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Private companies would be allowed to take over state schools under radical Conservative plans. David Cameron, emboldened by a runaway lead in the opinion polls, will copy elements of the much-vaunted "free schools" policy in Sweden under which companies now run more than 900 primary and secondary schools, making healthy profits in the process. Under the plans, companies would be invited to set up new schools or take over failing institutions. The Tories insisted that any profits would be ploughed back into the classroom but their willingness to hand over the running of schools to businesses will be seized on...

Celebs: Brown Accused Of SmoozingDavid Cameron has used Prime Minister's Questions to accuse Gordon Brown of preferring celebrities and style over substance. Mr Brown retorted that Labour was the party of action and the Conservatives had nothing to offer.

The Labor Party was headed for a third-place finish in local elections in Britain in early results Friday morning. The big winner was the Conservative Party, The Telegraph reported. The party's campaign headquarters said it expected to top its goal of picking up 200 seats on local councils. The big loser was Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the newspaper said. The local elections were his first big test with voters since he succeeded Prime Minister Tony Blair last year. "Gordon Brown has had his 'Life on Mars' moment," a Conservative spokesman said. "He went to sleep in 2008 and today he's...

Election latest: David Cameron inflicts worst drubbing in 40 years The Conservatives made sweeping gains across the country early today as voters gave Gordon Brown a huge rebuff in his first electoral test as Prime Minister. David Cameron chalked up important successes in the North, the Midlands and the South, securing his top target of Bury in Greater Manchester and taking control of Nuneaton and Bedworth, and Southampton. The Conservatives also took seats in Labour strongholds of Sunderland and Wigan. Labour suffered one of its worst electoral humiliations, with its national share of the vote dropping to 24 or 25...

Cam: This is IvanDOTING dad David Cameron was seen for the first time by voters last night playing with his disabled son. The Tory leader was filmed feeding Ivan, five — who has a rare form of cerebral palsy. A TV crew was allowed in as the family had breakfast at home. Mr Cameron’s daughter Nancy, four, and son Arthur, two, sat on either side of him. See David Cameron at home in our slideshow, below. He admitted the move would spark accusations he was exploiting his kids for political gain. But he insisted he was a family man with...

Muslim extremists should be banned from handing out literature and prevented from sitting on public bodies, David Cameron has said. The Conservative leader has also accused ministers and councils of allowing fanatics to benefit from public grants to Muslim bodies. "The Government has allowed hundreds of thousands of pounds to local authorities to improve community cohesion, but there are worrying signs that ministers have taken their eye off the ball," he said. "I will be making proposals to isolate extremists and make certain they cannot obtain public grants or get invited to sit on public bodies. "That won't just apply...

Cameron: Ken Livingstone has dismissed and insulted Britain's JewsLast night speaking to the Community Security Trust, David Cameron launched a very strong attack on Ken Livingstone: "In the 1980s he invited IRA apologists to County Hall. Today he not only plays host to Qaradawi but publicly embraces him. And through all of this his attitude to British Jews has bordered on the dismissive and insulting. He’s not a minor politician. In fact, he is a rather powerful one. He is the mayor of this great city. And I hope that on May 1st people of all parties and none. Of...

Margaret Thatcher named as 'Great Briton' By Andrew Porter, Political Editor Last Updated: 12:51am GMT 01/02/2008 Margaret Thatcher has been hailed as a Great Briton who transformed the country and left an indelible and lasting mark on politics. David Cameron said Margaret Thatcher 'made the landscape we live in today' Conservative leader David Cameron heaped praise on the former Prime Minister in a sign that he is determined to be seen as her heir. At a prestigious dinner in her honour she was awarded the Morgan Stanley Great Britons Lifetime Achievement Award at the Guildhall in London. The awards are...

Cameron makes 'progressive alliance' offer to Lib Dems - David Cameron today launches an audacious attempt to realign the centre ground of British politics when he offers to join forces with the new leader of the Liberal Democrats and forge a 'new progressive alliance' to challenge Gordon Brown.

