Following hot on the heals of Labour’s half-assed personal attack on David Cameron, it appears that Labour HQ are set to launch a dedicated website aimed at continuing their character based attacks on the Conservative leader.

All round techno geek Dizzy has found that Labour’s online spin team have registered five domain names which play on the parties latest ‘David Camera On/David Camera Of’ messaging. The names that have been picked-up by labour for the site are: continue reading

David Cameron has accused the government of “undermining the personal and social responsibility that makes a strong society tick” and has vowed to revive a ’sense of community’ in a bid to mend ‘broken Britain’.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Conservative leader unveiled the latest phase of his campaign aimed at tackling the ‘dark side’ of family breakdown, lawlessness, violence and classroom disruption.

He wrote: “We’re going to encourage and enable people to get together to solve problems and make life better, instead of just waiting around for government to do it all.”

Highlighting the case murder of Sukhwinder Singh, who was murdered in East London after chasing two muggers, Mr Cameron writes: ‘Gordon Brown says we don’t live in a broken society. Sukhwinder may have suffered its most horrific expression, but there are many other victims too.’

He said ‘pensioners who live in fear behind bolted doors; teenagers who have a baby but no GCSEs; kids who are more likely to see their dad drunk than doing a day’s work; and the one in four women suffering domestic abuse at some point in their life’.

Building on Michael Gove’s pledge to give head teachers more powers, he said a Conservative government led by him would allow head teachers to search children for weapons and drugs and give them the final say on excluding pupils.

He wrote: “Unless children learn the difference between right and wrong, they will never develop the responsible character that is vital to a strong society.”

Single parents who work part-time and take on extra work to support their family will not have to pay extra tax under Tory plans.

Mr Cameron said he will overhaul the criminal justice system so that it supports rape crisis centres and tackle domestic violence.

‘We will use fines paid by criminals to fund up to 15 new rape crisis centres, and we will work with Mayor Michael Bloomberg to learn from New York’s success in cutting the number of domestic violence-related murders’.

In a philosophical and old-fashioned speech this morning, David Cameron said that a future Conservative government would intervene to end the “poverty of parenting” in society.

Defended the right of politicians to discuss moral and personal issues, Mr Cameron admitted he could come in for criticism for addressing personal issues.

“People will say, this is really not the business of politicians,” he said.

“But that doesn’t mean we should remain silent on this issue. Politicians are the ones who take taxpayers’ money and write billions of pounds’ worth of cheques.

“We have a responsibility and that means looking at the evidence, recognising that parenting has a massive part to play and doing something about it.”

Mr Cameron said the left had been wrong to suggest economic circumstances are at the root of societal breakdown and criminal behaviour. In fact, it is poor parenting which tends to negatively affect a child’s emotional and social development, he argued.

Speaking to the Demos think-tank he set out his ideas on creating a responsible society, in which he said his government would be willing to break from traditional party policy and show more active and interventionist policies towards family life.

“In the past I think we’ve been guilty of giving the impression that to build a responsible society all you need is freedom for the individual plus strong rule of law from the state. We didn’t talk enough about what happend in between,” he said.

He added: “It’s not just right, it’s essential that we take a view on how responsible character is formed and what government can do to help build it”.

To do this a future Conservative would seek to act by tackling not just material poverty but a new challenge, “to alleviate poverty of parenting in the knowledge that it is the best way to help children escape material poverty”.

“If we want to give children the best chances in life whatever background they are from the right structures need to be in place,” he said.

The Tory leader insisted Labour’s SureStart programme would be retained, but taken back to its original purpose, with a concentration on early intervention.

Rather mischievously, Mr Cameron also made a point of praising Labour rebel Frank Field, whom he said had “drawn the link between family breakdown and more crime, arguing a fundamental principle of the welfare state should be to support families and children”.

The speech marks a return to Mr Cameron’s long-running theme on personal responsibility, a tactic that plays well with the Conservatives’ core supporters.

Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show this morning David Cameron outlined three measures to help small businesses:

David Tennant has ventured into the election by coming out and endorsing Gordon Brown, saying he would “rather have Gordon Brown than David Cameron.”

The Doctor Who star insisted Brown was still a far better choice as Prime Minister, despite Labour’s “issues”.

Tennant said: “I would still rather have Gordon Brown than David Cameron.

“I would rather have a Prime Minister who is the cleverest person in the room than a Prime Minister who looks good in a suit.

“David Cameron is a terrifying prospect.

“He’s a regional newsreader who will jump on whatever bandwagon flies past.

“I get quite panicked that people are buying his rhetoric, because it seems very manipulative to me.”

The Scottish actor is a long standing Labour backer, so his declaration of support for the weakened PM is not surprising, he even appeared in the following 2005 party political broadcasts:

Labour have a history of getting celebrities to come out and back them with Tennant only the latest in a long line of celebrity endorsements which has seen the likes of Patrick Stewart, Eddie Izzard, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie espouse their support for the Labour party. Not to mention Tony Blair’s love-in with those who grace the pages of Hello and the NME.

