Friday 30th June 2006

8pm ToryDiary update: Brian Walden wins standing ovation from Tory MPs

"Peter Hain has broken rank with the Cabinet to express doubts about building new nuclear power stations." - BBC

2.45pm ToryDiary update: Tory MPs hear that change must be faster, deeper and broader

1.45pm: FRANCIS MAUDE WRITES EXCLUSIVELY FOR CONSERVATIVEHOME ON BROMLEY

THE CENTRE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE HAS JUST POSTED A GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ITS AWARDS EVENING OF WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Lunchtime ToryDiary updates: David Cameron more popular than Blair or Brown and The Tories need a new campaigns director

11am update: Any questions for Janet Daley? 

BLOGS

ToryDiary: Dirty LibDems nearly win Bromley and Chislehurst

Philip Hollobone MP on YourPlatform: We must have the courage to break free of the EU

CAMERON MORE POPULAR THAN BROWN OR BLAIR

"David Cameron has cast off the jinx of unpopularity that has dogged Conservative leaders for more than a decade and is now the public's preferred choice of prime minister" - Telegraph

THE WAR ON TERROR

"The Tories last night called on the government to allow phone tap evidence to be used in court in the wake of the major blow to its anti-terrorism strategy on control orders." - The Herald

"The Supreme Court delivered a blow to the Bush administration's anti-terror policies Thursday when it ruled that the president was out of line when he ordered military war-crimes trials for some Guantanamo Bay detainees." - Fox News

EPP

"The debate about whether Conservative members of the European Parliament should withdraw from the European People’s Party, the main centre-right grouping, has been conducted almost entirely in partisan terms as if nothing else mattered. In fact, such a withdrawal is likely to undermine Britain’s wider interests by weakening the liberalising coalition at Strasbourg." - LibDem Chris Huhne MP in The Times

>>> Yesterday's ToryDiary: FT confirms David Cameron's plan to leave EPP next month and this from the Czech News Agency

THAT ROSS INTERVIEW

"Ross claimed his chat show did not set out to upset people.  He added: "I wouldn't want to do that, even though upsetting Norman Tebbit has given me some small sense of satisfaction because he's spent 12 years upsetting me. If Mr Cameron had felt awkward about that question and answer sequence we would have removed it."" - Mirror

"Describing Ross as "that overpaid freak of nature", [Bernard] Ingham blasts: "The interview reveals how far the BBC has sunk. It demonstrates the corruption of BBC 'entertainment' and confirms my conclusion that the policy of Britain's precious TV elite is to roll back the frontiers of taste at every opportunity. In Ross, they no doubt have a willing tool." - Telegraph Spy

OTHER NEWSLINKS

David Cameron sets out world poverty pledges - ePolitix.com

Tory MPs attend an away day today - Ben Brogan

Adam Rickitt is to be Prince Charming for Norwich Theatre Royal's Christmas panto - Guardian

Lord Rawlinson of Ewell - Independent and Guardian obituaries

Michael Howard and David Blunkett appear before the Home Office Select Committee - Times

Peter Hain may be the next senior Labourite to attack Blair - Fraser Nelson in The Spectator

"When Dick Cheney ran for vice-president in 2004, his daughter Mary was both an asset and a liability. How, friends and enemies wanted to know, could a lesbian campaign on behalf of an administration that hated the idea of gay marriage? In an extract from her new book, Mary Cheney writes about her attitude to Bush, her parents' reaction to her sexuality, and her outrage when the Democrats tried to exploit it." - Guardian

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Thursday 29th June 2006

7.45pm ToryDiary update: FT confirms David Cameron's plan to leave EPP next month

Question Time tonight: Mike O'Brien MP, Julie Kirkbride MP, Nicol Stephen MSP, Alex Salmond MP and Melanie Phillips.

2pm ToryDiary update: What will happen in Bromley?

Download pdf of David_Cameron's_global_poverty_speech at Oxfam's HQ

Noon update on the candidates blog: Jack LoPresti and other news

BLOGS

ToryDiary: Benchmarking "Project Cameron"

- Headline opinion polls
- The iron triangle

Platform: Building a bold human rights policy by Sajid Javid

Books: Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple (reviewed by Oberon Houston)

Community: Sally Roberts

BY-ELECTION DAY

"Labour must not only recapture the Welsh seat from independent former Labour stalwarts, but avoid being pushed into fourth place by Ukip in the leafy commuter belt constituency." - Guardian

"The Liberal Democrats have been fighting hard in Bromley and Chislehurst in the hope that they pull off a victory" - Independent

POLITICAL FUNDING

"Politicians spend too much time behind the one-way mirrors of focus groups rather than engaging in constructive face-to-face argument with voters; only by reducing their reliance on large donors will parties prosper again (..) if Labour is still planning to ask voters to fund its election campaigns, all Mr Straw’s talk of rebuilding trust and confidence in the political system will be for nought." - Times leader

Nick Robinson examines the case for party funding - BBC

TERROR LAWS

"Conservative Euro-MP Syed Kamall said proposals which would remove the right of national veto over joint European action against organised crime and terrorism were a step too far." - Daily Mail

"A high court judge last night demolished a central plank of the government's anti-terror policy when he quashed "control orders" on six suspected terrorists, saying the home secretary "had no power to make them under human rights law"." - Guardian

The Independent comprehensively catelogues Blair's "attack on civil liberties".

