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Tuesday 7th July 2009Britain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: What is a Tory Government for? Alan Duncan and Ken Clarke both drop down shadow cabinet league table Sajid Javid on Platform: The deep truth beneath Labour's green shoots Seats and Candidates: Those with farming experience in the likely next intake of Conservative MPs Nick Seaton in Local Government: Parents should be suing the authorities for not offering their child a choice of acceptable school places WATCH: Barack Obama explains the nuclear deal agreed by America and Russia Today's newslinks David Cameron shies away from supporting public sector pay cuts "David Cameron yesterday shied away from supporting cuts in public sector pay as a way of cutting public spending. The Tory leader said he would not support a freeze on the pay of six million Government employees... Mr Cameron is wary of confrontation with public sector workers over pay, fearing that seeking pay cuts could alienate some voters and boost Labour attempts to portray the Conservatives as hostile to public services and people on low wages." - Daily Telegraph > Yesterday's ToryDiary: Should the Conservatives be taking a tougher line on public sector pay? Rachel Sylvester: The Tories are obsessed with learning how Canada slashed spending in the 1990s "Senior Tories cite Tesco’s slogan “every little helps” in discussing cuts. But the real aim, they say, is to follow the Canadian example and rethink the role of the State. “There will be examples of painful decisions that we will need to take — but that’s more about showing people that we are serious rather than solving the debt crisis,” says one strategist. “You are not going to get anywhere near enough just by cutting even quite big things, the real point is that we have got to make fundamental changes in how we do things.” - Rachel Sylvester in The Times > Sunday's ToryDiary: Philip Hammond explains how the Conservatives are looking to Canada for lessons on how to make spending cuts Rural post offices will be safeguarded, vow Conservatives "Under the Conservative plans, the viability of post offices would be judged against new guidelines including determining whether they offer a social service to the elderly and young families. The new policy is part of a range of measures they will unveil as part of a strategy to deal with what they say is Labour's "decade of disrespect" towards the countryside. They will also move to reverse the hunting ban by allowing MPs to vote again on the controversial issue. And schools will be allowed to remain open even if pupil numbers drop below the agreed national minimum." - Daily Telegraph Reaction to yesterday's announcement from David Cameron on reforming quangos  "If Cameron tackles the UK's failing quangocracy early on in a similar systematic way that Gordon Ramsay sorts out a failing restaurant, as he intimated in a major policy speech yesterday, his re-election chances in 2014-15 will be infinitely greater." - Dan Lewis writing in the Yorkshire Post "Cameron argues that there are only three justifications for quangos: to carry out work that is necessarily independent of government; to offer transparency on the work of government; and for technical expertise unavailable in government. That would still leave quite a lot of quangos and, as Labour was quick to point out yesterday, Cameron's small state instincts would lead him to create a lot more, from the proposed "office of budgetary responsibility" upwards or downwards." - Steve Richards writing in The Independent "His speech was above average on the subject. He wants to cost quangos and measure their efficiency, to restate ministerial responsibility and take back a lot of policy-making to accountable politicians." - Michael White in The Guardian "Media regulator Ofcom today said it was "surprised" to be singled out in Tory leader David Cameron's attack on quangos, insisting it was good value for money." - Guardian > Yesterday's ToryDiary: David Cameron pledges a reduction in the "number, size, scope and influence of quangos" Ken Clarke attacks delay to MG Rover report "Ministers were yesterday forced to deny Tory accusations that the decision to refer the collapse of MG Rover to the Serious Fraud Office was a ruse to avoid political embarrassment over the role played by the government in the carmaker's demise. Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, accused Lord Mandelson of trying to kick the issue into the "long grass" until after the general election." - FT Dominic Grieve slams government over 1,000 "vanished" criminals "In a massive new law and order scandal, almost 1,000 criminals including murderers, rapists and paedophiles are wrongly at large. The dangerous convicts should have been returned to jail after committing new crimes or breaking the terms of their early release... Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'The public will be shocked. Labour's reckless early release scheme and lax approach to probation is putting the public at greater risk. Cuts to frontline probation services will only make this situation even worse'." - Daily Mail Chris Grayling reaffirms opposition to ID cards and the national identity register "One of the first acts of a Conservative government will be cancelling the ID cards scheme. The scheme and the register are both an affront to British liberty and will have no place in a Conservative Britain. They are also a huge waste of money." - Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling quoted in The Guardian Nick Herbert: Why the Tories are winning the pink vote "It's quite hard to make the argument of homophobia stack up when the visible evidence is that the Conservatives have changed... To believe gay people vote only on issues related to their sexuality is patronising and wrong. They care about the same things as anybody else. They want a better future for their country, and a better politics, too." - Nick Herbert writing in The Guardian Speaker "dismayed" over BBC leak "Speaker John Bercow has told MPs he is "dismayed" that his plans for deputy speaker elections was leaked to the BBC before he announced it in the Commons." - BBC > Yesterday in Parliament: John Bercow warns frontbenchers against leaking his private discussions with them Government facing possible defeat today over 10p tax "Ministers are trying to head off another damaging back-bench Labour revolt today – this time over Gordon Brown's decision in 2007 to abolish the 10p starting rate of income tax. Alarm bells were ringing among Labour whips after 30 of the party's MPs backed a call for full compensation for the low-paid workers who lost out in Mr Brown's final Budget as chancellor in 2007." - The Independent > Listen to Frank Field discuss the issue on this morning's Today programme George Osborne spotted lunching millionaire former Labour donor - Daily Mail Tory campaigner in Norwich North struck down with swine 'flu - Eastern Daily Press Labour MP asks Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate Alan Duncan - Daily Mirror EHRC report says immigrants cannot jump housing queues - BBC Police fear far-right terror attack - Guardian Sir Alan Sugar to be ennobled on 21st July - Times