Newslinks for Monday 6th May 2013

7.45pm LeftWatch: No benefits without two years of NI. Work permits for all Europeans. No more single market. A populist right party? No - a Labour MP

3.30pm Tory Diary: Boris Johnson can take on Nigel Farage

11.30am Tory Diary: Almost half of Tory members believe Cameron will be Prime Minister after the next election

We lead with five posts on where the Tories are, and what Cameron should do now:

Tory Diary: A third of Conservative Party members want an electoral pact with UKIP in 2015

The Deep End: If UKIP isn’t libertarian – and it really isn’t – then what does it stand for?

Majority Conservatism: The first of a series of Five ideas for Cameron: 1) He needs an Inner Cabinet. With Graham Brady in it.

Nick Pickles on Comment: Voters would laugh the sham of a mandate referendum out of court

Also on Comment: Professor Tim Bale - The balance of advantage for the Conservatives has shifted. They would now be better off with PR.

Councillor Phil Taylor on Local Government: Councils need more power if local elections are to be on local issues

In the aftermath of the local elections and run-up to the Queen's Speech...

1) Senior backbenchers tell Cameron to drop same-sex marriage bill

"Sir Gerald Howarth, the former Defence Minister, said that his constituents were “fed up to the back teeth” with the Government. He challenged Mr Cameron to adopt a five-point plan that encompassed taking Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, doing more to cut immigration, triggering a prompt EU referendum, freezing the aid budget and scrapping the gay marriage Bill." - The Times (£)

> Today: Majority Conservatism: The first of a series of Five ideas for Cameron: 1) He needs an Inner Cabinet. With Graham Brady in it.

2) Hammond, Shapps say Referendum Bill will be published before next election (but will it be voted on?)

“The Conservative Party will publish a draft version of an EU referendum bill before the next election, the party chairman has confirmed, even though such a vote will not be held until 2017. As senior Tories fight among themselves to decide the best way to counter the anti-EU Ukip threat, Grant Shapps told the BBC he backed moves to publish a draft bill and challenge Labour and the Liberal Democrats to support it” – Financial Times

> Today: Nick Pickles on Comment: Voters would laugh the sham of a mandate referendum out of court

> Yesterday:

• ToryDiary: Redwood wants an EU poll bill. So does Baron. Both raise the question: How long should the coalition last?
• John Redwood MP on Comment: Why we need a referendum now – to give Mr Cameron the authority to create a new relationship with the EU

3) Cameron cuts loose bill to enshrine 0.7% aid commitment

"Last week, the Daily Mail reported that the measure would not be included in this week’s Queen’s Speech but may be brought in next year, as promised in the  Coalition agreement. But it is now understood to have been shelved entirely, to the fury of Liberal Democrats, some Tories and anti-poverty campaigners." - Daily Mail

> Yesterday: ToryDiary - The Queen's Speech and the language of priorities

ConservativeHome poll: A third of Tory members want a pact with UKIP...

"A poll of Tory members for the ConservativeHome website found that 34 per cent would support a pact with Nigel Farage ahead of the election amid fears that many traditional Tories are deserting David Cameron...In the poll, which questioned 800 Conservative members online immediately after the council elections on Friday, 34 per cent of members said the party "should seek to form a pact with Ukip at the next general election." - Daily Telegraph

...As Farage' deploys his familiar gambit: drop your leader, he says to Tories, and I'll work with you...

“Buoyed by UKIP’s success at last week’s local council elections the party leader suggested that the Tories will have had enough of Mr Cameron before the next general election in 2015. He also said he would consider doing a deal with any other Tory leader. He has previously ruled out working with Mr Cameron who once dismissed Ukip as a bunch of ‘loonies, fruitcakes and closet racists’” – Daily Express

• Margaret Thatcher would have marginalized Farage – Robin Renwick, Daily Telegraph
• Dave needs to get a grip on Europe – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
• If Boris Johnson is the answer to UKIP, Tories are asking wrong question – John Harris, the Guardian
• Don’t panic yet, Dave. It’s Red Ed who should be worried – Peter McKay, Daily Mail

…Meanwhile, he confirms that he will stand as an MP in 2015

“Rumours were rife that Mr Farage might stand in a by-election before 2015. He said that was not possible as he wants to lead UKIP into the 2014 European elections. But he added: ‘Thereafter, yes, I will stand for a seat in 2015’” – The Sun

Today:

• Tory Diary: A third of Conservative Party members want an electoral pact with UKIP in 2015
• The Deep End: If UKIP isn’t libertarian – and it really isn’t – then what does it stand for?

Tim Montgomerie: Cameron's arrogance created Frankenstein’s monster that is UKIP...

