6pm ToryDiary: Over half of Tory members say Osborne should cut faster and deeper
4.15pm ToryDiary: Osborne tells the Sun he plans to take tough measures against unruly unions
2pm ConHomeUSA: Today's top Republican and American political news
11am Local Government: Half way through the financial year, Cllr Colin Barrow on Turning off the tap, keeping services going
ToryDiary: Osborne cuts red tape for employers but Andrew Tyrie questions overall growth strategy
Also on ToryDiary: Rolling list of policy announcements continues with Cameron promising more corporation tax cuts and a new improved NHS Direct replacement
FutureConservatism: Turbo-charge free schools, bold regulation reform, and a cap on national debt – leading Tories suggest five ideas for David Cameron…
The Right List, day two: The Class of 2010
James Clappison MP on Comment: Five steps towards proper control of immigration
In Local Government:
WATCH: Can Sir David Frost spot a leader in the making?
It's Day Two of the pre-conference announcments barrage. Cameron pledges action on corporation tax and the NHS. Osborne prepares voters for no tax cuts before the election. And five other Cabinet Ministers give pre-conference interviews.
Interview One: No tax cuts before the next election, says Osborne
"The Chancellor says he does not believe in “tax cuts for Christmas” and refuses to rule out a new levy on multi-million pound properties. He indicates that with economic growth lower than expected his timetable for reducing the deficit may be delayed. He stresses that the plan is “flexible”. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Osborne discloses that his focus in the autumn — starting at this week’s Conservative Party conference in Manchester — is on helping business." – Daily Telegraph
Cameron pledges corporation tax cuts
"Mr Cameron promises further cuts in corporation tax and says the Government is ‘getting to grips’ with employment regulations. Chancellor George Osborne will announce at the conference in Manchester that the law is to be changed so that workers will find it more difficult to sue their bosses. An estimated £1billion is awarded to employees every year." – Daily Mail
The Prime Minister also tells the Mail that a new NHS number will restore out-of-hours care for all non-emergencies – Daily Mail
David Cameron: It is business, not the state, that creates jobs – Daily Mail
"Mr Osborne must keep on listening to the wealth-creating employers and do still more to unshackle firms and kick-start growth" – Sun Editorial
And the Mail takes the Chancellor down memory lane
But one senior Conservative MP is off-message this morning. Andrew Tyrie labels Chancellor's growth plans as incoherent and inconsistent
"David Cameron’s plans to inject growth into the stuttering economy are incoherent, inconsistent and should be reworked, according to the Conservative chairman of the powerful Commons Treasury Select Committee…The Big Society; localism; the green strategy — whether right or wrong; these and other initiatives have seemed at best irrelevant to the task in hand, if not downright contradictory to it; likewise the huge spending hike on overseas aid and the cost of the Libyan expedition.” – The Times (£)
Clegg to Barroso: we will veto £40 billion transaction tax – Daily Express
> Yesterday: Edward Leigh MP on Comment – A flat tax would revitalise the British economy
Interview Two: Mitchell to brandish vaccine syringe in conference speech
"The International Development Secretary will tell the Tory conference in Manchester he is "proud" of the UK's leading role in combating poverty and disease. Confronting his critics head on, he will hold up a plastic syringe containing a vaccine that protects against severe diarrhoea and declare: "Britain will vaccinate a child every two seconds for the next five years and save a life every two minutes. Lives as important as the lives of our own children." – The Independen
Interview Three: IDS pledges U.S.-style shock tactics to put youngsters off a life of crime
"In an interview with the Daily Mail on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, Mr Duncan Smith revealed radical plans to use U.S.-style ‘shock therapy’ to try to reverse the trend. A Government blueprint to tackle gang culture, to be unveiled by the Home Office and the Work and Pensions department this month, will include controversial ‘call-ins’ for gang members who have not yet committed any crime." – Daily Mail
Interview Four: Fox claims MOD budget back under control
"The defence secretary admits he inherited a “dog’s breakfast” when he arrived at the MoD last May: “To have an unfunded liability of £38bn on an annual budget of £35bn takes some doing.” Now he claims the budget will be “broadly in balance by the end of the decade”. Having underscored his “fiscal hawk” credentials, Dr Fox will have the undoubted pleasure of delivering a “khaki” speech to the Tory conference, citing the military success of Libya as evidence that Britain can still punch its weight in spite of the cuts." – Financial Times (£)
Interview Five: Gove proposes teaching foreign languages from age five
"The education secretary, Michael Gove, has proposed that every child aged five or over should be learning a foreign language, and promised to "pull every lever", including encouraging longer school days, to make it happen. In a pre-Conservative conference interview, he says: "There is a slam-dunk case for extending foreign language teaching to children aged five…It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning." – The Guardian
Interview Six: Hammond steers route past carcrash interview with Times's terrible twins
"Has he ever gone above 70 himself? “Of course not, you’re not going to catch me out.” He says that Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary who has been accused of asking his former wife to take speeding penalty points for him, “will have to answer for himself”. Mr Hammond does not think that motorways should be turned into race tracks but says: “Enforcement is a matter for the police." – The Times (£)
And…"I will consider this interview a success if there are a few Guardian readers who think, wow, the Tories aren't all ogres." – Louise Mensch interview
Also in the same paper: 'I thought we were a unit," a.k.a Mrs Chris Huhne, interviewed in The Guardian
Maude to announce ban on Whitehall full-time union reps
"Tory ministers will crack down on civil servants working as trade union officials at taxpayers’ expense. The move follows concern that £30million a year of public money is being wasted while their time is spent organising strike action against the coalition Government’s spending cuts. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told the Daily Express: “We should not be spending hard-earned taxpayers’ money on a huge subsidy to the unions. Full-time trade union officials should be paid for by members, not by the taxpayer.” – Daily Express
Pickles and Spelman "at war over weekly collections"
"Mr Pickles, whose ministry controls the finances of local councils, wants councils to encourage recycling by offering families incentives such as store vouchers. But Mrs Spelman…said yesterday that the new fund would be used to ‘help councils whose residents want their rubbish collected more frequently to reinstate weekly bin rounds for smelly waste’." – Daily Mail
Environment groups slam weekly bin collections – The Independent
> Yesterday: Eric Pickles MP on Local Government – Every household has a right to have a weekly bin collection
Joan Collins says no police cuts. Jo Johnson, that MPs should be forced to watch Spiff TV. And only Sayeeda Warsi and Archie Norman mention the NHS…
…Tim Montgomerie says change the Party's name to the Conservative Alliance
…And seven out of eight Tory backbenchers raise Europe: what the Financial Times found when it quizzed top Tories
Over a quarter of Tory donations come from hedge funds, financiers and private equity firms – The Guardian
Cameron expected to focus on firm leadership and compassion – The Independent
Full conference schedule – Daily Telegraph
Charles Moore: The country needs David Cameron to do more than whistle in the dark
"There is a danger, of course, in speaking too openly about bad things. You are not supposed to “talk Britain down”. It is a genuine duty of leadership to whistle in the dark to keep people’s spirits up. But I still feel that there is a gap in the market for political leaders who know how to talk both truthfully yet encouragingly about hard times…We all know – and reluctantly accept – that things must get worse before they can get better. But Mr Cameron does need to give us a stronger sense next week of what that better might be." – Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph
Twelve nations join UK fight to curb welfare tourism
"An alliance of European countries is rebelling against EU plans to make Britain open its doors to thousands of ‘benefit tourists’. Ministers have joined forces with 12 other nations – including France, Germany and Denmark – angry at the European Commission’s threat to take the UK to court over rules which limit foreigners’ ability to claim benefits." – Daily Mail
> Yesterday:
Stormont urged to move on by Paterson – Belfast Telegraph
Other Political News and Comment on Brief
And finally…Flying fur: the feline tale of Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, his wife, his mistress, and two cats called Beauty and Twinkle
"As she passes a window, where a light shines from inside, she gets down on her hands and knees to avoid being spotted. After several minutes, Mrs Hemming enters through the unlocked back door. Then, wearing a skirt, jumper and sensible shoes, she leaves with Beauty, worth £20, under her left arm. As she walks back to her car, bespectacled Mrs Hemming looks up — straight into one of the four cameras installed by Ms Cox." – Daily Mail
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