Monday 12th March 2007

4:30pm Seats and Candidates update: James Wharton selected for Stockton South

1pm ToryDiary update: The trio of problems facing Labour today

12:30pm Seats and Candidates update: Last six for Hammersmith

11am: Text of David Cameron's environment speech (conservatives.com)

10.30am ToryDiary update: The Independent's green hypocrisy and nuclear confusion

BLOGS

ToryDiary: David Cameron wakes up to a second day of bad headlines

YourPlatform: Charles Elphicke - A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, a lot will make your rich

TOUR OF THE NEW CCHQ

"Dominating the HQ is a central hub, with four television screens tuned to the 24-hour news channels, where officials, including Steve Hilton, Mr Cameron's chief image adviser, George Bridges, campaign director, George Eustice, press secretary, and Henry Macrory, head of media, direct the party's response to day-to-day events. The computers store millions of words, facts and figures about policies of the Tories and their opponents. The team of press officers - whose average age is 28 - can usually respond to an opposition attack and get out a rebuttal within the hour." - Telegraph

BROWN VERSUS CAMERON ON CLIMATE CHANGE

"The competition over which party can devise the most ambitious policy for protecting the environment is encouraging in the sense that it shows that the environment has become part of the mainstream political battleground. But it is also misleading. This is because the Liberal Democrats - and now the Conservatives - have a far more serious strategy than the Government." - Independent leader

"Chancellor Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron will battle for leadership of the green agenda as they outline rival visions. The two men are delivering keynote speeches on climate change in a bid to seize the lead on the environment. Mr Brown will dismiss the Tories' ability to tackle green issues in the European Union because of the party's euro scepticism." - BBC

"The Tories are on about airfares yet again. This week, David Cameron and Gordon Brown will conduct a Dutch auction in how much to penalise you for environmental crimes. There is something oddly familiar about all this. Perhaps I am sceptical about the climate change campaign because its exponents remind me so much of the people I knew years ago on the Marxist Left: repressive, self-righteous, and inherently totalitarian." - Janet Daley in the Telegraph

LABOUR AND SNP's MUNDELL-LIKE PROBLEMS

"Scotland's party leaders don't have far to look for their troubles as the Holyrood elections loom ever nearer because all their difficulties are virtually home grown. First to have to come to terms with trouble in her own ranks was Annabel Goldie, the Tory leader, whose weekend and annual conference were all but wrecked by a particularly vicious memo from David Mundell, her supposed close colleague who is the main spokesman on Scotland in the shadow cabinet." - Alan Cochrane in the Telegraph

PC HAS NO PLACE IN THE ARMY

"Last week, Pat Mercer tried to make an important point, which was lost in the furore. Political correctness should have as little to do with military training as with military humour. Not long ago, 18-year-old boys were patrolling the Falls Road and South Armagh. Some of them were black. When the inhabitants saw them, they were not inclined to remark that although the British Army had no business in occupied Ireland, it should at least be praised for embracing diversity. It was more likely those lads would be told that if they did not get back to the trees, they would be going home in a box. So it was important that the soldiers had already learned self-control." - Bruce Anderson in the Independent

"The British Army could draw up an indictment against the British Government... The indictment would be that the Government failed to back the troops with adequate funding." - William Rees-Mogg in the Times

TRIDENT VOTE THIS WEDNESDAY

"Labour MPs opposed to early modernisation of Britain's Trident fleet will this week force Tony Blair to rely on Conservative support to push the policy through a divided House of Commons. Anti-Trident rebels will join forces with Liberal Democrats, most Nationalist MPs and a few Tories in voting either to delay a decision to build three or four new submarines until after 2014 or to abandon the UK's nuclear arm completely." - Guardian

BORIS THE DOG DETECTIVE

"Boris Johnson has enjoyed several jobs during his varied career but the Conservative MP has now turned detective to help his constituents to be reunited with their stolen dogs." - Times

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