ToryDiary: The Coalition will drift Leftwards unless the Right organises
Also on ToryDiary:
- How blue is the Coalition? Part Three: Public Services
- New York Times reopens tabloid hacking claims allegedly involving Downing Street Communications Director
Sajid Javid MP on Platform: Britain must maintain an independent, submarine-based nuclear weapons system - whatever the cost
LeftWatch: Ken Livingstone plans to brand the Government's cuts as "Boris's cuts"
Local Government: Will the Free Schools take off?
Q. Who would you least want to get stuck with in a House of Commons lift? A. Eric Pickles and Nicholas Soames - with the three of us in it, it would need a lot of people in the winching party! - Richard Harrington MP answers ConHome's Twenty Questions for the Class of 2010
WATCH: Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone give their take on the Blair memoirs
William Hague denies relationship with adviser who quits - as he reveals grief over multiple miscarriages
"Foreign Secretary William Hague will attempt to get back to business as usual after issuing an extraordinarily personal statement denying speculation about an improper relationship with a male aide. Mr Hague said his special adviser Christopher Myers had resigned as a result of the "pressure" put on his family due to the "untrue and malicious allegations made about him". - Press Association
"In one of the most candid statements ever issued by a senior British politician, he disclosed that he and his 42-year-old wife, whom he married in 1997, have ‘suffered multiple miscarriages’ as they tried to start a family and ‘are still grieving for the loss of a pregnancy this summer’." - Daily Mail
"How desperately sad that William Hague is forced to reveal private heartache to silence malicious gossip. Mr Hague, Tory Foreign Secretary and a politician of immense integrity, is the victim of a baseless whispering campaign suggesting a relationship with a male aide. It is a miserable sign of the debasement of our politics that such rubbish can be peddled." - Sun editorial
"Senior Tories, whose concerns about Hague's handling of the row are shared in Downing Street, believe he made two key mistakes in recent months. They believe it was wrong to make Christopher Myers a special adviser in the Foreign Office, rather than giving him a job in his parliamentary office. It was also a mistake to share a twin room with him during the election campaign." - The Guardian
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Statement from William Hague revealing that his special adviser, Christopher Myers, has quit
Hague condemns Hamas killings as peace talks resume
"William Hague has condemned the killings of four Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists on the eve of a new round of Middle East peace negotiations. The British Foreign Secretary deplored the “cruel and inhuman attack” near Hebron, which left two couples dead and seven children orphaned. He said: “On behalf of the United Kingdom I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed, and reaffirm our unswerving support for all those striving for peace in the region in the face of such provocations.” - Jewish Chronicle
Middle East peace talks resume with both sides heading for collision over settlements - Daily Telegraph
Tories hail Tony Blair's support for Coalition policy on tackling the deficit...
"Conservatives say the former PM's memoir offers a clear endorsement of the coalition government's plans to cut the deficit... The financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban told the BBC: "He actually repudiates the Labour economic policy, the policy followed by Gordon Brown and the policies set out by the five Labour leadership contenders. He has endorsed our view that we need to take action now to tackle the deficit and get the economy going." - The Guardian
“The Coalition Government is winning the argument on cutting the deficit to get the economy moving. Now even Tony Blair has backed it. As he says in his book, taxpayers foot the bill if governments don’t tackle deficits because a lack of confidence would stop the recovery in its tracks.” - Baroness Warsi quoted in the Herald
> Yesterday's LeftWatch: Blair backs Cameron on the deficit, spending, public service reform and VAT
...as leadership candidates distance themselves from Blair...
