ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

Hat tip to CCHQ

The quality of briefings produced by CCHQ gets better and better.  Earlier today they emailed out an analysis of the promises that Brown made last year and his near comprehensive failure to deliver on them.  Read a PDF of the briefing.

Financial Times rejects Brown's misuse of George Osborne quotation

In his conference speech today, Gordon Brown attacked George Osborne for words he used in response to events of recent weeks in the financial markets:

In the week that banks were collapsing the man who wants to run our economy not only said: this is not a problem caused by the financial markets but went on to say and, I quote, "that it's a function of financial markets that people make loads of money out of the misery of others."

Jim Pickard of The Financial Times, which also reported the supposed quotation, has described Brown as twisting the words Osborne in fact used:

Gordon Brown twists the words of the shadow chancellor

True, George Osborne didn’t sound desperately sympathetic to the plight of credit crunch victims when he said on Newsnight last week: “Well look, no one takes pleasure from people making money out of the misery of others, but that is a function of capitalist markets.”

But that is NOT the same as the quote attributed to him by the prime minister just now:

“That it’s a function of financial markets that people make loads of money out of the misery of others.”

The attack on Osborne was preceded by claims that Labour had given women and working men the vote in the face of Conservative opposition. ConservativeHome noted that in fact it was a Conservative government under Benjamin Disraeli which extended the vote to working men in 1867 - decades before the Labour Party was formed. It was also a Liberal/Conservative National Government that gave women over the age of 30 the vote in 1918 and a Conservative government under Stanley Baldwin that in 1928 established an equal voting age of 21 for men and women.

Peter Cuthbertson

Brown says Conservatives have "changed their tune but haven't changed their minds"

In today's conference speech, reported in press around the world this morning as crucial to the Prime Minister's survival, Gordon Brown barely mentioned the Conservative Party until he approached the end.

Brown's attack began as to much applause he claimed as Labour achievements such progress as giving working men and women the vote: "Every single blow we have struck for fairness and for the future has been bitterly opposed by the Conservative Party". In fact, it was a Conservative government under Benjamin Disraeli which extended the vote to working men in 1867 -decades before the Labour Party was formed. It was also a Liberal/Conservative National Government that gave women over the age of 30 the vote in 1918 and a Conservative government under Stanley Baldwin that in 1928 established an equal voting age of 21 for men and women.

On the economy, Brown said angrily that the Conservatives were wrong, in the ongoing crisis, to have opposed nationalisation of Northern Rock and to oppose the ban on short-selling: "What has become clear is that Britain cannot trust the Conservatives to run the economy".

Brown mentioned David Cameron only once by name, but referred to a smart "Conservative leaders' team" with a plan that they are implementing "ruthlessly": give the appearance of having changed as a party and conceal with they really think. Brown compared them to the salesman who won't tell you what he's selling because if he did no one would want to buy it. After giving his list of Conservative proposals, Brown concluded that Tories had "changed their tune but haven't changed their minds". He went on to deny that Britain's society was broken - "by anyone or anything".

The full text of Brown's attack on the Conservatives:

You know our party so often in its history has been home to the big ideas - ideas later taken for granted, but revolutionary in their time. Just think, the vote for working men, and then for women, the NHS, legal protection from race or sex discrimination. These are no longer just Labour policies, they are established British values - they are the common sense of our age.

And we should never forget one thing - that every single blow we have struck for fairness and for the future has been opposed by the Conservatives.

And just think where our country would be if we'd listened to them. No paternity leave, no New Deal, no bank of England independence, no Sure Start, no devolution, no civil partnerships, no minimum wage, no new investment in the NHS, no new nurses, no new police, no new schools.

And so let's hear no more from the Conservatives - we did fix the roof while the sun was shining.

And just think if we'd taken their advice on the global financial crisis. Their policy was to let northern rock fold and imperil the whole financial system, our Labour government saved northern rock so not a single UK depositor lost out.

Their policy said, in this week of all weeks, that speculative short selling should continue. We acted decisively to end reckless speculation.

The Plan by Hannan and Carswell to launch tomorrow

Direct Democracy will tomorrow launch its third major publication, written by Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP. The Plan: 12 months to renew Britain sets out a legislative programme that the authors believe would take a single session of Parliament, accounting for recesses, but change Britain for ever.