Cameron's pint-sized Rasputin - by the blonde from Tory HQDavid Cameron is not the nice guy he appears to be - and rarely does or says anything in public without taking advice from a shadowy aide who is described as a "pint-sized Rasputin". That is the picture that is painted of the Conservative leader in a BBC documentary made by Britain's leading political film-maker, Michael Cockerell. Mr Cameron refused to let Mr Cockerell and his team film what goes on in his inner circle but the crew managed to ambush them on several occasions and caught his senior political adviser,...

LABOUR GOVERNMENT 'FALLING APART' SAYS CAMERONDAVID Cameron mounted a scathing attack on the Labour administration today as he warned that the Government is "falling apart". Mr Cameron’s assault on the Prime Minister during today's lively Question Time covered party donations, defence spending and prison places. Taking a swipe at Gordon Brown the Tory leader said: "It took Tony Blair 10 years before confidence in his administration collapsed. You’ve managed it in six months.” To the delight of lively Tory backbenchers Mr Cameron even drew comparisons between the Prime Minister and missing canoeist John Darwin. "I know he wants us to...

David Cameron: Army must halt Russia threatWestern forces, which could include British troops, must be sent into the Balkans to prevent Russia sparking a new European war, according to David Cameron. Speaking in Washington, the Conservative leader will issue a stark warning that Russia's increasingly assertive foreign policy is jeopardising Britain's national security. Mr Cameron fears a diplomatic and military crisis could arise over Kosovo, the province of Serbia which has effectively been a United Nations protectorate since Nato invaded to stop ethnic cleansing by Serb forces in 1999. The ethnic Albanian government of Kosovo is threatening to declare independence...

ERRORS IN DATA LOSS APOLOGY LETTERS HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has made a series of mistakes as it tries to apologise to parents for the loss of their personal details in the post, the Tories disclosed. Conservative MPs have been contacted by parents concerned that HMRC - already reeling from the lost benefits discs fiasco - has been sending them the details of other parents. It is the latest embarrassing revelation for the Government following the loss of the entire child benefit database of 25 million people. It was contained on two computer discs which went missing in transit...

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/26758/Tories-Government-are-monkeys-THE Tories branded members of the Labour Government 'three wise monkeys' today in the wake of the secret donations scandal. Theresa May, the Shadow Leader of the Commons, blasted Harriet Harman, the Prime Minister and the Labour Party treasurer in a stormy Commons row. Ms May said: “You, the Prime Minister and the Labour Party treasurer are like the three wise monkeys. "You see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.” The 44-year-old warned Mrs Harman that the “dodgy donations” scandal could result in a further boost for the Conservatives in the opinion polls. She said: “Quite simply...

David Cameron's low-key meetingDavid Cameron will tomorrow slip into the White House without fanfare for a low-key behind-closed-doors meeting with President Bush, his first since becoming Tory leader. Yesterday aides were still insisting - in public at least - that they did not know if Mr Bush would have time to see him. The White House itself, apparently irritated by what they see as “pre-trip spin” coming from the Conservative Party, has steadfastedly declined to comment. However, it is understood that Mr Cameron will be granted a short meeting with Mr Bush, probably without a photo-call or joint press statement....

RUTHLESS CAMERON TAUNTS BROWNDAVID Cameron accused the Prime Minister of “incompetence and complacency” today during a furious row at the House of Commons. Mr Cameron said the Brown Government had seen "disaster after disaster" and asked voters to consider whether he was "cut out for the job". Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said Mr Brown had made a “remarkable transformation” from “Stalin to Mr Bean”. During furious exchanges Mr Cameron said the latest funding affair raised questions about the integrity of Mr Brown. This week it emerged that property developer David Abrahams gave the Labour party £650,000 under other people's...

TORIES VOW TO END THE SCANDAL OF JAIL SYSTEM THE Tories yesterday promised to provide at least 1,200 extra prison places so they can scrap the Government’s controversial early release scheme. In a major review of prisons and sentencing, they further signalled that judges would be given the power to set minimum terms with no possibility of early parole. Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert also set out proposals to flatten and sell off some of the crumbling Victorian jails and build smaller ones to provide hundreds of extra cells. At the same time, Mr Herbert launched a scathing attack on...

