in the eyes of many does not provide a solution. It was a very good basis and in many respects it has ideas proposed that we should not lose sight of."

Conservative Party: "Since becoming a Commissioner in Brussels Peter Mandelson seems to have forgotten how democracy works. The kind of Europe he's arguing for - more powers for Brussels and fewer for the nation states - is exactly the kind of Europe that French and Dutch voters rejected only
last year."

CONSERVATIVE PRISON POLICY

Mary Ann Sieghart in The Times: "If there was one slogan that seemed to sum up the harshness of the last Conservative Government, it was surely “Prison works”. Michael Howard’s bald and simplistic statement was designed to warm Tory members’ hearts, to prove that his party was tough on crime and — by default — that Labour was soft. So what more iconic change could the new Conservatives now undergo than that their Home Office team should start proclaiming: “Prison doesn’t work”?"

OTHER NEWS

Guardian: John Harris takes an in-depth look at the state of current and former Labour party members.

South Devon: "Two Independent Teignbridge councillors have jumped ship to the Tories. The defections could alter the balance of power on the council, which is currently controlled by an Independent-Lib Dem coalition."

Independent: "Tony Blair has decided to resist demands by Gordon Brown's supporters for him to name a date for his departure from No 10."

Manchester Evening News on Spring Forum: "It is understood police chiefs have decided the cost of the low-key security operation, estimated to be "in the low five figures", will be massively outweighed by the benefits to the Manchester economy. But the situation is a marked contrast to the £4m security cost of the Labour conference in Manchester later this year, paid for by a Home Office grant."

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