ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

Nick Herbert responds to Law Commission's cohabitation proposals

The Law Commission today published a report proposing reform of the law affecting cohabiting couples property and finances when their relationship ends. The main thrust of the proposals is that couples without children who have been cohabiting for two years or more should be able to make a financial claim.

Nick Herbert, The Shadow Justice Secretary, has responded to the Law Commission's proposals saying:

"We will consider these proposals carefully.  However, they need to be tested against the key objectives of strengthening families and protecting children.  Our concern is that creating new rights for cohabitants in an attempt to ensure fairness - 'marriage lite' - could undermine the institution which gives children the most stability.

"It must be possible for couples without children to remain financially independent, if that is what they choose, without complicated and expensive legal arrangements.

"The proposals raise fundamental questions about the correct legal framework to govern families and people living together.  There needs to be a proper debate about these issues before the Government decides to introduce legislation."

July survey is now live

ConservativeHome's July survey is now live. 

Please click here to have your say.

David Cameron says good discipline is the key to successful schools

In a speech on education to Policy Exchange this morning David Cameron started by talking of the family. He spoke of the importance of his own family, his belief that the family the bedrock of society and said: 

For most families, school is or should be a further extension of its own role and authority – a place for professional attention in addition to the informal instruction of home. For a minority of children, however, school supplies what the family fails to give – it conveys the life lessons that have not been learned at home. And that is why it’s so important that schools are properly independent institutions, properly part of the community that they are in.

He identified the three key Labour failures saying "in education, the whole country is still suffering from a series of orthodoxies which are a sort of hangover from the 1960s"

• That all children are identical, therefore they should be put in the same class at the same school.
• That education is a process of solitary discovery, not of learning from a teacher.
• That schools should be unaccountable outposts of the central state.

The focus of David Cameron's speech was improving behaviour in mainstream schools. He said Conservatives would:

• Make home-school contracts enforceable
• Give teachers anonymity when allegations of abuse are made
• Make a headteacher's decision to exclude final by remove the right of excluded pupils to appeal to the local authority
• Better support for those pupils who are excluded by stopping the closure of special schools; intervening earlier with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and building a new relationship between state schools and those voluntary bodies and social enterprises which have expertise in helping children who get excluded.

You can read the full speech here .

Cameron questions Miraj's motives

Interviewed on this morning's Today programme David Cameron made it clear that he would be sticking to his programme of modernisation.  The Conservative leader was quizzed first on Ali Miraj's overnight attack (read it in full here) for his alleged obsession with PR.  Mr Cameron responded with a direct questioning of his critic's motives:

"I think listeners will draw their own conclusions about someone who one day asks for a peerage, to be elevated to the House of Lords, and the next minute launches a great attack on the leader of the Conservative Party."

I think we can safely say that Ali won't be joining the green or red benches any time soon as a Conservative.  Tune into Radio 4's World at One for Ali Miraj's response.

Mr Cameron was also asked about other criticisms from Graham Brady, Lord Saatchi and Lord Kalms.  Eschewing bridge-building he said that Mr Brady's views had to be understood in light of his resignation over grammar schools and Lord Kalms had backward-looking views and had never supported him as leader.  He said that he understood many of his reforms had been unpopular but that there would be no U-turns:

"When you make changes to the party as I have done, when you put it in the centre ground, when you change the policy on the NHS and say it there for everyone not opt-outs for a few, when you are as clear as I am that you have got to have economic stability before tax cuts, not everyone is going to agree."

He said that opinion polls come and go but the fundamentals of Labour failure would soon reassert themselves.

"When you look at the fundamentals, what's going wrong in our NHS, the fact that there isn't proper discipline in schools, the fact that the Government said 'we would give you a referendum on Europe' and now won't.  When you look at the fundamentals I don't think we are seeing real change in this Government and I don't think Gordon Brown can be the change the country needs."

1.15pm update: Speaking on the World at One Ali Miraj accused David Cameron of attempting to smear him and of a complete lack of integrity.  He pointed a finger at Andy Coulson and reminded readers of the royal phone bugging scandal that the new Tory Communications guru was associated with when he edited the News of the World.  He now seems on a mission to cause as much damage to Team Cameron as possible.

Labour lead just 3% in new Independent poll (and Tories are ahead with women)

Last night we posted about a Populus survey for The Times which put Labour 6% ahead.  Another survey by Communicate Research - for The Independent - puts the Labour lead at a more modest 3%.

Labour is on 37% (up 5% on last month).  The Conservatives are down 3% to 34%.  The LibDems are on 16%.