GOVERNMENT ON ROCKS, SAYS CAMERONConservative leader David Cameron accused the Government of being "on the rocks" as he launched a fresh attack on its economic record. He told a conference of business leaders that the UK needs a "big change" to cut regulations and help firms prosper. Mr Cameron told the annual conference of the CBI that the Government has created centralised bureaucracies which have become incompetent and cannot be trusted. He referred to recent scandals, including the Northern Rock crisis and money being "wasted" in departments such as the NHS. "What we have learnt over the last few days...

CAMERON SLAMS 'ENEMIES OF FREEDOM'David Cameron has branded the Labour Government "enemies of freedom" and claimed the force of history was now on his party's side. The Conservative leader said Labour shared with EU bureaucrats a belief that officials know better than ordinary people, and accused both of trying to involve the state ever deeper in day-to-day life. In a speech in the Czech capital, Prague, Mr Cameron cited the loss of personal data by HM Revenue and Customs, the tax credit system and the proposed national identity register as examples of the Government's "bureaucratic over-reach". And he accused ministers...

Brown grilled over detail leakGordon Brown faced tough questions over the personal details lost by the government during Prime Minister's Questions

Tory branch refuse to ditch Enoch 'was right' candidate in snub to CameronTory leader David Cameron faced fresh embarrassment after rebel Tory activists snubbed calls to ditch a Parliamentary candidate who said Enoch Powell "was right" on immigration. The Halesowen and Rowley Regis constituency association refused to accept the resignation of would-be MP Nigel Hastilow and instead demanded crisis talks with the Conservative Party Board, the organisation's top decision-making body. Senior Tories had hoped the local party would drop Hastilow, 51, who quit on November 4 after refusing to apologise for comments he made in a newspaper column in support...

CAMERON VOWS TOUGHER RAPE SENTENCESTory leader David Cameron has pledged extra help for rape victims and stronger punishments for their attackers as part of a bid to see more men jailed for the offence. Unveiling figures showing England and Wales had the lowest rape conviction rate of any leading European country, he warned offenders now thought they could "get away with it". And he said pupils should be taught that "no means no" in sex education lessons to help reverse a "moral collapse" fuelled by a growing sexualisation of society. The party's figures showed the number of complaints leading to...

CAMERON MAULS BROWN OVER QUEEN'S SPEECH GORDON Brown’s debut Queen’s Speech was last night savaged as “weak and bereft of vision” in a furious attack by David Cameron. The Prime Minister attempted to fight back against the resurgent Tories by putting new counter-terrorism measures and a drive to force immigrants to learn English at the centre of his programme for the next Parliamentary year. And he signalled even more lavish Government spending, with proposals to raise the school leaving age to 18, build millions of homes and give working parents more time off. He claimed the measures responded to the...

Cameron lays down welcome mat for disgruntled Lib Dem votersDavid Cameron yesterday sought to capitalise on Liberal Democrat woes by presenting his party as the home for liberal conservatives, offering fresh thinking in the next few months on school diversity, welfare reform, prison failure and greater accountability of local councils.

Blair: Gordon has lost it, just like Al Gore didGordon Brown suffered a double blow last night after it became clear that Tony Blair thinks he is making a hash of running the country – and a new opinion poll shows that the voters agree. Senior Labour sources say that Mr Blair believes his successor has made the same mistake as former US Vice-President Al Gore, who lost to George Bush in the 2000 Presidential election after disowning his old boss Bill Clinton. A former Minister close to Mr Blair told The Mail on Sunday: 'When Gordon became PM, Tony...

David Cameron signals today that he will try to extend the dramatic political gains the Conservatives have made over the last fortnight by pressing ahead with his centrist, liberal agenda, inspired by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Tory leader says his success in halting Gordon Brown's general election plans was not down solely to the Tories' promise to cut inheritance tax, but the product of two years of recasting his party as ready for the 21st century. Turning his back on calls from party hardliners for distinctive rightwing policies, he will move into...

