30 Jun 2008 08:59:26

Monday 30th June 2008

6.30pm: Peter Cuthbertson on CentreRight: Will Israel attack Iran during the transition period between President Bush and Obama/ McCain?

5.15pm Harry Phibbs on CentreRight: Livingstone's army of press officers remains intact

3.45pm ToryDiary: Stronger families? Lower taxation? Action on climate change?

3.45pm Simon Chapman on CentreRight: Can the NHS last another 60 years?

11.30am CentreRight:

• Louise Bagshawe on kids getting exam marks simply for writing "F*** off"
• Daniel Kawczynski MP asks questions about the campaign against the arms trade
• Peter Cuthbertson on white men getting a taste of their own medicine

ToryDiary: Candidates for a reshuffle

Seats and candidates: Do you want to be a Conservative MP? Here's some advice...

Malcolm Shykles on Platform: Partial occupancy households should be targeted before building 'affordable housing'

PlayPolitical video: What will Barack Obama change next?  McCain campaign ad mocks Obama's copy of the presidential seal.

Tories more trusted on NHS (but voters want reform, not more spending)

"The results of the [YouGov] poll show he Tories have a clear lead on health policy with 31 per cent of people saying they would do a better job of running the health service, compared to 23 per cent who think Labour would deliver on the NHS.  The results of the latest poll confirm a shift in the political debate over health care, away from funding and towards improved management and organisation.  After years of above-inflation increases in health spending, most voters now believe the NHS has enough money. But they worry that the service has become bureaucratic and over-burdened with managers.  Sixty-nine per cent of people said reorganising the NHS is more important than spending more on it, up from 38 per cent in 1998. Only 24 per cent now want more spent on health, down from 59 per cent a decade ago." - Telegraph

Tories plan Border Protection Service

"The dedicated force would protect Britain's 71 international and major regional airports, 10,500 miles of coastline and 27 major sea ports.  The new service would be a police force, led by a Chief Constable and responsible to the Home Secretary.  It has been drawn up by a Tory policy review board led by Lord Stevens, the former Met commissioner." - Telegraph

Alan Duncan promises business-led, not political-led Regional Development Agencies - FT

Tories try to reverse Labour's tax hike on older cars - Times

Tories knew of Spelman's nanny nine years ago - Daily Mail

Yesterday on CentreRight.com, Andrew Lilico called for an end to the war on MPs

Brown's Scottish woes (and Cameron's?)

"This, then, could be a truly terrible summer for Mr Brown north of the border. There is every likelihood that the battle to succeed Ms Alexander will be bloody and divisive for Scottish Labour, as the competing candidates are forced to revisit Ms Alexander's controversial and probably unwise decision to endorse a referendum on independence.  Meanwhile, the decision by David Marshall to resign as an MP on health grounds exposes the party to the danger of a humiliating by-election result in Scotland." - Independent leader

Bruce Anderson uses his Independent column to attack the Scottish Conservatives: "Even if the Scottish Tory party were led by Adam Smith, Henry Dundas and Walter Scott, it would have difficulty in overcoming its countrymen's snivelling resentment. But the current leadership is some way below world-historical class. In the 80s and 90s, the Scots Tories produced Messrs Forsyth, Lang, Rifkind and Younger, plus my Lords Mackay and Strathclyde – as well as a score of able though less eminent figures. Today, most of their successors are dire, and proportional representation creates another obstacle to a Tory revival. Under PR, those at the top of the party's list are virtually guaranteed a seat, however badly the Tories do short of extinction, not yet a danger. In the Scottish Parliament, the Tory leaders enjoy status and income without having to fight for it. They have no incentive to resist genteel decline."

Gordon's time is up but who is going to tell him? - Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun

Ken Livingstone compares losing mayoralty to "bereavement" - Independent

John Howard pays tribute to David Cameron

"I think he is doing very well. There has clearly been a sea change in British politics and I think he has judged the mood of the British public well." - The former Australian Prime Minister interviewed for The Telegraph

Unions draw up long list of policy demands

"Trade union leaders are to put a broad set of demands to Labour ahead of its next general election manifesto, including free school meals for all primary children and new flexible working rights for parents." - Guardian

David Cameron pictured meeting Nelson Mandela in London last week - Daily Mail

And finally...?

