Saturday 20th October 2007

10.30pm ToryDiary: No extra state funding of political parties without cap on union donations says David Cameron

3pm BritainAndAmerica:

• Tony Blair's first major speech since leaving Downing Street focuses on Iran
• "The US is a great place to be anti-American"
  

12.30pm ToryDiary: 'MPs are only lent powers and they must return them undiminished' warns Tony Benn

Noon PlayPolitical: The next President will be the one who bullshits the most and Has anyone else noticed how many times Kevin (Lizard) Rudd sticks his tongue out?

ToryDiary: Michael Gove backs return to traditional teaching methods

Platform: Daniel Kawczynski MP laments regional disparities in education funding

Columnist Cameron Watt on abortion law:

"One in four pregnancies now ends in abortion. Although the number of abortions is at an all-time high, there are increasing signs that public opinion on this most sensitive of issues is shifting. Technology has given us new, vivid images of unborn life, reinforcing the humanity of the foetus. Research published last month showed 68% of the public want to tighten abortion law and reduce the upper limit from 24 weeks to around 13 weeks."

Andrew Pelling MP will not face police charges

"A Conservative MP who was investigated by police over allegations of assaulting his wife will not face charges. Andrew Pelling, the MP for Croydon Central, was told on Friday that no prosecution will be brought in connection with the complaints of his pregnant wife Lucy."  - Metro

Hammond attacks Treasury bonuses

"The Conservatives last night accused the Treasury of effectively paying its own staff "staggering" performance-related bonuses at a time when thousands of poor families were suffering financial hardship as a result of Treasury errors. In the past five years bonuses totalling £53m have been paid out to Treasury staff, including £21.5m in 2005-06 - when Gordon Brown was still chancellor - doubling the previous year's sum, the shadow chief secretary, Philip Hammond, revealed." - Guardian

The Clegg

"The Liberal Democrats yesterday unveiled their exciting new anti-Tory weapon, developed in such secrecy that nobody has heard of it. The wonder weapon is called the Clegg and the Lib Dem high command hopes to rush it into service before Christmas, to fill the gap left when the obsolete and ineffectual Campbell unexpectedly blew itself up." - Andrew Gimson sketch in The Telegraph (accompanied by Matt cartoon)

Brussels dictatorship will face day of reckoning

"If I were a pro-European, I would be worried by the fact that the only people who any longer vociferously support ever-closer union are those whose living depends on it. There are the officials, obviously, and the MEPs. Then there are the myriad hangers-on who know which side their croissant is buttered - the lobbyists, the big farmers, the defence contractors, the Brussels journalists who supplement their incomes with work for the commission." - Charles Moore in The Telegraph

Shifting referendum pressure to parliament

"In addition to asking our readers to petition directly for a referendum, we now ask you to write to your MP, and ask that he or she keep the promise made to you at the last election. Our campaign is in no way anti-European. On the contrary, we have always believed in the European values that this constitution traduces: political pluralism, personal freedom and parliamentary democracy. Wherever you stand on the constitution, you should demand that our MPs discharge their duty. It is, in Mr Brown's phrase, an issue of trust." - Telegraph leader

"In a calculating manner, as we reported yesterday, [Brown] seems to have divined that there are positive advantages in excluding the voters. He believes that a protracted parliamentary discussion will bore the electorate to tears while opening up a division within the Conservative Party" - Times leader

"It will be a long and often tedious haul but Gordon Brown should win parliamentary approval for the new European reform treaty without too much trouble. But Westminster is only one of three tests: the other two are with the media and the public." - Peter Riddell in The Times

Wanted: a national culture

"Multiculturalism has led not to integration but to segregation. It has allowed groups to live separately, with no incentive to integrate and every incentive not to. It was intended to promote tolerance. Instead the result has been, in countries where it has been tried, societies more abrasive, fractured and intolerant than they once were." - Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in The Times

Labour's failed attempts at boosting social mobility

"Ten years of Labour rule have failed to create a classless society, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that Britain remains a nation dominated by class division, with a huge majority certain that their social standing determines the way they are judged." - Guardian

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