27 May 2010 08:59:57

Thursday 27th May 2010

9pm WATCH:

• Theresa May promises ID cards will be scrapped within 100 days
• Iain Duncan Smith tells the BBC how he wants to change the benefits system and get more people working

7.30pm Daniel Kawczynski MP on CentreRight: Any referendum on changing the electoral system should be subject to a threshold of approval from 40% of the electorate

5pm WATCH: Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt sends a video update from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference he is attending at the UN in New York

4pm Lee Rotherham on CentreRight wonders how happy Lib Dems really are with the respect to the curretn balance of power with Europe

3pm ToryDiary update: Five members of the 2010 intake elected to the Executive of the 1922 Committee 

2.45pm Paul Goodman on CentreRight: What's Tariq Ramadan got against Quilliam?

2.30pm Lawrence Kay on CentreRight: Welfare reform always gets talked about as one of the top priorities of any government. But what is likely to happen?

2.15pm WATCH: Sir Menzies Campbell suggests that he may actively oppose the Coalition's position on tuition fees rather than merely abstain

1.30pm ToryDiary: In defence of the Whips' Office against the attack of Tim Montgomerie

1pm Thomas Cawston on CentreRight: Reformers and Reactionaries

12.15pm ToryDiary: Iain Duncan Smith sets out the Government's vision for Welfare Reform

11.45am LeftWatch: Frank Field and Kate Hoey nominate arch Left-winger John McDonnell for Labour leader

11am Parliament: Sir George Young announces reduced summer recess and first legislation to go before the Commons

10.15am ToryDiary: Full list of frontbench changes and ministerial appointments Updated after appointment of Peter Luff and Lord Astor of Hever

ToryDiary: Gove and IDS represent the best of the Coalition

Also on ToryDiary: The significance of Graham Brady's election as 1922 Committee chairman

Alex Crowley on Platform: The disappointing results in London from May 6th present a challenge for the Conservatives at the 2012 Mayoral election

LeftWatch: Labour will announce its 2012 London mayoral candidate on September 22nd

Parliament: Bob Stewart, James Morris and Jeremy Lefroy make their maiden speeches

Local Government:

• Cllr Angela Harvey: A positive experience of Tories and Lib Dems working together to save the London taxpayer millions of pounds
• Residents associations embracing the blogosphere

ThinkTankCentral: Reasons to be negative about the UK’s growth prospects

Two CentreRight posts from Melanchthon:

• Wanting to get our relationship within the EU right is not dysfunctional
• There has to be a new EU Treaty. The Germans know it. The key blockage is...

WATCH: ITN reports on the new Government's plans to end the culture of welfare dependency

Theresa May to unveil Bill to scrap ID cards

"Home Secretary Theresa May is to set out further details of the Government's plans to scrap the £5 billion ID cards scheme. The Home Office is publishing the Identity Documents Bill - announced in the Queen's speech on Tuesday - which will abolish identity cards and destroy all personal information gathered for the National Identity Register... Identity cards will be scrapped within one month of the Bill receiving Royal Assent and cardholders, who paid £30 each for a card, will not get a refund." - Press Association

Graham Brady elected 1922 Committee chairman

"Graham Brady has been elected as the new chairman of the Conservatives' backbench 1922 Committee. He beat Richard Ottaway by 126 votes to 85 in a vote which came days after David Cameron backed down from a confrontation with backbenchers." - BBC

"My colleagues have done me a great honour and placed a great responsibility on me to work to help to make our arrangements a success in these difficult circumstances. My priority will be to spend as much time as I can talking and listening to all of my colleagues across the parliamentary party, especially the new intake who make up such a large part of it." - Graham Brady quoted in The Guardian

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Graham Brady elected Chairman of the 1922 Committee

Coalition government sets out radical welfare reforms

"Britain's welfare system is "bust", with such penal disincentives to work that many people on benefits regard those who take up job offers as "bloody morons", Iain Duncan Smith, the new work and pensions secretary, says in a Guardian interview setting out the most ambitious welfare reform plans for a decade. Duncan Smith says he is to propose to the Treasury a radical scheme that includes simplification of the complex benefits system designed to make it financially worthwhile for unemployed people to work, including in part-time jobs." - The Guardian

Gove invites every state school to bid for academy status

"Academy status will become the norm for state secondary schools, the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, forecast yesterday. Mr Gove revealed he had written to every state school head in England – primary, secondary and special – urging them to consider putting in a bid for academy status." - The Independent

