Policy Announcements, Tuesday 08 May

Government

• A new proportionate code of conduct for local councillors in England is now in force. The code will remove rules which have stood in the way of councillors acting as advocates for and leaders of their local communities, as proposed in last year's Local Government White Paper. The revised code is part of the Government's wider vision for a more devolved conduct regime, including more locally-based decision-making with most misconduct allegations being investigated and dealt with at local level.
• UK forces will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2009, Defence Secretary Des Browne has told a committee of MPs. He said February's announcement of a troops boost, with forces committed to 2009, was "for planning purposes only". British troop numbers are due to increase by 1,400 to 7,700, with most of the new contingent being deployed this summer to the volatile province of Helmand, where UK forces have been fighting the Taleban.

Conservatives

• Society is at the heart of David Cameron's Conservative Party, party policy chief Oliver Letwin has said.  In a speech setting out the party's principles he said the old economic arguments were over and that society was the new ideological battle ground. Labour says the Tories have no new significant policies and David Cameron has been dubbed the "heir to Blair". But Mr Letwin said the Tories differed "radically" from Labour's top-down approach towards society. In the speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, Mr Letwin, the Conservative policy review chair, said the old arguments about capitalism versus socialism had practically ended with the Thatcher government.

Liberal Democrats

• The Liberal Democrats are today challenging the government to "inject a sense of urgency" into their efforts to combat climate change. In an opposition day debate, led by Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats will call on them to set targets for carbon emissions which will help to hold global warming to within two degrees of pre-industrial levels.