• Feeding the debt monster is driving Britain to the brink of ruin. It is gobbling up unimaginable sums. In the pre-Budget report, Mr. Darling told us of his plan to borrow another £707 billion of the next five years. This will be piled on top of the state's existing debt, so that we will end up owing about £1.5 trillion. Million, billions, squillions, how much is that? Well, £1.5 trillion is more than Britain's current annual output. Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP, has calculated that one trillion pounds in £10 notes, placed end to end, would stretch to the moon and back... 18 times over. " Daily Telegraph 11.12.09
• "MPs went on a multi-million pound spending spree last year in the run up to a clampdown on parliamentary expenses. Dozens "flipped" their designated second home while others spent thousands of pounds renovating properties and remodelling their gardens at a time when calls for reform of the system were increasing. Sixty claimed the maximum £24,000 allowance, with more than 230 claiming more than £20,000. John Maples, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, has made an estimated £1 million pound profit by selling a house which he bought with the help of taxpayers money." Daily Telegraph 11.12.09
• "George Osborne got his sums wrong by demanding more than the maximum allowable of expenses. The Shadow Chancellor - who hopes to be in charge of the nation's finances next year - was rebuffed by the Fees Office when he claimed more than £24,006 last year. "Having already claimed up to £1,794 a month on mortgage interest, £225 for jet- washing the side of his house, and £3.20 for a brass lamp holder, Mr. Osborne's request that the taxpayer foot his £654.91 home insurance bill pushed him over the limit. "David Cameron slashed the amount he was claiming from £1,500 a month to just over £3,000 for the first three months of this year. He submitted a mortgage interest claim just two days after publicly stating such claims as 'wrong'." Daily Mail 11.12.09
• Promised rises in child and disability benefits will be cancelled out after the general election, it has emerged. Alistair Darling announced an inflation-beating increase in the pre-Budget report with a 1.5 per cent rise in child benefit and disability benefits. It is due to come into effect next April, just weeks before the expected date of the general election. However, he made no announcement about whether the rise could be sustained after April 2011. "Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman, said: 'Alistair Darling appears to have hoodwinked those listening to his report about what this could mean for people with disabilities and families in the long run. But, incredibly, he also seems to have misled his own colleagues. All Ministers must take responsibility for this." Daily Telegraph 11.12.09
• "A Tory peer has been caught using someone else's home address to claim tens of thousands of pounds in expenses. Lord Taylor of Warwick, a 57-year-old former barrister, told the House of Lords that his main home was a terrace house in Oxford, which he neight neither owned nor lived in. Taylor has lived in his family home in Ealing since 1995. By claiming his address was outside the capital he accumulated more than £70,000 in subsistence expenses between 2001 and 2007." Sunday Times 6.12.09
• "Should the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Somerton and Frome, Annunziata Rees-Moss, change her name to "Nancy Mogg" in order to enhance her popular appeal, a ploy suggested by leader, "Dave" Cameron? The obvious answer is yes, of course she should, and perhaps to gain even more votes from the street, call herself Nancy Ghostface-Kilah Mogg, or perhaps MC NM, or, even N-Lo. And she should cruise the streets of Wincanton in a pimped-up SUV with a posse of some bangin'hos. Ah, Dave. You can nail a wind turbine to its forehead, teach it to "keep it real" and even force it to change its name. But if it looks like a pig, goes "oink" like a pig, and snuffles for acorns, it probably is a pig." Sunday Times, Rod Liddle column 6.12.09
• "Why aren't the Conservatives more popular with voters? After a succession of polls showed them bumping along below the magic 40 per cent rating, ours today has them just there with an unremarkable lead over Labour of 11 per cent. (Con: 40; Lab: 29; Lib Dem: 19). So why aren't the Tories doing better? What can be done to prevent this becoming one of the abiding mysteries of modern political history: how did the Opposition fail to trounce, definitely and unambiguously, the worst Government in living memory? Whether of not they admit it, the party leadership is worried by the prospect of an election that might be only barely won - or worse. Prospective candidates, even in seats which should be easily gained under present circumstances, confide in me the terror of a hung parliament and a Lib-Lab pact resulting in a proportional representation Bill being pushed through Parliament." Sunday Telegraph, Janet Daley column 6.12.09
• "A network of new camps has been set up for immigrants trying to sneak into Britain from France, the Daily Express can reveal. Three centres offering a range of services for migrants hoping to make their way to the UK have been established close to major transport routes to the Channel ports over the past six weeks. All the centres have been approved by the French authorities and have a licence to provide a place for the migrants to "rest and recuperate". Yesterday a helper said: They don't want to stay in France, they want to get to England because they want a passport, a job and a house." Daily Express 7.12.09
• "The bill for locking up foreign prisoners has reached £292 million. That is the cost of holding the 7,500 immigrants from 160 nations who committed crimes after arrival here." Daily Express 7.12.09
• "The Tories feel guilty merely on account of being Tories. So it is the Conservative party that has to be destroyed and reconstructed - as a pale shadow of Labour. As a result, when class war is waged against them, the Tories are paralysed like rabbits caught in the headlights. But they cannot win voters to their cause if they are so badly on the back foot.
