Nigel Fletcher on Platform: David Cameron got a far better reception from President Obama than Margaret Thatcher did from Jimmy Carter when she was Opposition Leader in 1977 International: Canada's Stephen Harper rejects an international system of regulation in an interview with Sky News Local government: Robert Halfon on CentreRight: Something is going badly wrong in Afghanistan David Cameron: We need to resolve MPs' expenses issue NOW "David Cameron yesterday broke the all-party consensus on the need for an independent inquiry into MPs' expenses by demanding urgent talks by party leaders to resolve the issue." - Guardian | Video + 'Poll shows that the public is way ahead of Cameron in seeing the need for cuts' Obamas offer comfort to Camerons over Ivan during half hour meeting "Barack and Michelle Obama last night paid respects to David Cameron’s dead son Ivan. They offered condolences as they chatted to the Tory leader and his wife Samantha. Severely-disabled Ivan, six, died in February." - The Sun "David Cameron burnished his credentials as an international statesman yesterday as he held 'productive' talks with Barack Obama. The Tory leader arrived for the half-hour meeting, which Tory sources said took place at the request of the U.S. President, on a motorbike to beat traffic jams as a result of road closures because of the G20 protests." - Daily Mail | Also Daily Express > Yesterday's ToryDiary: Team Cameron meets Team Obama Five tests for the G20 - Set byThe Guardian "France and Germany delivered a late threat to derail Gordon Brown’s efforts to secure a global recovery deal last night by demanding new concessions from the United States on financial regulation." - Times "The combination of a new and untried President in the White House, a rising China, a friendlier Russia and a more vocal Franco-German alliance marks a signal change. Yesterday, the United States and Britain seemed suddenly a little smaller, China a little bigger, and Continental Europe a force to be reckoned with." - Independent leader Bottles were thrown at police as they tried to help man who had collapsed at G20 protest camp - Sky "The idiots who rampaged through London’s streets disgust our hard-working army of readers. Peaceful protests are the backbone of the freedom of speech we enjoy. But yobs whose only desire is to create mayhem have no place in our society. We salute the brave police officers who stood up to their juvenile antics." - The Sun Says > Louise Bagshawe on CentreRight: "The disgraceful scenes at the G20 protest reflect poorly not only on the drunken louts involved in property damage, rioting, trespass and assault, but also on the government. There can be no absolute right, in British society, to protest anywhere and in any numbers you wish." The politically correct police "The story, reported in this newspaper on Monday, of neighbours who were prevented by police from trying to rescue children from a burning house shows just how nannyish and busy-body that once proud corps of men has become, putting the wretched rulebook before life itself." - Ann Widdecombe in yesterday's Express Adam Afriyie seeks to review state funding of science "Mr Afriyie told Times Higher Education that the Government now controlled 20 per cent of science spending, compared with 2 per cent in 1997. He also criticised Labour's controversial plan to align research funding with the UK's industrial strengths, and its request to the research councils for a "shopping list" of science projects to stimulate the economy. "It is ... right that the Government sets the overall strategic priorities ... but I am concerned that it may be nudging or picking particular projects within that," he said." Tory MEP candidates in Scotland will not share hustings with BNP - The Courier Dan Hannan salutes the internet "Not long ago, a few dozen frontbenchers and lobby correspondents determined the next day’s headlines. Now, millions of online pundits, commentators, bloggers and consumers reach an aggregate view of what is interesting. Some politicians have been slow to see this, and persist in treating the internet simply as one more way to get their message across. Perhaps it’s time to apologise to Newt Gingrich, who wrote about the revolutionary potential of the web in the early 1990s, and was written off in consequence as a geeky obsessive." - Daniel Hannan MEP within this week'sSpectator
Thursday 2nd April 2009Britain's leading conservative blogToryDiary: The world's leading conservative
+ Four times as many voters want state spending down as want spending up"When asked if the government should conduct a new ‘stimulus’ in the next budget, our respondents were sceptical: 56 per cent against and 32 per cent in favour. We then advanced the arguments. That stimulus means ‘real help now to families and businesses through these difficult times, which will help us recover more quickly’. Just 32 per cent found this convincing. When asked whether ‘borrowing yet more for giveaways with limited impact is simply reckless’ a decisive 67 per cent agreed. So far, so Tory: this is George Osborne’s argument. But not even the shadow chancellor argues that government ‘spends much too much money on programmes and services’. Yet our poll showed 54 per cent agreed with this statement. A further 18 per cent believed it was a ‘little too much’ money: in total, therefore, 72 per cent believe that spending has risen too high. Just 15 per cent consider spending too low. The cutters outweigh the spenders by four-to-one. All they need is a party to vote for." - Fraser Nelson in The Spectator
White House photograph of the Obamas meeting Her Majesty The Queen:
"The convention that scientists rather than politicians decide how research funds are spent will be reviewed by the next Conservative government." - Times
Thursday, 2 April 2009
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