Michael Gove writing in The Sun

> WATCH: Michael Gove promises more independence for schools and extra funding for poorer pupils

Senior Tories opposing hikes on Capital Gains Tax

"David Davis today puts himself at the head of a full-scale Tory revolt over proposed hikes in capital gains tax. The MP, the one-time rival to David Cameron for leadership of the party, warns in today's Daily Mail that hitting the 'hard-working, responsible, self-reliant middle and working classes' would be a betrayal of Tory values." - Daily Mail

"David Cameron is facing a growing revolt from within his own party over plans to impose a higher level of capital gains tax. John Redwood, the former Tory Cabinet minister, warned that such a move would send “a strange signal” and ''be unfair to anyone who saves’’. - Daily Telegraph

"A massive increase in capital gains tax to 40 or even 50 per cent, as envisaged by the government, would be a disaster for the economy and would cripple millions of investors who own shares, investment properties or other assets." - Allister Heath in City AM

"The coalition’s plan to adopt the Liberal Democrat policy of hugely raising capital gains tax is a step too far... For the state to take a huge chunk out of the appreciation of long-term assets like shareholdings, buy-to-let properties and second homes without a mandate to do so would be an outrageous and fundamentally anti-Conservative step." - Daily Express editorial

George Osborne's £6bn cuts boost approval rating

"George Osborne's stock among businessmen has risen since he became Chancellor and announced plans for £6bn of public spending cuts. A ComRes survey for The Independent found that the number of businessmen who have confidence in Mr Osborne's ability has risen from 49 per cent last month to 63 per cent this month." - The Independent

Osborne attacks structure of EU's proposed bank levy - The Guardian

Defence of cuts wins Tory plaudits for David Laws

"David Laws, the Liberal Democrat minister charged with cutting the £156bn deficit, was lauded yesterday by Conservative coalition colleagues after giving a robust Commons defence of his first round of cuts. The Treasury chief secretary said he had been given the task of sorting out "the mess in the public finances" and made no apology for announcing spending cuts this week of £6.2bn, including the scrapping of Gordon Brown's child trust funds." - FT

"There is a brand of margarine called 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter'. Now we have a Treasury Chief Secretary, David Laws, who could be called 'I Can't Believe He's Not Tory'." - Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail

> Yesterday in Parliament: The wisdom of the Tories' favourite "honourable ally", the Chief Secretary, David Laws

William Hague says the Government will be "more open" about nuclear warhead levels

"The government has said it will be "more open" about the UK's nuclear weapons capability after announcing it will retain a maximum of 225 warheads." - BBC

Hague to visit Pakistan "within weeks" - AFP

We will hold inquiry into Chinook air disaster, says Liam Fox - Daily Mail

John Redwood: The Eurosceptic case for saving the euro - The Times

Bloody Sunday Report to be published on June 15 - The Independent

Vince Cable steps down as Lib Dem deputy leader

"Vince Cable is to step down as deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats following his appointment as Business Secretary in the coalition government, triggering an election for his successor, the party said on Wednesday. Cable, 67, said he needed to "focus wholeheartedly" on running his sprawling department, which spans industry, trade, science and higher education. The contest to replace Cable as deputy to Nick Clegg could open the way for a left-wing candidate such as Simon Hughes, who is popular with the party grass roots and not a minister in the coalition." - Reuters

University vice-chancellors' pay 'out of step with reality', says Vince Cable - Daily Telegraph

Chris Huhne backs European plan to raise target for emission cuts - The Times

Benedict Brogan: Voters wanted this harmony, but British politics could turn nasty quickly

"Remember, change can take many forms. Those who fancy the climate is permanent should recall how suddenly we got here – and therefore how quickly we could go back to where we were." - Benedict Brogan writing in the Daily Telegraph

Ugandan-born tycoon and Tory donor to be nominated for a peerage

"A Ugandan-born Indian tycoon who has given the Tories more than £200,000 in donations over six years will today be nominated for a peerage by David Cameron. Dolar Popat, a former refugee and self-made multi-millionaire, will be given a seat in the House of Lords." - Daily Mail

Peter Luff and Lord Astor of Hever appointed Defence Ministers - MoD

Delayed general election taking place today in Thirsk and Malton - Press Association

