7.45pm LeftWatch: No benefits without two years of NI. Work
permits for all Europeans. No more single market. A populist right
party? No – a Labour MP
3.30pm Tory Diary: Boris Johnson can take on Nigel Farage
11.30am Tory Diary: Almost half of Tory members believe Cameron will be Prime Minister after the next election
We lead with five posts on where the Tories are, and what Cameron should do now:
Tory Diary: A third of Conservative Party members want an electoral pact with UKIP in 2015
The Deep End: If UKIP isn’t libertarian – and it really isn’t – then what does it stand for?
Majority Conservatism: The first of a series of Five ideas for Cameron: 1) He needs an Inner Cabinet. With Graham Brady in it.
Nick Pickles on Comment: Voters would laugh the sham of a mandate referendum out of court
Also on Comment: Professor Tim Bale – The balance of advantage for the Conservatives has shifted. They would now be better off with PR.
Councillor Phil Taylor on Local Government: Councils need more power if local elections are to be on local issues
In the aftermath of the local elections and run-up to the Queen's Speech…
1) Senior backbenchers tell Cameron to drop same-sex marriage bill
"Sir Gerald Howarth, the former Defence Minister, said that his constituents
were “fed up to the back teeth” with the Government. He challenged Mr
Cameron to adopt a five-point plan that encompassed taking Britain out of
the European Convention on Human Rights, doing more to cut immigration,
triggering a prompt EU referendum, freezing the aid budget and scrapping the
gay marriage Bill." – The Times (£)
> Today: Majority Conservatism: The first of a series of Five ideas for Cameron: 1) He needs an Inner Cabinet. With Graham Brady in it.
2) Hammond, Shapps say Referendum Bill will be published before next election (but will it be voted on?)
“The
Conservative Party will publish a draft version of an EU referendum bill before
the next election, the party chairman has confirmed, even though such a vote
will not be held until 2017. As senior Tories fight among themselves to decide
the best way to counter the anti-EU Ukip threat, Grant Shapps told the BBC he backed moves to publish a
draft bill and challenge Labour and the Liberal Democrats to support it” – Financial
Times
> Today: Nick Pickles on Comment: Voters would laugh the sham of a mandate referendum out of court
> Yesterday:
3) Cameron cuts loose bill to enshrine 0.7% aid commitment
"Last week, the Daily Mail reported that the measure would not be included in this week’s Queen’s Speech but may be brought in next year, as promised in the Coalition agreement. But it is now understood to have been shelved entirely, to the fury of Liberal Democrats, some Tories and anti-poverty campaigners." – Daily Mail
> Yesterday: ToryDiary – The Queen's Speech and the language of priorities
ConservativeHome poll: A third of Tory members want a pact with UKIP…
"A poll of Tory members for the ConservativeHome
website found that 34 per cent would support a pact with Nigel Farage ahead
of the election amid fears that many traditional Tories are deserting David
Cameron…In the poll, which questioned 800 Conservative members online immediately
after the council elections on Friday, 34 per cent of members said the party "should
seek to form a pact with Ukip at the next general election." – Daily Telegraph
…As Farage' deploys his familiar gambit: drop your leader, he says to Tories, and I'll work with you…
“Buoyed by UKIP’s success at last week’s local council
elections the party leader suggested that the Tories will have had enough of Mr
Cameron before the next general election in 2015. He also said he would
consider doing a deal with any other Tory leader. He has previously ruled out
working with Mr Cameron who once dismissed Ukip as a bunch of ‘loonies,
fruitcakes and closet racists’” – Daily
Express
…Meanwhile, he confirms that he will stand as an MP in 2015
“Rumours were
rife that Mr Farage might stand in a by-election before 2015. He said that was
not possible as he wants to lead UKIP into the 2014 European elections. But he
added: ‘Thereafter, yes, I will stand for a seat in 2015’” – The
Sun
Today:
Tim Montgomerie: Cameron's arrogance created Frankenstein’s monster
that is UKIP…
“Spend most of your time as Tory leader ignoring
the issue that matters most to your activist members: Europe. Launch your bid
to be leader by promising to introduce a tax allowance for married couples and
then, once you’ve won power, fail to deliver that pledge at four successive
Budgets…It may have been more accident than deliberate
plan, but as an unorthodox political experiment David Cameron’s systematic
abuse of his party’s most loyal supporters is delivering predictable and
predicted results. The UKIP monster is Mr Cameron’s Frankensteinian creation” –
The
Times (£)
…Paul Goodman: The Prime Minister's best means of killing the monster? Reducing the deficit, cutting immigration, reforming welfare, keeping energy bills down – a programme for the marginals
“Mr
Cameron’s best means of dealing with Ukip lies in playing the single
card of high value available to him but not to Mr Farage – namely, that
he is the prime minister. Since he cannot out-rebel the Ukip leader, he
must fall back on the authority of office, which though diminished is
not exhausted.
