ToryDiary: Conservatives must fight for the moral high ground
John Hayes MP on Comment: This Government will create more apprenticeships than modern Britain has ever seen
ThinkTankCentral: Policy Exchange proposes exit plan from European Court of Human Rights
ThinkTankCentral: IoD proposes pro-growth measures that won't cost George Osborne a penny
Local government:
- Neil Pearce: In Praise of Andrew Boff AM
- Prince Charles says town planning should work with human nature
90% of MPs set to defy ECHR ruling that rapists and killers be allowed to vote - Express poll of MPs
Theresa May will replace ASBOs with ‘criminal behaviour orders’
"Under the ambitious initiative, troublemakers will face the same asset seizure powers as major criminals. They would be likely to lose personal items such as stereo systems and electronic gadgets. Previous ideas to target young tearaways with financial penalties - such as Tony Blair’s much-derided plan to march violent drunks to the nearest cashpoint – have been attacked as ‘gimmicks’." - Daily Mail
"Home Secretary Theresa May now seems to be having her own Tony Blair moment, in suggesting that louts could soon have their iPods, stereos and other gadgets seized if they consistently refuse to behave. It is doubtless well-intentioned but it has all the hallmarks of a gimmick which would have, at best, a marginal effect." - Daily Mail leader
Cameron 'livid' after multiculturalism speech comes under fire - Independent
"A senior ally of Ed Miliband who branded David Cameron a far-Right ‘propagandist’ for criticising multiculturalism was left isolated by Labour colleagues yesterday... Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander said: ‘It is for Sadiq to explain the context in which he made those remarks.’" - Daily Mail
"Equality chief Sir Trevor Phillips backed David Cameron yesterday over his tough stance on extremism. He said the PM was right to declare that it was not for the Government to tell people to embrace multiculturalism." - The Sun
> Yesterday, Haras Rafiq on Comment: At long last we have a Prime Minister who rightly makes the distinction between Islam and Islamism
The Big Society in crisis?
"The government is "destroying" the UK's volunteer army and undermining its vision of the "big society" with its huge cuts programme, the outgoing head of Community Service Volunteers says." - BBC | Express
Writing for the FT (£), Daniel Kruger says promising initiatives have been taken but Cameron needs to give it more time: "Two potentially radical bills on localism and the public sector have been introduced, as has an important white paper on giving to charities. The £400m Big Society Bank will soon pour money into local social enterprises. Charities and community groups will be licensed to provide public services and paid for their results. Later this year a national citizen service for school-leavers will launch, “free schools” will open and new mutuals run by doctors and nurses will spin out of the NHS."
15,000 council workers earning more than £58,000 a year are to be named under government plans to force local authorities to cut middle management waste - Telegraph
Max Hastings: Although forestry privatisation has been misrepresented, Cameron should u-turn
"Ministers have bungled the politics, probably irretrievably. They have so many more important fights on their hands that they are crazy to expend precious political capital for a negligible economic gain, and perhaps none at all. If David Cameron is smart, he will get out of the woods quickly, before he meets something much more dangerous than any wolf or bear: Middle England at its most impassioned and sentimental." - Max Hastings in the Daily Mail
Ministers keep changing their stories on forest privatisation - Geoffrey Lean in The Telegraph
> David T Breaker on Comment: Liberate the forests
David Cameron isn't gripping Whitehall machine - James Kirkup in The Telegraph
The average competence of civil servants is in decline - Allister Heath for City AM
Give us hope, not taxes, Mr Cameron - Express leader
"Achieving the £10,000 personal allowance is the coalition’s tax priority. It is right that it should take precedence over other desirable reforms, such as getting rid of the 50 per cent rate of income tax." - David Laws in The Times (£)
Britain's crazy industrial tribunal system - Boris Johnson in The Telegraph
John Bercow has failed to act against Labour MPs' heckling of Paul Maynard
"The Speaker is under pressure to lecture MPs about their behaviour after a new Tory member with cerebral palsy was openly mocked in the Commons. John Bercow issued a written statement yesterday warning MPs that such abuse was unacceptable after Paul Maynard told The Times that colleagues had tried to put him off a speech by making fun of his disability. However, it is understood that Mr Bercow has known about the incident for more than three months and has yet to speak to Mr Maynard about it." - Times (£) | < href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/speaker-ready-to-step-in-over-mockery-of-disabled-tory-2206342.html" target="_blank">Independent
Vince Cable promises 100,000 more apprenticeships
"The Business Secretary will say that the Government is increasing annual funding of the on-the-job training scheme by £222 million to reach £1.4billion this year. And he will call on more employers to follow the lead of firms such as British Airways, British Gas, BT and Jaguar Land Rover by offering thousands of places to young people." - Telegraph
Dossier to show Labour 'complicit' in Lockerbie release - Telegraph
Frank Field urges Cameron to intervene to save Sure Start centres from council cuts - Times (£)
Ed Balls says there had been "sound and fury" from the Coalition on bank bonuses but no action - Independent
Ed Miliband says Nick Clegg could be toxic for Yes to AV campaign - Guardian
> Last week ToryDiary proposed: "AV can be defeated if voters go into the polling booth thinking of Nick Clegg, broken promises and tuition fees"
Other Comment:
- "The BBC's move north is lunacy - and shows how catastrophically it has lost its way" - Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail
- The young will never be treated fairly until they vote in the same proportion as the old - Mary Ann Sieghart in the Independent
- All sense but political sense says scrap the ill-judged generosity of spending £1bn a year so over-60s can enjoy free bus travel - Julian Glover in The Guardian
George Bush has cancelled a trip to Switzerland amid claims he could have faced arrest on torture charges - Metro
And finally... Cameron says William will be a wonderful King
"The Prime Minister said he had found the Prince to be "a remarkable young man" after spending time with him in Zurich for England's recent failed bid to host the World Cup. Speaking to US news network CNN about the royal wedding, Mr Cameron said he was confident it would be "a great moment for Britain", adding that William and fiancee Kate Middleton were "a wonderful couple"." - Express
ToryDiary:
- Nick Herbert rebuts Labour opportunism on police numbers
- Cameron pours cold water on any idea of early tax cuts
- David Cameron sends a message to Westminster and Whitehall: treat extremists like racists. Now he must make it happen.
On Comment:
- Haras Rafiq: At long last we have a Prime Minister who rightly makes the distinction between Islam and Islamism
- Josh Mead: President Reagan's legacy is as important as ever today - which would have been his 100th birthday
- David T Breaker: Liberate the forests
- Struan Stevenson MEP: In Iran we must back the main opposition in overthrowing the fascist regime
Parliament: Anna Soubry calls for the anonymity of anyone arrested for a crime to be protected
Local Government:
- Will the Conservatives make gains from the Lib Dems on May 5?
- Road deaths fall after speed cameras scrapped
WATCH:
- Nick Herbert MP says police must be crime-fighters, not form-fillers
- Chris Huhne says government must be "rougher and tougher" with tax dodgers
- ConHomeUSA: President Ronald Reagan in his own (powerful) words
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