And finally... Boris's morning as a supply teacher

"He came, he saw, he got told off for not paying attention in class and then he was heckled by binmen. It was all in a morning's work for the supply teacher at St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England secondary girls' school – or, as he is more commonly known, the Mayor of London. The classroom full of 15-year-old girls in south-east London was far from the one at Eton where Boris Johnson conjugated his first ancient verb. But for Boris, there is no fear: he began his lesson by telling the girls about the proclivities of Roman women, in particular their fondness for gladiators. Everyone was a little awkward. Then in an episode of cunning, he conjured two sentences that he helped the class put together in Latin: the woman loves the gladiator, but the women do not love the charioteer." - The Independent

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

26 May 2010 08:40:59

Wednesday 26th May 2010

6.30pm WATCH: Michael Gove promises more independence for schools and extra funding for poorer pupils

5.40pm ToryDiary: Graham Brady elected Chairman of the 1922 Committee

"I am afraid that there is a basic ideological difference between those on the Labour Benches and those on the Government Benches—we believe in devolving power and giving freedom to people. We do not believe that Government know best, and the previous Administration proved that very effectively..."

...5.30pm Parliament: The wisdom of the Tories' favourite "honourable ally", the Chief Secretary, David Laws

4pm Local government:

• Labour councillor in Lambeth resigns after child porn arrest
• Lib Dems gain from Labour in postponed Camden election
• Labour gain power in Bradford

3.15pm Parliament: Tories will chair Treasury, Foreign Affairs and ten other select committees

12.45pm Things People Are Wrong To Think About The Conservatives: William Hague is Basil Fawlty

11.15am Paul Goodman on CentreRight: Fifteen tips for the new Government on integration, cohesion, relations with Islam - and Prevent

ToryDiary: Graham Brady for Chairman of the 1922

Azeem Ibrahim on Platform: The Welfare State cannot sustain the current levels of long-term unemployment

Parliament: Peter Lilley warns that regular hung parliaments will lead to voter disenchantment

Also on Parliament: Richard Harrington, Mark Spencer and David Morris are the first of the 2010 Conservative intake to make their maiden speeches

Local government: Regional Spatial Strategies axed

Samantha Cameron gets more front pages than Her Majesty on the day after the Queen's Speech

Simon Jenkins: Was this Queen's Speech radical? Hardly.

"Cameron has already U-turned on his intention to abolish regional government. It first mutated into abolishing just the development agencies, and now only those in the south and east are to go. Like Michael Gove's abolition of just one quango, such reform fails the first test of radicalism: what you do not achieve in your first month is unlikely to be achieved thereafter. Almost every innovation of value under Labour came at the very beginning – devolution, Sure Start, elected mayors. The arteries then hardened, and the dark waters of the Treasury closed over ministers' heads... If this is the coalition's most radical moment, it is not very radical. The withdrawal of ID cards and the children's database is hardly controversial. Both were toys arising from Labour's infatuation with computers. There is no curbing of such regulatory monsters as the Criminal Records Bureau or the Health and Safety Executive. There is no review of farm payments, the NHS computer or the lunatic digital radio edict. As for Osborne's proposal to freeze council tax, it is the purest centralism. Whatever the Queen says, local councils will stay shackled to Whitehall." - Simon Jenkins in The Guardian

Michael Gove is writing to all primary and secondary schools in England inviting them to become academies - BBC

"The fact remains that this Government will support any parent who wants to open a new school — unless it is a grammar school. That seems strangely at odds with the new spirit of freedom and people power." - Times leader

Queen's Speech appears to dilute CGT plans and strengthen immigration controls

"Government documents last night said CGT rates would be brought 'closer to those applied to income tax', suggesting a rate above the current 18 per cent but short of the 40 per cent tax rate on higher earners. A flagship Conservative pledge that annual immigration will be brought down from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands - also absent from last week's pact - was reinstated in the Queen's Speech documents. The moves on tax and immigration were seen as an attempt to reassure Right-wingers who believe the Prime Minister has given away too much to the Lib Dems as the price of their support." - Daily Mail

The Independent and Times agree: "David Cameron tilted the coalition away from the Liberal Democrats with a Queen’s Speech that defined tax, immigration and police reform on Conservative terms."

