Tuesday 31st October 2006

8.45pm seats and candidates update: Sheryll Murray selected for South East Cornwall yesterday evening

EVENING UPDATES FROM PARLIAMENT

Tony Blair wins Iraq motion despite Tories siding with SNP - BBC

187 to 108 MPs reject Nadine Dorries' attempt to amend abortion laws - BBC

BLOGS

ToryDiary: Nadine Dorries campaigns for 'a woman's right to know'

Jonathan Sheppard on YourPlatform: Get your tanks out of our kids lunchboxes

PEERS REJECT BAKER'S QUOTA RESTRICTION ON FAITH SCHOOLS

"Peers have voted down a plan to make newly established faith schools in England take up to a quarter of pupils from other religions.  The rejection of an amendment to the Education Bill, tabled by Lord Baker, follows ministers' decision to drop similar plans last week." - BBC

CAMERON'S 'EARLY ADULTHOOD' PLAN

"School leavers who prove they are good citizens could be allowed to drink in pubs and place bets earlier than their less responsible contemporaries, under plans advanced yesterday by David Cameron.  Promoting his theme of "social responsibility", the Tory leader said every teenager should be able to earn "early adult status" by completing approved courses in grown-up behaviour." - Telegraph

>>> Yesterday's ToryDiary on 'England expects every man will do his duty'

IRAQ VOTE

"Tony Blair faces the risk of a humiliating Commons defeat today over his refusal to allow a wide-ranging inquiry into the crisis in Iraq. The Tories, Liberal Democrats and as many as 40 Labour rebels are threatening to support a nationalist demand for a parliamentary examination of the war and its aftermath." - Independent

GORDON BROWN EMBRACES STERN REPORT

"The Chancellor eclipsed Tony Blair, who was sitting next to him on the platform, with a personal commitment that the Government will raise the priority of the environment alongside the economy and employment." - Independent

"Britain produces a mere two per cent of total global man-made carbon emissions and, as Stern himself has said, even if Britain closed all its power stations, that would be equivalent to only a year's increase in China's emissions. Last year, China embarked on a programme for building more than 560 large coal-fired power stations by 2012. Admonitions from the British Government will not stop them. It is an illusion to believe that if Britain leads, others will follow. This is a sad fantasy, I fear." - Ruth Lea in The Telegraph

"We know climate change has arrived, but there is plausible evidence that it may be beyond our control.  So why should taxpayers in smog-free Britain pay more while China builds a dirty coal-fired power station every week?  Why should we fork out 20 per cent more for a flight to Spain when chunks of Amazon rain forest the size of Wales are cleared each year?  Why should families here pay £1,000-a-year more when Russian rivers are so toxic you can set fire to them?" - The Sun Says

OTHER NEWSLINKS

"The communications regulator, Ofcom, has cleared Jonathan Ross of being "vulgar, disrespectful and unfair" to David Cameron and Margaret Thatcher on his BBC1 chatshow earlier this year.  Ross's interview with Mr Cameron on June 23 caused controversy, after the presenter asked the Conservative leader if he had a crush on Mrs Thatcher when she was prime minister and whether he had masturbated thinking about her." - Guardian

"Ministers and senior Tories confronted each other yesterday as David Cameron was urged to apologise over "grossly exaggerated claims" about NHS job losses.  The Department of Health said that "only" 903 members of staff had been sacked, in contrast to 21,000 lost posts claimed by the Conservatives and unions. But the Royal College of Nursing said ministers had released figures for confirmed compulsory redundancies only, without including voluntary redundancies, deleted posts, the cancellation of temporary contracts or other forms of job losses." - Telegraph

Tories come to Mervyn King's aid as Bank of England Governor extols economic benefits of Scotland's place in the Union - Scotsman

"MPs have been accused of conspiring against the public by handing themselves another multi-million pound expenses handout - forcing taxpayers to fund the bill for spin and propaganda.  On Wednesday, Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons, will propose handing every MP a communications allowance - which could be worth around £10,000 a year." - Daily Mail

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Monday 30th October 2006

6pm ToryDiary update: England expects every man to do his duty

BLOGS

ToryDiary:

• Caroline Spelman leads protests at use of Big Brother computers to drive new council tax rises
• Not today's news

Tim Montgomerie on YourPlatform: Blogging is only the beginning of a new media revolution

GREEN CAMERON

"David Cameron said that he would like to put a wind turbine and solar panels on the roof of 10 Downing Street if he became Prime Minister." - Times

