Tim Montgomerie and Chris Blackhurst, the Independent's Editor, on the Government and Leveson

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On the Daily Politics, Tim Montgomerie discusses the Lynton Crosby appointment

The hook for the discussion was this morning's Lord Ashcroft memo to Mr Crosby.

Tim Montgomerie tells BBC's Hard Talk that the Conservative Party needs a blue collar message if it is to win the next election

Watch the full thirty minute interview on BBC's iPlayer.

Tim Montgomerie: David Cameron made a specific pledge against a third runway - it would let down too many people for him to u-turn now

Tim Montgomerie explains why he still supports gay marriage

By Tim Montgomerie
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Regular readers of ConHome will know that I made a conservative case for gay marriage some time ago and I repeated that case in much briefer form in the video for the Out4Marriage campaign, pasted below.

A few observations about how the campaign is progressing:

• I'm fully aware that the issue is causing huge problems for many of our core voters. Tory MPs say it is the number one issue in their postbag and letters are dominated by those who wish to preserve the status quo. I'm also aware that most voters (by 51% to 35%) support extending the benefits of marriage to gay people.
• It is right that the issue is a free vote. Gay marriage raises important issues of freedom of religion and no MP should be dragooned into the government lobbies to support an issue that offends their conscience. It is disappointing that Nick Clegg should be so illiberal in insisting all Government MPs vote for the reform.
• Third it is a shame that the Government isn't simultaneously pursuing the pro-marriage agenda that was promised by David Cameron when he first advocated equal marriage in his 2006 party conference speech. He promised to bring the British tax system into line with nearly every other developed country in the world and introduce a recognition of marriage. If the introduction of gay marriage was happening in the context of a transferable tax allowance for married couples - that would be more pro-poor than raising the income tax threshold - we might have less opposition from Christians and social conservatives. This is an issue we can't blame on the Liberal Democrats because there is provision in the Coalition Agreement for Lib Dem MPs to abstain on the measure and for it to pass with the votes of Tory MPs.

Some of the broadcast interviews Tim Montgomerie gave last week on the NHS Bill

Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome published an editorial last Friday calling for the NHS Bill to be neutralised. Posted below are interviews he gave to BBC2, Sky News and ITN. There was also this for the Today programme.

Tim Montgomerie and Sir George Young discuss the EU rebellion with Andrew Neil

 

Is David Cameron for turning? U-turn lessons from Margaret Thatcher...

A BBC1 Politics Show report with contributions from Tim Montgomerie, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, Lord Tebbit and Lord Young.

On Radio 4's Westminster Hour, Tim Montgomerie previews the politics of 2011

Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome joined Mark Pack of LibDemVoice and Labour commentator John McTernan on Radio 4's Westminster Hour for a look ahead to 2011. Tim Montgomerie warned that 2011 would be a difficult year for the Coalition but that the economic cycle may be on David Cameron's side if growth had resumed strongly by 2014/15. He listed the concessions that Cameron had already made to Clegg and said it was very wrong to say that the government was not a genuine coalition of compromises from both the Conservatives and Lib Dems. Listen here.

Tim Montgomerie, Iain Dale and Paul Staines (Guido Fawkes) on the Conservative Conference