Last week we nominated three blogs for six awards categories. Before voting you might like to remind yourself of the nominees by clicking on the links below: Best Parliamentary Blog – Nadine Dorries MP, Dan Hannan MEP and John Redwood MP Best Young Conservative Blog – Mark Clarke, Matthew Sinclair and Birmingham CF Best Anonymous […]
Grant Shapps MP has compiled a short report on the increasingly ineffective tagging scheme: “Far from saving money, the fact that 1 in 9 of those wearing tags re-offends means that the social cost of the Home Detention Curfew programme is much higher than had originally been thought. It’s now very clear that the prison […]
Are Tory members complacent or are they justified in their overwhelming view that Gordon Brown will be a less effective leader than Tony Blair? By sixteen-to-one (64% to 4%) those Tory members surveyed by ConservativeHome thought that the Chancellor would be a less effective leader than the outgoing Prime Minister. Other findings: 24% believe that […]
David Davis’ net satisfaction rate rose slightly in April to 84%. His net satisfaction rating (those members satisfied minus those dissatisfied) is the same as it was last May when he overtook William Hague in this series. The Shadow Home Secretary’s rating now comfortably exceeds William Hague’s 67% rating. Lord Strathclyde is now level-pegging with […]
David Cameron writes (as he frequently does) for ‘The Guardian on Sunday’ this morning – The Observer. The choice of The Guardian/ The Observer is all part of his BBC strategy. The Conservative leader reflects on his two days with a Muslim family in Birmingham. His top conclusion is that we need to be more […]
The Tory lead has been trimmed slightly in today’s YouGov survey for The Sunday Times but we should remember that Labour also received a temporary boost after Tony Blair’s last resignation speech – in October 2006 at the Labour conference. In the immediate afterglow of Thursday’s resignation, 49% thought Tony Blair had been a good […]
Neil Wilson is a Conservative activist in Liverpool. The Bow Group’s report claiming the Government had lost track of thousands of youths who should be at school came as no surprise to me. Chris Skidmore says some persistent truants have: "fallen so far below the radar that politicians are not aware they exist". They haven’t […]
The Cornerstone Group of 35 Tory MPs has launched a new website. In his introductory post chairman Edward Leigh describes the group: "We represent traditional Tory themes of nation, family, enterprise and compassion, founded on Judaeo-Christian ethics. We keep the flame burning because we believe that a vigorous discussion about Conservative ideas can be of […]
David Cameron went to Balsall Heath, a surburb of Birmingham, to spend a night with Abdullah and Shahida and their three children. On his first day David Cameron went to the local mosque where he had a conversation he describes as "really fascinating (and in some respects extremely worrying)." He reiterates the point that the […]
Peter Noordhoek is a member of the Dutch Christian-Democratic Party (CDA). Congratulations with the results the Conservatives got on the 3rd of May! I do not really know how far the Conservatives are when it comes to giving local government more responsibilities, but the locals certainly want more conservatives. Again, congratulations, this time from someone […]
Tim Montgomerie and Matthew D’Ancona have been having an open email exchange on what we can and should learn from Blair. This is Tim’s reply to Matthew’s third and final email: "Sorry for the delay in replying – I’m on my way to Northern Ireland. Many people would, of course, say that the peace process […]
>>> CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO <<< Cameron’s quiet today: "Tory leader David Cameron was unusually coy about his views of Gordon Brown as he visited a green waste recycling plant in his constituency." ————————– PA is reporting a good Newsnight poll: "Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown is seen […]
Dizzy Thinks – Managing to blog prolifically in-between meeting computer programming deadlines, Dizzy is always an amusing and enlightening read. A London-based Conservative activist and self-described "internet geek", he is particularly good at digging out random websites and technological stories of interest, and has a knack for rebuffing left-wing columnists. Iain Dale’s Diary – Surely […]
Gordon Brown launches his leadership bid today. ConservativeHome has produced this light-hearted video to remind the British people of his failings… In summary, those failings are… A decade of stealthy taxation that has seen Britain’s tax burden rise above that of Germany – endangering our long-term competitiveness; Record levels of private debt; The £100bn+ raid […]
Lee Scott is MP for Ilford North. Estimates of the proportion of people with autistic spectrum disorders total 587,900 and of these 133,500 are under 18 years of age. In the last few years numbers have risen in my own constituency of Ilford North. According to UK researchers, autism may affect up to one in […]