ToryDiary: The Government is exposed to the charge that it has no integration policy Columnist Andrew Lilico: Taxpayer-funded collective provision of social care is not the way forward Local Government: Lammy to speak at protest meeting to back failing school WATCH: The cast of 'The Iron Lady' turn out for the London premiere of the Thatcher biopic The Independent Commission on Assisted Dying, chaired by Lord Falconer, calls for assisted suicide to be allowed for those with less than a year to live In a bid to save money and benefit patients, Cameron orders the merging together of health and social care "Cameron has told the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, to drive through changes that health policy experts claim will make life more convenient for patients, improve care and save the NHS money ... The prime minister has been persuaded by senior doctors and Downing Street health advisers that, without integration, the NHS could become unsustainable due to rises in the number of patients with long-term health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and breathing problems" - Guardian A clinic pledges to remove faulty breast implants, after Lansley says it would be "unacceptable" if they were to neglect patient needs whilst offering breast enlargement operations - Telegraph Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond to talk of the economic crisis being the "greatest strategic threat to future security", as both the UK and the US look set to scale back military capability The Foreign Affairs Committee calls for private armed guards on ships in the Indian Ocean to be allowed to shoot to kill Somali pirates - Guardian William Hague arrives in Burma - the first British Foreign Secretary since Anthony Eden over 50 yers ago - to push for democratic reforms - BBC Aid to corrupt countries should be "conditional" on them improving their governance, says The Commons international development committee - BBC I Telegraph Andrea Leadsom, described by the Independent as the 'new Iron Lady' draws up a 'shopping list' for Cameron to get powers back from the EU After last night's premiere of 'The Iron Lady', Matthew Parris describes Streep's performance as a "tour de force", remarkable in its portrayal of dementia Michael Portillo: Although Gove is making progress through free schools and academies, no politicial party is bold enough to reintroduce grammar schools Peter Oborne: With the Left losing the argument in all areas of public life, Cameron's Coalition "is shaping up to be one of the most significant governments in modern history" Ed Miliband has "no strategy, no narrative and little energy" says creator of 'Blue Labour and his intellectual guru Lord Glasman "Glasman has revealed his frustration at the way Miliband performed last year, claiming he concentrated too much on preventing party division and defending Labour's "toxic economic record" rather than offering a transformative new leadership. Writing in the New Statesman, he complains: "Old faces from the Brown era still dominate the shadow cabinet and they seem stuck in defending Labour's record in all the wrong ways – we didn't spend too much money, we'll cut less fast and less far, but we can't tell you how" - Guardian Scotland Yard is set to review whether to maintain a dedicated team of detectives responsible for the Stephen Lawrence case "The Metropolitan Police said changes had to be made to murder case teams but it had not taken any final decisions ... Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said the force was "actively reviewing the consequences of what opportunities might be presented" by the convictions. But the Met is scaling back its 30 murder squads because of budget cuts and a decline in the number of homicides in London" - BBC ToryDiary: Columnist Jill Kirby: The taxpayer must not pay to repair toxic boob jobs Columnist Andrew Lilico: Are we a "Christian country"? Martin Parsons on Comment: Stopping the spread of sharia should be central to British foreign policy Tim Montgomerie on International: Romney will be the Republican nominee and with Rubio as his running mate he can win Local government: WATCH: 5pm newslinks: The sentencing of Stephen Lawrence's killers to life leads today's teatime newslinks ConHomeUSA: All the best reactions and commentary on the Iowa Tie
Britain's leading Conservative blog Thurs 5th January 2012 Lord Ashcroft on Comment: My pride at how Ashcroft Technology Academy has gone from strength to strength
"The report, published today, calls for the “inadequate and incoherent” law against assisted suicide to be scrapped following a series of high profile cases where patients have used the Dignitas suicide clinic to take their own lives. Although helping someone to die is punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment and police still investigate all cases, there have been no prosecutions since landmark guidelines were set out almost two years ago. The Commission says the situation is “very distressing” for families, “uncertain” for health workers and place a “deeply challenging burden” on police and prosecutors" - Telegraph
"Hammond will point to similarities in the US and UK economic situations. "Without strong economies and stable public finances it is impossible to build and sustain, in the long-term, the military capability required to project power and maintain defence," he is expected to tell the Atlantic Council thinktank. "That is why today the debt crisis should be considered the greatest strategic threat to the future security of our nations" - Guardian
"Top of her shopping list is a new EU rule allowing member states to opt out of Brussels directives whenever they have a change of government. That would allow the Coalition to end the maximum 48-hour week under the EU's working time directive, agreed when Labour was in power. Brussels would regard such a "Europe à la carte" as a recipe for chaos which undermined the EU's basic principles" - Independent
"To show a great life through the eyes of an old lady whose mind is wandering, is bold. The result is a dramatic achievement by a director of great daring ... In no way is this film disrespectful. Thatcher is not some little old lady whose private indignity is being blundered upon for mass entertainment. She and her legacy have made themselves public property, part of our history. And The Iron Lady never remotely mocks or insults" - Times (£)
"The paradox today is that no major political party would dare to campaign to bring back grammar schools, yet where they still exist, such as Kent or Buckinghamshire, no front-rank politician would dare to advocate their abolition, because they are so cherished by parents. But at least the new Education Secretary Michael Gove is moving in the right direction, through the creation of free schools and academies which will undermine the miserable, dead-hand of central bureaucracy" - Daily Mail
"A handful of prime ministers have led governments that reshaped the world we all live in. Since 1945, only two – Attlee and Thatcher – have fallen into this very rare second category. It now looks as if Cameron may turn out to be the third. In some ways this is very strange, because Cameron, at heart an old-fashioned Tory pragmatist, is the least revolutionary Prime Minister one can imagine. But he has taken the job at a fulcrum moment, when some of the most intelligent minds on the Left have come to realise that the facts of life are Conservative" - Telegraph
Leader of the Scottish Tories, Ruth Davidson says the party in Scotland must make clear what it stands for - Times (£)
Thursday, 5 January 2012
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