Question Time is broadcast at 10:35pm BST, so follow our live blog below during the build-up and the show itself. We really want to hear your views on the show - so send in your comments now!
Cameron told delegates there would be “painful” cuts in public spending, promised to send more troops to Afghanistan and stressed the importance of confronting “Labour’s debt crisis.” He also pledged to modernise the pension system, “break the cycle of welfare dependency” and cut back on bureaucracy to make life easier for entrepreneurs.
Cameron’s speech brings conference season to an end. Leaders of the three main parties — Cameron, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg for the Liberal Democrats — have all laid out their plans for Britain ahead of a general election due by June 2010.
The ‘word clouds’ below have been generated using the complete texts from each of the leaders’ keynote conference speeches, in the order they were given. At first glance there are some striking similarities and fascinating overlaps — but we will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
How did you think each of the leaders performed? Who did you find the most convincing? Is David Cameron ready to lead the country?
For many observers it’s the key question for the Liberal Democrats — who they would support in a hung parliament — Brown’s Labour or Cameron’s Tories?
But ask the people at the top of the party at their conference in Bournemouth (and I have) — Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, David Laws, even new party chief executive Chris Fox — and they all deny they are considering the issue, let alone discussing it.
“We are concentrating on maximising our vote,” is the common mantra. Why waste time speculating now on possible election scenarios, they say.
Well, even if they were, would they tell ever us? History suggests the party will be making some plans for a possible coalition at some stage before the election, expected in May, even if they aren’t right now.
Former leader Paddy Ashdown has written about “the project”, his secret and abortive talks with Tony Blair ahead of the 1997 election on a centre-left alliance between the LibDems and Labour.
David Laws spoke earlier this week about his role in preparations for coalition talks in the Scottish parliamentary election of 1999.
And this week in Bournemouth another former LibDem leader, Menzies “Ming” Campbell (pictured), revealed his own pre-election coalition planning — for the 2007 election that Gordon Brown never called.
Campbell said that during his short tenure as leader between March 2006 and October 2007 he had taken his shadow team away frequently to discuss what they would do if the expected election left them holding the balance of power.
“We used to go away quite a lot and discuss this,” Campbell said at a fringe meeting hosted by the Independent newspaper.
“I used to put two questions to my colleagues. If after a general election no one party has an overall majority, would we be right to support a Labour party and a Labour government which had failed to obtain a majority in the country, and therefore lost a vote of confidence in the country?
“Or would it be right to support a Conservative party which is wholly opposed to electoral reform and viscerally anti-European?”
But if ever asked by a journalist what the party’s plans were, he would repeat the formula: “Maximum votes, maximum seats, maximum power.” Of course, Brown never called that poll and Menzies stood down without ever fighting an election as LibDem leader.
Campbell gives more details in this short clip I recorded with him after the event.
A senior Liberal Democrat has lifted a lid on the murky world of coalition politics - a touchy subject for the party which last tasted national power in Britain in the brief Lib-Lab pact of the late 1970s.
Leader Nick Clegg says he is not wasting a “millisecond” speculating on the outcome of the coming general election, expected next May.
But his Education Spokesman David Laws (pictured) has revealed that, at least until 1999, the party had a standard coalition document ready for use just in case it held the balance of power in a hung parliament.
“I understand it had been going around since 1970,” Laws told a fringe meeting at the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth.
“It was dusted off feverishly for every general election — the party leaders got extremely excited that they were going to be sweeping into power — and then it was dusted away into the bottom drawer afterwards.
“Although it was dated 1999 I suspect it was redated on a fairly frequent basis.”
Brandishing the thin document, Laws told the Liberal Democrat History Group how he had been given it 1999 when Paddy Ashdown sent him, not yet an MP, up to Edinburgh ahead of the May election that year for the new Scottish parliament to help possible coalition talks.
In the vote Labour under leader Donald Dewar became the largest party with 56 seats, but needed the support of the LibDems’ 17 members for a majority in the new 126 seat chamber at Holyrood.
“There was huge pressure and scrutiny as the Scottish election came to an end, expectations that (coalition) decisions would be taken quickly,” he said.
“The people involved in the campaign were absolutely exhausted. I think one of the challenges for us is to make sure, if future occasions arise, that we move as quickly as possible.”
It took a week of fraught negotiations to seal the coalition deal, which in the end was not based in the old LibDem document, but on the text of a more substantial coalition agreement signed by the parties sharing government on the other side of the world in New Zealand.
Does today’s Liberal Democrat party have a similar pre-prepared coalition agreement ready to hand?
In the video clip below you can hear Laws deny that any such document exists today - but is there the trace of a smile when he says that? You decide.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth came under criticism on Monday over a shortage of military equipment in Afghanistan, where 15 British soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks.
The deaths highlight the shortage of helicopters, especially Chinooks, which can carry large numbers of troops and equipment over long distances, say the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
The parties argue that the troops are in difficult circumstances and too vulnerable on the ground.
