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Friday 13th FebruaryBritain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: Francis Maude pledges to change the culture of civil service recruitment Imtiaz Ameen on Platform: It was not in my name that Geert Wilders was refused entry into the UK Seats and Candidates Search for 100 Peers: John Marshall Local Government: 100 ways to cut the Council Tax without cutting key services Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: The wicked principle that "the welfare of the child is paramount" WATCH: Republican Senator Judd Gregg explains why he has decided he cannot serve in President Obama's Cabinet Today's other newslinks George Osborne slams Brown and Darling over what they knew about risk to HBOS "Gordon Brown has denied he was aware banks were being warned as early as 2002 that they were running out of control. The Prime Minister - who was then the Chancellor - insisted he was never told of the Financial Services Authority's concerns about risky practices at HBOS... George Osborne declared Labour either knew exactly what was going on or was "entirely ignorant", adding that neither was "much of a defence". The shadow chancellor told Mr Darling in the Commons: "The net is closing in on the Prime Minister and you. Their accomplices are resigning. Their alibi that nobody knew what was going on has been blown apart. And their fingerprints are all over the mistakes that were made during the age of irresponsibility." - Daily Mail Glen Moreno won't apply for chairmanship of UKFI after Tory pressure "The government faced a major setback last night when a leading candidate to take the helm of UK Financial Investments, the body set up to look after £37bn taxpayer investments in the bailed-out banks, made it clear he would not apply for the job. After opposition MPs yesterday questioned his suitability for the role, former banker Glen Moreno said he had only ever regarded himself as "acting" chairman of UKFI... The Conservatives yesterday tried to seize upon Moreno's position as trustee of Liechtenstein Global Trust (LGT), a private bank accused of aiding tax evasion, to heap further embarrassment on Gordon Brown." - Guardian Boris Johnson in "f-word" tirade against senior Labour MP "Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, repeatedly swore during a telephone conversation with senior Labour MP Keith Vaz, it has been claimed. The London Mayor is said to have used the f-word at least ten times when he spoke to Mr Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee. The two men spoke last week about the committee's investigation into the arrest last year of Damian Green, the Tory frontbencher." - Daily Telegraph Transcript of the conversation - Times > Yesterday's Local Government post on the story Dutch anti-Muslim politician turned away from Britain at Heathrow "A controversial anti-Muslim Dutch politician was deported from Britain last night after he tried to defy a Home Office entry ban... Geert Wilders was detained by plain clothes border guards on arrival at London's Heathrow airport on Thursday afternoon. He was hustled past passport control to a secure immigration holding area before his deportation a few hours later. "Is this how Great Britain treats a democrat?" said Mr Wilders, as he was escorted away. The elected Dutch MP was invited to the House of Lords to show his 17-minute film, Fitna, which criticises the Koran as a "fascist book" and compares Islam to Nazism." - Daily Telegraph "The very people who in 1989 were demanding the murder of Salman Rushdie for writing a book are today leading the charge against a Dutch MP for making a film. The fundamental difference is that 20 years ago, the government supported free speech; today, it has cravenly surrendered. It is simply not good enough to say that Wilders should not be heard because he might provoke a backlash from those who do not like him or his views. That is not upholding the law. That is appeasement." - Philip Johnston writing in the Daily Telegraph > Yesterday's ToryDiary on the Conservative reaction to the banning of Mr Wilders from Britain > CentreRight posts on the row from Alex Deane, Dan Hamilton and Douglas Murray David Willetts on the decline in adult education classes "Fewer adults in England are benefitting from adult education classes, figures obtained by the Conservatives show. In 2003-04 more than 5.1 million adults were on courses funded by the Learning and Skills Council, but by 2006-07 this had fallen to just over 3.1 million... "Ministers' obsession with paper-based qualifications has led to a reduction in the number of adults reskilling and up-skilling, which has contributed to the skills shortage we now face," said Mr Willetts. "A better-skilled workforce is absolutely fundamental if we are to emerge from the recession in a competitive state." - BBC Civil service mandarins challenged on hospitality culture "Senior civil servants responsible for contracts worth billions of pounds accepted tickets to Wimbledon, the Chelsea Flower Show and the opera from firms carrying out government work. It is the first time that the scale of hospitality accepted by senior officials has been revealed." - Times Andrew Haldenby: "Grey is the new black" "A quiet revolution is turning traditional ideas of retirement on their head. A survey recently published by Standard Life discovered that one in three 45 to 65 year olds wants to keep working "on their own terms" after the official retirement age. The same proportion is keen to learn a new skill. VSO, the overseas development charity, recruits 10 times more people aged over 50 than it did 20 years ago." - Andrew Haldenby writing in the Daily Telegraph Budget put back until April 22nd - The Herald Costs of military operations soar - FT Government education adviser apologises for jibes about the Diploma - BBC Gordon Brown to hold talks with the Pope next week - Telegraph And finally... Sarkozy revealed to be a very fast mover "French president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed to Carla Bruni within two hours of meeting her, it was revealed yesterday. Sarkozy, 53, said he was the 40-year-old ex-model’s “romantic and sexual soulmate”. The silver-tongued leader was so smitten with the Italian beauty he promised she could be a new Marilyn Monroe to his JFK, a book claims. And he said they were so well suited that they should get engaged." - The Sun Our main sites Homepage. ToryDiary. Seats and candidates. Local government. Parliament. Platform. CentreRight. International. 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