Britannia Radio

Friday 3rd April 2009Britain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: Brown's third bounce will be smaller and shorter than the first two Martin Le Jeune on Platform: The Conservatives should trim the BBC and make it concentrate on areas that the market fails to offer Parliament: George Osborne says G20 summitry will appear very remote to mums in fear of their jobs and families fearing losing their homes Local government: Latest by-election results What safeguards do Councils have to avoid funding extremist Muslim groups? Tory-run Bournemouth Council paying agency £200,000 a year for £50,000 job Today's other newslinks G20 summit concludes "World leaders yesterday agreed on a $1.1 trillion injection of financial aid into the global economy, with Gordon Brown claiming that the grand bargain he had brokered represented "a coming together of the world" which would speed recovery from the worst recession since 1945." - Guardian WATCH: Gordon Brown summarises the conclusions of the trillion dollar G20 summit Boris in angry exchanges with MPs over London snow chaos "During an appearance before the Commons Transport Committee, Mr Johnson threatened to walk out as he accused MPs of "political bias" in their questioning about the events following the heavy snows in February. He added that committee members were "talking tripe" and being "pathetic" as he faced accusations that he had let Londoners down by failing to keep buses, tubes and trains running." - Telegraph WATCH: After angry exchanges with MPs Boris Johnson walks out of Commons Committee "MPs' salaries could be significantly increased in exchange for cutting controversial parliamentary allowances, David Cameron has suggested." - Telegraph Sir Nicholas Winterton MP under fire for complaining about having to make an increased contribution to his gold-plated pension - Telegraph Grant Shapps: With the housing market on its knees, scrap the HIP - PoliticsHome The Tory Party has overtaken Labour as the gay and lesbian party of choice -Politics.co.uk Conservatives want fewer young offenders in prison but serving longer sentences "It is questionable whether beyond keeping a young person off the street for a few weeks, what positive outcomes can be achieved in such a short space of time. We are exploring the lengths of terms of imprisonment with the intention of less young people in custody but for a longer period of time.  In other words, if the custodial option is required, the length of the sentence should be to ensure that interventions focused on successful rehabilitation and subsequent resettlement are given sufficient opportunity to succeed." - Shadow Justice Minister David Burrowes MP quoted in The Telegraph Tory MEPs object to European Parliament's "Gender Neutral Language" - BBC The deservedly angry people weren't masked protestors on London's streets but Britain's coping class Decent folk have been roasted on a spit by a tribe of political pygmies – and they're really angry - Jeff Randall in The Telegraph Greener energy policies don't have to cost the earth - Neil O'Brien in The Telegraph A bigger state is here to stay "The state will play a bigger role in the economy for years to come as the recession fundamentally changes the relationship between government and business, Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, has said." - FT Warnings against defence cuts "Britain’s ability to respond to security threats could be undermined if the Ministry of Defence significantly cuts its funding for research, the government’s chief scientific officer has warned." - FT "Some Tories are prepared to compound Gordon Brown’s short-changing of the military by cutting defence spending to show just how thrifty they are. But defence is the public service where failing to increase spending will lead to the most immediate reductions in the quality and reach of the service... It would be ridiculous if Britain threw away its global position and became a peacekeeping nation just because politicians don’t have the courage to look in other parts of the bloated public spending budget for cuts." - Spectator leader NATO summit and Afghanistan "European leaders are expected to resist American pressure today to join in the Pentagon's military "surge" in Afghanistan." - Guardian "Britain, as the second-biggest contributor of troops to the war, has previously indicated that it is doing enough already and suggested other countries to carry a bigger share of America's burden. But Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army told The Times last week that as many as 2,000 additional British troops had been "earmarked for Afghanistan" and could be deployed swiftly depending on the political will." - Times