Britain is prepared to press ahead alone with a tax on banks to insure against future collapses, says Vince Cable - Express

Liberal Democrats push for May 2011 referendum on AV, but Tories resistant - Guardian

The Lib Dems will almost certainly stay in the coalition until the referendum on the alternative vote - Peter Riddell in The Times

"There are signs that the "new politics" the two leaders want to achieve has not yet spread to their MPs" - Andrew Grice in The Independent

Quentin Letts: Cameron was at the top of his game yesterday

"Not since May 1997, when Tony Blair cruised into the Commons all sleek and gleamily cufflinked, has a Prime Minister creamed the Chamber with such assurance. David Cameron tonked every ball. He somehow managed to be suave and aggressive and expert and amateur and partisan and prime ministerial - all at the same time. If he needed to show his party's churning back benches who was boss, he duly did so. Mr Cameron will not have many better days. Some might feel he should have been more charitable in his hour of triumph. I suspect he was justified in forcing home his advantage." - Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail

Labour left Britain in 'appalling mess' says Cameron - Telegraph

"The Prime Minister’s vitriolic attack in his first Commons appearance of the new Parliament raised eyebrows on a day when MPs usually act as though they can rise above party politics." - Times

Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan has made it onto one Cabinet committee – leading to claims that both she and Wales have been sidelined by David Cameron - Western Mail

Cameron slashes MPs' recess, Parliament may sit in August if key reforms aren't passed - The Sun 

William Hague plans to visit India over the summer as Britain’s new Government tries to turn cultural and trade ties with the emerging superpower into a “genuinely special relationship” - Times

Major electoral fraud alleged in seat of Halifax - Independent

The Commons expenses watchdog is to hand MPs up to £4,000 more cash up front in a bid to calm complaints about the new system - Metro

German push for treaty could allow Tory power grab, says EU

"José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, is afraid that a new round of EU treaty talks would be an opportunity for the Prime Minister to "repatriate" sovereignty back to Westminster. If Germany continued to demand increased EU powers to enforce euro zone budget rules, Britain would use its veto during "treaty modifications" to transfer powers from Brussels back to London, Mr Barroso warned." - Telegraph

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

25 May 2010 08:18:53

Tuesday 25th May 2010

10.15pm ToryDiary: David Cameron reassures party members that the Coalition's agenda is about devolving power, trusting people and saving money

6.45pm ToryDiary: Nick Clegg should speak to the Conservative Party Conference this autumn...and we must get to know the Liberal Democrats better

6pm ToryDiary: Twelve of the new intake are standing for the Executive of the 1922 Committee

5pm WATCH: Harriet Harman pokes fun at David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the Commons as the "happy couple" whose in-laws don't think they're right for each other

4.45pm ToryDiary: How will Private Eye satirise David Cameron?

3.45pm Local government: Spectator's attack on Boris misfires

3.45pm ToryDiary: David Cameron and Harriet Harman trade blows at the opening of the Queen's Speech debate

1pm WATCH: The Queen's Speech in full

11.45am Parliament: Summary of Bills included in the Queen's Speech updated at 12.30pm with fuller details of each bill

11.15am ToryDiary: Yet more ministerial appointments expected to be announced

10.45am Parliament: Now IPSA is ruling on who MPs can and can't employ

10.30am Alex Deane on CentreRight: Charities adopt "liberal" positions that are nothing to do with their core mission - a mistake, perhaps

ToryDiary: David Cameron moved wisely but late to climb down over the '22 elections

Madsen Pirie on Platform: Why the Coalition should rethink its plan to raise capital gains tax

LeftWatch: The crucial questions on the economy which the Labour leadership contenders are yet to address

Local Government:

• Congestion Charge extension due to go by Christmas
• Conservatives take over Wirral Council
• Town Hall fat cat still booming

ThinkTankCentral: Direct Democracy identifies a mix of decentralisation and centralisation in Queen's Speech

Jonathan Isaby on CentreRight update: Whose idea was it to scrap the ministerial cars?

WATCH: Vince Cable explains to Jeremy Paxman why he changed his view on the timing of spending cuts

Queen to announce Coalition's first legislative programme this morning

"David Cameron's coalition government is due to outline what laws it wants to pass in the next year when the Queen's Speech is delivered to Parliament. Measures are set to include the repeal of ID cards, powers for parents to set up schools, reforms to policing and a referendum on the voting system." - BBC

"David Cameron will start to turn his "big society" rhetoric into reality when he uses the coalition government's first Queen's speech to promise to let 500 secondary schools and 1,700 primary schools have the freedom of city academy status by the summer." - The Guardian

"There will be few surprises in the programme, read out by the Queen at the formal launch of the new parliament, after the coalition published a detailed agreement last week. Any mystery was further dispelled when two Sunday newspapers published excerpts of a late draft of the speech, an unusual and embarrassing breach of protocol for the new government." - Reuters

