Jeremy Hunt MP on Platform: If the BBC has surplus cash it should be returned to licence fee payers or used for a local TV revolution Daniel Kawczynski MP on CentreRight: The next Speaker must disregard seniority when calling MPs to speak in the Commons WATCH: "The Tories have also pulled ahead as the party with the best economic team. Cameron and George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, lead Brown and Alistair Darling by 16 points: 47% to 31%. That lead is up 14 points since January. Labour is not gaining from signs of an economic recovery. In January last year, before the economic crisis broke, Labour had a seven-point lead on the economy." - Guardian > Last night's ToryDiary: Volatile ICM puts Labour back in second place A Conservative Government may change the terms of Iraq War Inquiry David Cameron disclosed that an incoming Conservative government may change the basis of the long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq war, hours after Gordon Brown told MPs evidence would be heard entirely in secret... Conservative sources said later that if he was elected, Cameron reserved the right to change the terms of the inquiry if they were proving too restrictive. He called for some of the sessions to be held in public, and for the issue of blame to be addressed." - Guardian "David Cameron said there was a danger that people would think the timing of the inquiry had been “fixed” because it would not report until after the next election. The Tory leader also said it reference made it unlikely that any blame would be apportioned. He said: “Shouldn’t there be some proper public sessions? Isn’t that what many will want and many will expect and part of the building of public confidence that is absolutely necessary?”- Daily Telegraph > Yesterday in Parliament: David Cameron says the Iraq Inquiry risks looking like an "establishment stitch-up" "A third senior Tory has said he will give up his lucrative second job. The move by Andrew Mitchell piles pressure on other members of David Cameron’s top team to end their moonlighting. The spokesman for international development said he would quit City bank Lazards where he has worked for 30 years – and give up several hundred thousand pounds – to concentrate on winning the next election." - Daily Mail David Cameron mocks ID cards in German accent "David Cameron caused a stir last night when he put on a German accent to mock ID cards. Mr Cameron made the gaffe during a question-and-answer session with voters after promising to scrap the scheme if the Tories were in power. Explaining his concern about ID cards, he said in a cod German accent: "Where are your papers?" - The Sun "The biggest round of applause came when he said his first act as prime minister would be to ask his home secretary “to go into the home office, find the plans for ID cards and a national identity database, and tear them up”. - Norwich Evening News The Sketchwriters give their take on the candidates for Speaker at their first hustings "Mr Bercow did not excel yesterday. He spent much of his opening speech spouting historical curiosities with a slightly deranged smirk. He held out his hands like a priest at Communion and spoke in such long sentences that he kept having to do a little burpy thing to draw breath. It was like listening to someone who has just knocked back a whole tin of Irn-Bru in one." - Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail "Sir George Young: small cycle crash for the bicyling baronet. At one point Margaret Beckett (who, bizarrely, called herself the “healing” candidate) announced she’d voted for Sir George last time. “Good girl!” said Sir George, oozing Eton, though at least he didn’t say “gel”. He classified himself as among the “great and the good” in the Commons. He also said that people should vote for him because, if he were a horse, he had the longest legs. It made sense to me." - Ann Treneman in The Times "Richard Shepherd said that "if you object to both spirit and vulgarity", you will of course object to Prime Minister's questions, but argued that it is good "if the grand people of the Government", who have such a high opinion of themselves, have a little mud flung at them from time to time. We had already warmed to Mr Shepherd when he described himself as "the back to the future" candidate." - Andrew Gimson in the Daily Telegraph "Sir Patrick Cormack, a rotund, clubbable Tory who lists his hobby as "fighting Philistines", has one of these mellifluous voices that the voice-over artist for Wind in the Willows would willingly gargle several barrels of port to achieve. He sounds lovely and posh for a boy born into modest circumstances in Grimsby." - Torcuil Crichton inThe Herald "Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, was asked this week about the pledge of David Cameron, the UK opposition Conservatives’ leader, to hold a referendum on the treaty if he comes to power before it is fully ratified. The French leader’s response was telling. “I am watching the debate in that country,” Mr Sarkozy