“Spend most of your time as Tory leader ignoring the issue that matters most to your activist members: Europe. Launch your bid to be leader by promising to introduce a tax allowance for married couples and then, once you’ve won power, fail to deliver that pledge at four successive Budgets…It may have been more accident than deliberate plan, but as an unorthodox political experiment David Cameron’s systematic abuse of his party’s most loyal supporters is delivering predictable and predicted results. The UKIP monster is Mr Cameron’s Frankensteinian creation” – The Times (£)

...Paul Goodman: The Prime Minister's best means of killing the monster? Reducing the deficit, cutting immigration, reforming welfare, keeping energy bills down - a programme for the marginals

“Mr Cameron’s best means of dealing with Ukip lies in playing the single card of high value available to him but not to Mr Farage – namely, that he is the prime minister. Since he cannot out-rebel the Ukip leader, he must fall back on the authority of office, which though diminished is not exhausted. Rather than lurch to the right or the left, or in any direction, the prime minister must shape a programme that will appeal to the voters in northern and midlands marginal seats."  Financial Times

Osborne home plan "risks price bubble

"In a scathing attack on the Chancellor’s plan, announced in the Budget, to get more people on to the housing ladder, a financial consultancy run by former Bank of England economists said that the scheme could push up prices by almost 30 per cent from the current average of £233,000. Fathom Consulting said that the fact that many people could not buy property was “keeping a lid” on house price inflation." - The Times (£)

• The Mail makes a meal out of a George Osborne clown tweet

German euro founder calls for “catastrophic” currency to be broken up

“Mr Lafontaine said he backed EMU but no longer believes it is sustainable. "Hopes that the creation of the euro would force rational economic behaviour on all sides were in vain," he said, adding that the policy of forcing Spain, Portugal, and Greece to carry out internal devaluations was a "catastrophe". Mr Lafontaine was labelled "Europe's Most Dangerous Man" by The Sun after he called for a "united Europe" and the "end of the nation state" in 1998." – Daily Telegraph

Nigel Evans denies rape claims and refuses to quit

“Mr Evans, 55, who came out as gay in 2010 after years of gossip, said he had just endured ‘the worst 24 hours of my life’. After being released on bail, he vehemently denied the accusations, revealing that the men knew each other and that he had ‘continued to socialise with one as recently as last week’” – Daily Mail

• Deputy Speaker was interviewed about “inappropriate sexual behaviour” by former Chief Whip – Daily Telegraph
• Being Tory and gay: a recent history -  Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail
• Lord Rennard campaigned for Lib Dems despite “groping” allegations – Daily Mail
• Slice of cake nearly killed Lib Dem MP – Daily Mail

> Yesterday: ToryDiary - Nigel Evans denies "completely false" rape allegations

Charles Moore on Jesse Norman’s new life of Edmund Burke

"It is not society that keeps mankind in chains, but the pretence that now is the only time that matters. Almost every piece of rot you hear in politics comes from those who wish to lock man into what WH Auden called ''the prison of his days’’. It is comforting that the Burkean Jesse Norman is in the House of Commons to tell them when they are wrong." - Daily Telegraph

Rise of “white flight” is creating a segregated UK

“White Britons are 'retreating' from areas dominated by ethnic minorities, a study has revealed. Analysis of census figures shows that white Britons are leaving areas where they are in a minority and are being replaced by immigrants and other ethnic minorities. As a result, nearly half of ethnic minorities – 4 million people – live in communities where whites make up less than half the population, the study by the Demos think-tank found. Demos said the survey showed a 'spiral of white British demographic decline' as white Britons choose to leave minority-dominated areas” – Daily Mail

Lord Blair says suspects must be named

"Suspects must be named when they are arrested, a former head of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday. His comments came as senior figures urged an end to the culture of secret justice taking root in the wake of the Leveson report. Lord Blair said it was in the interests of justice for suspects to be named because the resulting publicity could help uncover vital evidence” – Daily Mail

London skyline illustrates gap with rest of Britain

“Britain’s economic divide between London and the rest of the country has been laid bare by data showing more cranes have been erected in the capital in the past three years than everywhere else put together” – Financial Times

News in brief

• Andrew Adonis on how the coalition was formed: extracts from his new book – The Times (£)
• UK to pay Mau Mau victims – The Guardian
• New NHS helpline is putting patients’ lives at risk -The Independent
• Patten says BBC will compensate Stuart Hall’s victims – Daily Mail
• Niall Ferguson “first claimed Keynes was gay 20 years ago” – The Times (£)
• Father and daughter killed in speedboat carnage – Daily Mail
• How I bicycled from London to Oxfordshire – Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph
• At last, a sunny Bank Holiday – Daily Express

And finally...Boris's Bank Holiday hymn to the joys of cycling and the beauty of spring

"There is nowhere more beautiful than England in May. The tulips were still out; the hawthorn blossom like gunsmoke across the battlefield; the sun soft; everything surging and budding with spring; and though the old bike was clanking badly now I knew we had almost made it – and wheeee! I went down the other side of the hills like something from Enid Blyton, so fast and for so long that I wore out both brake pads; and after another 10 easy miles I was there." - Daily Telegraph

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