Q. Who would you support as the next Labour leader?
A. Is Ramsay MacDonald still alive?

Eric Pickles answers the Independent's Q&A.

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

29 Jun 2008 09:00:02

Sunday 29th June 2008

5pm ToryDiary: Any questions for you?

3.45pm Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: This tide of attack on MPs can't go on

3pm Ben Rogers on CentreRight: We have lost our culture of life

1.15pm Local government: Tory local government leaders disagree on new LGA ad campaign

11.30am ToryDiary: The Biggest Beasts of the Conservative jungle

On CentreRight.com:

• Greg Hands MP: Why is Northern Rock still active in Zimbabwe?
  
• Simon Chapman believes that every constituency deserves a fully-functioning MP and pays tribute to the "Honourable" David Marshall for resigning from his Glasgow seat.
• Graeme Archer finds the Labour machine in constant 'exterminate' mode

Seats and candidates: The four finalists for Old Bexley and Sidcup

PlayPolitical video: Wendy Alexander quits as Scottish Labour Leader

Six Conservative MPs have shares in Zimbabwe-operating firms - ToryDiary

"Mugabe depends on South Africa and other neighbouring states for all Zimbabwe's oil and petroleum imports and for half of its electricity. If these were embargoed and if all trade with Zimbabwe was halted by its neighbours, led by South Africa, Mugabe would be gone within a month." - Sir Malcolm Rifkind in The Sunday Telegraph

Today's must-read article: The challenge facing David Cameron has changed

"He expected to replace a regime that had run its course and missed its chance. Now it is more likely that he will inherit a landscape of economic wreckage, perhaps even a sense of imminent emergency. His mission will involve the heavy lifting of national reconstruction rather than simply the therapeutic task of helping the country get over the Gordon gloom.  It will be the Tory leader's task not only to reform, but to rebuild." - Matthew d'Ancona in The Sunday Telegraph

Tony Benn explains why he is backing David Davis' campaign - The Sunday Telegraph

One of David Davis' spin doctors has also promoted ID cards - Independent on Sunday

The former Tory MP who is challenging David Davis - South Wales Echo

Caroline Spelman sacked the secretary who complained about her to the Tory Whips - Mail on Sunday

David Cameron is right to say Heathrow hasn't made case for third runway - Alistair Osborne in The Sunday Telegraph

Profile of Dominic Grieve - The Sunday Times

Yet another reason to leave the EPP

"British MEPs are joining a 200-strong European parliament jaunt to Paris this week, costing the taxpayer up to £200,000.  The three-day trip, organised by the European People’s party (EPP), a centre-right group, will include dinner at the Palais de Versailles and a champagne boat trip down the Seine." - The Sunday Times

"Just to be accused of racism, however unfairly, can get you fired from public life"

Rod Liddle, in The Sunday Times, reflects on the unfair treatment received by James McGrath.

"The second coming of IDS"

"How did the ex-Tory leader become the patron saint of Britain's inner-city kids?" - A major profile of Iain Duncan Smith's social justice mission in The Observer

SNP deny Wendy Alexander's claims that she was treated in a partisan way by ethics committee - BBC

Brown's unpopularity is putting the Union at risk

"For Brown, the threat is far worse than going down as another unpopular PM with a brief tenure. Instead, he risks being remembered as a figure who was cavalier in unleashing forces which weakened the United Kingdom, and that his mishandled premiership was an agent of the country's eventual destruction. Labour is going down. The fear is that it takes the Union with it." - Iain Martin in The Sunday Telegraph

Scotland is about to win independence on the web: .sco will replace .uk within Scottish Executive web addresses - Scotland on Sunday

Labour's donors turn on Gordon Brown - The Sunday Times

Families hit by greatest tax burden since 1991 - The Sunday Telegraph

Drug and alcohol addiction fuels growth in welfare dependency - Mail on Sunday

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

28 Jun 2008 08:59:19

Saturday 28th June 2008

9.30pm ToryDiary: Six Conservative MPs have shares in Zimbabwe-operating firms, says Independent on Sunday

7pm Martin Parsons on CentreRight: A future Conservative government needs to speak with both truth AND responsibility about Islam to avoid hate attacks on Muslims increasing

1pm PlayPolitical video: Testing time for McCain as Clinton and Obama campaign together in Unity, New Hampshire

12pm Local Government: C-Charge put in doubt as Conservative becomes Manchester's "Mr Transport"