MOTHERHOOD

"Most working mothers are in jobs, not careers. Only about 12 per cent of working women are in professional or managerial roles, and two thirds of them work full-time. The majority of non-professional mothers work part-time. They clearly regard family life as more important. Yet they feel they are failing at it." - Camilla Cavendish in The Times

PMQs

"Tony Blair yesterday attempted to press home attacks on David Cameron's proposals for reforming human rights legislation" - Guardian

"Mr Blair was unable to hide his fury as he was likened at Prime Minister's Questions to the sad, self-obsessed and dysfunctional anti-hero of the BBC television series The Office." - The Telegraph

>>> ToryDiary review of PMQs

BORIS ON BLAIR

"There are about a thousand reasons why this human limpet will remain barnacled to the furniture of Number 10 for as long as he possibly can, and I have space for only a few of them here." Boris Johnson in The Telegraph

OTHER NEWS

"Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is costing taxpayers £2m a year, the Conservatives have claimed." - BBC

"David Cameron will today set out his party's views on tackling global poverty in a speech to Oxfam." - ePolitix

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Wednesday 28th June 2006

7:30pm ToryDiary update: Murdoch: Blair should resign

6pm ToryDiary update: Yes, the LibDems may be dirty campaigners, but...

3:30pm update in Events: Launch of the New Culture Forum with Melanie Phillips

2:10pm ToryDiary update: Academics warm to the Conservatives

12:45pm ToryDiary update: Blair dodges the big Trident question in PMQs

11.30am update: How much does it cost to be a candidate?

BLOGS

ToryDiary: Ann Widdecombe worries that media ridicule is damaging politics

Daniel Hannan MEP and Tim Kevan on YourPlatform: Localism in the NHS - reducing the democratic deficit

Seats and candidates blog: Chris Heaton-Harris MEP selected for Daventry

WHEN WILL BLAIR GO?

"Tony Blair is ready to announce that he will step down next year, probably around his 10th anniversary in Downing Street in May." - Telegraph

Have you entered ConservativeHome's £500 WhenWillBlairGo.com competition?

"Many Labour supporters now criticise, rather than celebrate, central parts of Mr Blair’s record.  Mr Blair admits that the response to his programme is ambivalent. “If you ask Labour Party activists are they proud of the minimum wage, they will say yes,” he says. “But if you ask are they proud of being able to choose where they get treated, the answer is less certain. We have got a serious problem with activists over new Labour. They need to like not just the Labour part but also the new part.” - Peter Riddell in The Times

KEN CLARKE'S ATTACK ON DAVID CAMERON'S BILL OF RIGHTS PROPOSAL

"A spokesman for Mr Cameron said last night: "Ken is Ken. He has a very colourful way of expressing himself. We totally reject the comments he made.  It's ludicrous to suggest that a Bill of Rights is somehow anti-foreigner or xenophobic. This issue is outside the remit of Mr Clarke's task force which is why there is no need to consult him on it." - Independent

>>> Ken Clarke's "xenophobic" attack was discussed on ToryDiary yesterday.

BROMLEY AND CHISLEHURST

The Times suggests that a series of "own goals" have blighted the Tory campaign to keep the seat of the late Eric Forth:

"Mr Cameron made an early campaign visit, yet barely features in by-election literature produced by the local party in southeast London. The previous MP, Eric Forth, who died last month of cancer, was a vigorously independent rightwinger and the local party seems intent on continuing the tradition."

A low quality video of Simon Heffer's endorsement of Nigel Farage can be viewed on this UKIP site.

"Bookmakers William Hill have installed Labour's Owen Smith as 8/11 favourite to win the Blaenau-Gwent by-election this week, with Independent candidate, Dai Davies offered at Even money second favourite."