>>> The Telegraph's bullet point guide to the Stern Report 

TEARFUL CAMERON

"Tory leader David Cameron fights back tears as he hears 12 junkies tell how they beat drugs.  The Tory leader was so moved by the youngsters he told them: “I have seen speeches from great leaders and presidents but this is by far the most inspiring.” - The Sun

COMBATIVE CAMERON

"Gordon Brown and David Cameron will do battle for the business vote at next month's annual gathering of the Confederation of British Industry.  The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Conservative Party's leader will be the two star speakers at the annual conference of the employers' organisation, to be held once again in London." - Independent

CITIZEN CAMERON

"David Cameron will today launch a new youth charity which supports raising the legal age for marriage and for smoking.  The Young Adult Trust aims to teach young people about their responsibilities as adult citizens and create opportunities for mixing with others from different backgrounds." - Telegraph

FATHER OF TWO TORY PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES WELCOMES PROJECT CAMERON

"Mr Cameron is, in this sense, a stealthy leader, as Tony Blair once was; he never gives the other side an issue to exploit. The Cameron Opposition is becoming increasingly enjoyable to watch. He may lack the economic principles of Margaret Thatcher, and he certainly lacks the historic standing of Churchill, but Mr Cameron knows what he’s doing. He is cutting the mustard and it is splashed across Tony Blair’s face." - William Rees-Mogg in The Times

ADAM SMITH GETS SOME BANKABLE RECOGNITION

"He was awkward, absent-minded and had no head for business, according to his obituary in The Times. But today Adam Smith will have his reputation fixed as the father of modern economics as he becomes the latest historical figure to appear on the £20 note." - Times

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Sunday 29th October 2006

7.45pm ToryDiary exclusive: How David Cameron sparked Labour's faith schools muddle

BLOGS

ToryDiary: The new high taxation consensus (otherwise known as 'saving the planet')

Thomas Bridge on YourPlatform: It’s time to aspire to better standards in Public Life

CAMERON TO ATTACK 'WALK-ON-BY SOCIETY'

"David Cameron will tomorrow accuse Britain of becoming a "walk on by society", with people too quick to ignore the suffering of strangers." - Independent on Sunday

'RETURN OF THE TOFFS'

"Is class dead in modern Britain? Tory leader David Cameron and his Old Etonians hope so." - Newsweek

TORIES REACH OUT TO THE ARTS ESTABLISHMENT

"Earlier this month 15 diners, including Cameron, Osborne, the shadow chancellor, and a group of the most powerful people in entertainment, sat down together inside one of the restaurant's private rooms for a meal marking the next stage in Cameron's campaign to convert the liberal glitterati who were claimed by New Labour during its Cool Britannia period.  At the table were Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National Theatre; Sally Greene of the Old Vic theatre; newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald; Jane Tranter, head of drama at the BBC; Tim Bevan of Working Title films; Nick Elliot of ITV drama; Greg Dyke, former director-general of the BBC; and Alan Yentob, senior BBC broadcaster and director of entertainment and drama at the corporation." - Observer

SUNDAY COMMENT

Minette Marrin in The Sunday Times: "Only recently the Cameroons were quick to dissociate themselves from the party’s own policy review document on tax because it used the C-word. Yet if one is honest, cuts must be conservative — cuts if not necessarily in tax, then certainly cuts in state intrusion, cuts in statist bureaucracy and cuts in politically correct agenda. That does not mean cuts in the money available for frontline public services and the relief of hardship — rather the reverse."

Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer: "a Brown premiership now looks as certain as anything ever is certain in politics. He would like, but he does not need, Tony Blair's endorsement to become Prime Minister. Gordon Brown looks to be where he has always planned to be: invincible and inevitable.  After all those years of planning and plotting, striving and straining, all those years of waiting for the prize and worrying that someone might steal up on him from behind, the long distance runner of British politics looks over his shoulder to find that there is no one there at all."

COUNTDOWN TO AMERICA'S MID-TERMS

“I’m campaigning like mad and I’m looking at people in the eye and saying, you better have a government that does everything in its power to protect you from attack. You’re right here in the office where I get briefed every morning and I’m telling you, it’s on my mind.  I was affected deeply by the attacks of September 11 . . . I know we’re at war.”

