Tory disarray over Europe
‘David Cameron was struggling to maintain party discipline as divisions over Europe marred the opening day of the Conservative conference.’ – Nigel Morris and John Lichfield, The Independent
‘Kenneth Clarke appeared to suggest today that he would campaign for a yes vote if the Tories were to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty.
The shadow business secretary said that although he accepted that the Conservative party had a “clear and settled policy” on the Lisbon treaty, he had not changed his pro-European views.’ – Andrew Sparrow, The Guardian
‘Already Cameron’s failure to challenge his party leads to a perverse contortion, a promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty and then public evasiveness over what would follow ratification. For a leader who has made honesty versus dishonesty a convenient dividing line he is being dishonest because he dare not be candid with his party, or rather his party is too strong to be challenged.’ – Steve Richards, The Independent
‘Now David Cameron, having generated a great deal of political capital by contrasting his leadership with the dithering, calculating, positioning politics of our Prime Minister, finds himself dithering over a referendum, calculating exactly how eurosceptic he needs to be to satisfy his party and carefully trying to position himself for any future negotiation over Europe.’ – Hopi Sen, hopisen.wordpress.com
Mixed messages
‘And yet the messages coming out of this conference are mixed. The Conservatives switch between hugging hoodies and mugging them, they alternate between promising to help the vulnerable and pledging a benefit crackdown on the “workshy”. As they struggle to combine Thatcherite instincts and One Nation rhetoric, they offer a confusing combination of optimism and pessimism. Even the backdrop to the conference platform keeps switching between glorious sunshine and gloomy black.’ – Rachel Sylvester, The Times
‘No surprise that when the choice is made, tough beats tender – these are, after all, Conservatives. It was to be expected that new policies would be headline pleasers. But what is genuinely unexpected is that the policies emerge so undercooked and unconvincing. The sums don’t add up, the figures are fantastical and will fail the pressure-cooker test of election warfare.’ – Polly Toynbee, The Guardian
Boris Johnson speech
‘But this irony failure represented only one of several of Mr Johnson’s blithenesses. In his speech the mayor/columnist complained about unemployment under Labour before, barely three sentences later, boasting of how many jobs had been cut from various London organisations that reported to him. Hardly a breath later he was taking credit for falling crime rates in London, most of which happened under the Metropolitan Police commissioner he forced out.’ – David Aaronovitch, The Times
Northern Ireland
‘Gordon Brown’s flying visit to Northern Ireland yesterday was more than simply a courtesy call. The Prime Minister arrived at a time when the power-sharing agreement is under considerable strain. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, arrives next week, and Britain is keen to show that the Province has now turned a corner and is ripe for US investment. But the quixotically cordial relationship between Ian Paisley, the former Democratic Unionist First Minster, and Martin McGuinness, his Sinn Féin deputy, has been succeeded by a wary distrust between Mr McGuinness and Peter Robinson, Mr Paisley’s successor. A row over the future of the police service has exacerbated the growing tensions, with each side beginning to retreat to entrenched positions.’ – Leader, The Times