Tuesday, 2 December 2008



Tuesday 2nd December 2008Britain's leading conservative blog
Today's top ConservativeHome features
The high price of climate change policy

Pensioner "Homes and businesses will have pay higher energy bills if Britain is to meet the estimated £15bn-a-year cost of its climate change commitments, the government was told on Monday. Household electricity costs could go up more than 25 per cent by 2020 if greenhouse gas emissions are to be cut by a third from 1990 levels, said Lord Turner, chairman of the climate change committee." - FT

"The steps needed to achieve ambitious climate change targets will push 1.7 million more people in the UK into fuel poverty, a report has revealed." - Scotsman

Today's other newslinks

Police probe into MP Damian  Green 'could be dropped within weeks' - Daily Mail

Damian Green's "mole" breaks cover

"The Home Office mole who leaked secret papers to the Tory MP Damian Green broke cover yesterday to insist that he was acting in the public interest and to accuse police of a massive overreaction. Christopher Galley admitted being in regular contact with the shadow Immigration minister, whose arrest has provoked a constitutional uproar over the freedom of MPs." - Independent | Yesterday's ToryDiary

Vernon Bogdanor defends the arrest of Damian Green

"The police followed the correct procedure in asking the Speaker, Michael Martin, if they could search Damian Green's office. Had the Speaker refused, he could have been accused of condoning suspected wrongdoing. An MP's office cannot be out of bounds for the police. Suppose that an MP had committed a theft and had hidden stolen goods in his office. Would it seriously be maintained that the police should not have a right to search that office?" - Vernon Bogdanor in The Guardian

Senior Labour figure launches outspoken attack on Cameron over Damian Green affair - Telegraph

We need bold steps to open channels of credit - Alan Duncan writing in the FT

Boris Johnson: I don't want to buy another internal combustion engine

"Here is my proposal to the motor industry, now languishing in the credit crunch. My Toyota people-mover is so old and tired that if it were a dog, you would have it put down. But I intend to keep it on the road for another year, for two years, for three years - for however long it takes the car manufacturers to produce a zero-emission electric family car. Come on, folks: you must be able to do it. I don't want to buy another internal combustion engine; there is a market waiting to be satisfied, and if that isn't an economic stimulus I don't know what is." - Boris Johnson in The Telegraph

The Freedom of Information era is causing Whitehall to be more cautious - Rachel Sylvester in The Times

Lone parents told to be ready to work or face benefit cut - Guardian

Mandelson blamed for 'Britain wants to join euro' stories - Daily Mail | Yesterday's ToryDiary

The Sun reacts to the Baby P report

"Why, as Tory leader David Cameron asks today, is [Ed Balls] keeping the real details of this case under wraps? Why hasn’t the doctor who failed to spot Baby P’s shattered ribs and broken spine been barred from the NHS forever? We don’t need to wait for the dithering General Medical Council. And what about the police who knew the child was in mortal danger but walked away? Why haven’t Haringey legal services been investigated? It is incredible that so many of those involved are the same people who presided over the nightmare life and death of Victoria Climbie." - The Sun Says

Canada's opposition leaders sign coalition accord as they step closer to ousting Stephen Harper - National Post

The media have stopped covering Iraq since it turned the corner - Chuck Norris, TownHall.com