Cameron says Brown 'looks phoney'Conservative leader David Cameron said Gordon Brown looked like "a phoney" as they went head-to-head in their first Commons battle since July. The clash came with the PM facing claims he "bottled" a snap election and stole Tory policy ideas on tax. Mr Cameron said the PM was treating people "like fools" by denying opinion polls led him to reject a snap poll. But Mr Brown pointed to the Tory grammar school row and said he would take "no lectures" from Mr Cameron. Since his weekend decision not to hold a general election Mr Brown...

Cameron calls Brown's bluff on snap election and declares: 'We will fight and Britain will win'Gordon Brown is weighing up the biggest gamble of his political life after David Cameron called his bluff and challenged him to call an immediate election. The Conservative leader capped a barnstorming week by demanding an end to weeks of frenzied speculation that has left Britain on alert for a November poll. On an occasion that had been billed as make or break for Mr Cameron, who has been under intense pressure to reverse a slump in the polls, he took the extraordinary risk of...

David Cameron orders shift to core Tory valuesDavid Cameron is preparing to move to core Tory policies on tax, marriage and crime and style himself as an heir to Margaret Thatcher - not Tony Blair. In a shift that will see him distance himself from green tax proposals, the Tory leader will use next week's crucial conference to try to reinvigorate his leadership before a possible snap election. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph today, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, discloses that proposals that proved unpopular with ordinary Tory voters will be scrapped. They include taxing people for parking...

More strife for Cameron as now Lord Tebbit speaks out in favour of Gordon BrownDavid Cameron has received another blow to his credibility from the unlikely source of Lord Tebbit. The senior Tory figure criticised the Old Etonian for being out of touch with ordinary people and not supporting grammar schools. In contrast, he praised Gordon Brown for his 'principled conduct', and suggested he was the real 'heir' to Margaret Thatcher. He said the Prime Minister's decision to meet Lady Thatcher for tea was 'a wonderful mixture of his courtesy and political nous'. "After all, Cameron described himself as the...

Labour Increases Lead Despite Bank CrisisA new poll suggests Labour has increased its lead over the Tories, despite the banking crisis - while David Cameron is Britain's least popular party leader. Forty percent of voters questioned between September 13 and 16 said they would vote for Labour in a possible general election, while support for the Conservatives fell by eight points to 32%. It is the biggest deficit in any ICM poll since David Cameron became leader at the end of 2005. But there was better news for Sir Menzies Campbell, as LibDem support rose by two points to 20%....

David Cameron talks tough on immigration By Toby Helm, Chief Political Correspondent Last Updated: 2:11am BST 30/08/2007 David Cameron has set out a tough new stance on immigration, promising curbs to limit the number of people coming in as a way of easing pressure on schools, hospitals and housing. Mr Cameron: 'I think the levels of migration we've seen have put too great a burden on public services' Swinging his party back on to more traditional Conservative territory, the Tory leader said the number of people arriving in Britain over a decade of Labour government had been "too high". The...

David Cameron: Scrap the Human Rights Act By Christopher Hope and Caroline Gammell Last Updated: 2:41am BST 22/08/2007 David Cameron last night called for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped outright for the first time amid mounting anger that the controversial law had allowed the killer of the head teacher Philip Lawrence to escape deportation. Cameron: Human Rights Act 'has to go' The Conservative leader accused the Government of being "blind" to the Act's failings as it emerged that Home Office officials still regarded Italian-born Learco Chindamo as a threat to the public. Mr Cameron's call came on a...

Quentin Davies letter June 26th, 2007 by Tom “I have been a member of the Conservative Party for over 30 years, and have served for 20 years in the Parliamentary Party, in a variety of backbench and front bench roles. “This has usually been a great pleasure, and always a great privilege. It is therefore with much sadness that I write you this letter. But you are entitled to know the truth. “Under your leadership the Conservative Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything. “It has no bedrock. It exists...