11.30am ToryDiary: Tory MPs' away weekend

Seats and Candidates: Glasgow East MP said to be set to quit over ill-health

Platform: Dan Munford pays tribute to Owen Paterson's campaign for a train service from Mid-Wales to London

Nile Gardiner on CentreRight: The plight of Christians in Iraq

PlayPolitical:

• Mugabe dares the world to interfere
• Six minute examination of widespread abuse of expenses by MEPs from all countries
• Short funny video by WWF about the consequences of your actions

Wendy Alexander to resign

"Speculation was growing last night that Wendy Alexander, the Labour leader in Scotland, is about to resign. It comes after a Scottish Parliament Committee decided this week to suspend Ms Alexander from proceedings at Holyrood for a day for breaking the rules on declaring donations to her leadership campaign. Her resignation would be a huge blow to the Prime Minister in his political backyard." - Times

9.30am: "Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander is expected to announce she will stand down, the BBC understands."

Another bad poll as Levy turns the screw

"An opinion poll for The Independent gives the Conservatives a 21-point lead over Labour, which should now "seriously consider" dumping Gordon Brown, according to [Lord Levy]. Labour backbenchers called on cabinet ministers to tell Mr Brown to quit after the party came a humiliating fifth in the Henley by-election, behind the Greens and the BNP. "Brown's people said it couldn't get any worse – now it has," said a senior Labour MP." - Andrew Grice in the Independent

> 21% ahead with ComRes

Cameron fears 'witch-hunt' aimed at Caroline Spelman

"Eric Pickles, the Conservatives' local government spokesman, is being lined up as a potential replacement for party chairman Caroline Spelman... The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is investigating the claims, but some Tory MPs are privately urging Mr Cameron to sack Mrs Spelman now, rather than let the matter drag on, allowing Labour to make capital out of the issue." - Telegraph

"This potentially devastating new claim cast the Spelman affair in a fresh light, and some MPs now believe that she ought to stand down at once. David Cameron, however, is still supportive, taking the line that everyone should be regarded as innocent until proven guilty, and that his party chairman is entitled to stay in office until the parliamentary commissioner reaches his verdict." - Peter Oborne in the Mail

Angry Tories accuse BBC of hyping up latest allegations - Birmingham Post

> 20% of members voted for Pickles a year ago

10p rate still an issue

"Attempts to moderate the impact are not enough, declared a committee stuffed with MPs from his own ranks. A few rebel amendments have also been tabled to next week's Finance Bill that would further water down the impact on the poor from ending the 10p tax. A damning indictment of the policy is illustrated by a survey of 5,000 voters by PoliticsHome. Despite media obsession with the Prime Minister's indecision over whether or not to hold an election, it was the abolition of the 10p tax rate which was seen as his biggest mistake by the public." - Scotsman

Gordon Brown is facing a £1 billion annual bill for the 1.1 million people who have yet to be compensated for the 10p tax fiasco - Times

The significance of the Tory vote going up in Henley

"The Liberal Democrats deployed all their formidable byelection black arts to try to win Henley but ended up with a share of the vote only 2% greater than in 2005, compared with the 18% increase they notched in Bromley.If you are looking for the real significance of Henley, this was it. For a quarter of a century and more, no byelection in a Conservative seat in southern England has been safe from massive tactical voting against the incumbent party, mainly to the benefit of the Lib Dems." - Martin Kettle in the Guardian

Chris Rennard gives his side of the story - LibDemVoice

Harman's Discrimination Bill blamed

"[Harriet Harman's] decision to announce a new Equalities Bill which positively discriminates against men was cited as a reason why some of the "white working class" did not even consider voting Labour." - Telegraph

"People comparing pay slips! You show me yours and I'll show you mine? How excrutiating, how un-British! Rather I like the Conservative Party's more muscular proposal that any employer losing a discrimination case at an employment tribunal would suffer a compulsory salary audit. An exquisite punishment to dangle over City firms: their bigger- bonuses-for-boys scams laid bare." - Janice Turner in the Times

Told you so

"A few years ago, when the tyrant of Zimbabwe was moving from being wicked to being downright evil, I wrote that we should invade Harare, depose him, and supervise free elections. Invited to appear on a BBC programme to defend this stance, I was assailed by an "Africa expert" who told me that diplomatic pressure on Mugabe was bound to work, that the idea of sending the Parachute Regiment in to sort the monster out was offensively colonialist, and that I was wrong." - Simon Heffer in the Telegraph

