Friday 8th September 2006

SPECIAL CONSERVATIVEHOME REPORT

ConservativeHome today publishes a powerful report on the bloated and innefficient public sector that Gordon Brown has created.  The report - The Machinery of Government (And How To Reform It) - has been written by William Norton.

BLOGS

A new YouGov poll shows little voter enthusiasm for Gordon Brown.  The poll coincides with a strong attack on Mr Brown from former Home Secretary Charles Clarke.  Mr Clarke describes the Chancellor's recent behaviour as "absolutely disgraceful."  Join the ToryDiary debate...

YourPlatform: Crispian Cuss reflects on the recent Israel-Hezbollah crisis: 'Conservative foreign policy and a wasted opportunity'.

SEATS AND CANDIDATES

• Mohammed Abdel-Haq is a credit to the A-list
• As well as Mohammed, ConservativeHome names Paul Uppal as a second wave A-lister
• Andrew Stephenson has been selected for Pendle

IT WAS DAVE WOT DID BLAIR IN

Dominic Lawson in The Independent:

"Mr Cameron has form as an assassin of party leaders. His first victim was Charles Kennedy. Within a fortnight of being elected to the leadership of the Conservative Party, Cameron made a speech in which he declared, "I say to Liberal Democrats everywhere: join me in my mission to put Green politics at the top of the national and international agenda. We're on the same side now... I want our troops in Iraq coming home as quickly as possible.  Those remarks, combined with opinion polls showing some movement away from the Lib Dems towards the revived Tories, caused a most comical panic among Mr Kennedy's parliamentary colleagues...

Now let us examine the events leading up to yesterday's announcement by Tony Blair. There weren't any: at least, not in the conventional sense of the word. There was, however, a circumstance. That circumstance was the publication just over a week ago of a couple of opinion polls showing that the Conservative Party had the support of 40 per cent of those inclined to vote at the next general election."

STRAIGHT-TALKING HOWARD IS UNIQUELY FACING UP TO TODAY'S THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS: THE WAR ON TERROR, CIVILISATIONAL CONFIDENCE AND THE DEMOGRAPHIC TIMEBOMB

So argues Mark Steyn in The Australian

OTHER NEWSLINKS

"A knifeman who cut his wrists in the office of Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind was convicted of criminal damage yesterday." - The Sun

"Former regional press journalist Francis Elliott is writing one of the first biographies of Conservative leader David Cameron.' - HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk

Have we missed any important stories?
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