- President George W Bush speaking to conservative commentators in the White House and quoted in The Sunday Times

Andrew Sullivan in The Sunday Times: "In many ways the Bush administration and Republican Congress have abandoned principled conservatism and deserve to be punished by conservatives more than liberals. When they took over in 2000, the long-term fiscal liability of the federal government was $20 trillion. It now stands at $43 trillion. They have increased government spending at a faster rate than any Democratic Congress since the 1930s. They have generated deficits after four years of strong growth.  This kind of spending has made sleaze and de facto bribery inevitable. The number of lobbyists in Washington has doubled in five years. As for pork barrel spending, a simple comparison tells the tale. In 1985, Ronald Reagan vetoed a motorway-construction bill because lawmakers had stuffed into it 150 pet projects for their constituencies. Reagan thought that was unconservative. Last year George W Bush eagerly signed a similar bill with 6,000 such projects. In plain English, they are bribing the voters with the public purse."

The Democrats' secret agenda - Wall Street Journal

Obama Fever - RealClearPolitics.com

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Saturday 28th October 2006

Are you any good with Photoshop?
ConservativeHome needs some help with graphic design.  If you can help please email via this link.  Thank you!

BLOGS

ToryDiary: Lord Baker pursues quota plan for new faith schools

Donal Blaney on YourPlatform: Make the steal more expensive than it's worth

Tom Mludzinski on CF Diary: Why I became a Tory

HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT CONSERVATIVEHOME'S FORTHCOMING EVENTS GUIDE RECENTLY?

NEW BLOG OF THE WEEK

The new blog of the week is 'Watlington'.   Watlington lives at the Social Affairs Unit and blogs increasingly regularly on politics - particularly Tory politics, international affairs and also writes regular restaurant reviews.  Watlington regularly looks at UK politicians' stance on 'war on terror' issues.  Watlington's latest blog looks at Sir Ming Campbell's looming de facto endorsement of Iranian extremism, for example.  All-in-all, well worth adding to your favourites.

LIBDEMS MAY HAVE TO REPAY £2.4M

"The Liberal Democrat Party received a formal warning from an elections watchdog yesterday that it could be forced to repay £2.4 million donated by a businessman later jailed for perjury.  The onus to repay the money would technically fall on the Lib Dems' 77,000 members, who could face a bill of more than £30 each." - Telegraph

>>> Politics Show South West goes in search of LibDem women candidates.

THE TELEGRAPH DEFENDS THE MASSIVE BONUSES OF CITY TRADERS

"If a top trader is earning a hundred times the wage of a cleaner in the same institution, it is not because he is working a hundred times harder. Rather, he is keeping a fraction of the colossal sums he is earning for his firm.  Finance is a globally competitive industry, as the hundreds of thousands of foreigners working in the Square Mile will attest. In such an environment, it makes sense for banks to spend vast sums in order to secure the best available talent.  Who benefits? All of us. The City of London accounts for 10 per cent of the wealth generated in the United Kingdom, lifting the entire economy. The taxes paid by billionaire financiers fund the services that their detractors are so fond of." - Telegraph leader

GREEN NEWS

"The European commission said that, based on current measures and policies, the emissions of the EU's original 15 members will be just 0.6% below 1990 levels by 2010. The EU-15 countries are committed under the Kyoto protocol to an 8% cut on 1990 levels by 2012." - Guardian

"The Treasury report on the economic impact of global warming, by Sir Nicholas Stern, will warn that doing nothing about climate change could be up to 20 times more expensive than taking remedial action, when the economic costs of droughts, floods, hurricanes and human migration are taken into account. Its publication, with the personal backing of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is expected to put the UK at the head of the international campaign to avert climate change." - Independent

Meanwhile a leader in The Times surveys the growing investor interest in green technologies.

>>> Missed from yesterday: David Cameron writes for The Independent on why Labour's carbon targets amount to a cop-out

OTHER NEWSLINKS

"Hilary Benn last night entered the race for his party's deputy leadership and immediately established his bid to be the "unity candidate" with the unlikely backing of the staunchly old Labour backbencher, Dennis Skinner." - Guardian

"The crisis in Darfur, a region the size of France, is deepening by the day. While Sudan's autocratic ruler, Omar al-Bashir, plays a game of political brinkmanship with the United Nations and, in particular, the US and the UK, millions of black Africans lie alone and exposed. There's been a build-up of Sudanese troops in the region over the past two months and attacks by the feared horsebacked militia, known as the Janjaweed, are on the increase." - Independent.  In a recent Spectator article Fraser Nelson mentioned the possibility of an imminent visit to Darfur by David Cameron.  Let us hope that visit happens soon and a little more attention is brought to the unfolding tragedy in Sudan.

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