In depth look at the intimidation - Times

We should never lose sight of the fact that in some countries politics are literally a matter of life and death - Telegraph leader

We are deluding ourselves if we think that getting rid of one mad, old tyrant will stop the barbarism - Matthew Parris in the Times

Britons saving less than since records began - Mail

The terrorist danger posed by private jets - Mail

Suspected senior al-Qu'eda terrorist to be freed on bail - Telegraph

Obama to visit London - Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

27 Jun 2008 02:00:16

Friday 27th June 2008

10pm ToryDiary: 21% ahead with ComRes

5.30pm Samuel Coates on CentreRight: In defence of Hug-A-Hoodie

5pm ToryDiary: Fastest ever fall in personal ratings for a PM

2.45pm Seats and candidates: David Davis launches 'Ten Promises To Protect British Freedom'

2.15pm Seats and candidates: Getting blood out of a stone (a little more transparency on MEP selection)

1.30pm: PlayPolitical videos: ITN report on Henley result and Andrew Lansley explains why Polyclinics endanger the doctor-patient relationship

11.45am ToryDiary: Schools should be able to make profits

11am Peter Whittle on CentreRight: Samir Shah forced to resign from BBC (not)

10am: PoliticsHome has David Cameron's reaction to Henley

ToryDiary: Massive victory for Conservatives in Henley, Labour come fifth

ToryDiary: Caroline Spelman should quit says Portillo

Local Government: The other by-election story...

Platform: Ben Jones charts the rapid progress of the Conservatives in Liverpool

Simon Chapman on CentreRight welcomes Tory opposition to the Planning Bill... and hopes we might make more of our standing up to big business.

PlayPolitical video: 100 second Sky video reviews Brown's first year

Tories 18% in YouGov/ Telegraph poll - ToryDiary

"New Labour has long since lost its reputation as the party of economic competence. Only two years ago, at the time of the last election, Labour's lead over the Conservatives on the crucial economic issue was 22 points. Now the Tories lead by 15 points. Those numbers will almost certainly not be reversed again during the next two years." - Anthony King in The Telegraph

"Mr Brown's problem €”- and it may be insurmountable - is that MPs, the media and voters are no longer listening." - Peter Riddell in The Times

Cameron orders Tories to 'go easy' on Brown - Daily Mail

Caroline Spelman's former secretary was first to question payments to nanny

"A former secretary of Caroline Spelman has rejected claims by the Tory party chairman that she used her nanny for constituency work and was justified in claiming her wages from parliamentary expenses. Sally Hammond, who became a part-time secretary to Spelman in 1999, told the BBC2 Newsnight programme that she was "shocked" to discover just how much her former employer was paying Tina Haynes." - Guardian

Wendy Alexander, Labour's Scottish leader, faces one day ban for dodgy donations - BBC

David Cameron wins gushing praise in France - Telegraph

The Telegraph reports that Mr Cameron did not meet President Sarkozy.  That's NOT our understanding.  ConservativeHome understands that Mr Cameron and the French President met for 20 minutes on the margins of the IDU; a gathering of centre right parties.

Ealing rape victim will stand against David Davis - Independent | Seats and candidates

Sir Simon Milton calls for profit-making schools

"Private companies should be allowed to run state schools at a profit and be free to dismiss teachers who are not up to the job, the head of the Local Government Association (LGA) said yesterday." - Times

Need more than tactical tricks

"Some time soon the Conservatives need to get serious. If Gordon Brown’s government is buckling under the burdens of office, David Cameron’s party scarcely looks ready for them. Hit-and-run politics is fine if you expect to stay in opposition. A government-in-waiting has to come up with a few answers." - Philip Stephens in the FT

Nick Robinson looks at whether the Tories are ready to govern - BBC

96% of small business leaders dissatisfied with Government - FT

Business leaders warn that Harman's Equality Bill will be bureaucratic nightmare - Daily Mail | ToryDiary

30 peers employ staff who are also lobbyists - Independent

Annie Lennox backs Scottish independence - Scotsman

Oprah Winfrey and Elton John join birthday party for Nelson Mandela - Daily Mail

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.