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Thursday 13th NovemberBritain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: David Cameron won't move George Osborne Timothy Kirkhope on Platform: Why I want to lead the Conservative MEPs Local Government: Westminster Council's recession busting measures Dan Hamilton on CentreRight: European Investment Bank loans - opportunity or threat? WATCH: Yesterday's angry exchanges about Baby P at PMQs Today's newslinks David Cameron expels Den Dover MEP for abusing expenses "David Cameron yesterday expelled the Conservative party's former chief whip in the European parliament after the Strasbourg authorities ruled that he had breached its rules and demanded that he pay back just over £500,000. Den Dover, who resigned as chief whip in June over claims that he had siphoned off £758,000 of public money to family members through a company providing secretarial services over nine years, will face a fraud investigation by the EU's anti-fraud body, Olaf". - Guardian "Mr Dover was unavailable for comment. However, he has previously defended his arrangements, saying: "They [the wife and daughter] get market rates, but they put in two or three times the number of hours - they just never stop, and I pay tribute to their hard work. Therefore I am totally innocent of any charges." - Telegraph > Last night's ToryDiary on Den Dover's expulsion David Cameron forces Brown to order new Baby P inquiry "Gordon Brown was last night forced to order a fresh probe into the Baby P scandal at Labour-run Haringey Council. The PM acted after Tory leader David Cameron demanded sackings over the outrage". - Sun "The Haringey inquiry is completely unacceptable. It is being led by Mrs Shoesmith, who is the council's own director of children's services. She cannot possibly investigate the failure of her own department." - David Cameron quoted in The Independent "The din was deafening. Up in the gallery, Lord Mandelson watched impassively. He had come to hear Gordon on the economy but he was seeing something else entirely. The Speaker tried to stop the madness but Labour MPs paid no heed and now Dave shouted back at them: “I’ll tell you what is shameful and that is trying to shout down someone who’s asking reasonable questions!” - Ann Treneman's sketch in The Times > Yesterday's ToryDiary on how David Cameron was vindicated for raising the issue Debate continues over whether George Osborne should be moved from the shadow chancellorship "Osborne should be moved, by early next year, to a prominent position that suits his talents. He is tactically astute, with a first-rate organisational brain, is a good analyst of politics and on his day can be an impressive media performer. In the post of party chairman and election campaign supremo, he would be perfectly placed to be the focal point of a currently confused CCHQ operation" - Iain Martin writing in the Daily Telegraph "Speculation that Mr Osborne could be removed from his brief is authoritatively dismissed. “He may not have many friends, but he has friends where it counts,” one key figure said."  - Times David Davis reveals shadow cabinet tensions on ID cards and 42-day detention "In a detailed interview with the New Statesman, Davis has spoken openly for the first time about the tensions at the heart of the shadow cabinet on ID cards and 42-day detention that emerged in the run up to his resignation." - New Statesman > Yesterday's ToryDiary on the David Davis interview Government urged to ditch rise in corporation tax for small firms "This tax is the difference between some companies continuing in business or going under." - Conservative Treasury spokesman Justine Greening quoted in the Daily Mail Alistair Darling predicts short sharp shock "Alistair Darling will forecast a short, sharp recession in his crucial pre-Budget report in 11 days' time, with the economy contracting by more than 1 per cent next year but bouncing back strongly in 2010. In an exclusive interview, the Chancellor told The Independent yesterday: "We are going into recession. I remain confident that we will get through it." - Independent Unemployment reaches 11-year high - Telegraph Want to cut taxes? First cut spending. Here’s how "After a week of clamorous competition between the parties over tax cuts, Fraser Nelson offers a guide to paying for them: a programme of spending cuts that would preserve core services but shave off the fat of the Brown years. All that is needed is political will." - Spectator Tessa Jowell: London 2012 was a mistake "Tessa Jowell, the minister in charge of the London 2012 Olympics has admitted that it was a mistake, in light of the looming recession, to have bid for the games". - Telegraph The Republicans are where the Tories were in 1997 "The Republicans are down the same hole the Tories were in 1997: out of office, out of ideas, their reputation for competence gone and fighting against the best politician of the generation. This bad news for the Republicans is bad news for the Tories too." - James Forsyth in The Spectator MPs vote for English regional select committees - BBC Our main sites Homepage. ToryDiary. Seats and candidates. Local government. Parliament. Platform. CentreRight. International. PlayPolitical videos.

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