12.45pm WATCH: The world has agreed on a common approach to limiting climate change to 2'C says Brown
11am ToryDiary: Tories 12% ahead in YouGov poll
10.45am AmericaInTheWorld: Obama accused of "climate crime" as green groups condemn Copenhagen outcome
9.45am LeftWatch: New Statesman political correspondent's account of Tory bloggers lunch is "work of fiction"
- Tory manifesto may be launched on 4th January as Cameron switches to positive message in 2010
- Philip Davies MP asks: "Is it offensive to black up or not, particularly if you are impersonating a black person?"
Rupert Matthews on Platform: Does the EU deserve to be branded the EUSSR?
Local government: What role should Councils have in the school system?
Copenhagen seen to have failed"Gordon Brown has pledged to lead a campaign to establish a legally binding treaty on tackling climate change" - BBC
"Today optimism feels impossible. The chance of world leaders preventing a more than 2C increase in temperature looks vanishingly small. Politics is being weighed in the balance and found wanting. The writing is on the wall. The leadership required within and between each nation is heavier lifting that the weak machinery of governmental power can manage." - Polly Toynbee in The Guardian
Tory party treasurer's firm fined $25m"David Cameron faced fresh embarrassment tonight over his links to high finance when a multi-billion pound broking firm co-founded by the Tory party treasurer was fined $25m (£15.5m) in the US for "deceptive practices". In addition to the fine against the US subsidiary of Icap, the broking firm founded by Michael Spencer, five of its brokers were charged with aiding and abetting the "fraudulent conduct". Two executives were charged with failing to supervise the brokers." - Guardian
Shadow cabinet to repay another £25,000 after Cameron insists on continued transparency"Senior Tories are to return a further £24,800 in overpaid expenses claims, bringing the total repayments by the Shadow Cabinet to more than £70,000." - Belfast Telegraph
A Tory spokesman told The Sun: "This is just the latest example of Conservative moves to ensure greater transparency and accountability in MPs' expenses. When will the Labour Cabinet follow our lead?"
The Sun Says: "Once again David Cameron sets an example to Labour over MPs' expenses. The Tories have published in full all requests to the Shadow Cabinet for repayments from expenses watchdog Sir Thomas Legg. Mr Cameron's top team will pay back every penny he requires. What a difference to Labour. They should agree to Mr Cameron's challenge and publish all payback pleas made to the Cabinet. Ministers don't seem keen. Surely they haven't anything else to hide?"
Peter Oborne: Cameron must keep telling the truth"David Cameron has, I believe, learned from the mistakes Tony Blair made in opposition. By the time Blair secured power, he had made so many pledges to so many different groups to secure their votes that he was powerless to effect the kind of changes he wanted in government. Cameron, by contrast, has made a mental trade-off - and is prepared to alienate sections of society (and risk a smaller Commons majority) if it means that he'll have much greater freedom to make the really difficult and unpopular decisions that he'll need to make after the election." - Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail
Julie Kirkbride to stand down at election after expenses scandal - Times | Seats and candidates
Reports of Sarkozy-Cameron tensions are exaggerated - Telegraph
Scottish Tories call for mandatory drug testing in jails - STV
Andrew Grice: Labour's economy measures have worked
"Labour doesn't get much credit but its actions in the recession are a good advertisement for the "active government" it proclaims as a middle way between an Old Labour "big brother" approach and the Tories' leaner, smaller state. Intervention by ministers has ensured fewer house repossessions than in the last two downturns; predictions for this year have been revised downwards from 65,000 to 48,000. The Government claims it has helped 300,000 families. None of this is making headlines." - Andrew Grice in The Independent
'Brown offered Quentin Davies a peerage to defect'
"Defence Minister Quentin Davies said this week that the hoohah over his bell tower was 'a joke'. The taxpayer, faced with a large bill for roof repairs at Chateau Davies, may disagree. Not that Mr Davies need worry. One hears he will soon become Lord Davies, with attendant perks. When he defected from the Tories to Labour in 2007, various understandings were reached. Among them, I hear, was a promise from Gordon Brown that, when Mr Davies stood down from the Commons at the coming General Election, he would receive a seat in the House of Lords. So we may well be paying for him for many more years to come. Not much of a joke, really." - Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail
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