Conservative Home
19 May 2013 09:01:23

Newslinks for Sunday 19th May 2013

5pm WATCH

4.45pm Councillor Miles Windsor and Ben Harris-Quinney on Comment: The same-sex marriage bill is a symptom of a wider malaise at the top of the Party

12.45pm Aaron Ellis on Comment: Why we mustn't arm the Syrian opposition

ToryDiary: Lord Feldman should ring each Conservative Association Chairman to thank local activists for their work

Adam Afriyie on Comment: Why I'm optimistic about the future of our country and our Party 

Swivel-eyed loons 1) Are they Cameron's own words?

Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 08.18.53"A report in the Financial Times at the time said Mr Cameron 'tells colleagues that anyone who wants to talk to him about the EU is 'swivel-eyed'.' The comment came in a major profile of the Prime Minister by the paper's respected political editor George Parker.  Mr Parker last night declined to say who told him the PM uses the term. The FT profile was compiled with substantial help from Lord Feldman, among others." - Mail on Sunday

Swivel-eyed loons 2) Feldman denies using the term

In a statement Feldman, who was a friend of David Cameron at Oxford University, said: "There is speculation on the internet and on Twitter that the senior Conservative party figure claimed to have made derogatory comments by the Times and the Telegraph is me. "This is completely untrue. I would like to make it quite clear that I did not nor have ever described our associations in this way or in any similar manner." - The Guardian

Swivel-eyed loons 3) Senior Conservatives believe Party Chairman's account, writes James Forsyth...

Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 08.05.37"Feldman has contacted senior figures outside the Cameron set to emphasise that he didn’t say what’s been alleged and, interestingly, they believe him. The leadership has also contacted the top figures in the party to reiterate the denials.  This furore is so damaging because Feldman is Cameron’s creature, with the assumption their views are shared. He and Cameron go back to Oxford, where they served on a May Ball Committee together." - Mail on Sunday

Swivel-eyed loons 4) ...But MPs rage. Dorries, Bone...

"The Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who sparked fury when she complained that the party was being run by "posh boys", said that any senior Tory denouncing activists in such dismissive terms should be punished. "If I had made that comment I would have been disciplined," she said. "My activists are decent, hard-working people and they are very far from 'swivel-eyed loons'…The Tory MP Peter Bone said: "Clearly, anyone who takes these views could not possibly want to remain a member of the Conservative Party, even less still want to advise the Prime Minister." - Mail on Sunday

...Lewis, Baker...

Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 08.30.15"Julian Lewis, Conservative MP for New Forest East, said: “These views are all too reminiscent of the faction of the party that has managed to gain control ... this person is undoubtedly speaking with the unwise candour of all too many people at the top of the party.” Steve Baker, MP for Wycombe, added: “It is intolerable to insult our members in such a casual and contemptuous manner. I really think David Cameron ought to fire whoever said it.” The MEP Daniel Hannan said: “We are talking about generous, patriotic people who give up their time to work for no thanks.” - Sunday Times (£)

...Rossindell, Brady

"Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, said: “This makes us long for the type of leadership we had with Mrs Thatcher. She would never have been disrespectful to activists. She spent time with them and treated them as equals…Graham Brady, MP for Altrincham and chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, said: “I’m shocked if anybody at a senior level in the party holds that attitude and has yet to learn that whatever disagreements there are within the party, we should treat others with respect, recognising the deeply held views and convictions that members and parliamentary colleagues have.” - Sunday Times (£)

> Today: ToryDiary - Lord Feldman should ring each Conservative Association Chairman to thank local activists for their work

> Yesterday:

Paul Goodman: The problem is that grassroots Tories - and some very senior ones - think that it's what Downing Street really thinks...

Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 08.31.15"But wherever the truth lies, the significance of the incident isn’t so much whether or not he described his own party activists in this contemptuous way. It lies in the fact that so many Tories, both inside Parliament and out, simply assumed that a senior member of David Cameron’s circle had indeed made such a remark. I spoke yesterday to three senior Ministers and one very senior backbencher.  They held different views on what Lord Feldman may have said to whom, but all agreed that members of Cameron’s No 10 team and some of his senior Ministers have a very low view indeed of Conservative activists." - Mail on Sunday

...And the timing of the row could scarcely be worse.  The same-sex marriage bill returns to the Commons this week.  Over 30 Chairmen lay into Cameron over his "refusal to listen"...

"The letter comes as more than 100 Tory MPs threaten to vote against same-sex marriage in a Commons revolt tomorrow. It says: “Your refusal to listen to reason and grassroots opinion is causing many previously loyal Conservatives to leave the party. “Some are lost forever and many will not contemplate rejoining unless the Bill is abandoned or the party leadership changed.” Grassroots Tories claim the gay marriage row could cost the party 1.3million votes. One of the signatories, Robert Woollard, of Wycombe Conservative Association, said: “It has made winning the next election virtually impossible.” - Sun on Sunday

...Meanwhile, Cabinet Members are unhappy. Grayling will vote for religious freedom amendments. Paterson and Jones will oppose the Bill outright.

Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 08.41.48"Cabinet ministers are expected to be among the “rebels”. Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, indicated that he would support amendments to protect people who spoke up for traditional marriage, while David Jones, the Welsh Secretary, and Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, will both vote against the Bill at its third reading in the Commons…Both Mr Gove and Mr Hammond are suspected by MPs of being “on manoeuvres” to position themselves as future party leaders — and to have backed a “Brexit” from the EU to court the Tory Right." - Daily Telegraph

Will the pressures on Cameron crack the Coalition altogether? He hints that it may break up

"The Prime Minister said he is prepared to run the country without his Deputy PM unless Tory-Lib Dem feuding that has paralysed his administration ends.  Mr Cameron added he hopes to cling on to his ailing alliance with Mr Clegg as they tackle the economic crisis and other vital issues together. But in a move that could trigger an early General Election, he said: ‘The best way to do that is to continue with the Coalition, but if that wasn’t the case then we’d have to face the new circumstances in whatever way we should.’" - Mail on Sunday

Lord Howe outburst: Euro-sceptism is infecting the Conservative Party's soul

Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 08.49.04"The Tory grandee says David Cameron has opened a Pandora's box by opposing the current terms of the UK's membership of the European Union and now appears to be losing control of his party. The prime minister's actions, Howe writes in the Observer, have turned an internal Tory problem into a national one. In a highly significant intervention over Britain's future, Howe laments the "new, almost farcical" level of debate over Europe in the Tory party, and says that Labour and the Liberal Democrats may need to bear the burden of retrieving the situation." - Observer

  • Cameron is losing control - Lord Howe, The Observer
  • Richard Ottoway jeered. John Baron rampant. Margot James doubtful - The Observer
  • Hollobone is top rebel, ignoring party orders 129 times, followed by David Nuttall on 88, Philip Davies on 85 and Peter Bone on 68 - Sun on Sunday
  • Two-thirds of voters say that Prime Minister should listen more to his backbenchers - Observer

Andrew Rawnsley: The Conservative Party could split

"Many have drawn a parallel between what is happening to David Cameron and what became of John Major in the belief that there is no more wounding insult to a Tory prime minister than to compare him with the man who tucked his shirt into his underpants. Yet I am not sure that is quite right. However badly the Tories were convulsed in the past, they just about held together. I think it is no longer impossible to imagine that ultimately the Conservative party will formally split over Europe – an outcome a referendum could actually make more likely." - Observer

  • David Cameron is so relaxed I want to slap him - Janet Daley, Sunday Telegraph

UKIP hits record ComRes poll high

Screen shot 2013-05-19 at 09.20.32"Two weeks after Nigel Farage's party achieved its best-ever result in the local elections in England and Wales, a ComRes survey shows almost one in five people plan to vote for Ukip at the next general election. Labour has dipped to its lowest levels since Ed Miliband became leader, down three points to 35 per cent, the Tories are down one point on 29 per cent, while the Lib Dems remain stuck in single figures, at 8 per cent." - Independent on Sunday

> Yesterday: ToryDiary - UKIP surges to a record 20% in an opinion poll as Cameron languishes

My plan is working, says Osborne

"Yes, it’s been hard and the road ahead is not easy. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But we’re making progress. The economy is healing slowly, the tough decisions we have taken together as a country are beginning to pay off – and in me, you have a Chancellor who is going to stick to the course we have set out…I’m proud to live in a country that doesn’t run away from its problems. I don’t believe we should do the cowardly thing some politicians would prefer, leaving behind huge debts for my kids’ generation to pay off." - Mail on Sunday

  • Mervyn King criticises Chancellor's plan to boost housing market - Mail on Sunday
  • Beware of a second credit crunch - Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times (£)
  • Matthew D'Ancona: What on earth's going on? Why aren't Tory backbenchers making more of the good economic news - Sunday Telegraph

Hunt wants senior civil servants to empty bedpans

HUNT JEREMY OPEN NECKED SHIRT"From next month, 200 senior officials will have to perform tasks such as mopping floors, emptying bedpans and serving meals to care home residents as the Government responds to the Francis Report into patient neglect at the Mid Staffordshire Trust. The plans, to be unveiled on Monday by Jeremy Hunt, will require top Whitehall officials to perform roles such as GP receptionist and hospital porter for a total of four weeks a year for six years." - Mail on Sunday

  • NHS Direct staff cuts lead to patient overload in A&E - The Observer

Gove heckled at head teachers' conference

"In a robust defence, Mr Gove went on to say: 'What I have heard is repeated statements that the profession faces stress, and insufficient evidence about what can be done about it.' He added: 'What I haven't heard over the last hour is a determination to be constructive, critical yes, but not constructive.' Delegates suggested he was the cause of headteachers' stress and groaned when he responded: 'If people find it stressful that I'm demanding higher standards, then I'm not going to stop demanding higher standards.'" - Mail on Sunday

Miliband targets corporate tax avoidance

Miliband Red Ed"In an interview with the Observer, the Labour leader urged David Cameron to find agreement at the G8 summit of leaders next month around an ambitious agenda forcing corporate giants to pay their fair share. He said that, if Cameron fails, he himself as prime minister would unilaterally act to make multinationals operating in the UK more transparent about the money they make here, the movement of cash around their corporate structures, and the justifications for the tax they pay." - Observer

