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Local government: Cllr Robert-John Tasker on how Kingston's Lib Dem Council has dismissed George Osborne's Council Tax freeze offer, despite having the highest council tax in London.

Dan Hamilton on CentreRight: The EPP, In Their Own Words

WATCH: Simon Heffer condemns Labour's PBR but wishes the Tories would stand for something in its place

Yesterday evening's ToryDiaries:

Today's must-read: The high price of the climate change agenda

"Homes and businesses will have pay higher energy bills if Britain is to meet the estimated £15bn-a-year cost of its climate change commitments, the government was told on Monday. Household electricity costs could go up more than 25 per cent by 2020 if greenhouse gas emissions are to be cut by a third from 1990 levels, said Lord Turner, chairman of the climate change committee." - FT

"The steps needed to achieve ambitious climate change targets will push 1.7 million more people in the UK into fuel poverty, a report has revealed." - Scotsman

Police probe into MP Damian Green 'could be dropped within weeks' - Daily Mail

Damian Green's "mole" breaks cover

"The Home Office mole who leaked secret papers to the Tory MP Damian Green broke cover yesterday to insist that he was acting in the public interest and to accuse police of a massive overreaction. Christopher Galley admitted being in regular contact with the shadow Immigration minister, whose arrest has provoked a constitutional uproar over the freedom of MPs." - Independent | Yesterday's ToryDiary

Vernon Bogdanor defends the arrest of Damian Green

"The police followed the correct procedure in asking the Speaker, Michael Martin, if they could search Damian Green's office. Had the Speaker refused, he could have been accused of condoning suspected wrongdoing. An MP's office cannot be out of bounds for the police. Suppose that an MP had committed a theft and had hidden stolen goods in his office. Would it seriously be maintained that the police should not have a right to search that office?" - Vernon Bogdanor in The Guardian

Senior Labour figure launches outspoken attack on Cameron over Damian Green affair - Telegraph

We need bold steps to open channels of credit - Alan Duncan writing in the FT

Boris Johnson: I don't want to buy another internal combustion engine

"Here is my proposal to the motor industry, now languishing in the credit crunch. My Toyota people-mover is so old and tired that if it were a dog, you would have it put down. But I intend to keep it on the road for another year, for two years, for three years - for however long it takes the car manufacturers to produce a zero-emission electric family car. Come on, folks: you must be able to do it. I don't want to buy another internal combustion engine; there is a market waiting to be satisfied, and if that isn't an economic stimulus I don't know what is." - Boris Johnson in The Telegraph

The Freedom of Information era is causing Whitehall to be more cautious - Rachel Sylvester in The Times

Lone parents told to be ready to work or face benefit cut - Guardian

Mandelson blamed for 'Britain wants to join euro' stories - Daily Mail | Yesterday's ToryDiary

The Sun reacts to the Baby P report

"Why, as Tory leader David Cameron asks today, is [Ed Balls] keeping the real details of this case under wraps? Why hasn’t the doctor who failed to spot Baby P’s shattered ribs and broken spine been barred from the NHS forever? We don’t need to wait for the dithering General Medical Council. And what about the police who knew the child was in mortal danger but walked away? Why haven’t Haringey legal services been investigated? It is incredible that so many of those involved are the same people who presided over the nightmare life and death of Victoria Climbie." - The Sun Says

Article for The Sun on Baby P tragedy by David Cameron.

Canada's opposition leaders sign coalition accord as they step closer to ousting Stephen Harper - National Post

The media have stopped covering Iraq since it turned the corner - Chuck Norris, TownHall.com

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Posted on 02 December 2008 at 09:02 in December 2008 newslinks | Permalink | Comments (10)

Monday 1st December 2008

10.30pm ToryDiary: Latest ComRes poll reduces Tory lead to one point

8.15pm ToryDiary: A textbook example of Labour's mendacity AND incompetence

5.45pm Parliament: Conservative MEPs welcome adoption of the EU's Small Business Act

5.30pm AmericaInTheWorld: Obama's foreign policy appointments should encourage interventionists

