The Tory manifesto tomorrow has been redesigned to soften its image, if not the content of its hard-edged spending cuts, while Labour moves the other way, toughening up its tone on fiscal responsibility.
The real world isn't like that.' The Irish prime minister, John Bruton, already enraged by the recent IRA murder of an Irish police officer which Sinn Fein had refused to condemn, signalled that he is toughening up his conditions for allowing Sinn Fein a role in the peace talks.
Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 5.26pm GMT17:26 David Cameron has been toughening his stance on immigration recently and sometimes this is attributed to the influence of Lynton Crosby, the Australian political strategist who has recently taken charge of the Conservatives' general election campaign.
But when he began talking during the summer of sending fewer short-timers to prison, toughening community sentences instead and paying private and voluntary outfits to cut reoffending in short, of reversing the seemingly inexorable rise of the prison population—he provoked an uproar.Feelings about crime and punishment run deep.
Warily, when he visited Moscow last year, he agreed that the war in Chechnya was Russia's internal affair.But, despite his mild manner, Mr Cem has been toughening Turkey's foreign policy towards east and north.
"Long scorned and labelled as electronic heroin, online games now teach people history and culture in China," declared People's Daily in 2003.Regulators helped by toughening the rules for foreign games, thus favouring joint ventures that would transfer game technology to domestic national champions, a familiar technique in other industries.
So in March the Security Council, led by Britain and the United States, agreed to ban diamond sales from Liberia, as well as toughening the existing arms embargo on the country.
The SPD responded under Gerhard Schröder by toughening the rules for the unemployed.
Now that austerity hangs over Europe, however, and even the French are toughening up pension rules, the perks are coming under scrutiny.With an annual pre-tax salary of €63,000 French parliamentarians are not particularly well paid, but they enjoy copious benefits.
Her party's proposals include banning all gifts from lobbyists to politicians, including free "fact-finding" trips to golf courses, and toughening public disclosure of lobbying activity.
Proposals include letting magistrates hand out justice in police stations or community centres; setting up more neighbourhood-justice panels to deal with minor offences; improving the collection of fines; and broadening asset seizure.Going straightThe third task, and the main focus of government policy, is reducing reoffending, mainly by toughening community sentences.