Reacting to Communicate Research's finding that the Labour lead is 9% amongst men but the Tories are 2% ahead amongst women, a Cabinet minister told The Independent: "Polling evidence we have had shows that women tend to be slower to switch than men. But they will come across."  I think that statement could be described as condescending!

Labour 6% ahead in Populus survey

A Populus survey of 1,511 people for tomorrow's Times gives Gordon Brown a 39% to 33% advantage over David Cameron's Conservatives.  The 6% lead is smaller than the 9% lead identified by YouGov last Friday but 3% bigger than last month's Populus survey.

On a scale of 0 to 10 Populus asked for voters' assessment of how various actors responded to the recent flooding.  Brown at 5.05 outpolled David Cameron on 3.75 but both were overshadowed by the ratings for the Armed Forces (7.82) and the fire service (8.72).

Gordon Brown (who affirmed the special relationship with George W Bush earlier today) was rated as having what it takes to be a good Prime Minister by 56% of respondents.  32% thought David Cameron has what it takes.  By 46% to 25% David Cameron was seen as more charismatic.

Lord Saatchi calls for an end to "nicey-nicey" politics

Lord Saatchi has today warned that "nicey-nicey" politics will not win us the next general election urging David Cameron to reach out to voters on the economy instead of focusing on branding. He said all of Mr Cameron's efforts so far had been "to no avail".

"Not a single poll in a single month in the past 15 years has given the Conservative Party a sufficient lead to win a general election," he wrote in the Evening Standard. Lord Saatchi argued that voters were put off by the two main parties fighting for the centre-ground, saying that David Cameron needs to find "an expression of true Conservative ideology".

Lord Saatchi said the grammar schools row showed an inconsistency in the Conservative approach leading voters to think: "He's only saying that. He doesn't mean it."

He also said that Tony Blair's party reforms in the mid 1990s had won Labour a reputation for economic competence."The earth shook," Lord Saatchi said. "When the Conservative Party moves along the dimension from nasty to nice, nothing happens. It follows that nothing will happen until the Conservative Party has something compelling to say about the subject that matters - economics."

Improving Special Needs Education

This morning the Conservative Policy Commission on Special Needs in Education published its recommendations to restore special school places and to involve parents more in their children’s education.

David Cameron set up the Policy Commission in 2005. It is chaired by Sir Bob Balchin. The report makes makes two key recommendations:

1. Special schools should be offered the opportunity to change to 'Special Academy Status', which would give them freedom to respond to the challenges presented by the loss of 9,000 special school places since 1997.

2. The assessment process should become independent, Statements should be replaced by ‘Special Needs Profiles’ produced by independent ‘Profile Assessors’. This would ensure that the categorisation given to children is not simply based on what their local authority can currently provide.

The report has been welcomed by Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove who said:

“The children most in need deserve a better deal. In the last ten years the failed ideology of ‘inclusion’ and the drop in special school places have left the most vulnerable more exposed. This report charts a way forward which puts parents back in the driving seat and I welcome it.”

The report will now be considered by the Shadow Cabinet.

You can download a copy of the report here.

Ainsworth calls for Environment Agency to pay back bonuses

After some criticism for failing to be sufficiently robust about the Government and Environment Agency's response to the floods and investment in flood defences, Peter Ainsworth MP has intervened to attack the bonuses paid to 'flood protection chiefs'.  Nine executives including Labour peer Baroness Young received bonuses of 10% or more.  The Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment said that executives and directors of the Agency had failed to protect people's homes:

"The Environment Agency recognised there were serious deficiencies in flood defences. Their failure has been in not preventing the Government cutting their budget and take warnings seriously enough."

The Telegraph has the full story.

1pm update: Further comment from Ainsworth:

“In the end the responsibility for budget cuts and problems with the response to the flooding lie firmly with the Government. However, if I worked at the Environment Agency in charge of flooding and I had just received a £24,000 bonus I would donate the money to the flood victims. It would be a nice gesture and would be well received but in the end the decision has to be made by the staff and their consciences.”

Platform 10 launches

As reported by Fraser Nelson a fortnight ago (see ConservativeHome's response) the new Cameroonian blog Platform 10 has now launched. Although there are only few articles up at the moment - on the Social Justice Policy Group, the Ealing and Sedgefield by-elections and organ donation - they perhaps give a flavour of the site's direction.

The launch of Platform 10 is another sign of the strength of the right wing blogosphere, as discussed by Peter Franklin in his recent column, and we look forward to engaging with it.

