Reactions to Britain's negative credit rating outlook and falling inflation figures lead our teatime newslinks

Moody's give Britain negative credit rating outlook

ConservativeHome coverage: 

• ToryDiary: George Osborne's economic policy gets a "reality check" from Moody's
• WATCH: George Osborne: "Britain has to confront its debt problem, and the British government is doing precisely that"
• ThinkTankCentral: Round-up of reactions to negative credit rating outlook announcement

MPs react:

• George Osborne: "For me it was a reality check for the whole political system that Britain has to deal with its debts, that we can't waver in the path of dealing with our debts... It's yet another reminder that Britain doesn't have some easy route out of the economic problems that have accumulated over the last decade. It's got to confront those problems head on and that's precisely what I intend to do." - PolHome (£)
• Danny Alexander: "We are emerging from the deepest financial crisis this country has ever seen - we learned from the OBR that our economy is 15% smaller than it otherwise would have been without this crisis. There’s no easy answer to this, there’s no quick fix." - PolHome (£)
• Alistair Darling: "Now, obviously George Osborne's in a bit of difficultly; he said this wasn't going to happen to us; he set great store by not losing the absolute top notch rating." - PolHome (£)

Blog reactions:

• "Labour doesn't stand a chance of being elected while the economy is in the dumps. What voters are looking for at the moment is stability, not optimism. George Osborne and David Cameron still seem to offer that. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, tainted by association with Gordon Brown, don't. Far from hurting George Osborne, this morning's news will actually strengthen his position. It's when things start getting better that the Conservatives ought to start worrying." - Daniel Knowles
• With Britain's credit rating on negative outlook, the Chancellor's reputation is on the line - George Eaton
• Ruth Lea, Art Laffer and MPs including Liz Truss and Dom Raab offer proposals to get the economy moving again, for Coffee House
• Labour's plan would have cost us our AAA rating - Peter Hoskin
• The BBC is killing Britain's recovery - James Delingpole

Falling inflation figures

• Chart of the day, from the New Statesman
• "Inflation fell sharply in January as the impact of last year's VAT rise was no longer shown in the figures. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation fell to 3.6% in January, down from 4.2% in December, according to the Office for National Statistics." - BBC
• "When inflation was going up double-quick, the ‘wrong track’ numbers went up. But when the pace of inflation slowed, the ‘right track’ numbers increased. It is for this reason that the Tories are quietly confident that this year will see an uptick in economic confidence." - James Forsyth
• "So when the economy is growing slowly, we should have higher inflation, and when it is growing faster, lower inflation. It makes sense to me. So given our slowing growth, should we really celebrate the fact that inflation is falling too?" - Daniel Knowles

Baroness Warsi's "militant secularism" speech

• Full speech at PolHome (£)
• "Britain is under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation", a cabinet minister has warned. Religion is being "sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere", Conservative co-chairwoman Baroness Warsi wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph." - BBC
• "Calls by a British minister to follow the pope's example and reject "intolerant secularisation" to make Europe more confident in its Christianity have made the Vatican "really happy", a spokesman said. Lady Warsi, the Conservative party chairman, will make her comments in a speech at the Vatican on Tuesday as she leads a delegation of six ministers set to hold talks with Catholic officials and meet the pope on Wednesday." - Guardian
• "A Muslim Asian woman could embarrass liberals into taking religion seriously" - Cristina Odone

In brief:

• ToryDiary: Intervention in the Middle East is justified if it saves lives, says William Hague
• House of Lords 'offered reassurance' over welfare cap plan - BBC
• WATCH: Boris Johnson: "The sooner that we find a way of getting Mr Qatada to Jordan... the better"
• Coalition considers charging for FoI requests - New Statesman
• "Drop the Health Bill" e-petition gains 12,000 signatures in one day - Political Scrapbook
• Lib Dems go after high-earners' pensions - FT Westminster
• Is there an economic case for going green in an age of austerity? Tim Yeo MP and Lord Lawson debate - Centre for Policy Studies
• Iran is waging a secret war against Israel - Con Coughlin