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Thursday 5 February 2009Britain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: Further cuts in interest rates endanger banks' deposit base and penalise thrift, warns Redwood Mats Persson on Platform: Exposing the spiralling cost of EU regulations Local government: Councils still slow to pay their bills Seats and candidates: Search for 100 Peers: Patrick Nicholls WATCH: Brown slips at PMQs, saying we are in 'depression' David Davis demands answers on suggestion that UK buried evidence of torture of Gitmo prisoner President Obama imposes $500,000 cap on senior executives at rescued banks AmericaInTheWorld: Cheney defends Guantanamo Bay and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects Today's newslinks Ken Clarke's return has been a success - Michael White in The Guardian "Asked who would make a better chancellor if the Conservatives were to win the election, 39% said Clarke and only 15% said Osborne. (The rest did not express a preference.)" - Guardian Lord Laidlaw suspends donations to Conservative Party "Last night, it emerged that Lord Laidlaw, the 66-year-old tycoon and philanthropist, has decided to stop donating to the Conservatives at least for the foreseeable future. David Mundell, shadow Scottish secretary, said: "He has decided he is not donating to political parties for his own reasons until he has sorted out his tax issues. He has given us prior notice that that is his intention."" - Herald "The Government is under pressure to back a proposal for people to be banned from donating to political parties unless they pay tax in Britain." - Independent Robert Peston tells MPs that his reporting did not lead to the collapse of Northern Rock - BBC Did Blair hope that Charles Clarke would succeed him? "In an interview with the New Statesman, Clarke reveals that Blair told him in 2006 that he "had a great plan" to make him foreign secretary to build him into a serious challenger for the Labour leadership. The Blair plan failed in May 2006 when he sacked Clarke as home secretary over a row about foreign prisoners." - Guardian High Court ruling deals new blow to Hunting Act "The Countryside Alliance welcomed the ruling and said that it had “won on everything essentially”. Simon Hart, its chief executive, said: “The Hunting Act is an increasingly pointless piece of legislation. Politicians are coming to realise that it has failed and it is now a question of when, not if, it is repealed.”" - Times Jeremy Warner's ten point manifesto to save the free market - Independent Tebbit suggests Margaret Thatcher was real target of sacking of Carol Thatcher "Lord Tebbit said: 'It does seem very odd that Jonathan Ross can be back broadcasting having made obscene, insulting remarks on the air, and Carol Thatcher, who said something which is allegedly highly offensive but which I rather doubt was meant to be so, in private, should be banned in this way. 'It is probably a bit of a way for the BBC to get back at Carol's mother.'" - Daily Mail McCain amendment to delete 'Buy American' clause in stimulus is defeated But 'Buy American' clauses are amended to comply with international treaties - BBC Dangers in Obama's cap on bankers' pay "If it discourages firms from seeking timely help, it may backfire. If the curbs are kept in place too long, retaining and recruiting people with the skills and the prodigious appetite for work that economic recovery will require may start to become difficult." - FT leader Our main sites Homepage. ToryDiary. Seats and candidates. Local government. Parliament. Platform. CentreRight. International. PlayPolitical videos.

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