5pm Seats and Candidates update: Caroline Spelman congratulates youngest ever Conservative parliamentary candidate

4.45pm ToryDiary: Statement from the Home Office "mole"

4.45pm ToryDiary: EPP proves again that it cannot be trusted

4.30 pm Local Government: Haringey: At last some resignations but will the ideology change? and Eric Pickles: End abuse of surveillance powers by Town Halls

3pm WATCH: Dominic Grieve questions the suggestion that national security issues were at stake in arrest of Damian Green

2.15pm Local Government: Haringey Council leader and Children's Services cabinet member resign over Baby P case

1.45pm Local Government: Tory-run Northamptonshire County Council may scrap speed cameras.

12.30pm ToryDiary: The policy challenges for the Welsh Conservatives

11.30am Professor Nick Bosanquet on CentreRight argues that public service reform is vital to ensure we get better value from schools and hospitals at the same time as we bring spending under control.

11.15am ToryDiary: 'There are no circumstances in which the next Conservative Government will propose joining the Euro' says William Hague

Richard Bacon on Platform: The Speaker has let us down in something of incalculable importance

ToryDiary: Should Conservatives back more power for Holyrood?

Lord Hanningfield in Local Government: How we are helping Essex through the recession

AmericaInTheWorld: George W Bush - I want to be remembered for liberating fifty million people

International: Canada's Left seeks to unite to topple Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government

Police accuse Damian Green of orchestrating up to 20 leaks

"Detectives accused Damian Green of "grooming" a young civil servant during questioning over the leaking of up to 20 Home Office documents, according to a senior Conservative... In a welter of briefings from police, ministers, civil servants and Commons officials, the most incendiary came from a senior Conservative who said that Mr Green was accused of "grooming his contact" during his nine-hour detention on Thursday. "Damian was very angry at this clear attempt to provoke him and did not reply. As a party we want to make it clear that this was grossly inappropriate but symptomatic of the cack-handed way the police have conducted this investigation." - Times

Doubts raised about what Jacqui Smith says she knew

"Miss Smith stubbornly refused to condemn the treatment of David Cameron's migration spokesman, insisting that Ministers' first duty was to 'uphold the independence of police'. She also denied knowing that the Home Office leak inquiry was targeting a Tory MP... Miss Smith's denial of any advance knowledge was swiftly challenged by Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve, who came close to accusing her of lying. Mr Grieve said: 'The most important is about what the Home Secretary knew. 'I found her answers extremely unconvincing. I think she knew that there was an MP involved in this investigation and she just decided to sit back on her hands." - Daily Mail

Speaker will address Commons on Wednesday...

"Michael Martin, the speaker of the House of Commons, is to make a statement to MPs about the arrest of Damian Green amid Tory suggestions that the parliamentary authorities were misled by the police." - Guardian

...as David Davis rallies support for a challenge to Martin's authority...

"David Davis has placed himself at the head of a cross-party campaign to challenge the Speaker over his role in the police raids on Damian Green. The Tory bruiser has set up a Commons showdown on Wednesday - when MPs gather for the first time since Mr Green's arrest to debate the Queen's Speech." - Daily Mail

...and a senior Labour backbencher says that heads should roll

"If the Speaker has doubts he should consult privy councillors rather than take the decision on his own... If not, then the Commons must assert its rights on behalf of the people who send us to Parliament." - Denis Macshane writing in the Daily Telegraph

Harman voices her concerns over Green arrest...

