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Tuesday 30th SeptemberBritain's leading conservative blog Conference Tuesday's top features ToryDiary: Andrew Mitchell signals shake-up in UK aid priorities Our rolling guide to significant Party Conference policy announcements Matthew Elliott, John Glen, Jill Kirby and Oliver Marc Hartwich on Platform: Do we need to raise taxes? WATCH: Three minute ITN video includes interview with Theresa Villiers and highlights of George Osborne's speech, a Channel 4 report on the Tories' chance of success in Birmingham and House of Representatives rejects $700bn bailout plan for banks' toxic debt AmericaInTheWorld: An international consensus against Sino-authoritarianism Watch Conference online Click here to watch a live webstream of Tory Conference. Today's newslinks Tory lead down to 12% - Independent | Yesterday evening's ToryDiary   George Osborne's speech and promise of two year freeze of council tax "Council tax bills would be frozen for two years under Conservative proposals aimed at helping middle-income families to cope with the economic downturn. The tax freeze would mean a saving of £70 in the first year for an average household in a Band D property." - Times "The Tories' 40-page Reconstruction: Plan for a Strong Economy is the most important publication from the party in opposition since The Right Approach to the Economy, produced by the Thatcher economic team more than 30 years ago." - Peter Riddell in The Times 'The Sun Says' that the Tories will have to cut the bloated public sector (ConservativeHome reached the same conclusion yesterday). Dominic Grieve to scrap police health and safety laws "Health and safety laws that police officers say have stopped them intervening in crimes or to save lives will be reformed, the Conservatives will pledge today. The rules will also be changed to protect people who intervene to stop a crime facing arrest and charges." - Telegraph Andrew Lansley pledges big increase in single rooms in NHS hospitals "Plans to almost double the number of single rooms in hospitals were unveiled by the Conservatives at their conference in Birmingham yesterday. Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the Conservatives aimed to increase the number of single rooms in wards by 45,000 in the party's first term in government to nearly 100,000. The proportion of beds in single rooms would increase from 28% to 55%." - Guardian | Independent Corporate unease over Tory positions on Heathrow and nuclear power - FT "Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, the business lobby group, said: “A high speed rail link would have a lot going for it, but don’t think for a minute that it will solve the capacity problems at Heathrow. We need to have a third runway at Heathrow, as long as all the environmental conditions are met.” - Times | Guardian Grant Shapps: "Gordon Brown's multimillion pound schemes to help poor families get on the housing ladder have been an expensive failure." - Telegraph Oliver Letwin promises to complete Blair's public service reforms - Independent | Sun Scotland "Ministers in a future Tory government would be compelled to appear before Holyrood committees to explain their policies to Scotland, David Cameron pledged yesterday." - Scotsman Welsh Tory attack on Rhodri Morgan's “unique dress sense and hairstyle” is questioned - Western Mail ConservativeFuture's Chairman Michael Rock interviewed on tenth anniversary of youth group's formation - Guardian Margaret Thatcher chosen as 'Top Tory' by fringe meeting - Guardian Today's Tory conference theme is Britain's broken society - ePolitix David Cameron and George Osborne will make unscheduled statements on the rejected US bailout Peter Oborne: Tories are in the pockets of market spivs "The deeply uncomfortable fact remains that the Tory Party depends for its very existence on the financial support of well-disposed private equity tycoons, investment bankers and hedge-fund managers - the self-same men and women who have brought Britain to its knees." - Daily Mail David Aaronovitch: Half of new Conservative policy seems simply to consist of not doing things "Vote for a party that the Archbishop of Canterbury could be happy in: tolerant, complacent in the best sense, slightly sanctimonious, Establishment, half-full of ineffectual piety. The Conservatives are conservative again. Ready, once more, to manage decline. Vote weed." - David Aaronovitch in The Times Taxpayers in the South East are paying out £2,000 each to support services in the North - Daily Mail And finally... "Puffed-out Cameron picks up the pace again after cameras spot him walking during morning jog" - Daily Mail

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