News in Brief

  • Third alleged victim claims he was assaulted by Nigel Evans - Mail on Sunday
  • UK funds poll in Pakistan on US drone attacks - The Observer
  • Skiing accident MP Graham Stuart a victim of power politics as officials reject expenses claim for electric wheelchair - Mail on Sunday
  • Top judge warns Government's legal aid reforms could bring meltdown - Sunday Express
  • Sir Peregrine Worsthorne calls his brother-in-law 'cruel and selfish' for not sharing inheritance with his sisters - Mail on Sunday
  • MPs call for Met chief to quit over Plebgate leak - Sunday Times (£)
  • Beckham's last game - Independent on Sunday
  • MPs may get £10k pay rise - Mail on Sunday
  • Bercow increases his salary to £142,000 - Sun on Sunday

Email_subscribe

> Please use the thread below to provide links to news topics likely to be of interest to ConservativeHome readers and to comment on political topics that haven't been given their own blog. Read our comments policy here.

19 May 2013 in May 2013 newslinks | | Comments

18 May 2013 09:12:23

Newslinks for Saturday 18th May 2013

9.30pm ToryDiary: UKIP surges to a record 20% in an opinion poll as Cameron languishes

5pm MPsETC: Tory MEPs' Leader Richard Ashworth and ex-UKIP defector Marta Andreasen deselected

4.30pm ToryDiary: Update Lord Feldman says he didn't say it. But the Telegraph stands by its story.

4pm ToryDiary: Party Chairman Lord Feldman denies calling Party members “mad, swivel-eyed loons”

2.15pm Steve Barclay MP on Comment: The action on derelict buildings that would drive local growth

Screen shot 2013-05-18 at 08.04.09Tory Diary: If the Conservative Party is in decline, whose fault is that?

Energy Minister Greg Barker MP on Comment: How this Government is cutting energy bills

Bad news: Prime Minister’s ally - our party activists are “mad, swivel-eyed loons”

“Tory activists are 'mad, swivel-eyed loons', according to one of David Cameron’s closest  allies. The incendiary comment made at a private dinner this week is likely to plunge relations between the Prime Minister and his party to a new low. It offers a rare insight into the disregard and irritation felt by the Prime Minister’s inner circle towards Conservative Party members up and down the country. The senior figure, who has strong social connections to the Prime Minister and close links to the party machine, blamed grassroots members for the rebellion by MPs on Europe this week. Asked about Wednesday’s vote in which 116 Conservative MPs voted against the Queen’s Speech, the figure said: 'It’s fine. There’s really no problem. The MPs just have to do it because the associations tell them to, and the associations are all mad, swivel-eyed loons.' The remarks will worsen the rift between Mr Cameron and his party amid pressure from the Tory Right, who bounced the Prime Minister into publishing a draft referendum Bill on EU membership last week." The Times (£)

> Today: Tory Diary - If the Conservative Party is in decline, whose fault is that?

> Yesterday:

Better News 1) Boost for Osborne as FTSE hits highest level since start of financial crisis

OSBORNE GEORGE smiling“The stock market last night rose to its highest level since the financial crisis, providing a timely boost for Chancellor George Osborne. The FTSE 100 index of Britain’s biggest blue chip companies ended the day above 6,700 points for the first time since October 2007 – the month after the run on Northern Rock. It comes after Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King on Wednesday predicted a ‘modest but sustained’ recovery but warned inflation will remain ‘stubbornly high’” – Daily Mail

Better News 2) Green shoots for the Tories?

“Wallowing in the mid-term doldrums, bickering over Europe, lacking any sense of vision or direction… by all the normal rules of politics, this should be a time of deep unpopularity for the Tories. Yet remarkably, a poll this week shows the party up two points – lagging only three behind Labour, which has slumped from 38 to 34 per cent” – Daily Mail Comment

Downing Street rebukes Philip Hammond amid leadership bid concern

Hammond P Jan 2012“Philip Hammond was rebuked by Downing Street on Friday over his criticism of gay marriage, amid concern that the defence secretary could be positioning for a leadership bid. A senior government official said Number 10 was ‘dismayed’ by Mr Hammond’s performance on the BBC’s Question Time, when he suggested that David Cameron was wasting parliamentary time and causing public anger by backing same sex marriages” – Financial Times

> Yesterday:

Hammond: "The grey man who could be David Cameron’s nemesis"

“You may not have heard of Philip Hammond — there’s little reason why you should. After all, the Defence Secretary is not the most charismatic politician…However, behind Mr Hammond’s bank-manager-style exterior lies a man of considerable accomplishment…Some of his friends say that, keenly aware of his own abilities, he harbours a quiet determination to lead his party — which is reason enough to pay particular attention to his public pronouncements at a time when the Tories are facing something close to civil war over Europe. His announcement last weekend that he would vote to leave the EU were a referendum held now was remarkable” – Simon Heffer, Daily Mail

Charles Moore leans one way: "David Cameron isn’t a disaster, yet I long for a radical new leader..."