"People pick up very quickly on the fact that the Tories are ashamed of their party. Voters can see the attempted makeover is wholly opportunistic. They conclude therefore that Cameron stands for nothing is merely a chameleon who will say anything to gain power. Why should they believe in the Conservative party when the Tories so patently - and painfully - don't believe in themselves? It is this innate moral cowardice, rather than having been to Eton, which so repels people. That's why the image of Cameron cycling to work while his chauffeur-driven car follows behind with his briefcase has done such lasting and lethal damage. There is a political fate even more deadly than being called a privileged toff. It is being judged as not being true to yourself." Daily Mail, Melanie Phillips 7.12.09
• "Labour has much to be ashamed of: According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, poverty is as widespread now as in 2000. But the Tories' policies would make things worse. Their inheritance tax ceiling would give £200,000 to the wealthiest 3,000 estates, and their married couples tax cut would, on Government figures, be 13 times more beneficial to those at the top than the bottom.
"Mr. Brown likes hitching tax breaks for the wealthier to class and privilege, partly because so much is invested in Brand Cameron. Lord Ashcroft, whose own tax status poses unanswered questions, has based his strategy on installing Cameron Clones in key marginals. If the leader wobbles, then so does this pyramid of Davealikes." The Daily Telegraph, Mary Riddell column 8.12.09
• "Labour has doubled spending on spin doctors at the Department of Health over the past year, it emerged last night. Official figures revealed that £9.6 million that could have been used for patient care was instead spent on public relations consultants. Liberal Democrat healthy spokesman Norman Lamb said: "This is a staggering amount of money for ministers to be wasting on spin. While hardworking nurses, and teachers, are being short-changed with stingy pay deals, ministers are happily wasting eye-watering amounts trying to sell their policies. We keep being told belts must be tightened, yet this Government continues to be unashamedly extravagant with our money." The Daily Express 8.12.09
• Gordon Brown was accused of a new torture cover-up yesterday over a Pakistani man arrested by British forces and sent to a secretive U.S. prison in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister was presented with evidence suggesting that Parliament was misled four times of Britain's role in the "extraordinary rendition" of rice merchant Amanatuklla Ali. Mr. Ali, 45, was seized by the SAS in Iraq in 2004, and shortly afterwards handed over to the Americans, who flew him to the CIA's so-called Dark Prison in BVagram, near Kabul. The father of five is still there today, being held without charge of access to a lawyer." The Daily Mail 8.12.09
• "If the bankers walk, let them walk. Sensible parents don't panic and surrender when toddlers start throwing their toys out of the pram and screaming the place down. And the Government must not give in to the bankers' tantrum. If the RBS directors want to resign rather than submit to discipline over bonuses, let them resign. The Government will never be taken seriously on financial policy if it caves in this blackmail." Daily Mirror, front page 4.12.09
• "When it was revealed that Tory MPs were making outrageous expense claims for duck houses and tidying up their moats, David Cameron read them the riot act. Now the millionaire Tory leader is charging the taxpayer for a packet of Maltesers, a Mint Aero, a Galaxy, and a Caramel bar. All the snacks have been claimed on Mr. Cameron's Commons Allowances. Although worth £3.5 million, he recently clawed back the cost of chocolate bars on the taxpayer." Daily Mirror, 3.12.09
• "There is a marshmallow quality to David Cameron's preparation for a genuinely green movement. How he handles the challenge to his own authority within his party and develops policy on climate change in the next six "is vital in informing the decision the voters of Britain will soon have to make." Independent, 2.12.09
• "David Cameron is facing a growing challenge to his authority from senior members of his own party who say they have doubts about the Conservatives stance on global warming. Leading figures, including former cabinet mininster Peter Lilly, David Davis, and Ann Widdecombe, are opening questioning the political consensus on climate change." Independent, 2.12.09
• "The number of primary schools where all puils leave with a decent grasp of English and mathematics has slumped by a fifth, the latest league tables suggest. In a bitter blow for Labour, official rankings also indicated a sharp rise in the number of schools providing a sub-standard education. . The amount spent on state education has risen by 43 per cent since 2000 to £64 billion a year, but school productivity - calculated on the basis of outputs such as GCSE results and the number of pukls educated - has dipped by 7.5 per cent." Daily Telegraph, 2.12.09
• "More than one in three children will be penalised under controversial Tory plans to give tax breaks to married couples. Around 36 per cent of UK youingsters are raised by either a single parent, or couples who have not wed. And those 4.5 million children will suffer under David Cameron's plans to exclude their mums and dads from tax breaks promoting marriage." Daily Mirror, 2.12.09.