"Harriet Harman yesterday broke Government ranks to join a chorus of concern at the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green in connection with a leak inquiry. She said there were some "very big constitutional principles" that needed to be safeguarded, including MPs' right to do their jobs without interference from the law." - Daily Express

...as Trevor Kavanagh admits he has now been converted to the cause of civil libertarianism

"I used to think ID cards were a good thing. Along with CCTV cameras and DNA databanks. Even, at a pinch, 90-day detention. What law-abiding citizen could object to these new weapons against terrorists, rapists and murderers? Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Not any more." - Trevor Kavanagh writing in The Sun

Bruce Anderson: Parliament's rights are under threat

"As we learned about the harassment of Damian Green and his family, a lot of us wondered whether we were still living in Great Britain, or whether our country, which was once synonymous with its people's freedom, had ceased to exist." - Bruce Anderson in The Independent

Jackie Ashley: Jacqui Smith failed in her first duty

"At the heart of the government's dismal mishandling of the Damian Green affair is its woeful failure to grasp the proper relationship between elected authority and the police. Again and again yesterday, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said she knew nothing, because it was "right" that the police should be "independent"... Smith should have found out what was being contemplated by the police and then intervened to stop it. Far from being "Stalinist", that would have been the proportionate, liberal and sensible thing. Having failed to do that, she should then have apologised to Green." - Jackie Ashley in The Guardian

> Yesterday's ToryDiary coverage of Jacqui Smith's refusal to apologise and the TV interviews done by Dominic Grieve and Harriet Harman

You're off your heads, Tory peer tells advocates of greater tax powers

"The former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth made a scathing attack yesterday on the Calman Commission's investigation into extra powers for the Scottish Parliament, claiming that those pursuing the notion were "off their heads". Lord Forsyth of Drumlean dismissed the idea of the devolution review being carried out at a time of economic turmoil. "I think it's amazing when the house is on fire that people are wondering if it might be a good idea to raise more taxes in Scotland," he said. "I think they are off their heads." - Times

Swedish schools expert tells Tories: You're not going far enough

"The Conservatives will be warned today they would be wrong to refuse to allow Swedish-style independent "free" schools to make a profit out of private education. That would be "a terrific mistake", said Mikael Sandstrom, the Swedish Prime Minister's senior adviser. "The profit motive is good for making schools less selective." - Independent

Labour creates 'Soviet' boroughs where half of residents work for the state

"An analysis of Government figures has shown 10 areas where more than 40 per cent of the workforce is employed in the public sector. It suggests that the 1.3 million jobs created in health, education and public administration between 1998 and 2006 is helping mask the loss of 1.1million jobs in traditional industries." - Daily Telegraph

Mandelson oversees rewrite of Queen's Speech

"The Queen's Speech is being hastily rewritten to put fighting the economic crisis at the heart of Gordon Brown's last full programme before a General Election. Peter Mandelson - until recently a Government pariah - is overseeing final work to 'recession proof' Wednesday's announcements so they do not include moves that might harm business or the consumer." - Daily Mail

Jose Manuel Barroso: UK "closer" to joining the Euro

"The UK is "closer than ever before" to joining the euro, according to the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. Speaking on a French radio show, he said British politicians were considering the move because of the effects of the global credit crunch." - BBC

"Dark comedy" portrays Thatcher funeral - Telegraph

Condoleezza Rice in London today - BBC

Cost of Bloody Sunday Inquiry reaches £250million - Independent

And finally... the latest initiative to tackle binge-drinking

"Forget tougher sentences and more bobbies on the beat, the latest weapon in the war on drunk yobs is... bubble blowing. Revellers at pubs and clubs will be handed bubble-blowers with the aim of channelling over-boisterous behaviour into harmless fun... But the latest initiative has been condemned as a 'nursery school gimmick' and a waste of taxpayers' money." - Daily Mail

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Posted on 01 December 2008 at 09:00 in December 2008 newslinks | Permalink | Comments (23)

Sunday 30th November 2008

6.45pm ToryDiary update: Damian Green instructs General Pinochet's solicitor

4.45pm Local Government: IDS report backs ending life tenure for Council tenants

2pm Simon Chapman on CentreRight: Jacqui Smith personifies the phrase "Nothing to do with me, Guv"

1.30pm Seats and Candidates: City of Durham's newly-selected candidate, Nick Varley, is the youngest Conservative ever to stand for the House of Commons

12.30pm ToryDiary: Dominic Grieve says he thinks Jacqui Smith did know an MP was involved in the Home Office leak inquiry and Local Government: Labour-run Norwich persecute mulled wine serving hairdressers

10.45am CentreRight:

10am ToryDiary: Jacqui Smith refuses to apologise to Damian Green

ToryDiary: Was this the week which determined the result of the next election?