We wish Fiona Melville and her team at Platform 10 every success!

Brady calls for more balance in the party's politics

Graham Brady has recorded some frank advice to the party for Radio 4's The World This Weekend (to be broadcast at 1pm today). He started by describing the need to make in-roads outside of liberal metropolitan areas:

"The changes David Cameron has made in the Conservative Party have been very successful in some places, and have been better at reaching out to a more small 'L' liberal, metropolitan mindset, but have not been making the same impact further away from London - in the North, in the Midlands, in places which really are an absolutely key electoral battlefield if we're going to win a general election."

Going back to the issue of grammar schools - on which he resigned - Brady said it demonstrated the need to be on the side of the core conservative principle of aspiration:

"There is a kind of heartstrings tug. I think it goes to the very core of what the Conservative party is about, which people very often don't understand, which is about aspiration, it's about people having opportunities. Those are the really emotive things in our politics. The party seemed to get itself on the wrong side of that, which is a very dangerous place to be."

He said that Cameron hadn't got the balance right in the "politics of and":

"I think some of it is about the issues that David Cameron has chosen to focus more on, and some of it is about just tone. And there is a simple fact in political life that some messages and some styles play differently in different parts of the country. None of it is impossible to get over. I think David Cameron had the phrase a few weeks ago I heard him saying that what we needed to be dealing with was the politics of 'and' not the politics of 'or'. Of course you can talk about the environment, and you can give a grittier more relevant message to people in an inner city community who are worried about crime. And that I think is the balance that maybe so far we haven't quite got right - we need to get that right, and we need to do it quickly."

Deputy Editor

Is the Conservative Party in "a very grave crisis"?

That's certainly is the view of Peter Oborne in today's Mail:

"The Conservative Party really is in a very grave crisis indeed, and that crisis is about much more than the temporary difficulties facing David Cameron and the small group of modernisers who advise him. It concerns the future of the Conservative Party itself.  Gordon Brown, who is an accomplished and highly intelligent strategist, understands this extremely well. That is why almost everything he has sought to do since entering Downing Street five weeks ago has been designed to entrench the Labour Party in the centre, in some ways even the centre-Right, of British politics."

I'm currently in Canada and the Conservatives here are marvelling at Brown's repositions on dentetion without trial, casinos and cannabis.

Rob Wilson appointed Shadow Minister for Higher Education

Following Boris Johnson's resignation in order to seek the Conservative nomination for the London mayoralty Rob Wilson has been appointed Shadow Minister for Higher Education.

Rob was elected as a Member of Parliament in May 2005 after being selected by an open selection process that was pioneered in Reading East. He has served on the Education Select Committee for two years and sat on the Standing Committee for the Further Education Bill. He has also previously served as Education spokesman for Conservatives on Reading Borough Council.

It's time for hardball against Brown on security

One of the most interesting findings in the YouGov survey for today's Daily Telegraph (its headline 9% Labour lead was reported here last night) is overwhelming public support for extra detention powers for the police.  74% favoured "detaining terrorist suspects without charge for as long as the police need to carry out their enquiries, provided adequate judicial safeguards are in place."  17% did not favour such powers and 9% didn't know.  Tory MPs are overwhelmingly opposed to these extra powers.

Conservatives must find their own security issues - including the banning of extremist Muslim organisations like Hizb ut Tahrir - if they are to become competitive with Labour on security.  This is no time to allow Brown to dominate the agenda.  It's time for hardball tactics against Labour's record.  The summer must see the Tories launch a guerrila war against the Brown administration and its record.

It gets worse

A YouGov survey for tomorrow's Daily Telegraph gives Labour a 9% lead.  The Conservatives are down to 32%; 9% behind Labour on 41%.  The LibDems are on 16%.

Gordon Brown has an 18% lead over David Cameron when it comes to who voters think will make best Prime Minister.

More later...

Midnight: Only 27% believe that David Cameron is proving a good leader.  43% thought he was a good leader in February. 34% against 27% are currently satisfied with Gordon Brown's performance as Prime Minister.

David Cameron in Rwanda

Yesterday Stephen Crabb MP wrote about why David Cameron was right to press ahead with his visit to Rwanda. In this video, posted on WebCameron, David Cameron explains why it was important for him to go:

National and International Security Policy Group Report

Another day another policy group report. This morning the National and International Security Policy Group unveiled its final report at Chatham House. The group's chairman, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, was introduced by David Cameron who pointed out that he had placed her in a difficult position as she was now a member of the Shadow Cabinet to whom she was submitting a report. As well as David Cameron (who has not attended either of the two previous policy group launches) Liam Fox, William Hague and David Davis all attended.

