Image source, Crown copyright

A recap of today's events.

• Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has confirmed the UK is to send about 100 military personnel to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, while a further 25 will be involved in a continuing training mission in Ukraine
• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to join the Privy Council despite missing its first meeting since his appointment due to "other commitments"
• MSPs have voted unanimously to back a bill banning smoking in cars carrying children. It will now pass to the next stage in the Scottish Parliament
• The EU has agreed to beef up its border force Frontex in order to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers
• Eight people a day were referred to the government's deradicalisation scheme known as "Channel" this summer, it has been reported.

There will be talk of macaroons when Isabel Hardman takes to the This Week kitchen to review the political week dominated by the Conservative Party conference. 

Andrew Neil will be joined on the sofas by Caroline Flint and Michael Portillo, with former Sky News correspondent Tim Marshall looking at Russia's intervention in Syria, while Prof Alice Roberts, currently presenting The Celts will talk about tribes.

The live programme follows Question Time, starting on BBC1 at 11.35pm (or 12.15am for viewers in Northern Ireland).

BBC Newsnight

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"Air strikes are not decisively changing the game," Sarah Lain, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, tells MPs at the Syria inquiry session. She argues that even if the Islamic State group was destroyed, there are "a whole plethora of questions to be anwered in Syria".

A solution could involve making "deals with Russia and Iran that we don't really want to make", she adds.

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Conservative MP James Gray does not believe that Western objectives in the Middle East are clear.

"Nobody really is clear about what the job is, the plan is," he claims. Can the UK not "sort out the migration problem, sort out terrorism" and not be involved in Iraq and Syria?

Prof Marc Weller says refugees are coming to Europe because of the situation in Syria, and argues: "Doing nothing is not an option." Elizabeth Quintana thinks that disengagement would not change the fact that "the fight will come to us".

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Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Crispin Blunt asks his witnesses a straight question: "What is the objective of our policy [in Syria]"?

Elizabeth Quintana from the Royal United Services Institute says it is "to defeat ISIL" - another name for the Islamic State group. Prof Marc Weller of Cambridge University says it is "to defeat ISIL" and to "reconstruct" the country, arguing this should also be the policy in Iraq.

The Daily Politics

The Conservatives won the general election and face a new, more left-wing Labour leader, so some in the party think this presents an opportunity to straddle the centre-ground of British politics.

But others reckon it is a chance to deliver a more radical Tory agenda to cut welfare, shrink the size of the state and change Britain's relationship with the EU.

Adam Fleming took the Daily Politics mood box - an unscientific test with a plastic bin and balls - around the Manchester conference centre to see where delegates think the party should place itself on the left-right axis.

Watch all nine films from the Tory, Labour and Lib Dem conferences

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Elizabeth Quintana, director of the Military Sciences Department at the Royal United Services Institute, says there has been a lot of focus on whether President Assad should go and not on what the future in Syria should look like. Stability in the war-torn country depends on a future that "everyone can accept", she says, stressing the need for an inclusive government there.

Scotland's first minister would welcome publication by the Law Society of any documents related to MP Michelle Thomson whose business affairs have been queried. Nicola Sturgeon gave the response following questioning at Holyrood.

Ms Thomson, who was elected an SNP MP in May but withdrew from the party whip last week, has denied any wrong doing. The politician had been linked with property deals involving a solicitor who was struck off by the Law Society.

Read more.

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David Cameron has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can have no part in Syria's future. But Sir Simon Mayall says "those days are over, that's not going to happen - not in the near term". He suggests the West will need to engage with the Russians to find a long-term solution to the crisis.

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Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall, a former senior defence adviser for the Middle East, says the US has "certain concerns about UK willingness to commit" in Syria, warning that making "some nice distinctions between where we're going to strike the enemy" is like dancing on the head of a pin.

He adds that a British commitment would have an effect on a strategic, operational and tactical level.

Image source, EPA

A US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq for more than a year.

The UK has confined its air strikes against the Islamic State group to Iraqi airspace.

The government announced earlier this month it had carried out a drone strike against two British citizens in Syria but has yet to fly manned operations in Syrian airspace.

The PM is reported to be considering seeking parliamentary approval to authorise UK air strikes in Syria.

In 2013, MPs rejected possible UK military action in Syria in response to the Syria crisis.

The Daily Politics

Former Scotland Yard Senior Officer for Public Order Planning and Counter Terrorism Peter Power spoke to Andrew Neil about the police's handling of demonstrations outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

He said the police were "seldom going to win" as they could be accused of making security too tight or too slack, as they faced an "unfamiliar" level of protests with a reported 60,000 people taking part.

The Daily Politics

David Cameron's conference speech strongly suggested steering the Conservatives in to the centre ground of the political stage when he talked more about equality than the deficit.

Andrew Neil got reaction from the TaxPayers Alliance's Jonathan Isaby, Conservative MP Neil Carmichael, a member of the Tory Reform Group, and guest Matt Forde, a comedian who used to work for the Labour Party, about the future direction for the Tory party.

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The Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees are holding a joint session on the government's policy on Syria, focusing on the possibility of UK participation in air strikes against so-called Islamic State targets.

Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall, a former senior defence adviser for Middle East, says UK involvement in air strikes in Syria would" extend the capacity of coalition to run a more coherent air campaign". But he adds that this would need to be linked to "much firmer strategic policy" and a political, diplomatic and humanitarian plan.

Image source, Getty Images

The Poke, external has some theories behind the "stance" adopted by both George Osborne and Theresa May at this week's Conservative conference...

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Two Commons committees are taking evidence on the situation in Syria this afternoon in a joint session. MPs on the foreign affairs committee and the defence committee are questioning witnesses including academics and researchers from the Royal United Services Insitute.

Image source, Getty Images

The number of people waiting longer than nine months for hospital treatment in Wales has reached an all-time high. Figures for August, external showed 28,654 people waiting longer than nine months, the target time for everyone to be treated.

Conservative spokesman Darren Millar blamed "record-breaking budget cuts", while Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams said Labour had "lost control of our NHS". The Welsh government said the figures were "not acceptable" but said spending on health was up by 9% in two years.

Read more.