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Thursday 6th November Britain's leading conservative blog Analysis of Barack Obama's victory ToryDiary: Can David Cameron make political capital out of Obama's victory?  Iain Murray on Platform: Danny Finkelstein is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong about the US elections Nile Gardiner on CentreRight: Why an Obama victory isn't good news for the Tories AmericaInTheWorld: Conservative MP John Hayes and Labour MP David Cairns write about the special relationship Other top ConservativeHome stories Seats and Candidates: What's at stake in Glenrothes today? Local Government: The Conservative council which is banning smokers from fostering children Today's other newslinks Cameron and Brown battle to make political capital out of Obama's election Labour and the Conservatives yesterday vied to associate themselves with Barack Obama's election as David Cameron argued it represented a triumph for the advocates of change, while Gordon Brown said it was an endorsement for progressive values. - Guardian The prime minister and Conservative leader quickly grasped the potency of the Obama effect on British politics, and their early-morning messages of congratulations to the president-elect were blatantly self-regarding. - FT The fawning was so intense that I half expected Bambi to be watching from the public gallery. Everyone who was anyone (and many who are not anyone at all) clasped the new American President-elect to their breasts. - Ann Treneman's parliamentary sketch in The Times Voters go to the polls in the Glenrothes Fifers go to the poll today in a by-election which will send out a message to the whole UK about the "Brown bounce" or the end of Alex Salmond's honeymoon. - Herald Maurice Golden, the Conservative candidate in Glenrothes, said the best way to send Mr Brown "a message" was to vote Tory, although he admitted it would be an "uphill battle" for him to win the seat. - The Scotsman Labour word is that Glenrothes is a lost cause. The SNP will take it by 1500, give or take 500. - The Daily Mail's Benedict Brogan George Osborne backs calls for an interest rate cut... The Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC) looks likely to make the biggest rate cut in its 11-year history today after a mass of poor economic data yesterday indicated that Britain was in for a long and deep recession. - Guardian  ...as Irwin Stelzer attacks the Tory response to the economic crisis as "feeble" "The Tories have so far been unable to demonstrate that the cost of the Brown programme will exceed the costs the economy would bear in its absence. Nor have they explained why they were willing to adopt Brown’s spending plans when the economy was booming — and government spending should have been cut — but oppose those spending plans now, when they are needed. - The Spectator Welsh Tory study calls for root-and-branch examination of devolution A Conservative Party review of Welsh devolution has concluded the system is not working as it should and has failed to win the hearts of people.- BBC Jeremy Hunt joins Mirror campaign against excessive swearing on TV Tory culture spokesman Jeremy Hunt compared bad language on television to football hooliganism, which "people said you could never stamp out, but we did". - Mirror  Labour MEPs condemned for overturning Britain's exemption from the Working Time Directive "During a recession we should be encouraging hard work, not outlawing it, and enabling personal choice rather than restricting it." - Conservative MEP Philip Bushill-Matthews quoted in the Daily Telegraph Hazel Blears: "We need more David Davis's" In a speech on political disengagement to the Hansard Society Ms Blears, who had a career as a local government solicitor before becoming a politician, complained that some Westminster colleagues live on "planet politics" and lacked real-life experience. - BBC Fabians conclude that gender is more of a barrier than race in parliamentary selections - Independent

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