Sunday 31st January 2010
7.30pm WATCH: David Cameron says a Tory government will start to cut within its first year but declines to quantify the cuts
5.15pm Seats and candidates: John Glen wins Salisbury
1.45pm ToryDiary: New ConservativeHome survey is live
11.15am Seats and candidates: Local candidate Ian Axton's last minute withdrawal from Salisbury selection
10.15am ToryDiary: Cameron's dynamite quote on householders' rights
10pm ToryDiary: Captions please...
David Burrowes MP on Platform: Labour has failed to deliver justice for victims of crime
Seats and candidates: Are shortlists too long?
Local government: Havering to cut council tax by 0.5%
LeftWatch: Outstripping inflation, the cost of politics rises to £650m under Labour
International: Disagreements on tax, Afghanistan and with her conservative base upset Merkel's second term
WATCH:
- Boris dancing (MUST SEE!)
- Lord Bates explains how Conservatives are leading the fight to protect religious liberties
Brown used violence against staff - Last night's LeftWatch
Brown is ready to "go on and on" after defeat if Tories win indecisive victory - The Sunday Times
Brown aims to outspend the Tories on defence in 2010/11
"The amount spent by Britain on the war in Afghanistan is to be boosted by £1.5 billion to £5 billion over the next 12 months... In a further move to shore up military spending, ministers will shortly announce that the overall annual budget for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which is £35 billion for the current year (2009-10) will be "ring-fenced" for 2010-11.... Gordon Brown will challenge the Tories to match the government's commitment." - The Sunday Telegraph
...but Tories will give extra money to local government to freeze council tax - The Observer
David Cameron plans to put Iain Duncan Smith in charge of a Department for Social Justice - The Sunday Telegraph
George Osborne issues new warning on bank bonuses
"It is totally unacceptable to pay large bonuses, large cash bonuses in particular, at a time when the taxpayer is still reeling from the cost of bailing out the banking system, and when businesses across the country cannot get access to credit on reasonable terms." - The Sunday Telegraph
Senior Tories dismiss stories of tensions between Osborne and Cameron over extent of early cuts - Mail on Sunday
Vince Cable warns that early cuts could send Britain into double dip recession - Mail on Sunday
The Sunday Times says Cameron is right to retreat from threat of large spending cuts
Osborne to take on Darling and Cable in election debate - The Sunday Times
Tories are considering two year freeze in BBC licence fee
"Conservatives plan to keep the licence at its present level - £142 a year - for at least two years. But a three-year freeze would cost the corporation about £300million in real terms... Lord Fowler, chairman of the Lords’ Select Committee on Communications, revealed the licence fee plans after releasing a report entitled The British Film and Television Industries - Decline or Opportunity? He said: “The licence fee may get frozen for a year or two but the fee as such is a system that will continue. I don’t think David Cameron wants to change that.” - Sunday Express
David Davis breaks ranks on Iraq war, saying it has made world less safe
"The final price of this war is not yet settled. It has not destroyed the morale of al-Qaida; if anything, it has given it a new moral cause. It distracted us from Afghanistan – the necessary war – and has rendered it a thousand times more difficult to resolve. And it has taken the west from a position of moral superiority to moral failure. Where would we be without your war, Tony Blair? Even by your own criteria, in a rather better position than we are now, I fear." - David Davis in The Observer
Fraser Nelson in the News of the World finds Blair innocent of being America's poodle but guilty of losing the war.
> WATCH: Despite mistakes in Iraq, Cameron tells CNN that he is glad Saddam is gone
"Calls to clarify Lord Ashcroft's position after revelation that he provided flights for William Hague's visit to Havana last year, and then accompanied him to top-level meetings" - Observer
Could David Willetts' future lie in a more literary direction? - The Observer profile
Former Tory MP Piers Merchant left all his £695,000 estate to his wife who stood by him despite his affair with a younger woman - Mail on Sunday
Ed Miliband declares war on climate change sceptics - Observer
Labour plans to force cigarettes to be sold in in plain, unbranded packets in the war on smoking - Sunday Telegraph
Blair's £1.5m Africa Panel fails to scrutinise aid pledges - Sunday Telegraph
And finally...
If Cameron becomes PM he can invite ANYONE to lunch. Nigel Farndale in The Sunday Telegraph recommends Cheryl Cole and Joanna Lumley...
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