"Candidates for the Labour leadership moved tonight to limit the impact of politically explosive remarks in Tony Blair's memoirs in which he backed the economic strategy of the Conservative-led coalition government." - The Guardian
"David Miliband appealed to Tony Blair not to issue a public declaration of support in his battle to become the next Labour leader, fearing it could damage rather than boost his prospects in the contest, The Independent can reveal." - The Independent
...and the former PM's memoirs are considered by the papers
"Funny, shallow, engaging, big-headed, sloppy, rambling, affable, canny, jejune, confessional, lazy, good-natured, self-righteous, philosophically confused, delusional, sometimes repellent, often lovable and never entirely trustworthy, Mr Blair emerges almost as a caricature of the politician we thought we saw: still crazy after all these years." - Matthew Parris in The Times (£)
"Appropriately, in view of Labour's obsession with PR and slick presentation, it has the feel of a voyeuristic celebrity memoir, both in its liberal use of anecdote and in the breathless way it is written." - Telegraph editorial
"He explains that what he sought was a "progressive alternative to the Conservatives", but thanks to his rootless imprecision the Conservatives claim to be the progressives as well. Most people I meet consider themselves to be "progressive" and indeed "modern". The terms are meaningless. Blair expands a little, but only with a list of familiar platitudes that were in some cases tested to destruction by what happened in office." - Steve Richards in The Independent
"The paradox of the Blair memoirs is that the style of politics he embodied seems to live on not in his own party but in the coalition. If those politics are characterised by radicalism on public service reform and a highly personal brand of political conviction, the heir to Blair is not amongst Labour's leadership contenders, but sitting in Downing Street." - Evening Standard
John McTernan: Both parties owe much to Tony Blair, but they also live in his shadow - Daily Telegraph
Blair memoirs are "fastest-selling autobiography of all time" - The Independent
> Yesterday's coverage on ConHome:
- Highlights of Andrew Marr's interview with Tony Blair
- Tony Blair tells Andrew Marr about his "very difficult" relationship with Gordon Brown
- Tony Blair admits that the hunting ban and FoI legislation were mistakes as his memoirs are published
- Blair quotes - on the Coalition, the deficit, George Bush, John Prescott, Ed Balls...and his own supernatural powers
Michael Gove: Academies will give more children a chance
"Academies succeed because heads are given the freedom to shape their curriculum; they are at liberty to insist on tougher discipline, pay staff more, extend school hours, and develop a personal approach to every pupil. The Brown government, convinced that politicians and bureaucrats should micro-manage schools, curtailed such freedoms. This Government trusts teachers to control the classroom and trusts parents to choose schools. That's why we're increasing the number of academies." - Education Secretary Michael Gove writing in the Daily Telegraph
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: 142 schools to convert to Academy status in first wave of Gove reforms
True believers in Osborne's budget cuts may harm their career prospects
"Tory ministers boasting about how eager they are to please George Osborne by cutting their budgets risk forgetting the mercurial cabinet career of John Moore. Blond, handsome and a Thatcherite true believer, he was tipped for the very top, but fell to Earth in 1989 after a series of keen-to-please-Maggie wheezes designed to save money." - Michael White in The Guardian
Britain's deficit is constraining public finances, says IMF report - The Independent
Community service branded "a holiday camp"
"Community service has been criticised as a "holiday camp for offenders" by the Government's victims' commissioner after undercover footage showed criminals sitting around drinking tea and smoking illegal drugs. Louise Casey, who helped develop the community payback scheme, called for a "revolution" in the way it was implemented as policing and justice minister Nick Herbert said criminals were effectively sticking two fingers up at the system." - Press Association
BBC boss admits corporation's "massive" past Left-wing bias
"BBC Director General Mark Thompson has admitted the corporation was guilty of a 'massive' Left-wing bias in the past. The TV chief also admitted there had been a 'struggle' to achieve impartiality and that staff were ' mystified' by the early years of Margaret Thatcher's government... His comments, made in the New Statesman magazine, are one of the clearest admissions of political bias from such a senior member of its staff." - Daily Mail
NHS trust chiefs offered £130,000 payout to quit - The Guardian
Attorney General will study papers that could finally lead to an inquest into David Kelly's death - Daily Mail
Pakistan extremists could exploit floods, warns Nick Clegg - Daily Telegraph
Bankers' bonus tax failed, admits Alistair Darling - Daily Telegraph
And finally... Channel 4 to show Miliband drama
"The rise to political power of David and Ed Miliband and their battle to head the Labour Party is to be dramatised by Channel 4, it has been announced. The docu-drama - Miliband Of Brothers - is to be broadcast on the eve of the announcement of the leadership election results later this month. The Milibands will be played by real-life brothers Henry Lloyd-Hughes, who will star as David and whose appearances have included The Inbetweeners and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, and Ben, who has appeared in Skins, will play Ed." - Press Association
Posts
