Britannia Radio

Today's top ConHome features ToryDiary: Cameron leadership "delighted" at smooth reception for Europe policy Mats Persson on Platform: The Conservatives are right to focus on EU social policy – but only a comprehensive opt-out from all relevant Treaty articles will do Seats and candidates: Julie Kirkbride tells Bromsgrove Conservatives she wishes to be their candidate at the general election Local government: Recession boosts Blackpool and One local by-election result. WATCH: Gordon Brown: I will not, must not and cannot withdraw from Afghanistan Today's other newslinks David Cameron does support a referendum... ...on giving the Welsh Assembly more powers - Western Mail The Financial Times and Economist note muted reaction to the new Conservative policy on Europe "Most Tory MPs – and Eurosceptic Tory-supporting papers such as The Sun – held their tongue, in a sign that the party grudgingly accepts Mr Cameron’s argument that a Conservative government would have more important economic issues to deal with." - FT "The good news for Mr Cameron is that, compared with the mid-1990s, when the Tory party combusted over Europe, it is now united and determined to win the election. Most of his MPs understand that while much of the public may dislike the EU, they also distrust politicians who seem obsessed with it. So the party seems set, for now, to swallow his new line on Lisbon." - The Economist's Bagehot The Daily Express reports on the resignations of Dan Hannan and Roger Helmer. Sarkozy welcomes Tory abandonment of referendum "The French leader congratulated the Conservative Party for abandoning its promise of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, adding that Britain had already won opt-outs in a hint that no new ones could be expected." - Times Exit Tony Blair, enter Herman Van Rompuy - frontrunner for top EU job - Guardian Miliband may get Brussels job 'in days' as Blair's hopes fade - Daily Mail Michael Gove sets out Tory educational policy in comprehensive speech - BBC Philip Hammond made a formal complaint to a statistics chief that Gordon Brown had exaggerated the number of jobs the Government had protected through the recession - Telegraph Johann Hari: Tories plan to make it hard for Labour to ever win again "Cameron's policy documents show he will try to change Britain's political landscape to make it harder for the Tories to be defeated. He will abolish 10 per cent of parliamentary seats, almost all in Labour areas. He will scrap the rules requiring commercial broadcasters to be politically impartial, unleashing the rabid Fox News model against the British left. And he will threaten to outlaw trade union funding for Labour." - Johann Hari in The Independent Geoffrey Wheatcroft: Rory Stewart will turn Tories away from neoconservatism "Now comes the most exhilarating news in years for the Tories, or all of us: the selection of Rory Stewart for a safe Tory seat. Not only highly intelligent and eloquent, he is a throwback to another age, in the best way. Apart from having gone to vaguely the same school and university as Cameron, and served in the Black Watch and the Foreign Office, Stewart walked across Afghanistan before the war, and has been a proconsul in Iraq. He thus knows more about those countries than any British politician or commentator – and as a result is highly sceptical about western policy, recognising that we are not wanted there, and will not make ourselves any less unwanted by killing more people. It will be truly fascinating to see how he is greeted by the armchair warriors on his frontbench. Could there be hope for the Tories yet?" - Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The Guardian According to the Cumberland News there is some local unhappiness at Rory Stewart's selection. Jan Moir sympathises with the 'turnip Taliban' critics of Liz Truss - Daily Mail Skint? Britain's financial crisis is much, much worse than that - Adrian Montague of Reform in The Telegraph Ed Miliband says it is highly unlikely that a new legally binding climate treaty can be agreed on time - BBC Barack Obama's 'dithering' hurts Afghan mission, British sources say - Telegraph And finally... Nicholas Winterton slaps Labour MP's bottom "A Tory grandee was at the centre of rumours last night that he GOOSED dishy MP Natascha Engel. Sir Nicholas Winterton, 71, is said to have made his move for the Labour seat in a Commons tea room. He was queuing behind Ms Engel, 42, when she felt a "firm" whack..." - The Sun Yesterday's ConHome highlights WATCH: The full sitting of the UK Youth Parliament in the Commons chamber last Friday Jonathan Isaby on CentreRight: David Cameron at the 2009 British Curry Awards Louise Bagshawe on CentreRight: I am delighted with David Cameron's new European policy, but Dan Hannan's resignation was honourable - and some posters on ConHome could learnt a lot from him Parliament: Speaker Bercow announces priority places in the public gallery for armed forces personnel