> The weekend's ToryDiary: The Sunday Telegraph previews the Queen's Speech

David Cameron backs down over ministers voting at 1922 Committee

"David Cameron retreated from a damaging row with his backbenchers last night on the eve of a Queen’s Speech that will test the limits of his authority over Conservative MPs... Days after insisting that ministers be allowed to help to choose the chairman of the 1922 Committee — the backbenchers’ shop steward — Mr Cameron dropped the demand after furious lobbying from senior MPs." - The Times

"This is absolutely terrific. It shows real leadership from the prime minister who will now listen to reasonable arguments and, if necessary, change position. That shows real courage and self confidence by the prime minister who said: 'I've listened to those arguments, that's not a bad idea. I'll change my original thought.' That's really good for the country. Contrast that with Gordon Brown who, with the clunking fist, would carry on despite whatever argument was made." - Peter Bone MP quoted in The Guardian

> Last night's ToryDiary: Ministers will NOT be entitled to take party in the 1922 Committee election

Osborne trumpets transparency as he outlines £6.2billion spending cuts

"George Osborne is to throw open the government’s books for the first time, detailing every line of public spending in an attempt to inform debate over the next steps in cutting the £156bn budget deficit. The chancellor on Monday set out plans for £6.2bn of immediate cuts, but wants to engage the public and business in deciding where the axe should fall in a more swingeing three-year spending review in the autumn." - FT

"At least 50,000 jobs will be lost as a result of the Government's £6.2 billion package of public spending cuts, economists have said. Treasury ministers said Monday's measures were "only the first step" towards repairing Britain's public finances and "even tougher" cuts would follow later this year. George Osborne, the Chancellor, and David Laws, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, unveiled the cuts, predicting that they would send a "shock wave" through the public sector." - Daily Telegraph

A breakdown of the savings department by department - The Independent

Government draws a line under the era of the chauffeur-driven car as ministers are encouraged to use public transport - The Guardian

Fears council tax will rise after £1.1bn squeeze on town halls - Daily Mail

£6billion in cuts is just the beginning, warns David Laws - Metro

Markets back George Osborne's spending cuts - Daily Telegraph

The Independent illustrates the scale of the debt mountain we have to climb (Click image to enlarge)

"Cuts of £6bn may be a necessary start to impose discipline in public spending but they are tiny in the context of a GDP running at more than £1,396bn a year. Indeed the boost to confidence from the knowledge that the Government is getting to grips with the problem should, if anything, increase demand in the economy. Not to have done anything would certainly have hit confidence at home and abroad... The Budget has to try to set out some sort of credible path towards eliminating the fiscal deficit over the next five years. That will be extraordinarily difficult." - Hamish McRae in The Independent

"With public debt increasing at a rate of £3 billion a week, the monumental task of paying it off can only succeed if the Government is honest about the sacrifices that lie ahead. Yesterday it made a good start, but it was only a start. The savings identified are a pinprick, less than one per cent of total government spending" - Daily Telegraph editorial

"We actually ran out of our own money, thanks to Labour’s profligacy several years ago. Now we have run out of other people’s money as well. Thirteen years ago, when Labour took over from the Tories, the national debt stood at a comparatively modest £350billion. Over the past decade that has doubled to just over £700billion. Tragically, under Treasury projections, that sum is set to double again over the next five years to around £1.4trillion. Even these unimaginable sums of money hugely underestimate the scale of the problem." - Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail

"It was an especially impressive part of yesterday’s announcement when Mr Laws stated matter-of-factly that public borrowing is only taxation deferred. That insight demonstrates the inherent flaw of the argument still being put by the Labour Party." - Times editorial

The UK embarks on an age of austerity - FT editorial

We need cuts to liberate enterprise - Allister Heath in City AM

That was easy. The real cuts will spell trouble - Rachel Sylvester in The Times

These cuts won't hurt a bit. Unless you're young or poor - Polly Toynbee in The Guardian

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Osborne and Laws take the first steps on the path to deficit reduction

> Yesterday on ThinkTankCentral: Think tanks give generally positive verdict on the Coalition's first cuts

> WATCH: George Osborne unveils immediate plans for cutting  £6.25 billion of wasteful public spending

Voters indicate support for the Coalition in new poll

"Voters approve of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government so far, according to the first Guardian/ICM poll to be published since the general election... But today's poll suggests the Lib Dems have suffered some damage after deciding to join the Tories in government, with almost a fifth of those who backed the party this month saying they might be less likely to do so in the future... Overall, 59% of voters say they approve of the decision to form a coalition and 32% oppose it." - The Guardian

> Last night's ToryDiary: Tory lead 7% in first ICM poll of the Parliament

Geoffrey Robertson: Cameron and Clegg must now do their moral duty and save Gary McKinnon

