Saturday 17th March 2007
9pm ToryDiary update: 6% Tory lead
6.30pm Seats and candidates update: I would choose right candidates if I was selection "dictator" says John Maples
4.30pm ToryDiary update: Notes from Nottingham
11am ToryDiary update: William Hague under fire for outside interests
BLOGS
Seats and candidates: Final four for Bath and Zac Goldsmith selected for Richmond Park
CONSERVATIVEHOME.COM MEMBERS' PANEL
"The latest survey of grassroots Tory opinion by the ConservativeHome website suggests Mr Cameron still has some work to do to convince party members he has the right policies on the environment. Some 70% of party members surveyed thought Mr Cameron was doing a good job as party leader. But 54% thought climate change should be tackled through technology rather than taxation. And 48% thought green taxes within the UK, of the kind proposed by Mr Cameron, were "pointless" because "any reduction in British emissions will be quickly overtaken by the industrial activity of fast-growing countries like India and China"." - BBC
NEWSPAPERS STILL FOCUS ON 'THE RIGHT TO LEFT PARTING'
CAMERON ON THE DISAPPEARING GORDON BROWN
"What's surprising about Gordon Brown is his disappearances. What does Gordon Brown think about Catholic adoption agencies? What does Gordon Brown think about the crisis in public health? Whenever the government is in a difficult spot he disappears." - Quotation from interview with the Tory leader in The Guardian
CAMERON VERSUS BROWN
"In modern politics, the fact that Mr Cameron visibly relaxes in front of the cameras matters far more than the fine print of his policies. Mr Brown is a grim, private, dutiful Chancellor who visibly tenses up as soon as he spots a camera. In a more decorous age, this would not have mattered. But it is Mr Brown's misfortune to live in an age that demands ready laughter and easy banter, neither of which comes naturally to him, in public at least." - Telegraph leader
GORDON BROWN SET TO KILL LYONS REVIEW
"Gordon Brown has 'dumped' a landmark council tax review for fear of antagonising millions of middle-class voters. The review, due out next week, will recommend an overhaul that would result in owners of expensive homes facing swingeing increases. But the Chancellor has vetoed the idea even before it is published, warning that he will not endorse potentially record tax increases before the next election. The revelation is a blow to Sir Michael Lyons, who was commissioned by Mr Brown nearly three years ago to recommend ways of reforming local government finance." - Daily Mail
"Council tax bills averaged £688 for a Band D property in 1997-8. Ten years later, the average is set to be between £1,250 and £1,300 – pretty well double. What has gone wrong? How is it that a tax which had been introduced in the wake of the poll tax fiasco, and aroused barely a flicker of controversy in its first decade of life, has became such a rallying cry for protest and anger? The answer can be given in just two words: Gordon Brown. In Labour's first term, when the party was desperate to shed the image of a tax and spend party, public spending was kept firmly under control. After 2001, the Government started to pour money into public services, especially council-run services like education. It demanded huge increases in spending but failed to provide Whitehall funding to cover the increases. Councils had only one place to go for the missing millions: the council tax payer." - David Curry MP in the Yorkshire Post
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