Tory policies under pressure
‘Hospitals will receive less money for operations and treatments under Conservative plans to squeeze the NHS budget, The Times has learnt.’ – Sam Coates, The Times
’On 2 October, Ireland votes for a second time in a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. Barely 48 hours later, Conservatives gather for their autumn conference. The result could be an explosion of Tory angst about the European Union. In this, Cameron’s band of brothers will offer him less full-hearted protection. They are just as Eurosceptic as the old Tories – indeed, some of them are more so, and the party’s older generation of leaders worry about how they will react. This could be a real and caustic mess, with Euro divisions cutting across new and old Tories.’ – Julian Glover, The Guardian
‘When the Conservative Party chairman, Eric Pickles, tells this newspaper that a future Tory government intends to put a stop to council leaders “being paid like football managers”, he is in danger of sounding as if he wants to have his cake and eat it. It may look like sound strategy to echo a populist outcry over the growing number of council leaders being paid more than £200,000 a year – well in excess of the salary of the Prime Minister – but Tories need to be mindful of the dangers of sounding inconsistent.’ – Leader, The Independent
Labour must ‘listen and change’
’We have to change or our voice will not be heard in the forthcoming election. And we need to be heard. The voters must see the Tories’ failure to develop a green agenda beyond David Cameron being photographed on a sledge, their fevered desire to shrink the state and, most crucially, their lack of focus on the real losers in the economic downturn. If we don’t listen and change, then we will lose the next election. We might lose it even if we do listen and change, but we will at least be in a position to keep the argument for progressive politics strong and alive, and influence the direction of British politics for the next generation.’ – Lord Falconer, The Independent
Debate over Afghanistan continues
‘Yet it is only when one looks beyond the firefights, to the full breadth of what our military and civilians are doing on the ground daily, that one gets a true sense of the enormous contribution that we are making in improving the life of the local people. The sharing of knowledge with an Afghan Army colleague, helping to distribute wheat seed as an alternative to poppy, supporting the conduct of elections, funding and overseeing the establishment of a girls’ school, mentoring the leaders of the fragile Afghan police force; the effect of these acts in their own right is almost imperceptible, but cumulatively they represent a campaign that is going the right way. Many challenges remain, and progress is slow. But progress it is, and progress in the right direction for the right reasons.’ – Gordon Messenger, The Times
‘Britain will come under fresh pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan this month when General Stanley McChrystal, the Nato commander in the country, tells President Barack Obama that a further troop surge by the military alliance is necessary.’ – Patrick Wintour and Richard Norton Taylor, The Guardian
‘There is a “serious risk” of the Government losing public support for the mission in Afghanistan unless it better explains why British soldiers are fighting and dying there, the chairman of an influential panel of MPs said last night.’ – Deborah Haynes, The Times
Far-right violence
‘Far-right activists have launched a campaign of intimidation and violence against political opponents including a series of death threats and physical attacks.’ – Matthew Taylor, The Guardian