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Wednesday 8th July 2009Britain's leading conservative blog Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: 84% of Tory members want Conservatives to give British people a referendum if Lisbon is ratified Nick Herbert MP on Platform: Rural communities ignored by Labour are crying out to be heard - and the Conservatives have an agenda to revitalise them Cllr Derek Tipp on Local government: Town Halls should not present contentious claims on global warming as if they were facts Parliament: David Davis tells Commons that British authorities connived in sending terror suspect into hands of Pakistan investigators who removed his fingernails Former Tory Lord Chancellor urges Upper House to protect all human life during debate on assisted suicide Seats and candidates: The youngest members of the potential next intake of Conservative MPs WATCH: Peter Mandelson asked if he is the Prime Minister's 'Willie' ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie presents a nine minute highlights video from last week's 'Inside David Cameron's Conservatives' conference Boris Johnson addresses Gay Pride party at City Hall Today's newslinks Liam Fox sets out how he would oversee a Strategic Defence Review "A Strategic Defence Review under a Conservative government would follow a logical sequence: First, it would determine what the national interests of Britain are and where they exist in a truly global economy. These need to go wider than the traditional definitions, and include threats in areas such as energy and cyber-security. Second, we need to make an assessment of how we perceive threats developing in the foreseeable future, which is never an easy task. Third, we must determine the defence capabilities we require to protect our interests from these threats. Only then, fourth, will we be able to decide the specific resources needed to make a reality of these capabilities. Finally, we need to take account of the financial constraints that will ultimately decide what we can and cannot afford to do." Dr Fox was writing in The Daily Telegraph. "A strategic review should choose collective security over military retrenchment" - Times leader David Davis uses parliamentary privilege to suggest Britain colluded in torture of Rangzieb Ahmed "The true depth of British involvement in the torture of terrorism suspects overseas and the manner in which that complicity is concealed behind a cloak of courtroom secrecy was laid bare last night when David Davis MP detailed the way in which one counter-terrorism operation led directly to a man suffering brutal mistreatment. In a dramatic intervention using the protection of parliamentary privilege, the former shadow home secretary revealed how MI5 and Greater Manchester police effectively sub-contracted the torture of Rangzieb Ahmed to a Pakistani intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), whose routine use of torture has been widely documented." - Guardian | BBC | Parliament blog David Cameron's first priority must be job cuts in the public sector - Simon Heffer in The Telegraph "A tax package to raise £70bn ($115bn, €82bn), probably the minimum required to stabilise Britain’s public finances, might put four points on the rate of income tax, take VAT to 20 per cent, freeze personal allowances and tax thresholds, add five points to corporation tax and collect a bit of extra revenue from the usual suspects such as alcohol, petrol and cigarettes.  I wouldn’t want to be the political front person for that package. Perhaps the opposition Conservatives should give the finance portfolio back to Kenneth Clarke. In 1997 he lost the election no chancellor would want to lose. Whoever succeeds in 2010 will have won the election no chancellor would want to win." - John Kay in the FT APCO Chief Sir Hugh Orde savages Tory plans for elected police commissioners - Guardian Stephan Shakespeare on the Tories' Post-Bureaucratic Age - City AM Brian Coleman: 'I refuse to pander to the mad, bad and the sad' "'Only the mad, bad and the sad' are interested in the details of MPs' expenses, said a senior Tory as he refused to publish his own claims. Brian Coleman, who sits on the London Assembly, defended his decision not to publish itemised expenses - even though Mayor Boris Johnson, his advisers, and the 24 other members have all agreed to voluntarily publish their own." - Daily Mail > Yesterday's ToryDiary: Meet the Conservative politician who is putting up the most brazen opposition yet to transparency on expenses Eighteen Labour MPs rebel but Government survives 10p tax vote - Sky News Lord Malloch-Brown is to step down at the end of the month for 'personal and family reasons' "The Foreign Office minister insisted he still 'greatly admired' Mr Brown and the decision had nothing to do with the 'political situation'." - Daily Mail Labour must embrace voting reform - Alan Johnson renews his call in an article for The Independent Pope Benedict XVI condemns 'corruption and illegality' of politicians and businesses on eve of G8 - Telegraph