ToryDiary: Universities should have quotas for poorer students with great potential, urges Willetts Nigel Fletcher on Platform: The debate about higher education funding should address the issue of how to encourage graduates to donate to their alma mater Local government: Cllr Colin Barrow, leader of Westminster Council, makes the case for 'Foundation Councils' Jeremy Middleton on CentreRight: ConHome readers should lobby National Conservative Convention members with their views about the future of the voluntary party "What is your earliest political memory? The power cuts at school in the early 1970s during the Heath era strikes." - Jack Lopresti is the latest Tory MP to answer ConservativeHome's Twenty Questions The FT says spending cuts will hurt poor most: "In the UK, public services represented 62 per cent of disposable income in 2000 for the poorest fifth but 8 per cent for the top fifth." - FT (£) 12 'free' schools will start in 2011, 50 in 2012, 100 in 2013 - FT (£) Patrick Mercer warns of terrorist attack on Tory conference - Belfast Telegraph | Video Head of axed Audit Commission defends spending - BBC "Opposition to the coalition’s health reforms among Liberal Democrats is threatening to open up a new source of tension at the party’s conference next month. Pressure is growing for the party to seek wholesale changes to plans to put GPs in charge of much of the National Health Service budget by commissioning care directly for patients. Some Lib Dems on the party’s Left, and with links to local authorities and the NHS, want more accountability over how GPs spend money and over hospital decisions such as ward closures." - Times (£) Jackie Ashley: By playing nasty, Labour is wrecking its own chances "The "tee-hee" business of trying to flatter Charles Kennedy, who has had a rough time lately, into defecting to Labour, or talk of exterminating the Lib Dems, is tone-deaf politics. It's too obviously opportunistic, too tribal – too early. After the election result Labour politicians don't have the right or the authority to talk about making other parties extinct." - Jackie Ashley in The Guardian The Liberals have a history of splitting - Stephen Pollard in The Telegraph Immigration 'DID cost Labour votes at the election', says DEMOS - Daily Mail Matthew Elliott of TaxPayers' Alliance to run anti-AV campaign - Guardian |Yesterday's ThinkTankCentral > Yesterday's ToryDiary: Tories would be 23 seats down if last election had been fought under AV How British Aerospace wined and dined MoD top brass 52 times "The close ties between the upper echelons of the Ministry of Defence and BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms company, have come under the spotlight after new documents showed how the multinational firm has regularly wined and dined mandarins and senior military officers. BAE took top defence officials and military officers out to eat and drink 52 times over a three-year period, according to the documents. Nearly half of the hospitality was given to the head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy." - Guardian In Australia’s election Julia Gillard learnt that voters will forgive incompetence but not failure of conviction - Malcolm Turnbull in The Times (£) Tony Blair sets up Mayfair-based investment services firm "Tony Blair has recruited senior financiers and set up a company able to provide investment services to funds and individuals. The former prime minister's Mayfair-based firm has been authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)." - GuardianAlso on ToryDiary: Coalition will stop paying for drug substitutes in radical plan to encourage freedom from addiction
"Britain is prepared to review and cut off aid payments to poor countries with mining wealth that is being diverted by corrupt leaderships, according to the Development Secretary... The Department for International Development (DFID) has particular concerns over Sierra Leone, where Britain has been closely involved in nation building since a military intervention in 2000. The government of President Ernest Koroma has been accused of corruption in recent mining deals. “I’m watching particularly carefully how Sierra Leone intends to exploit its mineral [resources]. I t is an important issue that requires openness and transparency and if not I am prepared to act.”" - Telegraph
Allies allies urged Clegg to articulate the Liberal Democrat message more frequently, clearly and aggressively - Independent
>ConservativeHome's analysis of the Australian election result: Australia's election winner is conservatism
"The Conservative leader looked as relaxed as any Prime Minister can when he set out along a Cornish coastal path yesterday with his pregnant wife Samantha. She radiated her own brand of sunshine in a stylish yellow maxi-dress while Mr Cameron proved he’d learned a lesson from his fashion faux pas on a previous holiday in Cornwall. Two years ago, he had style critics up in arms when he appeared on the beach in a pair of garish floral shorts. Yesterday, he could have stepped straight from the pages of a menswear catalogue with his smart black polo shirt, dark jeans and lace-up shoes. The subdued look was in keeping with the Camerons’ quiet UK “staycation” near Daymer Bay with their children, Nancy, six, and Arthur, four." - Express
Monday 23 August 2010
Labor loses its majority in Australia
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Andrew Mitchell ready to cut aid to corrupt regimes
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