The original Direct Democracy publication, subtitled Agenda for a New Model Party, argues for the Conservatives running and government unambiguously as the anti-Establishment, anti-centralist party, devolving power either back to the individual or to the lowest possible level of government. The book identified voters' dissatisfaction with politicians and reluctance to vote as a rational response to the way in which Britain is governed, with the decisions most clearly affecting people's lives more often taken by quangos and bodies of supposed expert opinion than by elected politicians. Released following the 2005 General Election, three out of four leadership contenders - David Cameron, David Davis and Liam Fox - endorsed the pamphlet. The proposal of elected sheriffs is now Conservative Party policy. This was followed by the Localist Papers, serialised in the Daily Telegraph.

Openly radical, The Plan applies these general principles to produce a policy and legislative programme. The book includes proposals for the use of referendums to allow citizens to initiate and to halt legislation, and a Great Repeal Bill, abolishing thirty laws, many selected from ConservativeHome readers' comments to Douglas Carswell's CentreRight thread 'What laws would you repeal?'. The book has chapters devoted to pitfalls and voters' dissatisfaction in areas from health care to foreign policy.

ConservativeHome will be covering The Plan's launch event tomorrow evening. The book can be ordered online now.

Peter Cuthbertson

David Willetts promises Tory support for expansion of universities

Responding to attacks from his opposite number John Denham, the Conservative Party's Universities spokesman David Willetts has used an article in The Guardian to make it clear that a Tory government is committed to increasing university numbers.

Mr Willetts says university expansion is essential for Britain to remain internationally competitive and to kickstart social mobility.  In his article Mr Willetts calls for more information to be available to young people about options in higher education and that that information should be made available for schoolchildren when they are considering GCSE and A level options. He also calls for more flexible course models so that older students, in particular, can study part-time or over distance.

Mr Willetts concludes his piece by touching on the thorny issue of finance.  David Cameron, when he was Shadow Education Secretary, reversed the Tory policy of opposing top-up fees and Mr Willetts now invites Mr Denham to "establish a truly bipartisan and wide-ranging student finance review to consider the costs and benefits of university expansion".

The 2003 Tory policy to oppose tuition fees was taken on the grounds that university expansion was happening too fast, with serious consequences for the quality of the university experience.  Just two years ago, in a pamphlet for Cornerstone, Conservative MP Julian Brazier also struck a different note to that taken by David Willetts (and Michael Gove) now.  Mr Brazier called for more emphasis on vocational education and noted that "34% of recent university entrants fail to complete their courses, fail to get a job or fail to get a job that requires a degree."

Swing to Tories is greatest in Midlands

On Saturday night we noted the huge PoliticsHome survey of marginal seats and its projection of a 146 Tory majority.  Individual constituency profiles are for sale.  The regional swings have caught our attention from within the executive summary.  Here's a league table of Labour to Conservative swings:

1. East Midlands: 16%
2. West Midlands hinterland: 16%
3. London commuter belt: 14.5%
4. North East: 14%
5. Labour's southern bastions: 13%
6. North West: 13%
7. Urban West Midlands: 13%
8. Welsh marginals: 12.5%
9. Outer London: 10.5%
10. Seaside towns: 10.5%
11. West Yorkshire: 10.5%
12. Inner London: 9.5%
13. Scottish marginals: 7.5%
14. Cumbria: 6.5%

Any questions for you?

Please use the thread below to suggest any questions for the September survey of Tory members and ConHome readers.  The questions will go into the field tomorrow and the results will be published on the eve of the Conservative conference.  The results will appear in The Independent but are unlikely to be as interesting as those LabourHome produced!

Iain Duncan Smith condemns Met for for failing to charge George Michael

The Sun reports that pop megastar George Michael was arrested on Friday, near public lavatories on Hampstead Heath, in possession of Class A and C drugs.  Reacting to the Metropolitan's decision not to charge Mr Michael, The Sun concludes that it's "one law for the rich and famous and another for the rest of us."  London MP Iain Duncan Smith issued this statement to ConservativeHome.com:

“If, as we are led to believe that George Michael was caught with class A and B drugs on him, then he should be prosecuted, after all it isn’t the first time. However, the decision not to prosecute George Michael sends the signal to the public that if you are a celebrity in London you come under a different set of laws to everyone else. It also sends a powerful and destructive message to young people who admire George Michael, that drugs are fine, there is no penalty if you take them. After all didn’t the Met let Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse off as well?