Screen shot 2013-05-18 at 09.04.19“I find myself in the odd position of longing for a new leader (I don’t much mind from which party) who can propose – à la Thatcher, Roosevelt, de Gaulle – a quite different way ahead, and yet also feeling that Mr Cameron is not at all a disaster. If only he would bring…clarity to the subject of Europe…He seems to regard the issue as a migraine-inducing matter of party opinion-management rather than for what it is – the main constitutional, strategic and economic question which this country faces. On the subject of Europe, Cameron the great moderniser is painfully 20th century” – Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph

...And Matthew Parris the other: "If Dave cuts a deal with UKIP I’m outta here"

“Along with millions (I believe) of liberal Tory supporters, and millions more still undecided, I will never vote for any Conservative candidates who pay UKIP protection money by signing up to their policies in return for being given a clear run. We must expose any such deals and punish at the ballot box those who connive in them. It’s simple. A vote for a Tory- UKIP collaborator is a vote for UKIP…This week it began to appear that to cut any ice in Tory politics, you have to cut up rough and treat your party like a bar-room brawl. Well, here it is in bar-room language: cut a deal with UKIP, and I’m outta here. And (the Tories would find) outta here too would be millions more” – Matthew Parris, The Times (£)

  •  UKIP, Britain’s newest political tribe – John Harris, the Guardian
  • Women who wear trousers “deliberately making themselves unattractive” says UKIP donor – Daily Mail

Salmond and Farage clash over anti-UKIP protest

Farage Nigel Purple“Alex Salmond, Scottish first minister, has mocked complaints from Nigel Farage over his barracking by protesters at an Edinburgh pub, saying Scotland does not need the UK Independence party. In a testy BBC Scotland radio interview, Mr Farage condemned the protesters who surrounded him at a press event on Thursday as ‘fascist scum’ showing an ‘ugly face’ of Scottish nationalism.” – Financial Times

Conservatives float two-tier benefits system in private survey in Labour marginals

“The proposal for a two-tier benefits system is one of a number of Conservative policy ideas in a survey sent to members of the public in marginal seats held by Labour. The five page survey, obtained by Tribune magazine, contains 35 questions grouped under headings such as ‘helping with the cost of living’ and ‘making our welfare and benefits system fair’” – Daily Telegraph

“Bedroom tax” causes huge leap in hardship payments

“The extent of the suffering inflicted by the “bedroom tax” can be revealed for the first time today as figures show a 338 per cent leap in the number of people applying for emergency handouts in the month since it was imposed. In April, more than 25,000 people resorted to applying for discretionary housing payments (DHP) to help cover their rent, according to an analysis of 51 councils by the Independent. There were only 5,700 such claimants in the same month last year” - Independent

  • Cameron accused of “scaremongering” over health tourism – Daily Telegraph
  • Only 200 pensioners returned winter fuel payment – Sun
  • Ed Miliband to risk wrath of Left by embracing limit on welfare – The Times (£)

News in brief

  • Cameron’s EU plan raises Paris-Berlin tensions – Financial Times
  • EU to ban olive oil jugs from restaurants – Daily Telegraph
  • Ministers urged to clarify nuclear power cost overruns – Daily Telegraph
  • Stoke City launch investigation after pig’s head found in locker - Independent
  • MPs accused of “demonizing” US multinationals over tax – Financial Times
  • Litvinenko widow accuses Hague of inquest cover-up - Guardian
  • Lib Dem backs plain cigarette packs - Guardian
  • How an adopted child fell victim to Oxford sex gang – The Times (£)
  • Britons too sceptical to win Eurovision song contest – Financial Times

Email_subscribe

> Please use the thread below to provide links to news topics likely to be of interest to ConservativeHome readers and to comment on political topics that haven't been given their own blog. Read our comments policy here.

18 May 2013 | | Comments

17 May 2013 08:49:30

Newslinks for Friday 17th May 2013

7pm Local Government: Council byelection results from yesterday

6pm Nick Thornsby on Comment: "The actions of Conservative MPsare not only making that elusive Parliamentary majority -- already looking increasingly distant -- unattainable, they are also, jeopardising any hope of returning a Conservative to Downing Street as part of a future coalition." As a Liberal Democrat, I ask - What are you, our Coalition partners, playing at?

Screen shot 2013-05-17 at 17.49.584pm Mark Prisk MP on Comment: How this Government is boosting one of the great Thatcher policies - the Right to Buy

2.45pm WATCH: From the Taxpayers Alliance - ‪Income Tax and National Insurance: What are you really paying?‬

1.45pm Max Wind-Cowie on Comment: "We must cease to assume that women are entitled to massively more in the way of parental leave. And courts cannot any longer justify their presumption in favour of women when ustody is being decided." Boys will be boys

10.15am LeftWatch: The truth about Nick Clegg's manifesto referendum pledge  and how he is breaking it

ToryDiary: How Jeremy Hunt plans to improve the NHS (and boost his own standing)

Also on ToryDiary: When it comes to Europe, 17% of voters think Cameron is driven by beliefs, but 64% think he's driven by tactical calculations

Herbert Nick Jan 2012As the return of the same-sex marriage bill looms, Nick Herbert MP on Comment says the tide of opinion in the western world is for change…

…And Tim Loughton MP makes the case for equality in civil partnerships.