In common with the reports launched by Social Justice Policy Group and the Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group this morning's report - entitled An Unquiet World - is comprehensive and substantial, David Cameron called it "hard headed, gritty and practical."

In her speech Dame Pauline started with a broad definition of what constitutes security; it encompasses our domestic as well as our foreign policy. She then highlighted three key conclusions;

• The growing world powers are in Asia; Britain should make more of its unique relationship with India.
• Power is shifting to the large producers of raw materials yet these countries are often unstable, authoritarian regimes where the resources are state owned.
• The ideological challenge of political Islam to liberal democracies; where Dame Pauline said we had to succeed, there can be no compromise.

The report does include all the recommendations we previewed this morning but in her speech Dame Pauline focussed on an increased use of diplomacy, highlighting the importance of the special relationship and calling for greater engagement with China and India; the need to integrate rather than alienate British Muslims, saying that separation is increasing, and starts early, often when choosing primary schools; and more support for our overstretched armed forces, calling for a defence review and the creation of a dedicated force to assist with civil emergencies.

Dame Pauline was critical of Gordon Brown's announcement yesterday about border police, saying that it was not comparable to the force being considered by the Conservatives.

In the questions afterwards David Cameron was asked about his strategy and he was resolute, saying he would "stay in the centre ground, battle for the centre ground."

Neville-Jones to present security ideas

Yesterday Gordon Brown announced his initiative on border policing - an idea originally proposed by the Conservatives.  After initially being welcomed by the Tories it was attacked by David Davis for excluding the police.  The Independent also found a delicious quote from Labour minister Liam Byrne when the Tories first proposed the policy:

"The chaos of a damaging, distracting and disruptive reorganisation of three agencies on the front line into a single border force. That idea is outdated and is rooted in a concept of a frontier that is long past.  It is simplistic and dangerous in the disruption that it poses. The number of people who seek to come to this country might double in the next 10 to 15 years, and I simply cannot think of a worse use of time than to consume front-line staff in the process of reapplying for their own jobs in a reorganisation, the benefits of which we are already achieving by equipping different agencies with the powers to do each other's jobs."

Today is the Conservative Party's turn at presenting their ideas on homeland security.  Dame Pauline Neville-Jones will present the findings of her policy group on security.  Here are some expected highlights:

• There is be the heavily-trailed promise of a US-style National Security Council to form long-term strategies on foreign policy, defence, internal security and national cohesion.
• The establishment of a dedicated civil emergencies force that would provide coordination and leadership in the event of a major terrorist incident.
• It will call for people from ethnic minority backgrounds to be respected as individual citizens rather than as members of groups.
• It proposes a new "Partnership for Open Societies" that would bring together major democracies and Middle East powers to promote stable, liberal democracy throughout the Middle East region.
• Attacking overstretch of the armed forces it calls for a review of defence policy every four years to ensure capacity matches mission.

We need to stop an autumn election - we don't need to change our leader

Fraser Nelson authors an article in this week's Spectator (not yet online) that speculates about the possibility of a fourth Tory defeat and who might then succeed a defeated David Cameron.  His hook for the article is the string of recent bad news stories for the party and Trevor Kavanagh's widely-reported prediction that 'Brown will win, and win big.'

Fraser Nelson starts his list with George Osborne: "George Osborne would be the continuity candidate: a moderniser to his fingertips. At 36, the Shadow Chancellor is five years younger than Mr Cameron - the same age William Hague was when he succeeded John Major. His easy charm has translated into a loyal following among party donors. He is telegenic, articulate and not deemed to be carrying much Old Tory baggage. He was privately scathing about ‘hug a hoodie’ and would certainly be tougher on crime and anti-terror legislation than Mr Cameron."

Then there's William Hague: "The Shadow Foreign Secretary is on record as saying that leading the Tory party once in a lifetime was enough for him. Yet he is at the centre of any leadership calculations made by senior Conservatives. He has undergone a remarkable rehabilitation since he quit in 2001 and at 46, is certainly young enough for a second shot. The question is whether he can be persuaded to step back into the spotlight. Has carved for himself a successful life outside politics, and makes £600,000 a year from business, speaking and literary pursuits... ‘But would he really want to repeat his suicide mission?’ asks one of his allies. Some who speak to him fear he may walk away from the front bench entirely — let alone wait to be leader again."

