Jon Bright (London, OK): One of the cleverer aspects of David Cameron's still relatively short tenure as Tory leader has been his use of 'policy reviews'. Commissioned by him, six teams of Tories went out to examine six different policy areas, and report back. Clever, in my opinion, because each of the six reoprts was meaningful enough to breathe some publicity oxygen despite the fact that none of their recommendations automatically turned into Tory policy - Dave can see which policies are going to be popular or not before fully committing to them (he's set up a website for just such a purpose).
Yesterday, via Malcolm Rifkind, Cameron has given the idea of an English Grand committee a run out (see the CEP blog for a good summary). A Grand Committee would provide an institutional mechanism for giving English MPs the final say on English only matters, but not touch the Barnett formula or do any serious bits of constitutional reform.
Apparently there are strong hints that the Tories will formally adopt the proposal (the Observer feels it is definite), but I'm sure Cameron will still be keeping one eye on the polling before he commits. As Gareth Young wrote here on Friday, Brown will respond to any ideas such as this by playing the "breakup of the Union" card. It feels likely that there will be a significant amount of people who have little interest in the ins and outs of parliament but retain a strong attachment to the idea of the UK - and could be convinced that this is a step towards its breakup. Will they outweigh those who are supporting the idea of a GC? Time and polling will tell.
