Sunday, 11 November 2012

Today's ConservativeHome newslinks
Remembrance-poppyDavid Cameron: We must remember for ever, not just for today
In The Sunday Telegraph the Prime Minister writes about his plans to do more to improve the living conditions of servicemen and women and their families: "We look back as we approach the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. Some may think that after a century it is time to move on. I could not disagree more – and that is why I support The Sunday Telegraph’s “Lest We Forgetâ€� campaign to save the nation’s war memorials."
Maria Miller, Culture Secretary: George Entwistle took correct decision
The-sun-front-page-11.11.12-1-1-329x437"It's a regrettable situation, but the right decision. It is vital that credibility and public trust in this important national institution is restored. It is now crucial that the BBC puts the systems in place to ensure it can make first class news and current affairs programs."
The Sunday Times: Chris Patten must go too
"If he has any sense of honour, [Lord Patten] should take responsibility for promoting his creature and go too. He made great play about defending the corporation’s independence against a perfectly innocuous inquiry by Maria Miller, the culture secretary, over the Savile affair. Yet her concern has been amply vindicated. The corporation is out of control." -Sunday Times leader (£)
Toby Young: The disgrace of the BBC
BBC Labour megaphone"BBC mandarins — lawyers, editors, controllers. Presumably, they just couldn’t resist a story that depicted a senior Conservative politician as a paedophile, regardless of how flimsy the evidence was. The irony is, if a Right-wing tabloid had made a similar accusation — and hinted that a paedophile ring was operating out of Downing Street under Tony Blair — and the “evidenceâ€� had subsequently unravelled in the same way, it would now be fighting for its life. Guardian journalists, Newsnight reporters, the Bureau of Investiga tive Journalism — all would be calling for it to be shut down. And witchfinder general Tom Watson would be leading the charge, just as he led the charge against the News of the World." - Toby Young in The Sun
  • In The Sunday Telegraph Iain Martin urges David Cameron to focus on unscrambling Leveson, rather than reforming the BBC.
  • The ambushing of the PM on television put him in a position where there was no right answer. Even so, he emerged with some credit - John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday
  • Dominic Lawson: Forget a press gag, it's Twitter we must police - The Sunday Times (£)
"Maria Miller, the women’s and equalities minister, has dismissed calls for large British companies to be set targets for the number of women in top executive posts" - The Sunday Times (£)
Jeremy Hunt to unveil "NHS Mandate" on Tuesday
HUNT JEREMY NW"Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, will identify priorities including cutting deaths from heart and lung diseases, reducing infant mortality and improving care for dementia sufferers. The aims will be laid down in what is being billed by ministers as a landmark for the NHS: its first ever "contract" with the Government. Ministers will claim that the broad goals will do to more to improve health and wellbeing than Labour's focus on detailed targets for waiting times and treatments." - The Sunday Telegraph
David Willetts teams up with Vince Cable to urge looser immigration policy - Observer
Barely one in six people will bother to vote when Britain elects its first police and crime commissioners this week - Independent on Sunday
MAY-THERESATheresa May in The Sun urges people to turn out and vote: "So if you care about your community, if you want the police to get tough with criminals, if you want crime to keep on falling, make sure you take the opportunity to vote this Thursday and vote for the candidate with the best plan to cut crime."
Labour and Tories rather than independents or small-party candidates set to win crime commissioner elections - The Sunday Times (£)
  • Anyone who has spent time in the US is aware of the dangers of politicised policing - Paul Vallely in theIndependent on Sunday
Maypoles, harvest festivals, Christmas carols... it's time for the minorities to join in - Sayeeda Warsi's Mail on Sunday interview
"Earn or learn" - James Forsyth in the Mail on Sunday sets out a new Coalition agenda for young Britons focusing on training, benefits, housing and childcare.
Nadine Dorries claims she got Andrew Mitchell's permission. He says she did not.