Andrew Mitchell MP on Platform: What I witnessed in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Mark Wallace in Local Government: Why is only Hammersmith and Fulham cutting council tax?

Seats and Candidates: Christian Holliday selected for Swansea East

David Cameron increases pressure on Brown over Damian Green arrest

"The Prime Minister has simply repeated that he “had no prior knowledge” and this is “a police matter”. Frankly, that’s not good enough. The question is, does he think it is right for an MP who has apparently done nothing to breach our national security to have his home and office searched by a dozen counter-terrorist police officers, his phone, BlackBerry and computers confiscated, and to be arrested and held for nine hours?" - David Cameron writing in the News of the World

Alleged Home Office "mole" was a Tory candidate

"Civil servant Christopher Galley, who is accused of leaking information to Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green, stood as a Tory candidate in 2004 elections for Sunderland Council." - Mail on Sunday

Are senior Tories' Commons offices being bugged?

"The House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tories' immigration spokesman, is routinely swept for electronic bugging devices, along with other offices belonging to senior Conservatives, amid fears of covert monitoring, The Independent on Sunday has discovered. Anger surrounding the shadow immigration minister's arrest last week escalated dramatically last night over suspicions of a major bugging scandal inside the Palace of Westminster." - Independent on Sunday

Did the police entrap Damian Green?

"The police used a Whitehall whistleblower to try to lure Conservative frontbencher Damian Green into incriminating himself, it was claimed last night. The Mail on Sunday understands that the Shadow Immigration Minister, who was controversially arrested for allegedly leaking information embarrassing to the Government, may have been the victim of an entrapment plot. " - Mail on Sunday

Ben Wallace demands review of the Wilson doctrine

"Last night, a Conservative MP wrote to Gordon Brown demanding an urgent review of the Wilson doctrine, the convention that protects MPs from phonetapping but does not cover other surveillance techniques. Ben Wallace, the Conservative MP for Lancaster & Wyre, said the Wilson doctrine, which dates back to 1966, needed to be changed to cover all forms of surveillance, not just intercepting of calls." - Independent on Sunday

Melissa Kite: Why I published Home Office memo passed on by Damian Green

"Leaks form an essential basis of journalism. In a perfect world, they would not have to. But in a system where people try to cover up mistakes for personal or political reasons, we rely on finding out the most inconvenient truths in ways which are necessarily covert." - The words of Sunday Telegraph deputy political editor, Melissa Kite

More cross-party attacks on the circumstances of Damian Green's arrest

"Calling for a review of “operational methodology in the light of Damian Green’s arrest”, David Blunkett said it also “would be prudent for the cabinet to consider reviewing the process by which the police have access to the offices and confidential material of MPs. It’s clear that whatever process is currently in place is not sufficiently robust to give confidence either to MPs themselves, their constituents or the wider community”. - Sunday Times

"In an extraordinary attack, Denis MacShane said it would destroy people's belief that they could deal confidentially with their MPs about matters of concern to them. 'The Speaker should have eyes to see and ears to hear only as the House directs him, and I am not aware the House of Commons has ever debated, let alone authorised, raids by the police as agents of the executive into the private offices within the Commons of MPs. We need an urgent statement and debate on what has taken place, and a reaffirmation of the doctrine that MPs and their offices are protected by privilege." - Observer

Outraged MPs threaten to hijack the Queen’s Speech

"Speaker Michael Martin faces a humiliating revolt by MPs over his handling of the Damian Green affair when the Queen visits Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday. An all-party group of MPs is threatening to hijack the Queen’s Speech in an attempt to force the Speaker to apologise for his conduct – and may call on him to resign." - Mail on Sunday

A second post-PBR poll sees double-digit Tory lead

"Alistair Darling's £20bn 'spend now, pay later' pre-Budget report may have been the beginning of the end of Gordon Brown's 'bounce' in the polls, according to today's Ipsos MORI survey for The Observer. The poll, conducted on Thursday and Friday, shows that among those certain to vote Labour's share has dropped by five percentage points to 32 per cent since mid-November. By contrast, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have gone up by three percentage points to 43 and 15 per cent respectively." - Observer

Darling says he hasn't done enough to save the economy...

