Eric Pickles warns the party against triumphalism
- Dan Hannan, Guido Fawkes and Peter Mandelson shoot up the league table of Britain's most influential right-wingers
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean on Platform: How Gordon Brown turned a global financial crisis into a British financial catastrophe - and what we must do to get the economy growing again
Jeremy Middleton on Platform: Jeremy Middleton reports back on a "united and determined" National Conservative Convention meeting in Manchester
Memories of conferences past on Platform: Don Porter recalls how he kept the conference show on the road in 2003
Seats and Candidates Diary of a PPC: In the week that the Labour Party converged on Brighton for its conference, Simon Kirby and his team deliver 32,000 surveys across Brighton Kemptown (whilst Gordon Brown fails to make any impact whatsoever)
Local Government: Should Manchester have a directly-elected mayor?
International: Vaclav Klaus may not save Britain from Lisbon after all
ConservativeHome published its Grassroots Manifesto - the biggest ever survey of the Tory grassroots
David Davis MP: We need a decade of freedom to rebalance the relationship between the citizen and the state - and it's about far more than civil liberties alone
ToryDiary posts:
- Lisbon is David Cameron's number one headache
- Cameron makes it clear that there will be no shift of European policy in Manchester
- Details of the party's Work Programme are unveiled
- Pensioners will keep their home and get free residential care if they pay £8,000 insurance fee under Tory plans
- Cameron faces tough questioning from Andrew Marr on Lisbon, that Bullingdon photograph and his personal wealth
- The Murdochs are "furious" at Labour's attacks on The Sun
- Two polls puts Tory lead at 12%
- PoliticsHome survey of 33,000 voters in marginal seats points to Tory majority of 70
WATCH:
- David Cameron talks to Andrew Marr about dealing with the UK's fiscal deficit...
- ...and his plans for reforming the welfare system...
- ...and Andrew Marr questions David Cameron about the Bullingdon Club and his personal wealth
- Andrew Lansley talks to BBC TV news about the Tories' insurance guarantee for pensioners needing residential care
- Adam Boulton announces that Sky, BBC and ITN have agreed a proposal for three election debates between the leaders of the three main parties
- Gordon Brown finally agrees in principle to TV election debates
Tories propose tough medical tests for 2.6million benefit claimants
"Hundreds of thousands of people on incapacity benefit will have their payments cut by almost a third if they fail tough medical tests, under proposals to be announced by the Conservatives. Within three years of David Cameron being elected, every person on incapacity benefit will be tested to see if they can return to work." - Daily Telegraph
"David Cameron will honour his vow to make jobs No 1 priority if he becomes PM by slashing the number of people "on the sick", he said last night. A staggering 3,000 assessments EVERY DAY will be performed over three years to root out the shirkers. And Mr Cameron will plough the money this claws back into finding work for the unemployed." - The Sun
> Rolling record of Tory policy announcements at the Manchester Conservative Party Conference
Boris Johnson to announce transport savings and freeze of council tax precept
"Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, will today announce £2.6bn of extra savings on public transport in the capital to as part of an attempt to underline the Conservatives' commitment to bringing down spending. Speaking at the Tory party conference in Manchester, he is also expected to announce a freeze on city hall's share of the council tax." - The Guardian
'Dithering' Cameron urged to speak out on Europe
"David Cameron's bid to depict his party as a united government-in-waiting has been threatened by a new row over Europe. The Tory leader was accused of 'dithering' after he rejected repeated calls for a commitment to a referendum on the European constitution - even if the Lisbon Treaty creating it is ratified before he wins power. The row, prompted by Ireland's Yes vote on the EU treaty on Saturday, dogged Mr Cameron and his team as they planned a charm offensive at their final conference before next year's general election." - Daily Mail
"David Cameron has pledged to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the European Union. Mr Cameron will try to make a deal on elements of the Lisbon Treaty even though it is almost inevitable that he will not be able to have a full referendum on the treaty if comes to power next spring. The Conservative leader said he would not take no for an answer and would negotiate with the same vigour as Margaret Thatcher when she demanded Britain's money back 25 years ago." - Daily Telegraph
Boris denies split on Europe referendum - The Times
"The Cameroons are Eurosceptics. David Cameron himself is wholly free from the taint of federasty. But the Tory leadership would much prefer not to have a punch-up with the EU. They do not wish to condemn their party to yet another of the rows that were so destructive in the Nineties, especially when they have so many other priorities and such a demanding agenda. Yet there may be no choice, for politicians are not always allowed to set their own agenda."- Bruce Anderson in The Independent
Patients to be able to pick surgeon from league table, under Tory plans
Patients will be allowed to decide which doctor or surgeon treats them in hospital after consulting "performance" tables, under plans to be announced by the shadow Health Secretary... The proposals will be outlined today by Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, in a speech which will confirm that the Conservatives will continue to increase NHS spending while other public services face cutbacks." - Daily Telegraph
Tory plans to reform parliament would give voters chance to alter bills
"Voters will be given the power to rewrite laws under Tory plans to transform the way parliament works by importing a popular scheme championed by Barack Obama in last year's US election. William Hague will tomorrow announce that the Conservatives will introduce a new stage for parliamentary bills, known as the public reading stage, that will allow voters to reject and rewrite clauses. The scheme will be based on the US mixedink website, used by Obama last year" - The Guardian
Grayling plans to bring prison population to 100,000
"Tory plans to bring the prison population to a historic high of 100,000 and fund 5,000 new prison places by selling off Victorian jails was criticised as "bogus" by ministers yesterday. The plans, announced by the shadow home secretary Chris Grayling, would see new laws created for those who attack policemen and harsher punishments for antisocial behaviour – with the 5,000 new prison places created to accommodate new inmates." - The Guardian
Cameron reaches out to Northern Ireland Assembly
"Conservative leader David Cameron has said he wants to establish better relations with the Stormont executive, should his party win the next election. As delegates gathered for their annual conference in Manchester, he said he intended to be "a prime minister for the entire United Kingdom". - BBC
Cameron and Osborne regret Bullingdon Club membership
"David Cameron and George Osborne yesterday separately expressed their deep embarrassment at membership of the blue-blooded, hard-drinking Bullingdon Club at Oxford University. Shown a now suppressed club photo on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show, Cameron said he was "desperately embarrassed". He admitted "we do things when we're young that we deeply regret". The picture shows him alongside other members of the notorious dining club, including Boris Johnson, in bow ties and £1,200 club tailcoat." - The Guard ian
Daniel Hannan: the Tory Eurosceptic MEP whom Labour loves to hate
"He wears red, spotty braces, carries a Union Jack diary and sent his children to a nursery school called Little England. Daniel Hannan is the Tory Eurosceptic MEP who Labour loves to hate. When he declared on American TV over the summer that the NHS was a “60-year mistake”, ministers rushed out to condemn him as unpatriotic. When his attack on Gordon Brown in the European Parliament as the “devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government” became a YouTube phenomenon, Labour claimed that he revealed the Tories’ “swivel-eyed instincts." - Daniel Hanna profiled in The Times
Jackie Ashley: Could Cameron be the last ever UK Prime Minister?
"The nightmare for Cameron is that, once George Osborne has revealed details of the cuts imposed by Tory Westminster on Scottish budgets, the SNP start to gain momentum for their proposed independence referendum. Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister and nobody's fool, has been watching the Conservative agendas on cuts and on Europe with fascination." - Jackie Ashley in The Guardian
Conservatives charge Sir James Dyson with making UK a leader in exporting hi-tech products - Daily Telegraph
Peter Oborne: The Tories should embrace the Human Rights Act - The Guardian
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