8.15pm ToryDiary: Labour fall to THIRD place
7.30pm ToryDiary: Brown considers PR deal with Liberal Democrats to end likelihood of Tories ever governing alone again
12.30pm WATCH: Sky News reports on David Cameron's call for 'phantom mortgage MPs' to be prosecuted
Noon: Matthew Sinclair on CentreRight argues that J P Floru's case against pulling out of the European Union is flawed
10.30am J P Floru on CentreRight identifies "UKIP's flaw": "UKIP’s flaw is the belief that EU countries will be queuing up to give us free trade access to their markets if we pull out. I believe they would do quite the opposite. If we pull out they are very likely to start posturing and to refuse us free access. Finding an enemy – perfidious Albion – would be a perfect deflection from their own economic failure."
ToryDiary: Duncan and Maude both down sharply in first shadow cabinet satisfaction survey since expenses-gate
Graeme Archer on CentreRight: The seductive Pythagorean madness of Proportional Representation
Arty McBain on Platform: Shame on The Times for its Communist propaganda
WATCH: Elliot Morley to step down after claiming for phantom mortgage
Labour down to 21% in General Election polling and UKIP second in European polling
Times | ToryDiary
82% of voters support recall elections, 56% support ban on second jobs – Times
Phantom mortgage MPs must face fraud charges, says David Cameron – Interview with The Telegraph
The Telegraph has published a Q&A with David Cameron including this answer to a question on the type of new candidate he seeks: "What I hope we will get is people from different backgrounds and experiences to bring into the Commons greater variety. There aren’t enough people in the Commons with a small business background.There’s a shortage of people who really understand agriculture and farming.There aren’t enough people on the Conservative side who have worked in some of the key public services. I’d like to see people who’ve been successful head teachers. There are a variety of experiences you want to bring to bear to parliament but the core has got to be a belief in public service and that politics can change things."
Bill Cash MP
"The eurosceptic rebel had tried to ignore fury over the revelations, refusing to repay any money and claiming that “what is lawful is appropriate”. But the Tory leader said Mr Cash had very serious questions to answer in an apparent threat to expel him from the party. Mr Cameron said: “He needs to co-operate with those inquiries. Everyone knows the consequences of not participating.” …Tory chief whip Patrick McLoughlin phoned him to deliver a final warning." – Express
"Tory Bill Cash is another MP who just doesn't get it over expenses. The arch right-winger is forever demanding public spending cuts yet he dipped into the public purse to subsidise his family." – Mirror opinion
Eleanor Laing didn't pay capital gains tax on second home – Telegraph
Humfrey Malins claimed £58,000 for flat in which his children lived – Telegraph
David Lidington is Mr Clean (but you pay for his soap) – Telegraph
Nick Clegg: Expenses revelations MPs should not get tax free pay-offs – BBC
Labour on red alert as Derbyshire
Tories scent victory at county council – Times
Patten, Brittan and Garel-Jones attack Cameron on Europe – The Guardian
Conservative candidate makes the case for proportional representation
"At the last general election the Conservative party polled 65,704 more votes than Labour in England, but ended up 92 seats behind. In Wales, the Conservatives received more than one-fifth of the votes and won just three seats. In Scotland we received 369,388 votes (15.8%) and a single seat. Without the proportional element from the Scottish parliament vote, Conservatives would have four rather than 17 MSPs (based on the 2007 election). By the same principle, we would have five rather than eight AMs in the Welsh Assembly." – Janice Small, Batley & Spen PPC, in letter to The Guardian
The Daily Mail makes the case against: "The irony is PR actually takes power away from voters, and hands it to discredited and often corrupt political elites. As David Cameron warns, people would no longer choose their government on the basis of the manifestos put before them in an election campaign."
"I’ll clean up politics and let Sun readers hold MPs to account" – Gordon Brown in The Sun
James Purnell: Now is the time for state funding
"Making the first intervention by a member of the cabinet on the contentious issue of party funding, Purnell says: "We need to take big money out of politics." He writes: "Amidst the current anger at politicians and politics we must bite the bullet on state funding for political parties – alongside cutting the overall amount the taxpayer spends on politics." – Guardian | James Purnell article
New Labour's victims are Middle Britons who obey the law, work long hours and are taxed almost to extinction – Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail
The Telegraph: Don't vote UKIP
"The recent history of Ukip
raises serious questions about its competence, to put it mildly. The
fiasco of Robert Kilroy-Silk's involvement with the party was just one
of many bouts of vicious infighting. It has sought to make capital out
of the expenses scandal, but is itself no stranger to financial
controversy. One of its MEPs, Ashley Mote, was expelled from the party
and later jailed for benefit fraud. (He hopes to appeal the verdict.)
Another MEP, Tom Wise, is facing prosecution for alleged false
accounting and money laundering relating to his EU expenses. He denies
the charges. Meanwhile, one of its most distinguished former
supporters, the economist Tim Congdon, has left Ukip, claiming that it
has been "captured by the European institutions" and neglects its
British Eurosceptic supporters. More worryingly, as this newspaper
reported last weekend, it has "become a haven for elements of the far
Right". In David Cameron's phrase, it attracts "fruitcakes, loonies and
closet racists"." – Telegraph leader
But also in The Telegraph
Simon Heffer explains his support for UKIP: "I remain a resolute
opponent of EU membership, which I regard as a massive and systematic
fraud upon the taxpayer and a lethal weapon aimed at the heart of our
democracy. I shall be voting, and voting for Ukip. They have had their
problems since 2004, but these are nothing compared with what is
happening in the main parties. If you want out, I advise you to do the
same."
BBC offers £30,000 to Muslim Council of Britain after Charles Moore's Question Time remarks – Daily Mail
Luton's Muslim community turned on extremists in their midst yesterday, telling them they were 'sick and tired' of their behaviour – Daily Mail
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