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Tuesday 16 December 2008Britain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: Labour pour cold water on early election speculation Local government: Why is Tory Suffolk Council closing a good school and saving a bad one? Dan Novak on Platform: It is time to end the Nanny State and let Brits be Brits Two videos: Peter Hain's resignation... the nationalisation of Northern Rock... The 10p tax fiasco... Boris Johnson's victory... David Davis' resignation... Labour lose Glasgow East by-election... Peter Mandelson returns... Government borrowing hits £118bn... Damian Green arrested... A six minute review from Telegraph TV of 2008's political events. Tessa Jowell's gaffe: Recession will be deeper than any we have known Today's newslinks The Sun welcomes Cameron's Day of Reckoning speech "Our banks and building societies were run like casinos under the noses of regulators who never raised a warning finger. Even after driving them on to the rocks, shameless chief executives walk away with fat pensions and barrow-loads of cash. Mr Cameron wants to know why NOBODY here is being held to account. It is a question Prime Minister and ex-Chancellor Gordon Brown MUST answer." - The Sun Says > Yesterday's ToryDiary: We won't treat the richest any differently from the poorest says Cameron > Watch highlights from the speech Brown to target David Cameron as untrustworthy "Gordon Brown has vowed to ruthlessly “target” David Cameron in his battle to win the next election, top party insiders revealed yesterday. The Prime Minister has decided the Tory leader is his party’s Achilles heel — and has agreed a strategy to paint him as untrustworthy." - The Sun Peter Riddell: Tory economic policy still lacks clarity "The Tories have not clarified their economic message. They oppose a further fiscal stimulus, including the VAT cut, because it will increase an already excessive level of borrowing. But their response to Labour charges of inaction can seem imprecise. Guaranteeing bank loans, which the Government will do to some extent anyway, may not sound enough. The lack of a clear alternative may put off wavering voters." - Peter Riddell in The Times "The striking thing about the turnround in the polls has been not so much the improvement in government’s standing but the softness of Conservative support. Mr Cameron has little margin for error." - Philip Stephens in the FT George Osborne seizes on comments from Tessa Jowell that Britain faces recession "deeper than any that we have known" - BBC "Britain will be more severely affected by the global downturn because of its dependence on the City of London, the chancellor, Alistair Darling, warned yesterday." - Guardian Nick Bourne attempted a political fightback last night amid claims of growing threats to his leadership of the Conservative Assembly group - Western Mail Thousands face pension cut after overpayment blunder - Times | FT Edward Leigh leads attack on £57m efficiency drive that cost £81m - Independent Bob Holman on asylum seekers "In Glasgow I met two young men from Zimbabwe, sleeping on public benches. Sometimes they get a sofa in a friend's house, but mainly they sleep in shop doorways. I asked them why they did not return home. They replied that "this is better than torture". Statutory bodies cannot spend on asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected, even if they are destitute. It is hard-pressed voluntary bodies who give food, clothes and sometimes shelter. But it's never enough, and many become commercially and sexually exploited." - Bob Holman writing in The Herald about the background to yesterday's CSJ report on asylum seekers > Yesterday's ToryDiary on the CSJ's report on asylum seekers > Access the report via this page on the CSJ website Rachel Sylvester on Peter Mandelson's "skilful" repositioning of Labour "Slowly but surely, Lord Mandelson is trying to steal back the mantle of “change”. Within days of rejoining the Government, he told journalists travelling with the Prime Minister to the Gulf that “people are crying out for change”. In a speech tomorrow he will elaborate on his call for a new “industrial activism” with greener jobs and more high-tech manufacturing. His aim is to reposition Labour as the party of modernity - standing shoulder to shoulder with the change-maker Barack Obama on the recession - leaving the Tories languishing as the reactionary “do-nothing party” that will let the country go to the dogs. It is an audacious shift of strategy for a party that has been in power for more than a decade. It is a masterly piece of spin. It is Labour's only hope. The problem will come when it clashes with the deep dark reality of recession." - Rachel Sylvester in The Times Teenage pregnancies go UP (despite free contraception and sex education for five-year-olds) - Daily Mail Yesterday on the Parliament blog Parliament: How good are school meals? Parliament: Eric Pickles asks the most written questions in 2007-08 Parliament: Philip Bushill-Matthews backs opt-out for EU Working Time Directive

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