"Alistair Darling has admitted that he will 'almost certainly' have to deliver a second dose of financial life-support to Britain's ailing economy as soon as next spring if his unprecedented £20bn tax-and-spending package fails to contain the recession. In an exclusive interview with The Observer, the Chancellor conceded that his pre-Christmas VAT cut might not be enough." - Observer

...as Tessa Jowell raises "anxiety" over tax rises

"Tessa Jowell said the City and the middle classes needed reassurance following the announcement of Government plans to raise the top rate of income tax to 45p." - Sunday Telegraph

David Cameron: We need a scheme to guarantee loans

"Thousands of healthy businesses and millions of people who work for them are desperately relying on the government to get the credit markets moving again. For their sake, it must act now before it is too late." - David Cameron writing in the Sunday Times

> Friday's ToryDiary on David Cameron's speech on "monetary activism"

Goodbye to Britain's low tax system

"Last week was a big moment. A totem of the past two decades was demolished in a moment. The consequences of that moment may be felt for a very long time." - The Sunday Times economics editor David Smith gives his take on the PBR

Chasm between the two Britains is laid bare

"As the recession clears away the rhetoric, we begin to understand how Brown created two Britains. Beneath the explosion in credit and the boom in house prices, only the public sector was actually expanding, "creating" three-quarters of all new jobs since 1997. The private sector was becoming more efficient, stripping out layers of middle management, out-sourcing back office functions, installing IT that improved productivity. Now it's the private sector that's in the firing line." - Tory MP Michael Fallon writing in the Sunday Telegraph

Ed Balls faces Electoral Commission probe over Smith Institute role

"The Electoral Commission is to investigate whether Ed Balls worked for Gordon Brown while on the payroll of a charity before becoming an MP... “Balls has always been Brown’s bag carrier, but it would be a breach of electoral law if the charity was paying for someone who was actually working for Brown,” said Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary." - Sunday Times

The BBC News website profiles the Isle of Wight's Conservative MP, Andrew Turner - BBC

Government to announce sweeping new laws to regulate alcohol sales - News of the World

Lord Mandelson and Alan Johnson at odds over proposed law on cigarette sales - Sunday Telegraph

Preview of the controversial bills set to be included in Wednesday's Queen's Speech - Sunday Telegraph

How Ministers on £138,000 a year dodge Darling's new 45 per cent top tax rate - Mail on Sunday

No scanners means ID cards cannot be read - Observer

40,000 a year killed by the NHS - News of the World

Nick Clegg overheard criticising his frontbench team during flight - Sunday Mirror

Canadian Tories scrap plan to end state party funding as Stephen Harper seeks to hold the reins of power - Calgary Herald

And finally... Oasis mogul and ex-Labour donor Alan McGee loses faith in Brown

“Do I think Cameron would do a better job? Undoubtedly. Could the Tories do any worse than this bunch of cretins that we’ve got in now? Labour are monumentally useless. Gordon Brown has had a charisma bypass. For all Blair’s faults, Blair had charisma. He was a leader, a winner. Gordon Brown is none of these things. He’s a f****** diabolical prime minister and the country is in a mess.” - Sunday Times

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Posted on 30 November 2008 at 09:01 in November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (7)

Saturday 29th November 2008

5pm ToryDiary: CCHQ launch new campaign materials

2pm ToryDiary: We shouldn't bash the Tories but leave them behind in the battle of ideas says Peter Mandelson

1pm Ben Rogers on CentreRight: Damian Green's arrest severely undermines democracy

ToryDiary:

Paul Goodman MP on CentreRight reports from Delhi: Terror in India

Nick Seaton on Local government reveals A threat to close good schools in Stoke

Seats and candidates: Caroline Johnson adopted for Scunthorpe

Tories hit 45% and are 15% ahead - Yesterday evening's ToryDiary

Quote of the day

"'If this approach had been in place when Gordon Brown was in opposition, he'd have spent half his time under arrest." - Michael Howard referring to the Prime Minister's reputation for handling leaked documents when he was in opposition.