Cameron declares himself a Zionist Jonny Paul Jerusalem Post correspondent, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 13, 2007 "I am a Zionist," Conservative Party leader David Cameron told an audience of party supporters of Israel in London on Tuesday. "If what you mean by Zionist, is someone who believes that the Jews have a right to a homeland in Israel and a right to their country then, yes, I am a Zionist and I'm proud of the fact that Conservative politicians down the ages have played a huge role in helping to bring this about," Cameron declared. The Conservative leader was guest...

Harsh new taxes on air travel, including a strict personal flight "allowance", will be unveiled by the Conservatives tomorrow as part of a plan that would penalise business travellers, holidaymakers and the tourist industry. The proposals, to be disclosed by George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, include levying VAT or fuel duty on domestic flights for the first time as part of a radical plan to tackle global warming. The Conservatives will also suggest - most controversially of all - rationing individuals to as little as a single short-haul flight each year; any further journeys would attract progressively higher taxes, a...

People have been coming back from the dead by the hundreds during the past 15-20 years. All over the world, stone-cold-dead people are being resurrected by the fervent, focused prayers of Christians praying in the name of Jesus. By now, the totals are likely over a thousand. No exaggeration, no joke. My own book "Megashift: Igniting Spiritual Power" documents 52 countries where at least one person has been raised from the dead – with named eyewitnesses ... who have street addresses ... and phone numbers ... and fax numbers ... and e-mail addresses. I even throw in a few photographs....

It is the greatest newspaper story ever told, and it was told again last week. In New York the Oscar-winning film-maker James Cameron pulled back a curtain to reveal two cream-coloured limestone coffins, flown in from Jerusalem. One of them, he said, had once held the recently crucified body of Jesus of Nazareth. Another — there are 10 in the set — had held that of Mary Magdalene.“It doesn’t get bigger than this,” he said, and then claimed it did. He had evidence that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had married and that another coffin — or “ossuary” — had contained...

By Luis Sergio Solimeo It just does not stop. Following in the footsteps of The Da Vinci Code, the Gnostic offensive against Christianity is forging ahead with new pretexts, and, once again, with massive media coverage. The New Onslaught: Archeological FictionThis time, it is not a pseudo-historic novel,1 but a pseudo-scientific Discovery Channel documentary, titled: The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which was directed by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici.  The two are well-suited for the task.  Mr. Cameron is a science fiction2 fan, while Mr. Jacobovici could be considered an archeological fiction aficionado. Four years ago, he produced another...

Year after year in spring, a new crop of religious dandelions pop up in our post-Christian culture. Like the real ones growing in my yard, they make a colorful splash that briefly captures our attention, until we realize that they are only shallow-rooted weeds, not beautiful flowers planted long ago in the deep rich soil of the past, such as Easter lilies. Last year, it was the Gnostic nonsense of the "Da Vinci Code." We've had the "Gospel of Judas Iscariot," written centuries after the eyewitnesses were dead. This year it's a variation on the "Da Vinci" theme. We are...

Talpiot tomb Remember the tale of the Titanic? How it was supposed to be impregnable, and nothing could poke holes in it? How it would never be sunk? Well all I can say is that human hubris knows no bounds, and that hasn’t changed in the last century. On April 15th 1912 the supposedly leak proof Titanic rammed into an iceberg and sank—sank like a giant stone. Sank quickly, with great loss of life. Why do I bring this up? Because in one of the interesting ironies in recent memory, James Cameron the movie director who made the enormously successful...

James Cameron has truly moved beyond making sappy movies about ocean liner wrecks. He can now lay claim to being an idolater of the rankest order. Relying upon Pope Benedict to turn the other check in accordance with misinterpreted scripture, Cameron has accused the Gospels of inventing the resurrection the way Michael Moore does documentaries. 'TITANIC' director James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, a filmmaker-archaeologist, are set to unveil three coffins this week that they say are those of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene. In an coming documentary, Cameron and Jacobovici cite "scientific evidence" that the resurrection of Jesus never happened...

