"The Board of the Conservative Party has reached a decision in principle on the method for selection of candidates for the European Parliament for the 2009 election. Sitting MEPs who have been re-selected following a procedure similar to that laid down in the Party’s constitution for Westminster MPs will be placed in ranking order by […]
“Boris Yeltsin will always be associated with the creation of democracy in Russia. He contributed to breaking the stranglehold of communism, the ideology he was born into and that brought him to national power. Mr Yeltsin will be remembered as a President who carried his country through a turbulent transformation in far calmer fashion than […]
The FT has a crisp new look today and carries an article about the possible line-up of Gordon Brown’s first team. The article follows yesterday’s news that David Miliband will not be challenging Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership. Mr Miliband’s reward, speculates the FT’s James Blitz, might be the office of Foreign Secretary although […]
Only 0.69% of this blog’s readers come from France so any endorsement this blog makes of Nicolas Sarkozy will be electorally irrelevant but ConservativeHome does think his agenda is preferable to the reheated tax-and-spend policies of his second round and socialist opponent, Segolene Royal. Sarkozy describes himself as a ‘man of the right’ and set […]
Even Bruce Anderson thinks David Cameron had a bad week last week. He cites Liam Fox’s failure to undo Des Browne on Monday, Gordon Brown’s performance on Tuesday in which he rallied Labour’s troops and, of course, Wednesday’s Dyke debacle. Unfortunately Mr Cameron is unrepentant. In an article for The Guardian the Tory leader insists […]
Cameron defends Party after Scottish opinion polls: "Tory leader David Cameron today dismissed poll findings suggesting his party is going nowhere in the Holyrood election campaign. He insisted the Tories were running "a very positive campaign" and said: "I don’t make predictions." And Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said she was "relatively relaxed" about the […]
There is a thoughtful article in tomorrow’s Sunday Times from Michael Portillo. While acknowledging that Cameron’s handling of the Dyke affair was clumsy he explores the big reason why it happened – the Tories’ belief that they need to form these sorts of surprising alliances if they are to prosper in Britain’s new electoral landscape […]
Last night a high level Conservative source contacted ConservativeHome with a ‘clarification’ of the procedures via which the next slate of regional list MEPs will be selected (if agreed by the Party Board this coming Monday). These are the crucial facts: Only MEPs who irrevocably commit to David Cameron’s EPP exit commitment will be entitled […]
Yates hands cash-for-honours report to Crown Prosecution Service (BBC).
The lobbying effort against the plan to protect incumbent MEPs is beginning to bear some fruit. Jeremy Middleton has assured one ConservativeHome correspondent that he will be voting to protect members’ rights with regard to the selection of all MEPs. Thank you Jeremy. He will be one party board member that won’t be vulnerable to […]
"We need a skilled politician who knows how to make and execute decisions using the advice of the official mayoral machine and the London Assembly. We do not want an empire-building rent-a-quote. The obvious recruiting grounds are the assembly, the boroughs and Parliament. A candidate needs experience of London electors. It would help if our […]
ConservativeHome has learnt that there is another hugely controversial dimension to the proposed changes to European candidate selection. In order to address the fact that there is currently only one woman MEP – Caroline Jackson – the National European Forum has proposed a mechanism that will effectively mean that every MEP that is standing down […]
The Conservative Party Chairman Francis Maude has called on the Liberal Democrats to prove their anti-racist credentials by sacking a local councillor who nominated a BNP member as a candidate for the May elections. He said: It’s alarming that, of the three main political parties, the Liberal Democrats have the worst record in local elections […]
At a 1922 Committee meeting of about twenty Tory MPs last night Gerald Howarth MP raised the issue of MEP selection. He and others expressed their disappointment at the leadership’s acquiescence in plans to protect incumbent MEPs by stripping rank-and-file members of their current say in ranking all MEP candidates. One of the MPs’ representatives […]
David is Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills. The recent UNICEF report about the well-being of children in the world’s richest countries was a wake-up call for Britain: we come last among the 21 industrialised nations. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Behavioural problems in children have doubled over the last 30 […]