11.45pm Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: Alexander Solzhenitsyn has died
6pm Andrew Lilico on CentreRight: Tim Congdon on Money Supply and tax cuts
5pm Alan Mendoza on CentreRight tips Eric Cantor as McCain’s running mate
1pm ToryDiary: 90% of drop in Labour support has gone to the Conservatives
12.30pm Jim McConalogue on CentreRight: EU regulation to reduce financial services growth, says City of London report
ToryDiary: Have the Conservatives finally passed ‘the Bridget Jones test’?
Local government: Overfilling your rubbish bin could cost you a larger fine than shoplifting
Yesterday evening’s CF Diary: The FT profiles Conservative Future
Blair accuses Brown of "hubris and vacuity" in ‘secret memo’ from last autumn – Mail on Sunday | Observer
Alistair Darling, Harriet Harman and John Denham rally to Brown’s defence – BBC
"If Miliband succeeds in toppling Brown, Labour can anticipate almost a generation of feuding. In the short term Cameron may miss the easy target: his dour and lumbering opponent across the Commons chamber. But if Labour ruptures once more, then the Conservatives could look forward not just to an election win but also to another era of political supremacy." – Michael Portillo in The Sunday Times
BPIX poll: Tories 23% ahead
The poll for the Mail on Sunday finds the Conservatives on 47%, Labour 24% and the LDs 16%: "The poll starkly illustrates the ‘charisma gap’ between the two main party leaders, with just one per cent of respondents regarding Mr Brown as ‘very charismatic’, compared with 18 per cent for Mr Cameron. And given a choice between taking a holiday with Gordon and Sarah Brown or David and Samantha Cameron, 42 per cent said they would join the Camerons, compared with 19 per cent the Browns."
Grant Shapps seeks timetable from Government on eco-towns
"The one certainty is that confusion reigns at the heart of Labour’s controversial eco-town project. Local residents have been left in limbo as Caroline Flint performs U-turn after U-turn. She must set out a clear timetable for the eco-town project and end the uncertainty hanging over local communities." – Grant Shapps quoted in The Sunday Telegraph
Michael Gove highlights educational failure of poor
"Nearly half of children from the poorest backgrounds are leaving school without a single good GCSE, new research shows. Just 0.2 per cent of pupils on free school meals achieved three As at A-level, the standard needed to get into the top universities, official figures reveal." – Independent on Sunday
Tory green taxes "unlikely to see the light of day"
"A range of measures designed to penalise motoring and other polluting activities has been put on hold amid fears that it would alienate working families feeling the pinch as the economy slows. Senior strategists admit privately that initiatives prepared by the Tory leader are unlikely to see the light of day, including raising taxes on short-haul flights and on larger cars." – The Sunday Telegraph
Greg Hands MP on DNA database
"A Tory MP fingerprinted after the murder of his 80-year-old uncle claimed last night that he is an innocent victim of Labour’s ‘Big Brother’ surveillance state. Police visited the Commons to take fingerprints and a DNA sample from London MP Greg Hands after the killing last year. But Mr Hands, 42, is now demanding to know why, one year on and despite repeated requests, his details have not been removed from the national DNA database." – Mail on Sunday
Greg Hands wrote about this on CentreRight last week.
Boris Johnson is direct descendant of King George II – The Sunday Times
Keith Simpson’s summer reading list for Tory MPs – The Sunday Times
Scottish Labour’s three wannabe leaders are not up to challenging Alex Salmond – Observer
Nick Clegg urges Brown to boycott closing ceremony of Beijing Olympics – Independent on Sunday
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