Iain Dale's Friday Diary: Guess which member of my household voted UKIP

The Deep End: Heresy of the Week - Never mind UKIP, it’s young voters Conservatives should watch out for

Local Government: Councils should use imperial measures

A new Tory MP is in the spotlight over Europe. James Wharton, Harold Macmillan's successor in Stockton, will present a Referendum Bill...

Screen shot 2013-05-17 at 08.12.42
"Conservative MP James Wharton announced he will introduce the Bill in the Commons next month. And the PM slapped a three-line whip on the move in a bid to unite the party after a week of turmoil. Mr Cameron was left bruised after 114 Tory MPs rebelled and backed another Bill slamming the lack of an in-out EU referendum Bill in the Queen’s Speech. But Mr Wharton, 29 — who became the Tories’ youngest MP when he was elected in 2010 — faces an uphill battle to force his Bill through as both Labour and the Lib Dems are opposed to it." - The Sun

...But Clegg and Labour will oppose it

"But Deputy PM and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg opposes the Bill, while Labour confirmed it doesn’t back it because now is the “wrong time” to commit to a future referendum. But aides declined to say if Labour leader Ed ­Miliband would order his MPs to vote against the measure. A source said: “We will consider the tactical question when it comes up but we do not want it to go through.”…A YouGov poll shows 43 per cent of British voters want to leave the EU." - Daily Express

  • Cable EvilTory battle over Europe is damaging UK economy, says Cable - Financial Times
  • Farage forced to enter pub shocker - The Sun
  • Cameron’s strategy to staunch pressure for EU departure is falling apart - Philip Stephens, Financial Times
  • Leaving Europe would be bad for British business - John Cridland, The Guardian

Yesterday:

Downing Street "planning for Coalition break-up"

'Some of David Cameron’s senior aides are talking through a range of scenarios, including the Lib Dems quitting up to a year before polling day. One such contingency envisages Vince Cable taking over from Mr Clegg and using the opposition benches to reposition the Lib Dems as equidistant between the Tories and Labour. Another scenario involves an “amicable divorce” in which the Lib Dems agree to Mr Cameron leading a minority government and wave through next year’s Budget, but put campaigning distance between themselves and the Conservatives." - The Times (£)

Hammond and Paterson dig in over spending round

Hammond large"Some ministers failed to provide Mr Osborne with the list of 10 per cent in proposed departmental cuts he ordered before last month’s deadline. One said the chancellor was “asking too much”. Those regarded as being awkward include two rightwing Tories – Philip Hammond at defence and Owen Paterson at environment – along with Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary…Mr Osborne and Danny Alexander, his Lib Dem chief secretary, are preparing for weeks of attrition but insist that they will achieve their objective of cutting departmental spending in election year by £11.5bn." - Financial Times

> Yesterday:ToryDiary - An improving economy may rescue Cameron and Osborne, but it won’t deliver them from some tricky questions:

Hunt plans end to written prescriptions

"Jeremy Hunt is to unveil plans for a £260million system that will dispense drugs electronically and, he says, prevent needless deaths. At least 11 people died in the NHS last year because they were given the wrong drugs or incorrect doses. Medicines are being prescribed incorrectly because patients’ notes are lost, while research suggests that eight per cent of hospital prescriptions have mistakes in them." - Daily Mail

> Today: ToryDiary - How Jeremy Hunt plans to improve the NHS (and boost his own standing)

Loughton pushes for straight civil partnerships.  And Miller retreats on them - as the return of the same-sex marriage bill looms

LOUGHTON TIM"In yet another U-turn to placate restive Tory backbenchers, the Government has promised a review into the future of civil partnerships five years after same-sex marriage becomes law. It will look at whether the partnerships should be scrapped – or whether they should also be offered to a man and woman as an alternative to marriage." - Daily Mail

  • Tatchell sides with Loughton over Government "stalling" - The Guardian
> Today:

The police must help the media name suspects, says May

"She insists police chiefs must NOT stand in the way of the transparency of journalists’ reporting. Mrs May says reputations can be ruined if a public arrest “turns out to be based on nothing at all”. But crucially she also goes on to say: “There is, however, also a case for making the names of those arrested public. It can also lead to further witnesses coming forward. “And where the press has already identified the suspect, and asked for confirmation from the police, the police should confirm it.” - The Sun

Gove rides to the rescue of Boles in his Keith Joseph lecture yesterday evening

GOVE MICHAEL BLACK
"He criticised people who are fighting development in rural areas, which has been made easier by the Government’s relaxation of planning rules earlier this year. He also claimed that building more homes in the countryside could add to its beauty. “These planning reforms have not been without their critics but no one who believes in social mobility, in aspiration, in pro-family policies, in thrift and in freedom can be anything other than delighted by the release of more land for housing,” he said." - Daily Telegraph

  • Examine your consciences over Oxford abuse, Gove tells officials - The Times (£)

Halfon demands inquiry into oil price-fixing after new report

"The row comes after European Commission investigators raided the London offices of oil companies Shell and BP on Tuesday as part of a price-fixing investigation. Tory MP Robert Halfon, who has called for an investigation into alleged cartels and market manipulation in the oil market for the past three years, said there must be a full inquiry." - Daily Mail

