Tuesday 13th February 2007

9:20pm Seats and Candidates update: Mark Clarke selected for Tooting

4.45pm ToryDiary update: What will the Labour machine do with all of these email addresses?

11:30am ToryDiary update: Addicted Britain

11am Seats and candidates update: Sir Patrick Cormack deselected by Executive

BLOGS

ToryDiary: Cameron non-story produces real progress in Tory drugs policy

YourPlatform: David Dundas on the need to switch most of our energy to nuclear power

SWEDEN VISIT

"David Cameron says his party has "a lot to learn" from the conservative Swedish Moderate Party about winning elections. The Tory leader has met Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who moved his own party to the centre ground of politics and won power last year." - BBC

"During their visit, Mr Reinfeldt and Mr Cameron got a glimpse of Scania’s work to reduce environmental and climate impact – everything from using biofuels to developing more efficient engines and training drivers in more fuel-efficient and safer driving techniques." - Scania

"We want to make sure that when we form a government we have done the maximum about of preparation so we can implement our plans speedily, effectively, and in a way that creates successful government." - David Cameron speaking in Sweden, Conservatives.com

"He is not the first Tory to examine Swedish policymaking; Iain Duncan Smith visited the country in 2002. Despite its reputation for high taxes and a generous welfare state, Sweden also has a punitive attitude to alcohol and drug abuse, with high taxes on drink and a strong emphasis on rehabilitation, even for casual drug abuse." - Guardian

EDWARD LEIGH'S ARTICLE

"David Cameron's repositioning of the Conservatives was attacked from within his own ranks yesterday as he was accused of deliberately misrepresenting the views of the party's right. Edward Leigh, president of the Cornerstone group of MPs and Mr Cameron's most persistent backbench critic, sharpened his attack in an article for House Magazine." - Guardian

>>> Yesterday's ToryDiary on the critique

HIGH TIMES AT ETON

"Reading about David Cameron's days of dope and disco at Eton college this weekend, I found myself wondering whether the Tory leader ever lit up a joint in the old bomb shelter at the bottom of my housemaster's garden where we used to smoke our spliffs. My couple of joints in the Nostril snowballed over the next two decades into a monstrous, full-blown addiction to drink and drugs that every week saw me drinking up to 300 units of alcohol and smoking about an ounce of skunk." - Tom Sykes in the Guardian

LABOUR SLEAZIER THAN TORIES WERE

"Millions of voters think Tony Blair’s Labour is sleazier than the Tories ever were, a Sun survey reveals today. And more than half the people quizzed in the Ipsos-MORI poll said handing over power to Gordon Brown will make no difference. But only 15 per cent believe a David Cameron-led Tory government would be any better." - The Sun

ROAD PRICING PETITION

"The row that No 10 has got into over the anti-road-pricing petition was both predictable and avoidable. It illustrates some of the contradictions of trying to combine experiments in direct democracy with a representative system. The result has been more, not less, anger and disillusionment with mainstream politics." - Peter Riddell in the Times

"Before we get to the issues about road pricing itself, let us just pause - spellbound - at the ease with which the Government dismisses the views of more than 1,000,000 citizens, and the lily-livered impassivity of those such as Alexander when it comes to such democratic expressions of feeling. If he weren't so inert, one would be impressed by his arrogance, but perhaps that is what politicians have come to: ambitious young men and women with nothing to say but with plenty of siege-mentality to burn." - Andre O'Hagan in the Telegraph

OTHER LINKS

"But there are serious questions about the Tory cash grab over the grand Smith Square building. Tories bought the building last year from a firm based in the British Virgin Islands. Yesterday, Labour chair Hazel Blears asked the Electoral Commission to investigate the deal amid concerns the Tories have benefited from offshore cash." - Mirror

"As few as three uniformed police officers are available to patrol the streets, respond to 999 calls and tackle night-time disorder in some towns and city areas, according to research into the experiences of front-line Pcs." - Telegraph

"The care of patients on the NHS risks being compromised by the Government’s flawed implementation of a multi-billion-pound computer system linking doctors and hospitals, according to one of the project’s senior executives." - Times

"In truth, the MPs are getting on pretty well so far - though there are plenty of jokes at the expense of each others' parties. Lib Dem beard-and-sandal stereotypes, Notting Hill Tories, New Labour spin are all aired at length." - Guardian blog following the Westminster Challenge MPs in the Arctic

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