OTHER NEWSLINKS

"Peers are set to vote on who should be the first House of Lords speaker." - BBC (see link for list of contenders)

"Commons Leader Jack Straw will warn of the dangers of politics becoming a "spectator" sport, as he calls for limits on spending by all parties." - BBC

"The majority of mothers think families are "under threat" because the Government appears to favour single mothers and working parents above family life at home." - Telegraph

The Sun's Whip Diary reveals Ruby Wax to appear at IDS' CSJ event tonight (click to enlarge) >>>

"Lads magazines are little more than pornography and should be legally confined to the top shelf, an MP said today.  Labour MP Claire Curtis-Thomas called for official curbs on smutty titles such as Nuts, Zoo, FHM, Maxim and Front." - Daily Mail

AND FINALLY... FOR FRASIER FANS

"The scrappy dog known as Eddie on TV's "Frasier" has died.  The 16-year-old Jack Russell terrier, whose real name was Moose, passed away of old age Thursday at the Los Angeles home of trainer Mathilde Halberg, Halberg told People magazine." - CNN

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Tuesday 27th June 2006

9.15pm ToryDiary update: Great news comrades! Tractor production is up 6.7%

6.30pm ToryDiary update: Questions for the next CH Members' Panel survey

2.30pm ToryDiary update: The 100 People Who Are Trying To Put Britain Back Together Again

Lunchtime ToryDiary updates: Ken Clarke attacks Cameron's "xenophobic" human rights plan and Partial victory for IDS' WWI campaign

BLOGS

ToryDiary: WhenWillBlairGo.com? and Questions for them, Questions for us

Platform: Stephen McPartland - The case for urban campaigning

BILL OF RIGHTS PROPOSAL

"It plays to the tabloids by pledging to repeal the Human Rights Act while pleasing Guardian readers who support a bill of rights. It appeals to Eurosceptics and Europhiles by promoting a "British solution" for "our own people", while committing to the rights convention. And it can unite both the authoritarian and libertarian wings of the Tory party by promising security and freedom." - Francesca King in The Guardian

"Kenneth Clarke, the task force chairman, knew nothing of the proposal until he heard about it on the BBC. He was not impressed. "Xenophobic and legal nonsense," he fumed when I rang him about it yesterday. So much for the Conservative Party's open and democratic policy-making process." - Rachel Sylvester in today's Telegraph.  This confirms last week's ToryDiary entry about the failure of David Cameron's kitchen cabinet to communicate with others.

"More than 30 years after Lord Hailsham denounced the "elective dictatorship" of Labour governments, a Conservative leader has now backed a move that directly challenges Britain's tradition of parliamentary supremacy." - Guardian leader

"David Cameron's plans for a British Bill of Rights came under attack yesterday from leading legal figures, including his own tutor at Oxford." - The Times

Tim Dowling of The Guardian suggests some rights to be included in the Bill.

David Cameron's speech to the Centre for Policy Studies.

CHARLES CLARKE'S CRITICISM

"Tony Blair's ability to carry on as Prime Minister for at least another year was called into question last night by Charles Clarke." - Telegraph

"This is not a call to arms akin to Sir Geoffrey Howe’s criticism of Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, Mr Clarke wants Mr Blair to go on, if not on and on." - Times leader

CANNABIS SHOULD BE CLASS B

"David Cameron is on record as supporting the declassification of cannabis when he served on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, and has not rescinded this view since becoming leader. In short, politicians are afraid to condemn drugs use and seek firm action against users and pushers because they fear it may prevent them from looking "modern"." - Telegraph leader

STOP THIS SCOTLAND VS ENGLAND NONSENSE

"Together, England and Scotland, with a bit of help from the Welsh and Irish, painted two-thirds of the globe pink. But now apparently serious politicians and normally cerebral newspaper columnists are questioning the future of this hugely triumphant partnership." - Alan Cochrane

TONY WRITES...

"On welfare reform we need to go further with the principle of new entitlements matched by higher expectations.Our foreign policy must be interventionist, internationalist, multilateralist - and above all driven by our values." - Tony Blair in The Guardian

DEVOLVING QUANGO POWER TO LOCAL COUNCILS

"Scotland's local economic development companies should be scrapped and "the bulk" of Scottish Enterprise's functions handed to councils, the Scottish Conservatives said yesterday." - Scotsman

DO TIME, WALK OUT, HIT BRICK WALL

"With a weary sigh I contemplate the Prime Minister’s proposal for a radical rebalancing of the criminal justice system: the latest blether in the interminable, cyclical churning out of too-familiar rhetoric." - Valerie Grove in The Times

OTHER NEWSLINKS

The Centre for Social Justice, which has its annual awards event tomorrow, has today launched a new website.

"Conservatives had an easy stroll to victory when they captured all three seats at a Swaffham by-election." - EDP24

"MSPs will be urged to back proposals which could see elections to the Scottish Parliament held on separate days from those to local councils. Tory David Davidson wants the change to avoid confusion among voters." - icScotland

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