Back in November the Times reported that the Conservative Party’s director of communications, Andy Coulson, was leading attempts court celebrity endorsements ahead of the general election:

“David Cameron’s director of communications has instructed all Conservative frontbenchers to inform him of any celebrity likely to endorse the party at the next election

The most promising targets are usually invited to dinner with Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, with “A-listers” offered the chance to meet Mr Cameron himself… While potential donors are typically introduced to the Tory leader in a Mayfair restaurant, the celebrity dinners are held in private houses, according to one of those involved in their organisation.

The explanation for the priority given to recruiting stars of light entertainment is revealed by research, available to all three parties, showing which social groups are most likely to switch their vote from Labour to Conservatives. The biggest group — identified by the Mosaic household profiling database, which uses credit data from its parent company, Experian — are single people and young couples living in new homes. They are also more than usually influenced by celebrity culture.”

But the paper also reported that celebrities are increasingly avoiding efforts from all parties to publicly back them.

“The elaborate courtship of celebrities by party leaders before the general election is being spurned.

Some of the noisiest and most publicity addicted people in Britain fall strangely silent when the subject of politics gets mentioned. Lily Allen, a pop star who is not usually shy of venting her opinions, told The Times: “It’s no one’s business how I intend to vote, which is the reason that voting happens in private booths.

Jamie Oliver, credited with helping the Government to improve school dinners, ruled out any form of partisan endorsement. He said this week: “The people I’m working with in schools, it’s so important to me, that I don’t want to go left or right. I’ve tried to remain apolitical. I actually haven’t voted for the past six years.

Myleene Klass’s manager, Jonathan Shalit, said: “It’s a no-win situation to come out in favour of one party or another.”

So does the public support form celebrities matter? On the plus side it does enable political leaders to reach younger voters, who generally speaking, do not consume the same about of news. One the down-side the words of support from TV and music stars can be perceived as simply words from fair weather friends.

Then there is the issue of what to do when thing turn sour. Back in 1997 New Labour got its fingers burnt with its “Cool Britannia” efforts. In the beginning Oasis and friends were all feted at Number Ten, but things soon changed when many of their showbiz backers fell our of love with Tony Blair, themselves not wanting to be tainted with a degraded and soiled brand.

So whilst celebrity endorsements can provide a easy and helpful headline in the short-term, in the long-term their value is much less significant and much harder to quantify. My advice to the the party leadership and strategists would be not to spend to much time and effort trying to get them.

David Cameron has given the clearest signal so far that he will not allow trade unions to derail his plans to get to grips with the public deficit.

Talking to the Daily Telegraph he said that he would be “very happy” to introduce new laws aimed at stopping those trade unions, opposed to his plan to introduce a one year pay freeze, staging walkouts.

When George Osborne outlined Conservative plans to get the countries ballooning deficit under control at Conference in October, union leaders almost instantly came out against the plan with some threatening strike action.

Mark Serwotka, head of the Public and Commercial Services union, said there was a “very strong likelihood” of strikes if the pay freeze went ahead.

Dave Prentis, leader of Unison, said millions of workers would be “left out in the cold? by the freeze. Others will have to pay with job and service cuts, while bankers and tax cheats escape with a slapped wrist”.

These sentiments were echoed by Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, who said: “This was a speech written on the back of a Bullingdon club membership card. George Osborne has made it clear the Tories are going to hit hard-working public sector workers on low pay while preparing to line the pockets of the wealthy through income tax cuts.”

Mr Cameron said by freezing the pay of those who earn more than £18,000 a year, one million of the lowest paid workers would not be affected.

Using language that highlights his changing attitude towards the unions he warned their leaders that they faced “a very determined, robust, sensible, reasonable group of people,” adding “the trade union laws that were passed in the 1980s have withstood the test of time. If ever they needed to be strengthened I would be very happy to strengthen them. But I think there’s a set of rules that work very well.”

Just like Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s and 80s it could be the trade union’s that make or break David Cameron’s government. It is for this reason that he needs to limit any sign of discontent from within and have both fortitude and commitment to cary through his policies no matter what.

Nick Clegg yesterday warned his MPs are “not for sale” as both Labour and the Tories stepped up attempts to woo his supporters.

There are “no backroom deals or under-the-counter understandings” with other parties, he said before laying out four policy priorities likely to be a deal breaker in the event of a hung parliament.

It marks a subtle shift in strategy from Mr Clegg’s party conference speech in September when he set out why he wanted to be Prime Minister. Some senior figures within the party believe his slimmed down list of objectives – fair taxes, education, the economy and political reform – will form the basis of any coalition talks if the Lib-Dems hold the balance of power after the election.

Last night bookmakers Paddy Power cut their odds on a hung Parliament to 9/4, with a spokesman adding that punters believe the Lib-Dems “might be power brokers” after polling day.

The Conservatives have made direct appeals for Lib-Dem supporters to “lend” them their vote in order to oust the Labour administration, claiming policy similarities on the environment, civil liberties and social justice.