The Metropolitan Police seem to be making this up as they go along. The Centre for Social Justice's Breakthrough Britain report showed that in Holland and Sweden where they have much clearer and tougher laws, everyone gets treated the same and the result is that there are no mixed messages and they have proportionately far fewer drug abusers than the UK.

At war with each other in the hierarchy, mired in controversy over the Menezes shooting, beset with accusations and counter accusations about race and corruption and lacking any firm leadership, this last decision by the Met will leave many Londoners asking what has happened to a once proud force that was, years ago, a byword the world over for quality policing.”

Over on The Platform, another London Tory MP - Mark Field - sets out his own wider case against the Met.  Read it here.

Tories set to suspend plans for green taxation

Two weeks ago ConservativeHome exclusively revealed that the Conservatives were unlikely to renew the pledge to match Labour on spending.  A senior frontbencher has now told us that, as part of an ongoing review of economic policy, higher green taxation is very unlikely to feature in the next Conservative manifesto.

The Tory plan up had been to reduce taxation of families from the proceeds of higher green taxation.  Lower taxation of families is now expected to be financed by stricter control of spending.  The overall priority, however, will be a reduction in borrowing.

Speeches by David Cameron and George Osborne at the Birmingham Party Conference will warn of very difficult economic times ahead.  The Tory leadership believes that the deterioration in the economic situation has vindicated their opposition to calls for a lower overall burden of taxation but they also fear that any moves to increase green taxation (even if offset by lower taxes elsewhere) will worsen an already precarious landscape for British business.  There is a particular fear that green taxes will discourage urgently needed investment in new energy generating capacity.

The "Green Shift" (higher taxation of pollution and lower taxation of families) will nonetheless be restated as a medium term goal.  Canada's Conservatives have used opposition plans to raise green taxes to devastating electoral effect.

Tory economic traditionalists will be disappointed that George Osborne will continue to resist calls for a pro-growth package of tax reliefs.  They have taken heart, however, from this week's warnings from the party leadership against panic re-regulation of the financial sector and against protectionist sentiment.

The biggest marginals poll ever predicts Tory majority of 146

This has just appeared on the PoliticsHome website:

"PoliticsHome predict a Conservative majority of 146:

• Largest ever study of marginal seats
• In an election now Labour would suffer a 1997 scale defeat
• 8 cabinet ministers would lose their seats
• Three figure majority for David Cameron

An exclusive PoliticsHome study of marginal seats,using an unprecedented sample of almost 35,000 people over 238 marginalconstituencies and based on fieldwork carried out by YouGov, gives us the bestever idea of what would happen if a general election were held now."

There's too much information to process quickly but these results of polling in LibDem/ Tory marginals should be enough to get your juices flowing:

Tories dip below 40% in new poll

We should be careful about all opinion surveys carried out in the middle of conference seasons. Parties always benefit from the oxygen of publicity effect.  But today ComRes confirms the YouGov bounce for the LibDems.  It may be a completely temporary effect but it may be (yet again) that voters are switching because of tax cuts. It did, after all, happen during last year's party conference season when a one Mr Osborne announced his IHT cut.

LibDems get Conference bounce

It may be temporary - most Conferences boost their parties - but a YouGov survey for tomorrow's Telegraph finds the LibDems within 4% of Labour:

There's more bad news for Brown within the detail of the poll:

"A total of 68 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement: "Gordon Brown was given his chance as Labour leader and Prime Minister, but he has blown it."  Some 65 per cent agreed that Mr Brown offers "a lot of tough-sounding words but little positive action", while 64 per cent said he "seems to have no real understanding of what ordinary people are going through at the moment.""

This'll be first Party Conference since 1987 when the Tories really are on top

The Telegraph is reporting that the traditional celebration of victories at the start of the Party Conference has been scrapped in favour of a tribute to the armed forces.

Although that's 100% the right call - not least given the economic turmoil - the party probably has more right to be upbeat at this year's Conference than at any time since 1987.

Every conference since the '87 Conference has been tricky with the party behind in the polls or engulfed with difficulty.  By 1988 the Thatcher government was in trouble because of the community charge and Europe.  The 1992 Conference should have been a celebration of that year's rabbit-out-of-the-hat victory over Neil Kinnock but Black Wednesday intervened.  The nearest to a Conference when we were top of the political pile in the last twenty years was 2000 after the fuel protests and in 2006 but in both cases we were only level-pegging with Labour (and in 2000 only very briefly).