"“I sought and was granted permission from the then Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell,â€� said Nadine shortly before she entered the strict purdah enforced by the series’ ITV producers. Yet, as ever with the mercurial Merseyside-born MP, nothing is quite that straightforward: last night Mr Mitchell (who has since been replaced as Chief Whip following his “Plebgateâ€� difficulties) told me that while he may have agreed to her taking a month off: “ I’m happy to confirm that in this case I did not give permission for Nadine to travel to Australia for a month to take part in a television programme.â€� - Sunday Express
Nadine Dorries' boat capsizes on eve of her I'm A Celebrity debutMail on Sunday
"Her Australian stunt carries the danger for her that she will be written off as "Mad Nad", as she is sometimes known. But it also carries the danger for Cameron that one of his fiercest critics will become far more famous, and will return to Westminster with an enhanced ability to undermine his authority." - Andrew Gimson inThe Observer
> In her ConHome column - written one week ago - Nadine Dorries explains her decision.
Liam Fox: Tory rebels should note that attacks from his own side fatally wounded Romney
Fox Liam Apr11 470
"The bitter primary process saw Republicans picnic on one another with Newt Gingrich’s tirades against Romney leaving him open to attacks by gleeful Democrats. Conservatives in Britain who see serial rebellion against the Government – on almost any issue – should take note. The European debate should be conducted in a respectful and decent manner, with the emphasis on substance not personalities." - Liam Fox in the Mail on Sunday
“Romney’s fate has reminded us that the Conservative Party can’t win if it’s seen as just the party of older white people.�
D'ANCONAObama "was completely at ease with – indeed, embodied – the heterogeneity of the contemporary world: a world of niches, “microtrendsâ€�, unprecedented mobility and freedom, hectic technological churn; a world, one might add, largely fashioned by forces of which Conservatives approve. It is through this prism that gay marriage is best understood. Its opponents see it as, at best, a “metropolitanâ€� distraction and, at worst, the mutilation of a sacred institution. But for a great many people – not just gays or the “metropolitan eliteâ €� – same-sex marriage has become a litmus test of civil equality: of the principle that we accord to others the rights that we enjoy ourselves." - Matt d'Ancona in The Sunday Telegraph
"If the UK is to emulate the US relative success with economic recovery, the government does have to make more progress in mending the banks, and in delivering cheaper energy. The US economy has outperformed ours so far this decade, thanks primarily to going for cheap gas and getting on with sorting out the banks and property values." - John Redwood
The American lesson for Cameron is change or die - Nick Ferrari in the Sunday Express
"In the Labour argument, Obama won because he was "on the side of the 99%" rather than a friend of millionaires" - Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer
Following Obama's victory, the Gordon Brown vision of government as omnipotent benefactor is now the model in the US - Janet Daley in The Sunday Telegraph
MEPs in Conservative and Reformists group enjoy all frills visit to London at taxpayers' expense - The Sun
Consumer organisation Which? is calling for a delay to the increase in fuel duty planned for January - BBC | Sunday Express
Two out of three invitations to join government bodies go to men - Observer
A Scottish pro-independence group has criticised the SNP’s “nervous, cautious and conservativeâ€� approach - Scotland on Sunday
Salmond Alex Oct 2011"The paper says the SNP-dominated Yes campaign has fallen into a trap laid by Unionists, who have turned the debate into an endless series of questions which can never be answered in full. By engaging with this, the Yes camp's answers have been "nervous, cautious and conservative", angering campaigners who want radical change. The situation is affecting campaign strategy and policy development "in a manner likely to weaken the case for independence", it concludes. The SIC urges shifting the debate on to the broad principles by which issues would be resolved, rather tha n trying to supply every last detail, saying the focus should be on "ideas, debate and possibility, not facts, data and inevitability"." -Sunday Herald
The greatest legacy of the US elections may be shifting attitudes towards illegal narcotics - Eugene Jarecki for The Observer
And finally... The Mail on Sunday examines the photographs of David Cameron calling the re-elected Obama and discovers the notes for his call, some shoe polish and a £160 coffee machine.