Meanwhile, at the weekend, Gordon Brown appeared to hold out his own olive branch to persuade Lib-Dem voters to swing in behind Labour. The Prime Minister said the Lib-Dems were “closer to us on tax and public services”.

But Mr Clegg insisted he was not about to get into bed with either of his opponents.

“David Cameron and Gordon Brown are ostentatiously flirting with Liberal Democrat voters, clumsily trying to woo them – and by implication me and my fellow Liberal Democrat MPs,” he wrote in The Times.

“This year’s general election is likely to be the most open and unpredictable in a generation. So you have a right to know where we stand. I can promise voters wondering whether to put an ‘X’ against the Liberal Democrats that there are no backroom deals or under-the-counter ‘understandings’ with either of the other two parties.”

The Lib-Dem leader said his party had been in tune with the British public on many issues, citing opposition to the Iraq war, civil liberties, the environment, the excesses of the City and rights for Gurkha veterans.

Whatever the outcome of the election, Mr Clegg said, the party would push “four core priorities”. A package of fair taxes would include no income tax on the first £10,000 of earnings. Children would receive a “fair start” through the pupil premium, smaller class sizes and more one-to-one tuition. He also wanted a “green, job-rich, sustainable economy” and a reinvention politics “to get rid of the rotten system of politics and replace it with something new”.

As the Conservative Party published the first chapter of its draft general election manifesto, the Tory leader said Labour would not protect the NHS budget, insisting the Tories are “the party of the NHS” and that health service spending is safe only with them.

“Today, the Conservatives are the party of the NHS. But talk is cheap. You’ve got to back that with action, and we have. We are the only party committed to protecting NHS spending.

“It’s there in black and white behind me. I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS.”

His raid on traditional Labour territory came alongside the launch of a new nationwide poster campaign denying Labour allegations of Tory cuts.

At the press conference launching the first chapter of draft manifesto, the Tory leader stepped up his attack on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, saying: “We cannot go on, we cannot afford, another five years of Gordon Brown.”

In what will be interpreted as an attempt to undercut Labour attacks that the Tories as the party of the rich few, Mr Cameron highlighted the fact that life expectancy and infant mortality rates for poor and rich have widened under Labour and are as big as in Victorian times. To correct this the Conservatives will introduce a Health Premium to target more resources on the poorest communities.

Mr Cameron also announced a second new policy, if the Conservatives win the next election they will introduce new maternity networks. These will link up local hospitals, doctors, charities, voluntary groups and maternity consultants to share information, expertise and services.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne opened the proceedings and took the opportunity to attack Alistair Darling’s announcement this morning, which cast doubt on Tory economic policy.

“We start positive. We have new ideas and we are talking about policy,” Mr Osborne said.

“Labour’s press conference this morning was negative.

“Cutting the deficit while protecting real increases in the NHS budget is not easy,” he continued.

“I will not pretend that protecting the NHS does not mean very difficult decisions in other departments. There will have to be spending cuts, a word the prime minister can’t bring himself to use.”

David Cameron is about to launch the health chapter of the draft manifesto and from this new poster its clear that the NHS is going to be at the centre of the Tory campaign.

Hat Tip ConHome

David Cameron is to continue his raid into traditional Labour territory later on today by pledging to divert NHS resources to deprived areas.

After the Conservative Leader fired the first shot to the general election campaign at the weekend, today will see fevered political activity at the beginning of what will be a four-month election campaign.

He will also unveil plans to give mothers “real choice” over the kind of childbirth and other services they want.

The policy details are to be revealed as Mr Cameron and shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley at a press conference which will see the publish of a chapter of the party’s’ draft manifesto.

The party leader has gone to great lengths to stress his personal commitment to the NHS, promising that health budgets will not be subject to the same cuts as other departments.

Conservative sources have indicated that Monday’s announcements on the NHS are designed as a direct rebuttal of Labour’s “class war” tactics.

Mr Cameron will say his administration would divert a higher share of NHS resources to boost health in run down areas. The move is in sharp contrast to the Tories’ manifesto at the 2005 general election, when the party was offering to subsidise those who chose to have their treatment in private hospitals.

There will also be a commitment to introduce “maternity networks”, which would link community-based maternity units with more specialist hospital care.

Mr Lansley said: “A Conservative government will reform maternity services so that mothers and mother-to-be are put right at the heart of the service. We will stop Labour’s forced closure of maternity units, increase the number of health visitors and – by making money follow the patient – give every mother the choice and support they need.”

Meanwhile eight members of the Shadow Cabinet will fan out across the country to areas where David Cameron needs to win support to secure a significant Commons victory. Michael Gove will be in Nottingham; Chris Grayling in Reading; William Hague in Yorkshire, Nick Herbert in Southampton; Oliver Letwin in Plymouth; Theresa May MP, in Bristol; Eric Pickles MP, in Luton; and Baroness Warsi, in Bury.