LabourHome, ConHome and grassroots surveys

Tim Montgomerie writes:

LabourHome's poll of members - and the finding that 54% of Labour members want Brown to go - gets on the front page of The Independent this morning.  Alex Hilton and Jag Singh of LabourHome are getting it in the neck from many Labour bloggers, eg Luke Akehurst, for conducting the poll: "The only utility of which can be to damage individual ministers and the the Party the day before the start of a crucial party conference."

I suppose we can claim some credit for the story.  LabourHome was formed as a response to this site and the surveys were a copy of our own surveys.  LibDemVoice has also started surveying its readers - sometimes in ways uncomfortable for Nick Clegg.

In the past, I've faced attacks for ConHome's own surveys of Tory members.  They have often made uncomfortable reading for our own leadership.  Some believe that this makes them undesirable.  Perhaps, but I still believe that the leadership should heed the views of the people who work so hard for Conservative success.  My belief is that David Cameron, as leader, deserves loyalty from all Tory members but he doesn't own the party.  We deserve our say - a say uncensored by party officials or mainstream media gatekeepers.

Could Michael Howard and other Major-era ministers join Ken Clarke in Cameron's first Cabinet?

The defining feature of the Blair-Brown years has been incompetence. A massive gap between often good ideas and implementation. The reasons are many but include a decline in the quality of the civil service (a decline related to over-centralisation and the targets culture) but also ministers that lack many basic executive skills.

An awareness of this caused David Cameron to appoint Francis Maude to oversee a preparation-for-government or 'Implementation Office'.  The Office's work will headline at the Birmingham Party Conference.  The Office's operating model was roadtested by the election of Boris Johnson and with mixed results.

Other big thinking on this front focuses on the Downing Street operation and the membership of the first Cameron Cabinet.  The Observer recently reported an outreach operation to Tony Blair's advisers. That outreach may be politically uncomfortable for some Conservatives but it's very sensible to learn lessons from people who have experience of managing the Downing Street-to-Whitehall relationship.

Most interesting, however, is talk of bringing back a number of Major-era Cabinet ministers.  Ken Clarke's return has already been well-trailed (and given a thumbs up by most Tory members).  Also thought possible is the return of Michael Howard as Lord Chancellor.  The other top three big beast of the last Major Cabinet - Sir Malcolm Rifkind - is also available. Other individuals that might return to the Cabinet include Stephen Dorrell, John Gummer, John Redwood and Peter Lilley (all used by Mr Cameron in his policy review process).  David Cameron is concerned that his shadow cabinet lacks ministerial experience.  Only William Hague has served at Cabinet level.  Four or five of the individuals serving in the shadow cabinet at the next General Election arte unlikely to make it to the top table should office follow polling day.  Only when they have proven themselves at minister of state level will they replace the Major generation - expected to serve for two or three years while a new generation is blooded.

Readers of ConHome who enjoy a bet might also place some money on Lord Trimble playing a role and also a LibDem like David Laws.  Cameron doesn't intend to repeat Blair's mistake and stop the lovebombing of the LibDems once a first victory is in the bag.

1.30pm: Iain Dale has taken up the theme of this post with a specific recommendation that Ken Clarke be Cameron's Chancellor.

The Conservatives and big donors

Iain Dale has had a bit of a go at Stuart Wheeler today, accusing him of being an attention-seeker for reportedly (and let's see the truth of it) threatening to vote UKIP in next June's European elections if the Tories don't beef up their Euroscepticism.  A few observations:

