Saturday 9th September 2006

8.15pm ToryDiary update: David Cameron's non-reaction to Labour's woes

1pm update: "Conservative leader David Cameron has pledged to look at cutting corporation tax if elected Prime Minister. He again refused to commit to specific tax cuts but insisted "business is back talking to the Conservative Party" in an interview with Real Business magazine. The Tory leader also pledged to "get tough" on white-collar crime and refused to rule out scrapping the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)." - Ananova

BLOGS

ToryDiary: William Norton offers his guide to the Labour leadership race, and Boris Johnson: rise or fall?

Platform: Winners aren't perfect, they just make less mistakes than their rivals - Donal Blaney

Next week on 100policies.com

Events on Monday: Robin Aitken talking to the New Culture Forum about bias in the BBC, and Peter Riddell talking to the Bow Group about Blair's legacy.

LABOUR SPLIT WORSE THAN MAJOR'S

"Labour is now seen by a majority of people as more divided than the Conservatives during the government headed by John Major [..] Tory supporters are much keener on an early election, perhaps a reflection of their confidence in the leadership of David Cameron." - Independent

CLARKE ON BROWN

""Anger doesn't express it," he says. He says the Chancellor has "psychological" issues that he must confront and accuses him of being a "control freak" and "totally uncollegiate". Mr Brown is also "deluded", he says, to think that Mr Blair can and should anoint him as his successor now. Raising doubts about whether Mr Brown is prime ministerial material, Mr Clarke asks: "Can a leopard change its spots?". He insists that the Chancellor should not assume he will be the next leader. "He doesn't have rights in this, he has to earn them — he has to win the support of the party." - Telegraph interview

"He is making it clear that there should be a serious leadership contest – not just a token tilt by the hard Left – when Mr Blair departs. Such a contest is surely essential. There is no better way for a politician to reveal his true mettle than in the heat of a hard-fought election. The Chancellor should embrace such an opportunity to show what he is made of." - Telegraph leader

UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION

"There is a natural limit to prime ministerial tenures in Britain, which, in reality, is as restrictive on an incumbent as the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution (which bars a president from being elected more than twice). Time, and relentless, wearying scrutiny ensure in Britain that a party and the public can only endure so much of any prime minister, no matter how charming or how determined." - Times leader

REFLECTING THE VIEWS OF VOTERS RATHER THAN MEMBERS

"No political party should ever be anyone's life. Its value is only instrumental – that it can mobilise enough people, ideas, money and interests to run things that need running and get things done that need doing." - Charles Moore in the Telegraph

BORIS' GAFFES

"Mr Johnson, the MP for Henley, has made a habit of appearing more often in the headlines for backfiring witticisms than for his political philosophy. But his latest blunder threatened to snowball into a full-blown diplomatic incident after the country's high commissioner passed on the comments to her prime minister and demanded an apology." - Independent

HARPER TO REVIVE INTERNET POLICING

"The minority Conservative government of Stephen Harper is widely expected to revive legislation, originally introduced by the preceding Liberal government, that would expand the ability of the Canadian state to spy on domestic Internet communications." - World Socialist

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