• Vince Cable has said you can't put a mansion in a suitcase and take it to Monaco. This is an unanswerable political fact. The Liberal Democrats have proposed that all those earning less than £10,000 a year should be taken out of the income tax bracket altogether. The idea of taking four million of the lowest earners out of the tax threshold is a good one. The role of the third party is not to pretend it is preparing for government, it is to make the other parties think. "The day may well come when a future government will be glad of Mr Cable's advice". The Times leader-column l.12.09
• "Our plans represent the most radical, far reaching tax-reform in a generation," Nick Clegg said yesterday with the announcement that the Lib Dems propose replacing air passenger duty with a levy charged per domestic flights, and tighten up the avoidance of stamp duty, corporation tax, national insurance, capital gains tax and income tax. "They embody everything the Liberal Democrats stand for - fairness, protecting the environment, rewarding hard work," said the Lib Dem leader. The Daily Telegraph 1.12.09
• The Conservative MP at the centre of the storm over House of Commons expenses with a controversial claim for £1,600 for a new duck house in a garden pond has been asked to pay back £40,000, considered an abuse of the expenses system. However, Sir Peter Viggers, MP for Gosport, is refusing to offer any kind of refund. He declined to comment yesterday. The Daily Telegraph 30.11.09
• Conservative's obsession with image and "spin" has reached new depths with news that candidates with double-barrelled names are being told to change their names, so they don't sound too much like a party of toffs. Annunziata Rees-Mogg, who is trying to beat the Liberal Democrats in Somerset, has said she likes her name, and refused a request to change it, after being told that she would sound better if she called herself Nancy Mogg. With no less than 19 multi-millions in the Shadow Cabinet, the idea is that candidates with grandee names should change their names before the General Election. The Mail on Sunday, 29.11.09
• Tory Candidate Zac Goldsmith has been exposed by the Sunday Times as claiming non-domicile residency as his tax-status, claiming he officially lives overseas in order to avoid tax on his £200-million fortune, which he mostly inherited from his father, Sir James Goldsmith. Zac Goldsmith is the Conservative's candidate hoping to win Richmond Park in South-East London, held by the Liberal Democrats. Lord Ashcroft is also accused of being a "non-dom", and brings in money to help the Conservatives fight marginal seats and has spent millions from his bank in Belize. The Sunday Times, 29.11.09
• The Top Tories "couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery" - according to someone who should know. Stephen Greenhalgh, the Conservative Leader at Hammersmith and Fulham Council, says "I went to University with most of those in the Shadow Cabinet. They have never run anything in the past. They are all terribly excited at getting those red despatch-boxes, and one of them could soon be in charge of the finances of the country. But the fact remains they have no background of having ever run anything, in fact, they couldn't run a piss up in a brewery." The Daily Telegraph, 27.11.09
• The Conservative MP who heads the committee responsible for policing Commons expense has claimed almost £30,000 for a second home that his wife has banned him from staying in. The MP is accused of having an affair with headmistress in his constituency, and using taxpayer-funded cottage to meet his lover. His wife banned him from staying in the cottage as a condition of their reconciliation...he claimed thousands of expenses in repairs and renovations, and he could expect to make a substantial profit when the cottage is sold. Daily Telegraph, 20.11.09
• More advertising on TV will be allowed under the Conservatives, who are planning to relax regulations to permit up to 20 minutes more advertising in peak-time viewing for commercial advertising. The Daily Telegraph, 10.11.09