Sunday Paper Review: 28th February 2010

No denials yet this week, Gordon? Only, The Mail on Sunday has produced detail of an extraordinary audio recording - made available for all to listen to on their website - in which senior foreign policy adviser Dr Stewart Wood candidly talks about Gordon Brown, the alleged bully. The recording forms part of the research by "pro-Labour journalist" Suzie Mackenzie for a book and appears to substantiate some of the tone of the claims made by Andrew Rawnsley and part-serialised in last week's Observer newspaper. The report ends by noting a statement from Wood, issued last night, dismissing the way the recording is being presented - but not before taking a quote from Andrew Rawnsley who says: "It is now clear that it is Gordon Brown who lied, and not me. I look forward to an apology."

There's a huge story in the Sunday Telegraph, by highly respected journalist Andrew Gilligan, which is really going to reverberate for days and weeks. It centres on a joint investigation between the newspaper and Channel Four's Dispatches and claims that the Labour Party "has been infiltrated by a fundamentalist Muslim group that wants to create an “Islamic social and political order” in Britain". The group, the IFE, are described in the newspaper headline as "Islamic radicals" and are publicly criticised by Environment Minister Jim Fitzpatrick. The report details the group's role within Tower Hamlets council. The election of George Galloway is also mentioned in the report. Fitzpatrick is quoted by the newspaper as saying: "They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level". This story is going to be huge, one suspects.

The Independent on Sunday suggests that the "right" of the Conservative Party is starting to exert it's muscle and influencing a commitment for tax cuts should the Conservatives win the next General Election. The story reports that Dan Hannan's 'Tea Party' event was one of the most popular amongst party supporters in Brighton yesterday.

What the report doesn't say is that a huge number of potential Conservative voters do not think the party is sounding anywhere near 'right' wing enough in their agenda, anyway. 'Right'-wing of course, being a term designed to reinforce a pile of old tribal nonsense, rather than voting on the best policies for Britain.

The Conservatives need to do something to win back their core vote - as the News of the World reports on a YouGov poll for... ummm.... the Sunday Times which shows that the Conservatives lead in the polls is now down to just TWO points.

If Gordon Brown wins the next election, will the last person to leave Britain please turn off the lights, lest the climate change alarmists get their knickers in a twist...

Back to Gordon Brown, and the Sunday Express is flagging up concerns that Gordon Brown may have misled the nation over the number of troops being deployed in Afghanistan. It says that when the unelected PM announced 500 more troops for the frontline, the battalion supposedly being sent as a reinforcing unit was already scheduled to go to Afghanistan anyway.

In The Observer, there's more from Andrew Rawnsley's book about behind doors life of the Labour Government. Today's revelations centre on the despair and depression that descended over Tony Blair after the Iraq war.

The Sunday Times reveals that the current crop of MPs - who the newspaper helpfully reminds us have been 'disgraced' over the expenses scandal - will be able to access the House of Commons even after we boot them out, after a change brought in by previous Speaker Michael Martin. The newspaper suggests that this will make them prime candidates for the employ of lobbying organisations.