Saturday 21st April 2007

11.45pm ToryDiary update: Will the Tories govern alone again?

BLOGS

ToryDiary: All MEP candidates will be required to commit to leaving EPP

Seats and Candidates: Simon Jones selected for Dagenham & Rainham

TORIES NOT UNBEATABLE

"Tony Blair today insisted that the Tories were "beatable" at the next general election - despite the expectation that Labour will suffer huge losses at next month's Scottish, Welsh and local elections. The prime minister told Labour activists that although, under David Cameron's leadership, the Conservatives have learned the "tactics of opposition", the party has failed to find a "strategy for government"." - Guardian

PLAID COALITION WITH LABOUR?

"Plaid Cymru last night dramatically offered to hold talks with Labour to stop any prospect of the Conservatives entering government in Wales. The move was Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones's response to the "lies" he claimed Labour was peddling in suggesting he was willing to serve in a Tory-led coalition." - Western Mail

DYKE DEBACLE CONTINUED

"Senior Liberal Democrats hope that an aborted joint plan with the Tories to field Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC, as an independent candidate to run against Ken Livingstone for mayor of London could be revived. Recriminations began to fly over who was to blame after the plot to break the mould of British politics by putting forward Mr Dyke as an independent collapsed when it was leaked. Senior aides to Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, accused his Tory counterpart, David Cameron, of being "amateurish" by failing to prepare the ground properly before the deal broke down." - Independent

"Most people could see at once that Mr Dyke, though proud of being "the boy from Hayes", was not otherwise qualified for the job. His main contribution to the BBC was to describe it as "hideously white" and to handle the affair of the death of Dr David Kelly so naively that Tony Blair got the better of him. He is no good at politics, and he is not in any sense a Conservative. But, fiasco though the Dyke scheme was, there was a tiny germ of a good idea behind it. It was an attempt to address the fact that London is different." - Telegraph

HAGUE: WANTED IN WESTMINSTER

"You would think he knows that his first job should not be lining his deep pockets, but helping Cameron, whose shadow cabinet is short of talent, to land some blows on this discredited Government. Hague, like him or loathe him (I am a fan), is the biggest beast in the Tory jungle. He earns his fat fees on the after-dinner speaking circuit because he brings the house down every time. It's time he brought the House down at Westminster." - Andrew Pierce in the Telegraph

OBSERVING THE NIGERIAN ELECTIONS

"Pro-democracy activist Edward McMillan-Scott MEP will observe the presidential elections in Africa's largest country tomorrow (Saturday). McMillan-Scott (Yorkshire & Humber, Cons) will be the only Briton among a team of Euro MPs observing the presidential elections in Abuja and Lagos." - Conservative Party

HULL'S ELECTION RACE

"It is only eleven o'clock but seasoned Hull Tory councillor John Fareham has already mixed himself a Martini ahead of a full council meeting of the authority once branded the UK's worst. "I get really nervous and throw up before going in the council chamber to speak," he says above the soothing tones of Gregorian chant music." - Guardian

THE QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY

"How different her steadiness and devotion to duty are from the party tactics of fly-by-night politicians. The British do not wear their hearts on their sleeves, but know how to reciprocate quietly loyal service. Today they can feel, if they do not sing, God save the Queen." - Telegraph leader

TERRY MAJOR-BALL HAS DIED

"Sir John Major's elder brother, Terry Major-Ball, has died at the age of 75, the former prime minister's office confirmed today. Mr Major-Ball, who became an amiable celebrity during his brother's premiership, died of cancer in a hospice in Chard, Somerset, last week. He and his family moved to Somerset from Croydon, south London, around three years ago. Mr Major-Ball was a favourite with journalists during the years when his brother was at 10 Downing Street." - Guardian obituary

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary...