7pm ToryDiary: The curious incident of the passage in David Cameron's speech on the EU referendum
4.45pm: ToryDiary: Conservative commentators all give warm welcome to Cameron's speech (but can he stick to this new message?)
4.30pm Columnist Andrew Lilico: Cameron's speech – reaching out to the Centre from the Right
2.30pm WATCH:
- Build an aspiration nation – David Cameron's Conference speech
- David Cameron's Conerence Video Diary – Day Three
1.30pm ToryDiary: We're the party of aspiration, education and work, says Cameron. Labour is the party of debt, taxes and welfare.
12.30pm WATCH: "We just get behind people who want to get on in life" David Cameron's Conference speech
11.30am Local government: Troubled Families progamme shows absurdity of "Left/Right" classifications
10.30am WATCH: Tim Montgomerie reviews David Cameron's year
ToryDiary: Party Conference policy announcements rolling blog -UPDATED
10.00am Lord Ashcroft's Party Conference Diary (Day 4)
ToryDiary:
- Cameron tells Britain that it's "sink or swim; do or decline"
- Vote for the Conservative clean up team
- Daily Mail leads press backlash against Boris
Columnist Bruce Anderson: Who is David Cameron?
Lord Ashcroft on Comment: Justine Greening should be a reforming International Development Secretary
Local Government: The curse of Plowden
The Deep End: Let’s slash welfare – corporate welfare, that is
David Cameron's message that it's "sink or swim" for Britain
"Britain faces an “hour of reckoning” and potentially terminal decline without radical reform and “difficult, painful decisions”, the Prime Minister will warn. The nation will either “sink or swim” in the economic crisis, David Cameron will say, as ministers face a choice of either “do or decline”. The core values of “hard work, strong families, taking responsibility and serving others” are needed if the country is to “come through” the worst economic crisis in decades, Mr Cameron will warn." – Daily Telegraph
- Mr Cameron – like Ed Miliband last week – will eschew policy announcements in favour of stressing his own story and values in his keynote address to party members. But aides are insisting that, unlike the Labour leader, Mr Cameron will make a "serious" argument about the future of the country. – BBC
- "His aides decline to refer to the political "centre ground" arguing that on issues such as welfare, crime and Europe, the common ground is to the right, and in territory long occupied by the Conservatives." – The Guardian
- "Mr Cameron will today invoke the memory of his father Ian, who died in 2010, to explain what motivates him amid criticism that he has never adequately explained why he wanted the job of Prime Minister. Mr Cameron Snr, who was born with severely deformed legs, was the eternal optimist who valued hard work, family, and putting back into his community." – The Times (£)
>>>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Cameron offers his strongest hint yet that he will offer an EU referendum
Boris Backs Cameron – but calls for tax cuts and EU referendum
"Despite expressing his loyalty to the Prime Minister, the Mayor of London then laid out a manifesto of his own, targeting tax cuts, a referendum on Europe and an end to ‘bashing’ the banks ‘for political
purposes." – Daily Mail
- "Boris noted that Dave had called him a “blond-haired mop”. “Well, if I am a mop, David, you are a broom!” cried Boris. “Cleaning up the mess left by a Labour government and a fantastic job you are doing.” More head-throwing from Dave the Broom. The laugh track was constant now. “I congratulate you and your colleagues George Osborne the dustpan! Michael Gove the J Cloth! William Hague the sponge!” – The Times (£)
- "Boris said: "Just as we all fought together this year to keep London from lurching back into the grip of a cabal of semi-Marxists and tax-funded Châteauneuf du Pape-swilling, tax minimisers – to put it mildly – and car-hating bendy bus fetishists, I will join you in the fight to keep this country from lurching back into the grip of the two Eds – Balls and Miliband." – The Guardian
- "A couple of weeks ago, I had a drink with one of Boris Johnson’s classics tutors at Oxford University, and asked him about his pupil’s chances of making it to Downing Street. “Capax imperii nisi imperasset…” he said. As Boris will know, his old tutor was echoing the Roman historian Tacitus on the Emperor Galba: “He was up to the job of emperor as long
as he never became emperor.” " – Harry Mount Daily Telegraph - If Boris ever becomes PM, I'm on the first plane out of Britain – Max Hastings Daily Mail
- "If the Tories are serious about their future, they need to rally four-square behind David Cameron. They might also consider that the talents demanded of a mayor and a
prime minister are not necessarily the same." – Daily Mail leader
>>>Yesterday:
WATCH:
Boris Johnson's interview on The World at One
WATCH: Boris tells Cameron: "If I'm a mop then you are a broom"
ToryDiary: William Shakespeare reports on Boris's speech to yesterday's Conservative Home rally
Deal agreed on Scottish independence referendum
"The basis of a deal has been reached between the UK and Scottish governments over the independence referendum. In a joint statement Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and
Scottish Secretary Michael Moore said "substantial progress" had been made." – BBC
- Mr Cameron has said that keeping the Union together is his top priority. Today, at his party conference, he is expected to draw on the spirit of the Olympics to reinforce his case. He will say: “Whether it was Ellie or Jess Ennis or Chris Hoy, whether our athletes were English, Scottish, Welsh or from Northern Ireland, they draped themselves in one flag. “Now, there’s one person who didn’t like that. And he’s called Alex Salmond. I’m going to see him soon to talk about sorting that referendum on independence before 2015.” – The Times
"Two strikes and you're out" for violent criminals
"People who commit "the most serious" violent or sexual crimes more than once will face automatic life sentences, Chris Grayling has warned. The justice secretary told the Tory conference that those given two prison terms lasting more than 10 years would be upgraded to the greater punishment." – BBC
- "The Justice Secretary told the conference: “Everyone deserves a second chance. But those who commit the most serious offences, crimes that would attract a sentence of ten or more years, cannot be allowed to just go on and on causing harm, distress and injury.” – The Times
Conservative Home "party within a party"
"At their current rate of accelerating influence over Tory conferences the ConservativeHome website crowd could soon be facing the kind of "party within a party" questions that once dogged Labour's entryist Militant Tendency. …Interestingly, ConHome, 52% owned by tax-efficient moneybags Lord
Ashcroft, launched a hard-copy magazine version this week, making its role more comparable to Tribune." – Michael White The Guardian
Theresa May says let victims choose punishment
"Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham she said it was time victims were given a greater voice in the criminal justice process. New legislation will be needed, she said, with victims of anti-social behaviour given the power to demand compensation or order yobs to carry out repairs and clean up parks." - The Independent
Pickles to curb local government union funding
public sector including curbs on time off for union duties and the right
to send out union propaganda has been signalled by thecommunities secretary, Eric Pickles." – The Guardian
Gove criticises teacher unions
"Teaching unions are "holding back" children by taking industrial action, the education secretary has said. Michael Gove attacked members of the National Union of Teachers and NASUWT, who recently voted to take action short of going on strike." – BBC
- Michael Gove attacked the leaders of Britain’s teaching unions yesterday as he warned that they were allowing their ideology to “hold back our children”…“The general secretaries are ordering — ordering — their members not to cover classes where another teacher might be ill or at a relative’s funeral.” – The Times (£)
>Yesterday: LeftWatch: Union militancy is a problem for the Labour Party – it is an opportunity for the Government
Fast track to be fast tracked
"The Government will defy "grief and hassle" from its own backbenchers and fast-track plans for a new high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, the Transport Secretary has told The Independent." – The Independent
Raab rebuts Jon Crudas's attack on Britannia Unchained
"He claims the book reveals a "destructive economic liberalism" where "the state is assumed always to be malign". This is impossible to reconcile with our focus on the pivotal role of state education in delivering economic competitiveness and social mobility." – Dominic Raab The Guardian
Osborne should make Paul Tucker the Bank of England Governor
"It is increasingly looking likely that the race to be the next governor will be between Paul Tucker, the long standing deputy governor, and Lord (Adair) Turner, the former boss of the CBI and chairman of the FSA. …Tucker would make a far superior candidate than Turner, despite the Libor row. Tucker has spent years talking to market participants. He knows intimately and is comfortable with the City, with markets and with real-life institutions and people." – Allister Heath in City AM
Owen Paterson defends badger cull– The Independent
Fresh pressure from backbench Tories to sack Andrew Mitchell – The Independent
And finally…Specs education: Tory minister Michael Gove unveils new look and is immediately compared to Ronnie Barker, Austin Powers and a young Deirdre Barlow – Daily Mail
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