The list concludes with three figures from the right: David Davis (the pugilist who could counter the Great Clunking Fist) Liam Fox (whose robust views would provide clear blue water for the Tories) and Michael Gove.

Fraser's own conclusion is one I would readily echo:

"The more Tories ponder the alternatives, the clearer it becomes that there is no better option than the incumbent. Strikingly, no one I spoke to disputes this. One Shadow Cabinet member told me that, should Mr Cameron be run over by a bus, ‘I’d kill the bus driver.’"

Editor's comment: "There is no political messiah waiting in the wings to rescue the Conservative Party.  The Tory problem is not primarily one of leadership and there is no obvious alternative to the charismatic leader we have. Our party's problem is one of strategy. Prosperity and security are nearly always the top two issues for voters and we haven't focused enough on those issues. Below the headline polls the most depressing recent poll finding was ICM's finding that the new Prime Minister was preferred over the Tory leader on ability to handle terrorism by 52% to 20%.  The Tories need to play hardball with Brown on this.  David Davis pinpointed some of the issues in an article in yesterday's Telegraph.  He mentions Labour's failure to get to ban the extremist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir.  Labour are also making Britain vulnerable by lax border controls and diverting money away from, for example, intelligence because of the expensive and probably unworkable ID cards scheme.  Davis, Fox and Hague should be leading the attack on Brown on these issues.

The challenge over the summer is not to put the Tories back into an election-winning lead - that may be too big an ask.  The challenge is to reduce the Labour lead so that the instinctively cautious Gordon Brown won't risk an autumn election.  It's not so much a time for strategy - more a time for guerilla war against Labour.

If we can prevent an early election we have a better and better chance of avoiding a nightmare fourth defeat.  As time goes by voters will stop giving Brown the benefit of the doubt that he's currently enjoying.  The legacy of the Brown-Blair years on crime, taxes, unreformed public services and wastefulness will reassert itself.  Tactical action to stop an autumn election should be the top priority for CCHQ over the summer."

Two reasons to be cautious about an autumn poll

I'm pretty worried that Gordon Brown might call an autumn poll but here are two good reasons why there might not be a September/ October election:

1. The SNP are doing well in Scotland.  A YouGov poll reported by the Scotsman notes that the SNP are doing better today than in May when they became the largest party at Holyrood.
2. Labour didn't do that brilliantly last Thursday.  That's not my view but that's the verdict of Mike Smithson over at PoliticalBetting.com.  His post is well worth a read.

PS While referring to Scotland there was an interesting article in yesterday's Scotsman about the Tories by Peter Jones.  Here are two key sections from his article:

"Goldie, with her justice spokesman, Bill Aitken, was in First Minister Alex Salmond's office within days of the election to put the Tories' argument for the agenda in the battle against drugs addiction to move much more firmly towards rehabilitation. Those points have been accepted by the SNP. Aitken has similarly made proposals about the handling of sexual offenders. Again, they have been generally accepted by the SNP.  This is enormous progress. From being the untouchables of Scottish politics, the Tories are now again acceptable citizens. It means that the MSPs now have real political purpose to their work, being able to make real achievements rather than just hoping to get the odd mention in the newspapers.

Much more is likely to come. Apart from the justice agenda, where there is considerable agreement between the Tories and the SNP manifestos, there is also much similarity between their thoughts on business rates (big cuts for small firms) and on the need for Scottish Enterprise to be slimmed down and reshaped...

One other sign of the Tories' return is worth mentioning, and that is the election of a Conservative MSP, Alex Fergusson, as the parliament's Presiding Officer. This may not look politically significant, since he has to divest himself of political trappings. But I recall listening to a ferocious argument between two Labour MPs over who should succeed Betty Boothroyd as Speaker of the House of Commons - Michael Martin, a Labour MP, or Sir George Young, a Tory.

Never forget, said one vehemently anti-Young MP, that Boothroyd's deft handling of the job had helped to convince a dubious electorate that Labour could handle big public offices. Did George Reid, while impeccably impartial, do that job for the SNP? And might Fergusson also do it for the Tories?"

Scottish Chairman Peter Duncan resigned today.  BBC Online has the story.  Let us hope that this opportunity will be used for a reorganisation of the Conservative operation in Scotland and the appointment of a full-time CEO-type figure.

Cameron calls for "discipline, passion and hunger"

Speaking before the House of Commons goes into recess tomorrow, David Cameron told Conservative MPs that there would be no change of direction.  He called for "discipline, passion and hunger" from the whole parliamentary party and for internal debates and arguments to be kept out of the newspapers.