Nik Darlington: The real Conservative split - safe seats versus marginals

Screen shot 2013-05-17 at 08.45.24"The average constituency majority of Tory MPs who signed John Baron’s (majority 12,398) amendment last week is greater than 8,000. More than one-third of signatories have majorities in excess of 10,000. Some MPs from marginal (and ultra-marginal) seats backed it but they were few and far between. The names of ringleaders ring familiar, their electoral cushions ring like phone numbers: Nadine Dorries (15,152), Bernard Jenkin (11,447), Bill Cash (13,292), Adam Afriye (19,054), Charles Walker (18,804), David Davis (11,602), Douglas Carswell (12,068)." - Daily Telegraph

Latest Select Committee push for headlines. Hodge tells Google that it "does evil"

"Margaret Hodge, chair of the public accounts committee, told Google's northern Europe boss, Matt Brittin, that his company's behaviour on tax was "devious, calculated and, in my view, unethical". He had been recalled by MPs after being accused of misleading parliament over the firm's tax affairs six months ago. Hodge said: "You are a company that says you 'do no evil'. And I think that you do do evil." Hodge was referring to Google's long-standing corporate motto, "Don't be evil," which appeared in its $23bn US stock market flotation prospectus in 2004." - The Guardian

  • A quarter of MPs say that there's too much drinking in Westminster - The Guardian

Fraser Nelson: We can’t afford a shiny new transport system like HS2

Nelson Fraser August 2011"The High Speed 2 project has ended up being rather less ambitious than Mr Osborne’s imaginings: it might shave 35 minutes from the journey between London and Birmingham, and reduce the Birmingham-to-Newcastle journey time to two hours from three. It is easy to see the appeal of this, but it would come at a cost. At least £35 billion – and spending on such projects traditionally doubles. Would the benefits cover the cost? Would commuters want it enough to pay the higher fare? Might the money be better spent elsewhere? As soon as you ask such questions, the case for HS2 disintegrates." - Daily Telegraph

  • "When I asked a transport economist why the BBC couldn't find a member of his profession to defend HS2 on air he said, "because there aren't any"." - Simon Jenkins, The Guardian

> Yesterday:

Maude v Jenkin: battle continues on civil service reform

"Relations between Westminster and Whitehall are unusually tense, following attacks on civil service “obstructionism” by Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister. A number of cabinet colleagues are reported to share his frustration, believing that policies are not being delivered with the speed the government has sought. Mr Jenkin said ministers appeared to have made up their minds that “the civil service was to blame for successive governments’ poor performance”." - Financial Times (£)

Jon Cruddas, the man in charge of Labour's policy review. And how it works.

Screen shot 2013-05-17 at 08.47.11"Cruddas is determined the policy review does not fall into a mechanistic set of Whitehall prescriptions that is designed to modernise the country but fails to strike the right note with the electorate. With his "Blue Labour" roots, Cruddas insists "it is tackling issues politics have ignored for decades like mental health, fatherhood and the ownership of football clubs or learning lessons from far and wide – even Republican Texans on prison reform"." - The Guardian

News in Brief

  • Shock revelation: Fallon opposed Labour's Post Office privatisation plans - Daily Telegraph
  • Census shows that Christians have the oldest age profile of all the main faiths while Muslims have the youngest - The Times (£)
  • Obama stays cautious on Syria - The Guardian
  • Breakthrough in IVF treatment could triple number of births - The Independent
  • Donald Trump begins wind farm legal challenge - Scotsman
  • Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson's trips abroad cost Northern Ireland taxpayer £350,000 - Belfast Telegraph
  • Sally Bercow McAlpine tweet trial begins - Daily Express
  • Legacy use agreed for last of eight big Olympic venues - Financial Times
  • Beckham retires - The Sun

Email_subscribe

> Please use the thread below to provide links to news topics likely to be of interest to ConservativeHome readers and to comment on political topics that haven't been given their own blog. Read our comments policy here.

17 May 2013 in May 2013 newslinks | | Comments

16 May 2013 08:30:27

Newslinks for Thursday 16th May 2013

6.30pm WATCH: James Wharton discusses his private member's bill for an EU referendum

CG4.30pm This morning, Patrick McLoughlin defended HS2 on this site after a critical Commons report. Now his former Cabinet colleague Cheryl Gillan calls for the project to be scrapped. She writes on Comment: A report that underlines the need for a rethink on HS2

4.15pm On ThinkTankCentral, Andy Mayer writes: A longer working life means a healthier life – policymakers should take note

3.30pm JP Floru on Comment: Queues at the state Post Offices and the Stockholm Syndrome

3.15 MPsETC: MEP shortlists for the North West and London

3pm Local Government: Four Conservative councillors in Merton threaten to defect to UKIP

Graphup12.45pm On ToryDiary, Peter Hoskin writes that an improving economy may rescue Cameron and Osborne, but it won’t deliver them from some tricky questions: "Among those questions is one that the Chancellor hasn’t been fortunate enough to properly consider in the past: what does he do with improving growth forecasts?"