Blunkett leads attack against police 'overkill' after Green's arrest - Guardian

The Sun is suspicious of Labour's denials of knowledge and focuses of Alicia Green's ordeal

"London Mayor Boris Johnson, Speaker Martin and David Cameron were warned about the arrest. Yet Ms Smith and Gordon Brown insist they knew nothing. Is it likely a Shadow Minister would be seized without the Home Secretary or PM knowing? MPs from Mr Brown downwards have used leaked documents to grab headlines. It’s part of politics. Mr Green’s arrest stinks." - The Sun Says

"The wife of Tory MP Damian Green last night described her ordeal when counter-terrorism cops raided the family’s home. Alicia Green revealed how the couple’s 15-year-old daughter broke down in tears when she arrived back from school to find officers searching the house. The barrister told one pal she feared her husband had been in an accident when cops arrived at the house in Acton, West London, at 1.35pm on Thursday. She said: “My blood ran cold. I thought something terrible had happened.”" - The Sun

More on Damian Green

"Police seized his mobile phone, his BlackBerry, bank statements, computers containing confidential details of constituents, and were only prevented from carrying off legal documents by his wife, a barrister. Officers even leafed through the couple's love letters. " - Daily Mail

Sir David Normington, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office: "The Home Office has suffered a number of leaks of sensitive information over an extended period ... this was clearly a matter of serious concern in that it risked undermining the effective operation of my department." - Quoted in The Independent

"The civil servant at the heart of a Whitehall leak investigation was in hiding last night as a political storm raged over the arrest of the Tory frontbencher Damian Green. The 26-year-old civil servant was detained at his home in Middlesex at 6am on November 19. The assistant private secretary, who has been suspended from his job, is being looked after by the Home Office at a secret location because it owes him a “duty of care”, officials said." - The Times

"The draconian anti-terror legislation it has introduced alone has given the police so much power that it has been used to detain an elderly heckler at a Labour party conference, stop protests and, last month, to freeze the assets of Icelandic banks. The government must stop making free with civil liberties." - FT leader

David Cameron's promise to underwrite bank lending

"David Cameron called on the government to offer to underwrite all new business lending as the Tories on Friday signalled an end to their bipartisan support for Gordon Brown’s handling of the banking crisis... Ministers are understood to be resistant to the Tory idea, fearing the banks could offload too much high-risk lending on to the scheme, leaving taxpayers with billions of bad debts." - FT

> Yesterday's ToryDiary on the Conservative leader's "monetary activism"

Lord Mandelson draws up list of businesses Government should save from collapse - Telegraph

"Was it the sheer insouciance over his £100billion tax bombshell? Or was it simply his peculiar rictus grin? Either way, wasn't there something unsettling about the Prime Minister's attitude to the pre-Budget report? It's almost as if he relishes the doom and gloom enveloping this country. There's a new swagger to his step that's as unfamiliar as it is inappropriate." - Amanda Platell in the Daily Mail

LibDems may have to repay £2.4m stolen donation

"The Liberal Democrats may be forced to pay back a record donation of £2.4m after a jury decided the party's biggest donor was a con man... Nick Clegg, the party leader, said: "We took that money in good faith. We did all the due diligence checks we could have done, totally unaware of the crimes of which Michael Brown has now been indicted. Beyond that, I can't comment."" - Independent

'Beckham of the City' who preyed on banks gave Tories £30,000 - Daily Mail

And finally...

David Cameron's signature worth more than Gordon Brown's - Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

Posted on 29 November 2008 at 08:58 in November 2008 | Permalink | Comments (18)