More helicopters and vehicles will be sent to the war zone next year, Ainsworth said. For now, helicopter flying hours have been increased.
Should the government spend more on equipment for British troops in Afghanistan now, or should they wait until next year?
Martin has been heavily criticised for his handling of the scandal over MPs’ expenses that has tarnished the reputation of the “Mother of Parliaments”, triggered outrage across recession-hit Britain and led to opposition calls for an early general election.
The Speaker is the chief officer and highest authority of the House of Commons and is there to chair debates, call MPs to speak and generally keep order. The holder of this office is an MP, but must remain impartial at all times.
“In order that unity can be maintained, I have decided that I will relinquish the office of speaker on Sunday, June 21,” Martin said. A new Speaker will be elected the following day.
Potential successors include former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, Labour MP Frank Field and Conservative MP Sir George Young.
Who do you think it should be? Is there anyone who can bring unity back to the House and begin the process of restoring the public’s faith in our political system?
Hosting a shindig conference at one of Britain’s most prestigious racecourses in the genteel spa town of Cheltenham hardly sends out a message that David Cameron’s opposition Conservatives are trying to reach out to the masses.
But the decision to come to the rolling hills of the Cotswolds sheds light on one of the obstacles standing between Cameron and the keys to No. 10 Downing Street.
Britain’s third main party — the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems won the parliamentary seat of Cheltenham in the 2005 election with a majority of about 2,000 over the Conservative candidate.
It is the kind of seat the Tories will want to win next year if they are going to get a decent majority over Gordon Brown’s Labour and be able to push through their agenda.
They will be hoping that coming to Cheltenham sends a strong message to voters here and tips the balance when the election comes — probably in May or June 2010.
While much of the media battle being waged is purely between Gordon Brown’s Labour and the Conservatives right now, both parties know that when the big day comes they will have to do battle on two fronts.
And convincing Liberal Democrat voters to switch may hold the key to what the make up of parliament looks like.
Charles Clarke refused to fan the flames of the Labour Party revolt when he attended a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Bournemouth on Sunday.
Clarke dropped his own disloyalty bombshell earlier this month when he said Labour was heading for disaster and urged Brown to step down “with honour” if he could not swiftly turn matters round.
Naturally the press were well represented in the packed hotel meeting room where Clarke had come to debate whether Labour and LibDems were allies or enemies.
As the one hour debate closed the media pack crushed round the former minister eager to record another juicy soundbite on the prime minister’s fate.
But Clarke was determined to keep his own counsel, sternly telling a TV news crew to switch off their looming camera and mike. Calming down, he explained he had taken a vow of silence on the day’s burning political issue.
“Sorry, I decided I wasn’t going to say anything about all this to anybody and I’m not going to,” he told the disappointed journalists.
One TV reporter, refusing to be put off, asked if he would be saying anything on Brown’s fate later in the week.
Showing that he hadn’t entirely lost his sense of humour, Clarke replied: “If anything occurs I’ll give you a call.” And added with a smile: “You’ll be the first to hear.”
The man described by some as a joke, by others as a brilliant mind has ended Ken Livingstone’s eight-year reign at City Hall.
The verdict is still out on what exactly Boris Johnson’s victory means for the Conservative Party overall but his performance as mayor could help determine whether people will vote for the Tories in a general election next time.
Johnson, whose experience of running big projects is limited, will lead one of the world’s most high-profile cities with an 11.3 billion pound budget to run public transport, police and fire services and promote the economy of this global financial centre.
The Labour Party may be hoping that the gaffe-prone “blond bombshell” will prove incapable of doing the job and thus damage the Conservatives chances of winning the next election. Johnson will have to get cracking soon with strong policies to bolster his image and become the ambassador that the Tories need him to be as the capital’s mayor.
Johnson paid generous tribute to Livingstone in his victory speech, describing him as “a very considerable public servant” and acknowledging that many who had voted for him had been wavering when it came to casting their votes.
“You shaped the office of mayor. You gave it national prominence and when London was attacked on 7 July 2005 you spoke for London,” Johnson said after he was declared winner in what had turned out to be a marathon vote count lasting well over 12 hours, partly due to a record turnout of 45 percent.
Livingstone in return offered to help Johnson and said that the responsibility for his defeat lay with him and him alone.
The Conservative candidate won with 1,168,738 first and second preference votes, compared with Livingstone’s 1,028,966.
Senior Conservative sources said they would be “gobsmacked” if Johnson did not win the mayoral contest, the Daily Telegraph said.
Even Minister for London Tessa Jowell conceded as we waited for the final result: “You’re absolutely right that it looks, at the moment, as if Boris Johnson is ahead,” she told the BBC.
Confidence of a Tory win was boosted after one bookmaker announced it was paying out on a Boris Johnson victory hours before the official result is expected later this evening.
Opinion polls had put Livingstone and Johnson neck-and-neck, with LibDem candidate Brian Paddick a distant third.
