ToryDiary: ConHome readers want a bolder Tory leadership

Jamie Murray Wells on Platform: The next Conservative
government must follow the examples of Reagan and Thatcher and lessen
the burdens on entrepreneurs

Local government:

• Conservatives take control of London Fire Brigade
• John Moss says that switching Government funding from house
  building to housing benefit to pay for higher rents would end up
  allowing more housing to be built

WATCH: Labour's economic policies have failed to get Britain out of recession, says Cameron

WATCH: Boris Johnson talks to schoolchildren about the 2012 Olympics

'One In Five Voters Now Considering BNP' – Sky News | Yesterday's ToryDiary

'All women shortlists as big as grammar schools'

"A mounting Conservative grassroots backlash against David Cameron’s plans to impose all-women shortlists on the party was revealed in a poll on Friday. More than 85 per cent of Tory activists responding to the survey by the Conservativehome website opposed the party leader’s plan to use all-women shortlists from January, in an attempt to boost the number of female candidates fighting winnable seats… “There’s enormous anger out there. This is as big as grammar schools for the grassroots,” one insider said." – FT

"A survey of 1,900 party members by the ConservativeHome website found that 87 per cent oppose the idea, and only 12 per cent believe the measure is justified. A tiny 0.2 per cent agree that the number of women Tory candidates is an issue for ordinary voters; 97 per cent disagree." – Independent

> Yesterday's ConservativeHome survey on All Women Shortlists

"The word is that the associations are not for being bullied. There is fury. A great many associations are prepared to club together to refuse the order, daring the party leadership to put them into so-called special measures. A figure of more than 100 constituency chairmen prepared to take action unless Cameron reconsiders is being mentioned." – Iain Martin at the Wall Street Journal

"Most voters want the best candidate as their MP, not the best after half the population has been ruled out. It shouldn't matter whether a candidate is black, white, Muslim, Christian, male or female: it should only matter that he or she is good. As the Labour Party found, all-women shortlists lead to some useless women sitting in Parliament, while some very able men go and do something else. Just what we need now." – Simon Heffer in The Telegraph

Peter Oborne urges David Cameron to end Afghanistan war

"Cameron is sticking like a limpet to Obama's strategy and is a stalwart supporter of a cross-party consensus with Labour in support of this foreign war. To his credit, Cameron has often made forceful criticisms of the wretchedly inadequate equipment provided to British troops and has condemned the worrying low calibre of Labour's team of defence ministers. Crucially, though, on matters of overall strategy, there is not a cigarette paper of difference between Cameron, Gordon Brown and Obama." – Daily Mail

Business survey boosts George Osborne

"The number of businessmen who say they are confident in Mr Osborne’s ability jumped from 36 per cent last month to 55 per cent this month. The proportion who think he is “out of his depth” dropped from 46 to 36 per cent, while the number who believe he “lacks experience” fell from 75 to 68 per cent." – Independent

Recession figures hit Brown's election hopes – Guardian

"France and Germany are already out of recession. Hong Kong and Japan are clear of the downturn, while thriving China and India have seized opportunities from the crisis. Here, we are mired in the worst recession since records began. Chancellor Darling's rosy forecast of a return to growth has been blown out of the water." – The Sun

"As a result the UK has now fallen beneath Italy for the first time since the mid-1990s to become the world’s seventh biggest economy. In the third quarter of the year, Britain’s economy generated around £347.5 billion in cash terms. Italy’s economic output in the same period, based on conservative forecasts calculated by Citigroup, was some £350 billion." – Telegraph

Tories under pressure as ratification of Lisbon Treaty comes a step closer – Telegraph

Boris Johnson: I will have Verona Wadley in Arts Council post

"Earlier this month, it emerged that Ben Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, had turned down Veronica Wadley, the former editor of the Evening Standard, who had been selected by the Mayor to run the London Arts Council… Now the Mayor has escalated the row by sending Mr Bradshaw a sternly-worded letter in which he said that he would rerun the selection process but fully anticipated that Miss Wadley would emerge as the winner for a second time." – Telegraph

Charity commission to investigate Atlantic Bridge pressure group’s Tory links – Tribune

Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former Blair adviser – Telegraph

The Duke of York has defended bankers' bonuses, saying they are "minute" in the scheme of things – BBC

CDU and FDP agree coalition on back of £22bn tax cut – Reuters

Only one in three Americans think humans are causing climate change – Daily Mail

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