9.45pm ToryDiary: Osborne warns banks that they'll lose state aid if they keep paying big cash bonuses
8.15pm WATCH: Eve Burt tells Channel 4 News that she is
ready to go to court to protect her employment as secretary to her
husband, Alistair Burt MP
6.45pm Seats and candidates: Rory Stewart selected for Penrith and the Border
6.30pm ToryDiary: Hague, Fox and Osborne top shadow cabinet league table
5.30pm Seats and candidates: Twenty ideas to encourage more women Tory MPs
3pm Graeme Archer on CentreRight is disappointed to see The Spectator promoting the views of people whose agenda is to suggest that HIV doesn't usually lead to AIDS
3pm WATCH: David Miliband backs Tony Blair to be EU's first permanent President
12.30pm Seats and candidates: The eighty women most likely to be Tory MPs and £15,000 is donated to an Association of Associations to resist All Women Shortlists
Noon CentreRight updates:
Alex Fisher on Platform: The public examination system needs urgent reform
Mark Wallace on Local government: End national pay bargaining
Melanchthon on CentreRight pens a bleak portrait of the challenges facing a Tory government: "As unemployment rises above three million next year, and (barring something extraordinary) above four million over the following winter, the Conservative Party will be blamed. People will say that it's the spending cuts and the public sector redundancies that are the cause. There will be unprecedented social tensions associated with there being so, so many unemployed. Given the very low trust there is in politicians and the general scale of nihilism and social decay, the situation could become volatile – in an extreme case, in specific regions, even quasi-revolutionary (of the order of quasi-revolutionary union activities in the early 1970s, but probably not, on this occasion, at the instigation of unions). I have no idea how the Conservatives intend to deal with that – and, I think, neither does anyone in the Party."
David Cameron sets out his economic reform plan
In addition to banking reform and controlling spending his article for The Sunday Times includes: "Getting Britain working is also about getting people ready for work. This is where some of our most radical reforms come in. We will bust open the state monopoly on education. That will increase competition, raise standards and make sure our children get the education they need to succeed. Our plans for technical schools in our 12 biggest cities and 100,000 new apprenticeships mean we will also develop the engineering and technological skills of the future. And we will radically reform the welfare system so the unemployed get the tailored support they need to get back into work."
Gordon Brown has promised the economy will return to growth by the turn of the year – BBC
More strikes threaten Brown with his own winter of discontent – The Sunday Times
"The Office of National Statistics, like the Bank of England, is proving to be uncomfortably independent for Mr Brown. Rarely have figures played so neatly into the opposition’s hands. Britain, on the basis of these statistics, was first in and will be last out of recession. The prime minister’s boast that the country was uniquely well placed looks as misguided as it was vainglorious. The return of growth was supposed to be the defining event of the autumn. The continued recession defines it in the opposite way." – The Sunday Times leader
UUP-Tory coalition facing internal tension
"The Ulster Unionists' sole MP failed to turn up to her party's
conference yesterday, increasing speculation that Lady Sylvia Hermon
will stand as an independent in the forthcoming general election." – Observer
All-women shortlists for the Tory party? Rubbish idea, Dave – Euan Ferguson in The Observer
A revolt is brewing among Tory activists against women-only shortlists, but getting more female MPs is a crucial part of rebranding the Conservatives, says Melissa Kite in The Sunday Telegraph
Rebellion grows over move to stop MPs paying relatives
"Whips from all main parties have warned that the family ban, which could make more than 200 people redundant, is the most "provocative" element of the six-month inquiry into the expenses regime. A number of MPs' spouses, some who have worked in Parliament for decades, have already complained about the likely ban. MPs claimed yesterday that at least one of their colleagues is facing a legal challenge from her own partner over the alleged "restriction on trade" that a veto would represent." – Independent on Sunday
Bernard Jenkin wins Cameron's backing for unfair repayment request – Mail on Sunday
Nick Griffin attacked by his own BNP supporters over Question Time
Party's legal officer accuses leader of failing to press home his attack on 'the sanctimonious, hypocritical middle classes' – Observer
Lord Carey has urged Christians to "stand shoulder to shoulder" in rejecting the BNP – News of the World | BBC
The BNP can be dismissed – but their constituency cannot – James Forsyth in The Sunday Telegraph
"The BNP candidate in the Glasgow North East by- election has said he will "go to his grave" wanting his party to remain racist and white only." – Scotland on Sunday
William Rees-Mogg: European leaders would be ignoring British voters again if Blair becomes EU President
"I wish the European Leaders, particularly the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, would pay a smidgin of attention to British public opinion. They seem to think it would recommend the European Union and the Lisbon Treaty to us if we were given Tony Blair as a British President of Europe. The opposite is the truth. We had Blair as Prime Minister for ten years. We never thought we would get him back as an unelected President of Europe. He let us down too often. We do not trust him, we no longer like him, we do not want him." – William Rees-Mogg in the Mail on Sunday
And finally… Gyles Brandreth remembers the time he failed to persuade Ken Clarke to retain Norman Lamont's young adviser, one David Cameron
"“I will do anything to help and serve David Cameron,” he says. “I’m a huge admirer, and one of the joys of keeping a diary is that you’re able to point out that when David Cameron was a political adviser to Norman Lamont, and when Lamont was dropped by John Major, his special advisers were dropped as well. I thought it was a mistake to drop him, so I wrote a memo to the new chancellor, Kenneth Clarke. I said, we mustn’t lose this man, he is gold, and I remember having a conversation with Clarke, who was saying he’s Lamont’s man, very right-wing. I said, no no, he was working for Lamont and therefore reflected Lamont, but I think you’ll find he’s our kind of Conservative, a liberal Conservative. Clarke still dropped him. Wouldn’t be persuaded. Wouldn’t. He went. I failed. But it can’t be taken away from me that I spotted him when people hadn’t even heard of him.”" – Gyles Brandreth interviewed in The Sunday Times
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