11.30am Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin on Comment: Why Margaret Hodge and her committee are wrong about HS2

11am MPsETC: In public, Conservative MPs are backing rebels. But in private, they're voting for loyalists.

ToryDiary: Cameron's been likened to Major. More votes like last night's, and the comparison will be with Lord North.

Also on ToryDiary: Lewis Sidnick to be a Contributing Editor to ConsevativeHome

BurkeAndrew Gimson writes this week's Culture Column: Let Jesse Norman be your guide through the life and work of Edmund Burke

James Duddridge MP on Comment: We must do all we can to make sure Zimbabwe's elections are fair elections

Also on Comment, Charles Walker MP says that Andrew Gimson is wrong about Grant Shapps – he's the best man to do the Job from Hell

MPsETC update: A list of the 114 Tory MPs who voted in support of John Baron's amendment 

George Grant on Local Government: Green Party civil war in Brighton shows the clash when the Left is faced with reality

The Deep End: Drone warfare isn’t very nice, but that’s mainly because of the warfare not the drones

Not technically a rebellion, but still a blow for David Cameron: 114 Tories vote for the Baron amendment

Cameron"A total of 130 MPs, including 12 Labour rebels and DUP members, backed an unprecedented motion expressing 'regret' that last week's Queen's Speech did not include legislation paving the way for a referendum. ... In all, 114 Tories – more than half the party's backbenchers and one in three of its MPs – backed the amendment ... the scale of the Tory rebellion was a significant blow for David Cameron, who had tried on Tuesday to take the sting out of the vote by unveiling draft legislation." - Daily Mail

  • "The secret of David Cameron’s Europe strategy: he doesn’t have one" - James Forsyth, The Spectator
  • "Eurosceptic Tories are damaging the national interest - and their chances of winning the next election" - Ed Davey MP, New Statesman
  • "If the 'outs' get their way, we'll end up like Ukraine" - Vince Cable, Guardian
  • "Who’s the odd one out in Europe? Not us" - Andreas Whittam Smith, Independent

> Today: 

> Yesterday:

Mr Cameron joins Robert Halfon in exerting pressure on oil bosses

"The Prime Minister said he will urgently look at 'extending criminal offences' to cover market manipulation in the energy sector, after BP and Shell were raided by European authorities on suspicion of rigging oil prices. ... Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, said he has also written to the Serious Fraud Office and City of London Police to ask whether they have any scope to investigate." - Daily Telegraph

  • RH"If oil executives have fixed prices there should be a windfall tax and jail sentences" - Robert Halfon, The Times (£)
  • "Robert Halfon, the MP for Harlow, is a doughty crusader for consumer rights: his call for any executives found guilty of rigging the petrol market to be slung into prison and a windfall tax imposed on their firms will have strong popular resonance." - Daily Telegraph editorial
  • "If found guilty, we agree with David Cameron that those responsible should face jail. ... Their companies should also be hit with massive fines, with the money being used to slash fuel duty." - Sun editorial
  • "Should evidence of fraud be found ... the implications are difficult to overstate." - Independent editorial

> Yesterday on ToryDiary: Political lessons from the fuel price war

And hints that he wants to offer RBS shares to the public

Tell Sid"David Cameron on Wednesday gave the strongest hint yet that he wants to reprivatise Royal Bank of Scotland by offering shares to millions of voters, in a process he hopes to begin before the next election. ... Speaking in New York, Mr Cameron said for the first time that he was open to the idea of 'involving people in owning this bank in a genuine way' – an echo of the 'Tell Sid' privatisations of the 1980s." - Financial Times

But resists pressure to publish a list of Lynton Crosby's clients

"The prime minister has in the past called for more transparency with regard to the lobbying industry, saying that sunlight was 'the best disinfectant'. ... But Mr Cameron has dismissed suggestions that there could be any conflict of interest in having Mr Crosby, an Australian pollster and lobbyist, from working part-time for the Tory party while still advising his private clients." - Financial Times

  • "David Cameron has appointed George Eustice, his former press secretary and former Ukip candidate, as his new adviser on Energy and Climate Change issues" - Independent

Nadine Dorries: I want to be the first Tory-UKIP candidate

Joint candidate

"There are members in my association who approached me recently who are confused. They have always been Conservative and will never change their allegiance but feel very much as though they have a huge amount of empathy with Ukip. I feel it would be a travesty if Ukip came in and took the seats off our councillors or indeed me when actually their policies and their beliefs are very much Ukip. Because what we have done, we have thrown clothes off and they have picked them up and put them on." - Nadine Dorries, interviewed in The Spectator

"The Conservatives would reject Nadine Dorries again if she decided to stand on a joint ticket with Ukip at the next election, the party suggested night." - Daily Telegraph

  • "...a lot of rural/suburbab Tory-Ukippery just doesn't make sense in the big, competitive, changing world." - David Aaronovitch, The Times (£)

> Yesterday:

The New Statesman wonders whether Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are the Tory dream ticket

