Saturday 27th October 2007

10pm ToryDiary: Labour 1% ahead in MORI poll tomorrow

5pm news update: Clegg promises to expose Cameron as illiberal: "I'm going to set about demolishing this idea of a liberal Conservative put about by David Cameron," he declared. One of my first tasks as leader would be to cast the spotlight very, very strongly on Cameron saying 'if you are a liberal why are you leading a party which is so illiberal?'" - BBC

3pm ToryDiary: Promising nationally, acting locally now

Murdo Fraser MSP on Platform: We must not allow nationalists to drive England and Scotland apart

TheWrongMan: We haven't been cynical enough about Gordon Brown

BritainAndAmerica: Europe still wants the world to go away

Eleven times as many BBC staffers on Facebook are liberal as declare themselves conservative

The Daily Mail follows up on yesterday's ConservativeHome exclusive.

Foreign and security policy

A Telegraph leader welcomes David Cameron's foreign and security policy speech: "There is no contradiction between having strong defence and a non-interventionist foreign policy.  Mr Cameron talks of "liberal conservatism", perhaps unconsciously invoking the "liberal Tory" foreign policy of Canning, which secured the national interest by judiciously nudging ahead the cause of freedom in countries that mattered strategically.  It worked very well for us 200 years ago: it may work equally today."

>> ConservativeHome's review of the speech.

"A columnist advocating that we duck an international dispute realises how unimpressive the argument sounds. It hardly stirs the blood. It lacks the ring of moral certainty. But are our soldiers’ lives worth the ring of moral certainty that comes with a bold but doomed decision to try to make a difference? I suggest a braver decision: to admit that we cannot." - Matthew Parris in The Times

Britain 'wrecked' by mass immigration

"Labour has covered up its failure to control our borders by saying that our economy needs immigrants.  Well, if you are determined to have a welfare state that tolerates about eight million economically unproductive people of working age – the unemployed, those in "training" and those on various benefits because they believe they are unfit for work – then of course you will. It is time someone got serious." - Simon Heffer in The Telegraph

Writing in the Daily Mail, Peter Oborne says whether it's the atom bomb or the nature of the EU, politicians keep the truth from the British people.  They're still deceiving today, regards mass immigration.

Labour to retain restrictions on immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania - Times

Scotland 10 England 0: Scottish Nationalists proclaim the benefits of devolution - Independent

Interview with Nick Clegg - Telegraph

'Harry Potter lives in Thatcher's Britain'

"Harry Potter is a Left-winger and JK Rowling's books are a diatribe against Thatcherite Britain, a French philosopher has claimed.  "It must be said from the start that Harry Potter is deeply political and that the books speak of today's England," Jean-Claude Milner told the Liberation newspaper.  "Reading it, one can see that J.K. Rowling -- like many cultured English people -- believes there was a real Thatcherite revolution, that it was a disaster, and that culture's only chance is to survive as an occult science."" - Telegraph

The Sunday newspapers

"The Sunday newspaper is in better shape than circulation numbers alone would suggest, according to research released on Friday amid a fresh bout of soul-searching about the future business model.  Readers spend an average 70 minutes with their Sunday newspaper, the National Readership Survey found. Daily newspapers, by contrast, held their readers’ attention for 40 minutes a day between Monday and Friday and 60 minutes on Saturdays." - FT

CONSERVATIVEHOME'S OCTOBER SURVEY: Have you had your say?

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