Saturday 27th December 2008

9.45pm ToryDiary: George Osborne hints at trio of tax cuts

3.15pm ToryDiary: Hague calls for restraint from Israel as 155 die in Gaza air raids

2pm Alex Deane on CentreRight: Heathrow

11.45am Local government: Eric Pickles warns of "nice neighbourhood tax"

11.45am Dan Hamilton on CentreRight decides that it's time to privatise Channel 4 after its Christmas message from Iran

11.30am Alex Deane on CentreRight is back in Britain... but unhappy about our climate

ToryDiary: Theresa Villiers deserves to stay in the shadow cabinet and Edward Leigh MP as you've never seen him before

Seats and candidates: 119 of 120 Tory candidates in marginal seats support repeal of hunting ban

Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: "One BBC corresponent with a blog told me that blogging was now their favourite part of their journalism.  "I get the best of both worlds," they told me, "I get the huge BBC audience and the pleasure of being a newspaper-style columnist.""

Suli Shah on CentreRight: "Ahmadinejad is a senior leader of a regime that denies its own people the most basic freedoms and has vowed to wipe out Israel in his hate filled speeches. Channel 4 should be utterly ashamed of itself."

WATCH: Channel 4 broadcasts 'Alternative Christmas message' from Iran's President

Jeremy Hunt proposes School Olympics

"Jeremy Hunt, the shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, is considering proposals which would see schools compete against each other in a variety of events at local, county and regional levels, before a national championships was held in a major UK city." - Telegraph

Edward Garnier MP plans tribunal to ensure hunting stays ethical after repeal of Labour legislation - Times

"Record numbers turned out for the Boxing Day hunts yesterday with both supporters and opponents heaping more criticism on the ban introduced under Labour. More than 300,000 huntsmen and followers converged on the countryside to take part in or cheer on events across England, Wales and Scotland." - Daily Mail

Nick Herbert attacks Labour's record on foreign prisoners

"The Conservatives said statistics showed that for every three foreigners removed from the UK, two were freed having served less than half their sentence and with a taxpayer-funded allowance, and six more were added to the prison population." - BBC

Secret surveillance of Damian Green to be investigated

"The Met confirmed that a tape recording of Mr Green's detention was made "without his knowledge" but with the "best of intentions". In a statement, the police added that the matter would now be referred to the surveillance watchdog, the Office for the Surveillance Commissioners." - Telegraph

The Conservative Party wasted £500,000 recruiting online 'friends'

"A £500,000 Conservative campaign to build an army of online supporters resulted in only one person signing up at one of the four websites targeted, Financial Times research has revealed."

Will the Conservatives rescue the high-taxed middle classes? - Simon Heffer in The Telegraph

"We must refight the battles of the 1970s" - George Bridges sets out the Conservative task in The Telegraph

The Camerons' Yorkshire Christmas

"Tory leader Dave, his wife Samantha and the kids are staying with her father, Sir Reginald Sheffield, at his 18th century stately home, Sutton Park. The £5million house has beautiful parkland and boasts a rich collection of treasures, including paintings from Buckingham House (better known these days as Buckingham Palace)." - Paul Routledge in The Mirror (using the stay for a spot of class war).

"Tory leader David Cameron attended the Christmas service at York Minster with his wife and children, hearing Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu warn bankers against "exploitative lending"... After the service, the Archbishop spoke briefly to the Tory leader and his young sons. Mr Cameron praised the Archbishop for the "lovely service". He said: "He made us think about all those less fortunate than ourselves. It was a lovely sermon, a beautiful service and lovely singing." - Yorkshire Post

The EU spends £2.3bn on propaganda (more than Coca-Cola) - Daily Mail

Government considers cinema-style age ratings for websites - BBC

Brown's rebellious MPs

"Gordon Brown suffered more backbench rebellions in his first full year as Prime Minister than Tony Blair in his first four-year Parliament, according to research. The total of 103 revolts during the 2007-08 parliamentary session was the most inflicted on any governing party for more than 30 years." - Times

George W Bush is winning the war on terror

"Ten or twenty years from now, historians will view Bush's actions on the world stage in a more favourable light. America's 43rd president did after all directly liberate more people (over 60 million) from tyranny than any leader since Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt." - Nile Gardiner in The Telegraph

Wisdom from Oliver Kamm on Harold Pinter

"The political world that Pinter conjured up was an extravagant fantasy. In it, the Western democracies exemplified not imperfection or even moral failings, but venality and bloodlust. To Pinter, the modern US had only one point of comparison: “Nazi Germany wanted total domination of Europe and they nearly did it. The US wants total domination of the world and is about to consolidate that.” - Times

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