The Press Association reports that he told MPs that now was not the time to change strategy but that it was "the time to reaffirm our strategy."  He promised that there would be as much emphasis on issues like crime as on quality of life issues.  Speaking again as a political strategist he said: "Remember that elections are always won on the centre ground."

Mr Cameron promised MPs that Conservatives would be active throughout the summer months.  Voters would be warned that they had the choice to be "stuck with Labour or get on with the Conservatives".

He claimed that Gordon Brown's decision to establish a Border Force - a long-standing Tory idea - was another sign that the Conservatives were setting the agenda.

PMQ's Review

On the last Prime Minister's Questions before the Summer recess and both Gordon Brown and David Cameron gave strong performances; Brown does now seem to be getting the hang of PMQs.

David Cameron's First Question: Cameron started asking a question on flooding but hadn't got far before the Labour jeers started. He sought for improved communication between the Environment Agency and local authorities and Brown replied mentioning that he had seen "first hand" the problems and the floods would be fully investigated. David Cameron then asked about the compensation local authorities will receive for flood prevention schemes and what steps the Government will take to make insurance companies pay out quickly, and for help for those who are uninsured. Brown said the Government had been talking to the insurance companies and they are moving quickly. 

David Cameron's Second Question: Cameron went on the EU saying the Irish PM has said that 90% of the Treaty is the same as the Constitution, the Spanish foreign minister says 98% what figure would the Prime Minister put on it? Brown replied quoting Ken Clarke's criticisms of the call for a referendum. Cameron quoted another former chancellor - Brown- who signed up to a manifesto promising a constitution. He quoted Digby Jones' comment that it is "a con to call it a treaty, not a constitution". Brown said "the wheels going off the Tory bicycle" and quoted Lord Kalms.

Ming moment of the day: Ming also mentioned he had seen the problems for himself. He sought to find out whether the review the Prime Minister announced would cover the whole country and then said that the floods show that we should follow the advice of the Stern Report on climate change. Brown lapped that up!

Backbench Question of the Day: It wasn't an inspiring question but Dari Taylor raised an important subject when she asked what the Government would do to help more children out of care into family homes. David Heathcoat-Amory pointed out that we were told devolution would not threaten the union but that we have a separatist Scottish Executive and growing disquiet in England.

Labour lead is 6% in new ICM poll

More details of the ICM survey for The Guardian can be read here.  ICM also finds that: "Among Conservative voters, 42% say they like the party but dislike Mr Cameron. Only 3% answer the other way around. Just over half (52%) say they like both party and leader."

The Global Poverty Policy Group reports

Peter Lilley launched the Globalisation and Global Poverty Group's final report this morning. It is substantial, detailed report and it makes 76 recommendations. You can download a copy of the report here.

Like the Social Justice report the Global Poverty report demonstrates the depth of the policy work that the Party is undertaking. David Cameron can be very grateful to Peter Lilley and the other members of the Group for their work on this excellent report which communicates a conservative vision for fighting poverty in the developing world through more "real" trade and more effective aid.

If you want to know more about the Report and have the opportunity to vote on its recommendations you can visit the Global Poverty section of Stand Up, Speak Up.

The Group's main recommendations are:

Real Trade

The report proposes an all-party campaign, called Real Trade, which will work to give all poor countries real opportunities to trade with the developed world through:

• "Unilateral tariff and quota-free access to the EU (and all other developed economies) for all goods
  and services from low income countries.
• "Liberalised Rules of Origin so that genuine tariff and quota free access would be available to low
  "income countries on substantially all of their output.
• "The abolition of all export subsidies from the EU and other developing countries.
• "An increased emphasis on Aid for Trade (i.e. aid dedicated to helping developing countries build up their capacity to export).
• "Incentives (including compensation for lost tariff revenues) to low income countries to reduce trade barriers against neighbouring low income countries and particularly to kickstart development of a Pan African Trade Area."

The econo-centric frontbench

The Daily Mail's Political Editor Ben Brogan wonders if the Tory frontbench is working hard enough.  He has pulled together a list of the outside economic interests of the shadow cabinet.  I'm generally of the view that our parliamentarians are better equipped to understand the world if they have a diverse understanding of business, law, education and so on but there must come a point when the scale of interests stop the frontbench from being as effective as is necessary.  I do not know if we have reached that point but it is clear that Oliver Letwin's encouragement of the rest of Britain to be more socio-centric has not yet reached his econo-centric colleagues.