said. “I simply want to say that we have been happy to have Gordon Brown round the table with us because he has assumed his responsibilities and he has acted with courage by bringing his country with him on the path of European integration.” Mr Sarkozy’s tribute to Mr Brown’s “courage” on Europe spoke volumes of his low opinion of Mr Cameron’s Euroscepticism." - FT Conservatives in the South West are poised for "dramatic" gains from the Lib Dems at the general election "The political map of the Westcountry is on course to be dramatically redrawn, an analysis of how the region voted on June 4 reveals. Across Devon and Cornwall, the Conservatives have made extraordinary gains in areas once considered rock-solid Lib-Dem. With less than a year until a General Election must be called, the Western Morning News has looked in detail at how the results of the council and European polls show the extent to which the region's politics appears to be undergoing a radical overhaul. Again and again, the Conservatives out-polled the Lib-Dems, even in constituencies where the Lib-Dem MP has an apparently insurmountable majority." - Western Morning News Business backs Tory pledge on jobs legislation "Business yesterday welcomed the Conservative's commitment to seek to return power over employment law from Brussels to the UK, but voiced worries about the potential knock-on effect on Britain's influence in Europe." - FT "An official review of devolution, expected to be endorsed by Gordon Brown and David Cameron, recommended Scottish ministers raise more of the money they spend... Mr Cameron will discuss the proposals at a meeting in London with David Mundell, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, and Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader. It is understood he is likely to back the extra tax powers. Mr Mundell said the commission's proposals "merit serious consideration and that is why our Treasury team will be now looking at the recommendations in detail." - Daily Telegraph Labour plan to spar with Tories over cuts backfires "Labour’s attempts to make political capital out of a Conservative pledge to reduce public spending backfired yesterday as ministers squabbled over whether they would match the cuts." - The Times Polly Toynbee: Candour is the weapon to target the Tory achilles heel "if the name of the game is seeming the most honest then the Conservatives are winning hands down. However, carrying off the silver cup for honesty on future spending cuts may turn out to do them more damage than if they had lied. They have made a great mistake in abandoning their original promise to track Labour's spending plans" - Polly Toynbee in The Guardian Ed Vaizey calls for a Video Games Council "The Conservative Party's shadow culture minister has spoken of his desire to negotiate tax breaks for the video games industry, in addition to setting up a Video Games Council to communicate with the government." - Gamezine "The 41-year-old entrepreneur, famous for being rich, gay, Tory and pro-hunting, has just returned to Britain after a three-year exile in Barcelona... Politics is his passion, and, after seemingly forsaking the Tories for Labour in 2000, then becoming an independent London mayoral candidate in 2004, he has just written to David Cameron to ask the Conservative leader to take him on as a prospective candidate." - The Times Ian Taylor MP to stand down - Esher News and Mail > Yesterday in Seats and Candidates: Ian Taylor MP becomes twelfth Tory MP to announce decision to leave Commons in recent weeks Douglas Hurd: The Immortality and Incompetence of nation states "The nation states are immortal and incompetent. Immortal because they are based on the stubborn and continuing loyalty of the citizen, which makes them reluctant to pool authority. Incompetent because none, not even the most powerful, can by itself meet the needs and wishes of its citizens." - Lord Hurd in The Guardian An assessment of the state of the parties' youth wings - The Independent Baroness Thatcher to remain in hospital as "precautionary measure" - Guardian Mary Riddell: Labour is paying the price for neglecting White Van Man - Daily Telegraph
Tuesday 16th June 2009Britain's leading conservative blogTory lead on economy increases in new poll
Andrew Mitchell is the latest Shadow Cabinet member to give up outside interests
"Ann Widdecombe got the biggest cheers. She is equal second favourite in the betting. She was splendidly shameless: "I have the right vulgar attributes that can connect with the public," which we took to mean: "I've been on lots of gimmicky TV shows." Indeed, she said later that if she could control Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, she wouldn't have any trouble with MPs." - Simon Hoggart in The Guardian
Sarkozy smarts at Cameron "snub" on Europe
Tories considering response to Calman Commission review of Scottish devolution
Ivan Massow now wants to be a Tory MP
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
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