• If Mr Wheeler is threatening to support UKIP that's very disappointing but we should never forget Mr Wheeler's generosity to the party in the past.  His £5m gift in 2001 was manna for the party at the time.  A few people like Mr Wheeler, Lord Ashcroft and John Paul Getty kept the party going in very difficult times.  In the long-term it might have been better for the party if it had been then forced to go to small retail donors but that's another question.
• It's wrong to simply dismiss Stuart Wheeler as an attention-seeker.  He has ruled out a personal reward for his donations to the party (eg a peerage) unlike most.  His beliefs in Euroscepticism - manifested in his recent (unsuccessful) legal action - and opposition to waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques appear to stem from high principle.
• Big donors have been too influential at times - ConHome has worried, in the past, about the influence of Lord Ashcroft and Mr Wheeler - but times are changing.  The party's funding base is now a lot more diverse with many more businesses giving to the party.  120 donors are apparently giving £50,000pa. At 52% in the polls David Cameron is not so vulnerable to an unhappy big donor walking away.  That's healthy.
• What isn't so healthy is if the huge opinion poll leads discourage the party from the serious policy innovation that Britain's problems need.  That's why it would be good to see more traditional Tory donors diverting a good portion of their generosity to conservative movement organisations.  Mr Wheeler has a good record of doing just this.  Too many big, centre right donors give nearly all their money to the Tory Party.  It's vital that more give to groups like the Centre for Social Justice, Ben Rogers' Human Rights group and The Freedom Association.  These groups provide the ideas and nurture the talent for the long-term success of the conservative cause.

David Cameron warns that Left will use current crisis against City

David Cameron's comments appear in the FT and are very timely.  Yesterday's Guardian was full of attacks on capitalism (and Polly Toynbee made a tasteless joke about suicidal young City boys):

"The good news is, there'll now be a realisation - even George Bush sees this now - that we need international regulatory mechanisms that will ensure, for example, that these people and operations actually pay tax." - Ken Livingstone

"In the face of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, we're going to have to re-regulate finance and taxation." - Caroline Lucas MEP

"There is a consensus forming that says an unregulated financial system is a disaster." - Professor Sheila Rowbotham

Those calls are largely from the usual suspects at the moment but how long until a desperately unpopular Labour party thinks of turning to tough measures in the hope of electoral salvation?

There is a real risk that there will be a panicked over-reaction to the grave difficulties of the moment and London's financial industries will be badly damaged for the future.

Yesterday the Conservative leader joined with Angela Merkel to warn against protectionist reactions to the economic crisis.

Martin Wolf, also in the FT, sets out some 'do's' and 'don't's' for policymakers in the current environment.

Tories hit 52%!

Confirming the earlier rumour here's the poll graphic...

Almost as interesting as the 52% figure for the Conservatives is the woeful showing for the LibDems.

Ipsos MORI poll rumoured to show Tories exceeding 50%

YouGov's Anthony Wells has noted on his blog a rumour this afternoon that a MORI poll will show the Conservatives at 52%, with Labour on 24% and the Liberal Democrats on 12%.

Political Betting's Mike Smithson has had confirmation from MORI that the poll exists, but not of the figures - which will be released at midnight. One journalist with the embargoed press release has confirmed the figures to Smithson.

David Cameron, the Andrex puppy dog

When Labour compared David Cameron to a chameleon it backfired. The chameleon looked quite cute, was the verdict of Mr Cameron's daughter. The wisdom of comparing the Conservative leader to the Andrex puppy dog - cute but unrelated to the underlying product - isn't therefore obvious to us. Nick Clegg made the comparison in his without-notes speech to LibDems in Bournemouth. His long attack on the Conservatives went on to also accuse Mr Cameron of arrogance and having no real policies.

If his attacks on the Tories were unconvincing his remarks on tax and spending were interesting. Do you believe that government spends every pound wisely?, he asked. Government, he said, should spend money as wisely as if the money was borrowed from a close friend. It's true that LibDem tax plans don't add up but his speech is a sign of the transformed public mood on tax. Voters no longer believe in higher and higher spending. They want a refund.

From PoliticsHome's transcript of the speech, Clegg's attack on the Conservatives in full:

"But we can be certain that Labour cannot help us.

And we can be certain that the Conservatives won’t bother.

Cameron’s only aim was to make the Conservatives inoffensive.

Problem is, once you strip out the Offensive parts of the Conservative party, there isn’t much left.

Cameron’s hope is to become the Andrex puppy of British politics.

A cuddly symbol, perhaps.

But fundamentally irrelevant to the product he’s promoting.

ConservativeInternational.com

This ToryDiary category will no longer be updated. All discussion of international conservatism will now take place on ConservativeInternational.com.

Time cover story reveals a little more of David Cameron the man

The latest Time magazine's David Cameron cover story is clearly pitched to an international audience. New revelations and in-depth interviews with figures close to Cameron mostly give way to a good retelling of British politics in recent years. Most of the content of the 3,800 word piece will be very familiar to anyone who has been watching British politics closely.

