10.30pm Harry Phibbs on CentreRight: The Boris Budget
6pm ToryDiary: Launch of the Skills Green Paper
5pm Jill Kirby on CentreRight: Who’s life is it anyway?
4.30pm ToryDiary: Hague’s eight-point strategy for "by far the biggest challenge we face today"
4.15pm ToryDiary: Tories hit 47% in Ipsos MORI survey
4pm Jim McConalogue on CentreRight: Will Cameron be able to form a eurosceptic political group outside the EPP?
12.30pm Douglas Carswell MP on CentreRight: It’s time to scrap state-run SATS
Noon: Applications to join the ConservativeHome team have now closed
11.30am Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: House purchases are no longer the new marriage
10am ToryDiary: Information fundamentalism?
Alan Mendoza: Explain where you stand on hard vs soft power
Gary Streeter MP: Prioritise the promotion of good governance
Nile Gardiner: Embark upon a major renegotiation of EU treaties
Edward Macmillan-Scott MEP: Fight the democracy backlash
Benedict Rogers: Reform the UN, FCO and ICC
Platform: Our "Government Worth Having" series looks at foreign policy
ToryDiary: Cameron ‘prayed’ that there wouldn’t be an autumn election and Rifkind and Willetts head a list of pro-Obama Tories
Parliament: Michael Gove condemns Ed Balls’ incompetence
PlayPolitical: Jon Stewart mocks hype over Obama’s trip to Europe
Conservative government would lead campaign against centralised EU
"An incoming Conservative government would lead a Europe-wide campaign against “the centralising ratchet” of the EU and seek to restore full British control over employment and social law, William Hague, shadow foreign secretary, has told the Financial Times. Hague… says a Cameron administration would seek to scupper the EU’s Lisbon treaty – if it has not already been ratified by Ireland and all other member states – and attempt to renegotiate parts of Britain’s membership of the club." – FT
Ian Taylor has written to The Times welcoming the US presidential candidates’ interest in EU leadership.
Grayling to man summer offensive
"Chris Grayling… was happy last night to complain that Gordon Brown’s ministers were getting worse and worse with their delays of awkward parliamentary statements until most MPs leave Westminster for the 11-week summer recess… most still claim to share Brown’s conviction that there’s still time to turn things round before the 2010 election. Grayling will be staying on in Westminster to undermine that hunch until late August when Cameron returns from the beach to resume heavy shelling." – Michael White in the Guardian
Anthony Browne & Policy Exchange
"So Anthony Browne, director of the centre-rightwing thinktank Policy Exchange, joins Team Boris. What a transformation. Just over a year ago he was a lobby journalist on the Times… Browne’s appointment – the fourth from Policy Exchange to get a top job in the Tory party – marks a further high watermark in the influence of Policy Exchange on future Tory policy" – David Hencke in the Guardian
> Anthony Browne becomes Boris’ Policy Director
Brown is like the school swot
"When Mr Brown is forced to mingle with his fellow men, he stumbles like a swot who has spent too many hours at his books, and too few learning how to get on with other people over a game or a drink. It is hard to think of a single occasion since becoming Prime Minister when he has saved the day by telling a joke." – Andrew Gimson in the Telegraph
Brown’s PR trio on up to £140k each – Telegraph
I thought the Conservatives were there to be despised
"Conservative leaders used to be easily divided into the evil and the ineffectual… At the time I despised them all, but lately just as David Cameron has blown my evil/ineffectual classification system out of the blue water, so the old Tory leaders have slowly been rehabilitated… If identity is not only about who you are but also who you hate, then the harder it is to identify acceptable targets to hate, the less sure I become about who I am." – Sarfraz Manzoor in the Guardian
The Right won the debate on crime, so why does it insist it isn’t working?
"There is too much crime. And crime could be falling faster. Repeat offenders still aren’t being sent to jail for long enough. The police aren’t being given enough time to do their job out on the street where it matters. We need to go farther, we need to go faster. But crime is falling. Sorry, but it just is." – Daniel Finkelstein in the Times
Redefining relationship between licensing and public order
"Attempting to locate even a trace of logic or consistency in the Government’s approach to alcohol abuse is a near-impossible task. Here is an administration that enacted round-the-clock pub opening and liberalised the sale of alcohol from retail outlets, and then seems surprised that our streets and public places are frequently awash with inebriates." – Telegraph leader
Blair’s farewell/vanity tour
"Blair’s "farewell tour" of the globe as Prime Minister cost the taxpayer more than £700,000, official figures showed last night. The Conservatives condemned it as a "huge vanity affair"." – Herald
Surge in former ministers seeking jobs in the private sector – FT
The Thatcher era was 20 years ago, get over it – Gerry Hassan in the Scotsman
Things wouldn’t be so bad now if we had listened to Frank Field – Simon Heffer in the Telegraph
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