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Thursday 18th June 2009Britain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: Tory MP warns that Tory government endangers Union with Scotland Mark Field MP on Platform: We must seize this watershed moment and reform politics Local government: Tories back campaign against wheelie bins Robert Halfon on CentreRight: We shouldn't invest too much hope in Iran's Mousavi WATCH: Michael Martin apologises to Britain again in his final speech as Speaker Yesterday's highlights Local Government: "Charity" seeks to gather attacks on Tory Councils. Parliament: David Cameron pays tribute to Michael Martin's "decency and kindness" Patrick Mercer MP on Platform: Match rhetoric with reality and ban Al Mujahiroun Dan Hamilton on CentreRight: "The European People's Party group in the European Parliament has finally conceded, after seventeen acrimonious years and numerous rearguard actions to keep the party in the group, that its formal association with the Conservative Party is over." WATCH: "I got the sucker"! Obama makes impressive kill of a fly during TV interview Hague tells Sky News that Tories don't want Blair to become President of EU Today's newslinks The expenses claims of every MP for the past four years have been published, but with key details blacked out - BBC Gordon Brown sacks Kitty Usher for flipping homes to avoid tax - Guardian Tories receive 'poison letter' slamming Cameron and Osborne for Stalinist practices - but is it genuine or a Labour hoax? - Daily Mail > Yesterday's ToryDiary: A letter complaining about Team Cameron's power is circulated to all Tory MPs The British Medical Association in Wales attacks Tory prescription plans - Western Mail > Julia Manning on CentreRight: "We've had means tested prescription charges since 1951. A responsible way forward is to encourage each of us to think about what meds we need and the most appropriate place to get them." Conservatives promise to scrap identity card contracts - Scotsman 'We do NOT want Blair as EU president,' insist Tories - Daily Mail | Watch Hague's denial Mervyn King close to backing Tory approach to bank risk "King pointed out that the size of our banking system was, as a proportion of GDP, five times that of America’s; and that risks associated with proprietary trading are harder to control in limited liability companies. His conclusion: we need instruments to prevent the size, leverage, fragility and risk of the financial system from becoming too great. This puts him closer to the Tory position and far away from Darling’s." - Allister Heath in City AM The Tories will have to cut more than 10% "The irony is that the ‘10 per cent’ figure which Mr Brown pretends to find so outrageous underestimates what will actually be necessary. If Mr Osborne is to be taken remotely seriously when he says he wants to cut debt, then he will need to impose cuts far deeper than those presently set out by the Treasury." - Fraser Nelson in The Spectator Osborne accuses Brown of misleading Commons "Downing Street was forced onto the defensive, after Mr Brown baldly asserted at a heated prime minister’s questions that “capital expenditure will grow until the year of the Olympics” – a statement directly contradicted by the official Treasury projections in the Budget red book. George Osborne, shadow chancellor, accused the prime minister of having “basically misled the House of Commons”. " - FT Darling provokes fears of new taxes on higher earners "Alistair Darling prompted fears of tax rises yesterday when he warned he would do 'whatever is necessary' to balance the books.  'No one wants to put up taxes but it is right to do it in a way that those most able to bear the burden make the greatest contribution,' the Chancellor said in his annual Mansion House speech." - Daily Mail Margaret Beckett wins support of Conservatives in race for Speaker - Times Gordon Brown set to make U-turn over Iraq war inquiry and hold sections in public after attack by military and intelligence chiefs - Independent A new campaign aims to "end the damned lies told with statistics" - Nigel Hawkes in The Times Straight Statistics: "We are a campaign established by journalists and statisticians to improve the understanding and use of statistics by government, politicians, companies, advertisers and the mass media. By exposing bad practice and rewarding good, we aim to restore public confidence in statistics." The Independent: Britain can be proud that it is "demo central" "From anti-Apartheid protests outside South Africa House to, more recently, the Tibetan and Falun Gong vigils outside the Chinese embassy, to Georgians outside the Russian embassy last summer, London sometimes seems like demo-central. But that is something Britain should be proud of: providing a haven and a platform for those whose voices are silenced at home." - Independent leader And finally... At last night's Tory Summer Ball David Cameron made light of his recent Basil Fawlty moment when he used a fake German accent to talk about ID cards.  In order to complete his new reputation he said that Bratwurst and Blue Nun would be served instead of the fine food and wines that donors were used to.