Tuesday 28th April 2009

10pm Ruth Lea on CentreRight: The Labour Government is dishonest, self-serving and rotten to the core

6pm Local Government: Boris Johnson launches sports programme.

5pm ToryDiary: You know the game's up for Labour when... Jarvis Cocker says a Tory victory is "necessary"

4pm WATCH: Speaking in Warsaw, Gordon Brown defends his plans on MPs' expenses

2.30pm Jonathan Isaby on CentreRight: Eric Pickles reveals his top five websites

1pm Parliament: Lord Tebbit on the cost of illegal immigration

12.45pm ToryDiary: Conservatives question the Government's readiness to respond to a flu outbreak

12.15pm Seats and candidates: Lord Portillo?

11.30am Parliament: Dominic Grieve: "Prison crisis is entirely of the Government's own making"

11.15am Mark Field MP on CentreRight: "Conservatives appreciate that raising tax now even on the wealthiest in our communities risks prolonging the UK's economic downturn"

11am Parliament: When should pupils be expelled from schools?

10.15am Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: The battle of the petitions

10am Charlie Elphicke on CentreRight: Beware triumphalism!

ToryDiary:

• The Times launches unfair attack on David Cameron's attempts to promote women
• Eric Pickles' video takes us inside CCHQ...

Mark Brooks on Platform: Because of male cancers, boys' education, male suicides... We need a Minister for Men

Star Chamber public spending saving idea 7: No more UK aid for India

Local government:

• One in ten Manchester Council staff on long term sick leave
  
• Labour member told she is "too white and Jewish" to stand for Birmingham Council
• Profile of West Sussex in advance of June 4th's elections
  

New ComRes poll puts Tories 19% ahead - Independent | Yesterday evening's ToryDiary

Click on the image on the right to enlarge a Telegraph chart of their YouGov polls >>> 

David Cameron demands referendum on new EU constitution from Gordon Brown - Telegraph

> Put the EU-turn widget on your own website
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: David Cameron launches new campaign for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty

Unlike Geoffrey Howe, George Osborne will wield the axe from day one

"The Thatcher government sparked outrage in 1981 by cutting spending and raising taxes in the midst of recession. Some 364 indignant economists famously called for a change of course. As it happens, one of them was Mervyn King, now governor of the Bank of England. George Osborne, Mr Cameron’s shadow chancellor, has a rather different take. The mistake was not to have acted sooner. The 1981 Budget should have been unveiled in 1979. The implication is that a Cameron government would act swiftly and decisively to restore the public finances." - Philip Stephens in the FT

Cameron's 'Austerity' speech was in total contrast to his first speeches as leader - Michael Brown in The Independent

Is the Thatcher era over?

"One of Mrs Thatcher’s most famous phrases was: “There is no alternative.” As yet, no major political figure in Britain or the western world has really articulated a coherent alternative to the free-market principles inherited from Thatcherism. Until that happens, the Thatcher era will not be definitively over." - Gideon Rachman in the FT

Margaret Thatcher backs The Sun's campaign for justice for Gurkhas - The Sun

Scottish Tories hold family and social justice conference

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie's remarks are captured by The Herald: "A family can be a single mum or dad who looks after and takes responsibility for a child, where they provide a loving and caring environment. But mothers or fathers who ply their kids with alcohol or don't make them go to school or don't make sure they are in by a reasonable hour or are not concerned by their child's behaviour are not good parents. The family is the natural building block in any society. If these foundations are unstable, society is unstable, and that instability is self-perpetuating."

Chris Grayling's backing for knighthood for Ryan Giggs covered in The Sun - MustBeRed.com

LABOUR REBELLION 1: Stephen Byers attacks his own party for "cynical move" on 50p tax - BBC
LABOUR REBELLION 2: Cabinet rebels want ID cards scrapped now - Independent
LABOUR REBELLION 3: Scottish QC defects to Tories over Labour failure on crime - Telegraph

LABOUR RETREAT 1: Brown on his daily allowance for MPs plan - BBC
LABOUR RETREAT 2: Jack Straw abandons Titan prison plans - BBC
LABOUR RETREAT 3: Jacqui Smith scraps giant email database plan - Daily Mail | Video

...But one lady woman is not for turning:

"Harriet Harman yesterday published her landmark equalities bill, defying business by insisting that all companies with more than 250 employees publish the average pay of male and female staff by 2013. The proposal, part of a sweeping review of more than 100 pieces of British equality legislation, was condemned by the CBI, the Engineering Employers Federation and the British Chambers of Commerce." - Guardian

Polly Toynbee salutes the Harman Bill (but wishes it had happened in 1997) - The Guardian

Theresa May said yesterday that she was unconvinced by Ms Harman's reforms - PoliticsHome

Edwina Currie: Equality is fine, but this absurd bill will be a disaster for women and Britain - Daily Mail

Photograph of the climate protestors who glued themselves to Commons statue - Sky

HAVE YOU SIGNED THE 'BROWN MUST GO' PETITION?

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