Monday 22nd October 2007

6.45pm ToryDiary: Local government blog launches on 5th November... can you help?

5pm PlayPolitical: One video and one audio that Rudy Giuliani almost certainly wishes didn't exist

4pm ToryDiary: David Cameron responds to Brown's statement on the EU Treaty

12.30pm PlayPolitical: A great Bush impersonator

12pm Parliament: The swirling, confusing mess of hospital closures and Cost of appeals tribunal a red herring

ToryDiary: Chicken Saturday cost Labour £1m and Telegraph calls for end to "Scottish nationalism fed on English taxes"

Columnist Stephan Shakespeare: The importance of person-to-person contact in politics

Greg Hands MP on The Polish election (in London)

Poland's Law and Justice Party face big defeat

"The centre-right opposition Civic Platform party is heading for a landslide victory in the Polish general election, partial results suggest.  With a third of ballots counted, Donald Tusk's party is on track to win 40% of the vote, or 194 seats in parliament.  The Prime Minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose Law and Justice Party is second with 32%, has already admitted defeat." - BBC

The Civic Platform favour closer links with Europe and an end to Poland's involvement in Iraq.

Listen to Francis Maude defending Lord Ashcroft's financial role in the Conservative Party on this morning's Today programme

Related ToryDiary link: No extra state funding of political parties without cap on union donations says David Cameron

Telegraph says Tories risk treating electorate as fools if there is no retrospective referendum

"A month ago, Mr Cameron wrote: "Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM, a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations." That sounds pretty unequivocal.  Now, though, Mr Hague seems to be tiptoeing away from that promise, refusing to confirm that an incoming Tory administration would hold a retrospective poll if Labour had already pushed the constitution through... If the constitution is as bad as they say it is, the Conservatives must commit themselves to giving the people a say whenever they take power. Anything else, to borrow Mr Cameron's phrase, would be to treat people like fools." - Telegraph leader

"The Conservatives are "unlikely" to defeat the government over a referendum on the EU reform treaty, shadow foreign secretary William Hague told the BBC."

"The Tory leadership moved to quash a nascent rebellion by eurosceptic backbenchers, by on Sunday holding out the prospect that a Conservative government would seek to remove Britain from the European Union treaty agreed by Gordon Brown last week." - FT 

Bruce Anderson, in The Independent, sees Labour under a "moral requirement" to hold a referendum.

Last week's ToryDiary on this issue of a referendum whether or not the Treaty is ratified.

Ministers knew about C-diff deaths

"Ministers knew about the findings of a report into 90 patient deaths from clostridium difficile at Kent hospitals months ago, the Conservative party claimed yesterday. Andrew Lansley, opposition health spokesman, accused the government of taking too long to address the problem and said something had "gone wrong" within the Department of Health." - FT

Hardline America and softer Britain clash over approach to Burma - Times

Blair for EU President? - The Scotsman senses little enthusiasm from team Brown

"You've bottled it!"

"Gordon Brown’s character and relations with his closest advisers have again come under scrutiny in the light of claims that Ed Balls told him he had “bottled it” for failing to trigger a revolt to topple Tony Blair last year." - Times

Profile of Balls - Times

Yesterday on TheWrongMan: New book reveals feuding, bullying and foul-mouthed Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown's promise to offer 50,000 'British jobs to British workers' is illegal - Daily Mail

LibDem leadership race

"Chris Huhne, one of the two contenders for the Liberal Democrats leadership, has promised a place for Charles Kennedy in his team if he wins the contest.  Mr Huhne and his rival for the top post in the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, are both claiming support from key allies of Mr Kennedy whose backing could determine the outcome of a close contest." - Independent

Lib Dem hopeful Huhne 'can't remember' writing article calling for tolerance of LSD - Daily Mail

NEW BLOG OF THE WEEK: Continuing our Australian focus: Tim Blair

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