But the piece does reveal more about Cameron the man, if only by identifying him as an 'enigma' personally. The article touches on a sense even in those close to the Conservative leader that they don't quite know him, and that his guardedness about his privacy is very real. Francis Elliott tells Time that he finds Cameron elusive even after eighteen months of researching and observing him for the biography he wrote: "Smooth, cold so flawless and polished you forget it's a barrier - until you try to cross it." Cameron himself modestly suggests there simply aren't all the hidden depths for which others are looking: "I'm a very simple soul".

A discussion with an old Oxford and Bullingdon Club friend of Cameron's suggests a very politically interested undergraduate: "I remember David quoting Winston Churchill extensively by memory - Churchill was a bit of a lush, so they were quotes about drinking - and he was very funny... I know David had only sipped a bit but he was articulate and lucid and I always remember him like that - the centre of attention".

Another Oxford contemporary notes: "We were doing out best to grasp basic economic concepts. David - there was nobody else who came even close. He would be integrating them with the way the British political system is put together. He could have lectured me on it and I would have sat there and taken notes and learned how British politics were put together".

The Guardian, The Independent and the Conservatives

The two newspapers that really count in Britain are The Guardian and The Daily Mail (...discuss!).  The Guardian is the newspaper of the ideas class (notably the BBC).  The Mail represents the roar of middle England.  The Mail came close to endorsing David Cameron a few weeks ago.  The Guardian, last week, more or less invited its readers to give the Conservative Party a sympathetic hearing.

Today's Independent media section reflects on the invitation.  Here are the article's key observations:

• The 'Progress in Blue' leader was personally signed off by Editor Alan Rusbridger.
• Labour reacted furiously - producing a memo for frontbenchers that accused The Guardian of being taken in by the Conservatives.
• Labour is blaming a few influential Guardian journalists for the leader and the series of "friendly" articles that preceded it.  Julian Glover, Matthew Parris' partner, and The Guardian's chief leaderwriter is a chief target of Labour's suspicions.
• "Friends of Polly Toynbee say she is "livid" at the apparent "neutral" repositioning by The Guardian."

A CCHQ source has told ConservativeHome that The Guardian's shift is a vindication of the party leadership's decision to regularly place exclusives with the newspaper.  The party thinks that "Guardian-love" is a key route to the heart of the BBC; the party's ultimate objective.  Our source also said that The Guardian had become "p***ed off" by the bullying of the Downing Street press operation: "Damian McBride [the PM's chief spindoctor] doesn't understand that you can't imitate 1997 media management tactics when Brown is as far behind as Blair was then ahead."

David Cameron: We won't 'seal the deal' until General Election Day

David Cameron spoke to CCHQ staff this morning.  WebCameron have recorded some of his remarks...

His key messages:

• The Conservative Party knows that it hasn't sealed the deal until election day.
• The party must keep its feet firmly on the ground and focus on the problems of the country.
• Labour is in a shambles.

One LibDem idea that we should adopt

The Liberal Democrats are in trouble.  Yesterday, Guido reported a survey that suggested two-thirds of its English MPs are in danger from 'the Cameron effect'.  A letter in Saturday's Guardian from ex-LibDems explained why they had joined the Conservatives.

Gordon Brown isn't alone is facing leadership speculation.  Nick Clegg is hardly doing any better in the polls than Ming Campbell and the Independent on Sunday found Chris Huhne reasserting himself yesterday.

Most of the LibDem ideas on tax'n'spend aren't worth copying - not least the dangerous attempts to raise green taxes and taxes on the allegedly wealthy.  But anyone on the Right should welcome some of the changes that Clegg is making to his party.  He refused yesterday to rule out sending his children to private schools and abandoned his party's "rapid" commitment to join the euro.

There was also one idea that Vince Cable has proposed that we should eagerly pinch.  The TaxPayers' Alliance has regularly exposed the growth of telephone number salaries in local and central government.  Mr Cable has proposed that all super-salary workers in the public sector beaucracy and quangocracy - on c£100,000 - will have to reapply for their jobs.  Many of these will only be reappointed on reduced salaries.  This policy could be the flagship policy of a wider commitment to public sector pay restraint.

The collapse of Lehmans means that this a bleak day for the world economy.  Last week the Tories signalled the end of Labour's spending splurge.  George Osborne needs to say a lot more about evolving Conservative economic policy in his address in Birmingham.