Parliament: How quickly should new MPs become ministers?
Ian Liddell-Grainger MP on Platform: A shortage of affordable housing threatens the very future of our villages
Local government: Give farmers a right to buy
International: Australia's Liberals remain in the doldrums but are fighting back at the state level
Timothy Barnes returns to CentreRight with some thoughts on transport policy
Charles Tannock MEP on CentreRight: Back to work in Brussels
"There are now 3.3 million households with no one over the age of 16 in employment, up from 240,000 on last year, with 1.9 million children living in families where neither parent works. The figures, released by the Office for National Statistics, come as the Tories highlight the cost to the taxpayer of paying benefits for those out of work. In a speech today, Theresa May, the shadow work and pensions secretary, will reveal that a total of £346 billion has been paid out in benefits to unemployed people since Labour came to power in 1997." - Telegraph | Independent | The Sun | ePolitix
Why welfare is Gordon Brown's greatest failure: Philip Johnston reflects on 13 years of failed policies to get millions off benefits - Telegraph
"Property tycoon David Rowland donated more than £1 million to the Conservative party - despite the scandal over MPs' expenses claims. Sir Rowland said he had made the donation out of a 'concern for liberty' and the 'economic future of Britain', as it emerged that donations to political parties soared in the second quarter of this year." - Daily Mail
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Latest quarterly donations feature individual gift of over £1,000,000 to the Conservative Party
Mis-spent youth gives Cameron a leading edge - Jayne Dowle in the Yorkshire Post
Ed Balls attacks Tory education plans "Ed Balls marks the publication of this year's GCSE results tomorrow with a scathing attack on the Conservatives' education plans, claiming they want to revive a two-tiered school system relegating millions of children to take "second-class" exams." - Guardian
"Michael Gove's Swedish flirtation masks a deeply unfair, laissez-faire approach to education" - Ed Balls in The Guardian
Nick Clegg fears expenses reform is being swept under carpet - Telegraph
Financial Services Authority chairman backs tax on 'socially useless' banks - Guardian
New Taser gun that can fire up to 100 feet ‘being considered for use in UK’ - Telegraph
Ted Kennedy loathed Britain - so why did Gordon Brown knight him?In the Daily Mail Ruth Dudley Evans says it is sometimes correct to speak ill of the dead
> On CentreRight yesterday Simon Burns MP paid tribute to the late US Senator and Alex Deane did not.
And finally..."Talking of T-shirts, I saw one recently on a most un-Tory-looking youth: across its front I’M NOT INTERESTED IN POLITICS BUT I DON’T LIKE LABOUR. Polling experts emphasise the importance of what they call DA (differential abstention: meaning more stay-at-homes among one party’s declared supporters than another’s) but this looks more serious. For Labour, GA (or galvanised apathy) could prove a lethal force. I’d recommend the Tories have a million of these T-shirts produced — anonymously." - Matthew Parris in The Times
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