Staggers"Johnson’s casual Euroscepticism is not the reason he is toasted as the king over the water by many Tories but Ukip’s rise has nonetheless enhanced that status. The colourful persona that is “Boris” – unusual in being on first-name terms with the electorate – is the only figure who can match Nigel Farage in the effortless bonhomie that passes as distinction from conventional politics. ... By contrast, gravitas and intellectual rigour are what distinguish Gove’s ambitions." - Rafael Behr, New Statesman [no link yet available]

  • "Speaking to MPs on the Education Select Committee, Mr Gove said he welcomed comparisons with Mr Blair for his approach to winning political arguments. ... He then clarified his remark, saying: 'Tony Blair will decide who his heir is but I am a great fan.'" - Daily Telegraph
  • "GCSE grades could be ditched in favour of a number-based system, Michael Gove suggested yesterday." - Daily Mail

George Osborne will be cheered by Mervyn King's parting optimism

King"In a welcome break from six years of persistent gloom, Sir Mervyn King announced that 'a modest and sustained recovery' is on its way. ... Last night George Osborne welcomed the improved economic outlook." - Daily Mail

"[Sir Mervyn] accused the previous Government, under Gordon Brown, of ignoring his advice to deal more decisively with the banks and claimed that Britain would be enjoying a stronger recovery if Labour had injected more money into the banks." - The Times (£)

"The Chancellor told the CBI's annual dinner in London: 'Now is not the time to lose our nerve. Let's not listen to those who would take us back to square one. Let's carry on doing what is right for Britain. Let's see this through.'" - Independent

  • "King wants this triumph over the forces of inflation, as well as his robust actions to head off depression after the financial crisis of 2007-09, to be seen as his lasting legacy." - Alex Brummer, Daily Mail

Patrick McLoughlin defends HS2 from the National Audit Office

PM"Ministers have got their sums wrong and left the  controversial high-speed rail scheme with a £3billion funding gap, a report revealed yesterday. ... Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin hit back by rejecting the report’s ‘core conclusion’ and said there was a clear case that HS2  would generate hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds worth of economic benefits." - Daily Mail

"Body-mounted cameras could help police on the beat to convict more criminals, Theresa May said yesterday." - Daily Mail

  • "Police chiefs who keep arrests and charges secret were slammed by David Cameron last night. ... Mr Cameron intervened to back Home Secretary Theresa May in her stand-off with chief constables over the issue." - The Sun

Sue Cameron warns that Francis Maude faces a "mauling" over his plans for civil service reform

"An unholy alliance of MPs and senior civil servants is expected to launch a serious bid to wrest control of the entire reform agenda from his grasp. They are calling for an all-party parliamentary commission to be set up to examine the future of Whitehall." - Sue Cameron, Daily Telegraph

Stephen Barclay joins in the calls for action over tax avoidance

Amazon"Amazon's main UK business was given more in government grants than it paid in corporation tax last year, it emerged yesterday ... Stephen Barclay, a Conservative MP on the committee, said the Government needs to do more to close loopholes to stop multinationals avoiding the 'spirit of the legislation' and treating corporation tax as a 'voluntary payment'." - The Times (£)

  • Nine of the biggest firms failed to disclose use of offshore tax havens - The Times (£)

Nick Clegg versus Sri Lanka

"He pledged consequences if the country did not address reports of politically-motivated trials, assaults on lawyers, and ‘suppression of Press freedom’. .. But he may have been unaware that a body representing editors in Sri Lanka has highlighted the threat to freedom of expression posed in Britain by the Royal Charter proposed by political parties and the Hacked Off lobby group." - Daily Mail

> Yesterday on ToryDiary: Nick Clegg enjoys standing in for David Cameron and denouncing Labour

"Have MPs learnt a thing since 2009?" asks Peter Oborne – "Their greed suggests not"

"The public is entitled to view all this with disgust. Our standard of living is falling, our services are being cut back, the risk of unemployment grows ever greater. But politicians continue to live in a different world, with a separate set of standards." - Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph

Concerns that not all NHS whistleblowers are equal, after Sir David Nicholson letter

Acme"[Sir David] told MPs on the Health Select Committee two months ago [that exposing abuses] was not only a legal duty but ‘vitally important to patient safety to make it happen’. ... But doctors have described his pledge as a sham after a letter emerged, written days later, in which he tells an NHS employee he cannot help them speak out because a ‘legal process’ had concluded foundation trusts are ‘separate legal bodies’ from the Department of Health." - Daily Mail

  • "Doctors must have nothing to do with suicide of patients" - Baroness Finlay, The Times (£)

News in brief:

  • The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in Britain has risen by 15% in a year to 103,000, even before restrictions are lifted - Daily Mail
  • The High Court has been asked to consider the legality of the "spare room subsidy" - Financial Times
  • Draft bill to stop millionaires ‘buying’ British politics - Financial Times
  • The deputy editor of the Guardian is put in charge of Newsnight - Daily Mail
  • France is back in recession - Daily Mail

Email_subscribe

> Please use the thread below to provide links to news topics likely to be of interest to ConservativeHome readers and to comment on political topics that haven't been given their own blog. Read our comments policy here.

16 May 2013 in May 2013 newslinks | | Comments

« Later Newslinks | Previous Newslinks »

Find out how to advertise your message here.

Recent Comments

Newslinks Archive

More...

RSS Icon Subscribe to this blog's feed