Scorn poured on James Cameron's 'coffin of Christ' theory Archaeologists and biblical scholars have poured scorn on a Hollywood film director's sensational claim that he has discovered the coffin of Jesus Christ. Oscar-winning 'Titanic' director James Cameron's assertion that the bones of Jesus and his family were hidden for centuries in a Jerusalem tomb caused an outcry in the Holy Land. Even a British archeologist who worked with Cameron, Dr. Shimon Gibson, admitted he's "sceptical" about the claims that challenge some of the central tenets of Christianity. The very fact that Jesus had a grave would contradict the Christian belief...

The Lost Tomb of Jesus, made for the Discovery Channel, will be shown in the U.S. this week and later in Britain by Channel 4. Today, Cameron is holding a press conference on what he describes as 'one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time'. Crucially, he is not denying the resurrection - as there were no bones in the caskets. But the £2million film still strikes at the foundation of Christianity in the same manner as the novel The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, in claiming that Jesus married and had a family. His theory, which has...

James Cameron and Simcha Jacobivici claim to have raided the lost tomb of Jesus. Proof? There are related people in a graveyard with the uncommon names Joshua, Mary and Martha! Oi vey! Despite the faith of a millions of people in the Gospel (I Corinthians 15:3,4—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for our salvation) and despite the fact that the resurrected Christ was seen and touched by his disciples, all twelve Apostles, over 500 hundred witnesses—at one time; and, despite the fact that devout Jews changed the day of worship from the seventh day to the first day of...

Jesus’ burial site found - film claims New film documents discovery of Jerusalem cave containing ten caskets believed to hold remains of Jesus, Mary, Mary Magdalene and others Ariella Ringel-Hoffman Published: 02.23.07, 10:26 / Israel Culture The cave in which Jesus Christ was buried has been found in Jerusalem, claim the makers of a new documentary film. If it proves true, the discovery, which will be revealed at a press conference in New York Monday, could shake up the Christian world as one of the most significant archeological finds in history. The coffins which, according to the filmmakers held the...

Cameron attacks Muslim hardliners By Graeme Wilson, Political Correspondent Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 31/01/2007 David Cameron yesterday endorsed a new Conservative report which condemned the "hardline" views of the Muslim Council of Britain and other Islamic groups. The Conservative leader argued that the Government must not bow to the "loudest voices" in the Muslim community when he attended the launch of the report by his national and international security policy group. He went on to argue that extremists had to be confronted to drain the "sea" in which terrorist groups can swim. The report, Uniting the Country, singled out the...

David Cameron today attacked radical Muslims as "the mirror image" of the neo-Nazi British National Party. He used a keynote speech on race and integration to signal plans for tough measures against extremists on both sides. Attacking the BNP for preaching "pure hate", he went on: "And those who seek a Sharia state, or special treatment and a separate law for British Muslims are, in many ways, the mirror image of the BNP. "They also want to divide people into 'us' and 'them.' And they too seek out grievances to exploit." The Tory leader spoke out as a disturbing opinion...

Iran attack possible, says Cameron By Damian Reece, City Editor in Davos Last Updated: 2:29am GMT 26/01/2007 A pre-emptive military strike against Iran involving British troops could be launched under a Conservative government after David Cameron yesterday refused to rule out the use of force against the Gulf state. David Cameron in Davos Mr Cameron said it would be wrong for a future Tory administration to rule out an attack on Iran. "It's not sensible to rule all these things out in advance however much you want to avoid them." Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he...

Young people could be given their adult rights as a reward for completing a modern day national service scheme, the Tory leader, David Cameron, said today. Linking rights to responsibilities would encourage youngsters to show they are responsible citizens, Mr Cameron said today as he challenged the notion that rights should automatically come with age. The Tory leader made his comments as he unveiled the Young Adult Trust charity, which was set up following his calls for a scheme to teach youngsters social responsibility based on the national service model.