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The Tories: Seen & Heard

Wednesday 08 October 1997 18:02 EDT
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"I like Italy. I like France. I like Spain. But they are different: they eat horses." Piers Norsworthy, in a debate on foreign affairs, which drew rapturous applause.

"I think she is probably mad to marry me." William Hague on his fiancee, Ffion Jenkins.

"What is the Conservative Party? This is not the easy question some might think." Michael Trend, deputy party chairman.

"He has turned politics into a branch of showbusiness with, it has to be said, some measure of success." Kenneth Clarke on Tony Blair.

On today's agenda:

l John Maples, health spokesman, and Iain Duncan-Smith, social security spokesman, on welfare and the NHS.

l Shadow Chancellor Peter Lilley on the economy.

l Sir Brian Mawhinney, shadow Home Secretary, on crime.

And on the fringe:

l The ghost of Toryism past: Michael Portillo promises to embody "the spirit of Conservatism's future" at a meeting organised by the Centre for Policy Studies.

l The moderate Tory Reform Group has Stephen Dorrell, shadow education spokesman, as its star dinner guest while the right-wing Conservative Way Forward group has shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Howard.

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