The Times claims Harriet Harman has vetoed plans to publish a review of rape laws today because it was not radical enough.
According to Whitehall officials, she tore up plans to begin a study of the rape laws after clashing with civil servants. "There's been a bit of a kerfuffle over the substance," said one. "It's been looked at again."
And Alice Thomson in the Times says Harman is, in some respects, "Britain's answer to Sarah Palin".
The thought of her becoming leader is ludicrous, but both have shown up the opposition with their energy and drive and the simplicity of their vision. They are also brave, they don't care that they are lampooned, they are prepared to take on the big beasts, whether it's a moose or Lord Mandelson.
Michael Savage in the Independent reports on the fight between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in the south-west.
The latest polling by ComRes for the Independent suggests the Tories are on course to win nine seats from the Lib Dems in the south-west alone, an electoral disaster that would see senior figures like Ms [Julia] Goldsworthy, Andrew George, and Nick Harvey ejected from the Commons. "I think that if [Nick Clegg] has a parliamentary party [numbering] in the mid-30s, he will have done really well to hold on to that," said Eric Pickles, the Tory party chairman. "Mid-30s" would mean the party had lost almost half of its 63 Commons seats.
Frank Field on his blog says that the Tory open primary in Totnes marks "the death of the old party system" and he predicts that other parties will adopt this method of candidate selection.
The selection of the next MP for Totnes by open primary throws a much needed lifeline to our drowning political parties. It will in retrospect rate much more highly than the establishment of a supreme court, which has caught the attention of some commentators.
And Stephen Tall at Liberal Democrat Voice suggests the Lib Dems should try them too.
We all know that many of our MPs build a considerable personal vote, and that it can be a struggle for the party to retain this (though recent experience, in Eastleigh, Richmond Park, Cheltenham – to name but three – has shown the party is less vulnerable to this effect now than it used to be). It strikes me that it is just these such occasions when "open primaries" might be justified, as a means of raising the profile of the winner, increasing their chances of a successful defence of the seat.
George Parker in the Financial Times says Lord Patten, the former Hong Kong governor, is interested in becoming the EU's first foreign minister.
"I'm not campaigning for the job," said the 65-year-old former Conservative party chairman. "But if I was approached, which I think is unlikely, I would certainly be very positive about it."