Rather than lurch to the right or the left, or in any direction, the
prime minister must shape a programme that will appeal to the voters in
northern and midlands marginal seats." Financial
Times
Osborne home plan "risks price bubble
"In a scathing attack on the Chancellor’s plan, announced in the Budget, to get
more people on to the housing ladder, a financial consultancy run by former
Bank of England economists said that the scheme could push up prices by
almost 30 per cent from the current average of £233,000. Fathom Consulting said that the fact that many people could not buy property
was “keeping a lid” on house price inflation." – The Times (£)
German euro
founder calls for “catastrophic” currency to be broken up
“Mr Lafontaine said he backed EMU but no longer believes it is sustainable. "Hopes
that the creation of the euro would force rational economic behaviour on all
sides were in vain," he said, adding that the policy of forcing Spain,
Portugal, and Greece to carry out internal devaluations was a "catastrophe".
Mr Lafontaine was labelled "Europe's Most Dangerous Man" by The
Sun after he called for a "united Europe" and the "end of
the nation state" in 1998." – Daily
Telegraph
Nigel Evans denies
rape claims and refuses to quit
“Mr Evans, 55, who came out as
gay in 2010 after years of gossip, said he had just endured ‘the worst 24 hours
of my life’. After being released on bail, he vehemently denied the
accusations, revealing that the men knew each other and that he had ‘continued
to socialise with one as recently as last week’” – Daily
Mail
> Yesterday: ToryDiary – Nigel Evans denies "completely false" rape allegations
Charles
Moore on Jesse Norman’s new life of Edmund Burke
"It
is not society that keeps mankind in chains, but the pretence that now is
the only time that matters. Almost every piece of rot you hear in politics
comes from those who wish to lock man into what WH Auden called ''the prison
of his days’’. It is comforting that the Burkean Jesse Norman is in the
House of Commons to tell them when they are wrong." – Daily Telegraph
Rise of “white
flight” is creating a segregated UK
“White
Britons are 'retreating' from areas dominated by ethnic minorities, a study has
revealed. Analysis of census figures shows that white Britons are leaving areas
where they are in a minority and are being replaced by immigrants and other
ethnic minorities. As a result, nearly half of ethnic minorities – 4 million
people – live in communities where whites make up less than half the
population, the study by the Demos think-tank found. Demos
said the survey showed a 'spiral of white British demographic decline' as white
Britons choose to leave minority-dominated areas” – Daily
Mail
Lord Blair says
suspects must be named
"Suspects must
be named when they are arrested, a former head of the Metropolitan Police said
yesterday. His comments came as senior figures urged an end to the culture of
secret justice taking root in the wake of the Leveson report. Lord Blair said
it was in the interests of justice for suspects to be named because the
resulting publicity could help uncover vital evidence” – Daily
Mail
London skyline illustrates gap with rest of
Britain
“Britain’s
economic divide between London and the rest of the country has been laid bare
by data showing more cranes have been erected in the capital in the past three
years than everywhere else put together” – Financial
Times
News in brief
And finally…Boris's Bank Holiday hymn to the joys of cycling and the beauty of spring
"There is nowhere more beautiful than England in May. The tulips were still
out; the hawthorn blossom like gunsmoke across the battlefield; the sun
soft; everything surging and budding with spring; and though the old bike
was clanking badly now I knew we had almost made it – and wheeee! I went
down the other side of the hills like something from Enid Blyton, so fast
and for so long that I wore out both brake pads; and after another 10 easy
miles I was there." – Daily Telegraph
> 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.