"The first acid test for Britain's new government is not the economy, but whether it is capable of an act of simple humanity. Can it deliver on its repeated promise to end the torment inflicted by the state on Gary McKinnon, the hacker with Asperger's syndrome, whom the home Office wants to send to lengthy imprisonment and likely suicide in a U.S. jail?" - Geoffrey Robertson QC in the Daily Mail

Newlove widow to be Tory peer after drink campaigns - BBC

Ed Miliband is first Labour leadership contender to secure 33 official nominations - Press Association

Diane Abbott charged fee for Mandela tribute

"Wannabe Labour leader Diane Abbott charged £300 to film a TV obituary tribute to her hero Nelson Mandela. Ms Abbott, a black rights campaigner who keeps a photo of Mr Mandela in her office, recorded her tribute as part of an ITV bulletin to be broadcast when the 91-year-old former South African president dies." - The Sun

I am not Old Labour or New Labour, just Labour - John McDonnell writing in the Daily Mirror

Green MP Caroline Lucas explains how she wants to turn her ideals into reality - The Independent

And finally... It’s so great to beat the Aussies, admits Cameron

"David Cameron gave England’s cricket heroes a big thumbs-up for their World Twenty20 success, admitting: It’s great to get one over the Aussies. Cameron invited the victorious squad, led by captain Paul Collingwood, to show off their trophy in the sun-drenched garden of Number 10 yesterday... Looking ahead to the Ashes series in Australia this winter, Cameron joked: “I’m frantically thinking of all the reasons for a very large UK-Australia summit around Christmas time. Beating another team is one thing, beating the Australians is something else.” - City AM

Please use this thread to highlight other interesting news and commentary and visit PoliticsHome.com for breaking political news and views throughout the day.

24 May 2010 09:00:08

Monday 24th May 2010

7.30pm ToryDiary: Tory lead 7% in first ICM poll of the Parliament

6.30pm BREAKING NEWS: ToryDiary update: Ministers will NOT be entitled to take party in the 1922 Committee election

6pm ToryDiary: Boris pays his first visit to David Cameron in Downing Street

5.30pm ThinkTankCentral: Think tanks give generally positive verdict on the Coalition's first cuts

4.30pm Jonathan Isaby on CentreRight: Whose idea was it to scrap the ministerial cars?

3.30pm Local Government: Conservatives take over West Somerset Council

3.15pm LeftWatch: Lords Mandelson and Adonis "quit" Labour's shadow cabinet

3pm WATCH: Boris unveils 'Nelson's ship in a bottle' for Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth

1.30pm WATCH: George Osborne unveils immediate plans for cutting  £6.25 billion of wasteful public spending

12.45pm Parliament: A new MP writes a scathing open letter to the Chief Executive of IPSA: "Unless there is change, you will become as discredited as the Fees Office very rapidly"

11am ToryDiary: Osborne and Laws take the first steps on the path to deficit reduction

ToryDiary: Senior Tory backbenchers seek clarification over voting rights in 1922 Committee election

Tobias Ellwood MP on Platform: Is the end in sight for the euro?

LeftWatch: Oona King bids to be Labour's 2012 London mayoral candidate (and what about Diane Abbott?)

Mark Wallace in Local Government: We need directly elected police commissioners

CentreRight:

• Daniel Kawczynski MP: It's time to rally support in the Commons in favour of First Past The Post
• Robert Halfon MP: Immigration Officers deserve the Golden Jubilee medal
• Alex Deane: The grim RIPA

WATCH:

• Nick Clegg says that the cuts will be unpopular and controversial as he attacks Labour's profligate spending at the end of its term in office
• Diane Abbott claims she is "on track" to get the requisite number of signatures to be nominated for the Labour leadership

George Osborne to announce £6.2 billion of cuts at 10am

"In the first major economic statement from the coalition Government, the Chancellor will announce a new era of austerity for state employees and public bodies. Whitehall officials and other bureaucrats will be among the first to feel the effects of the cuts, with the end of perks such as first class air and rail travel to save £10million. A civil service recruitment freeze will be imposed, with the probable loss of more than 3,000 jobs. Wasteful and inefficient public sector projects will also be targeted, with more than half a billion pounds cut from spending on quangos and a reduction of up to £1billion in the budget for consultants and advertising." - Daily Telegraph

"The proposed cuts will be set out in an emergency package which Mr Osborne and his Liberal Democrat deputy, David Laws, will publish today. They have calculated that banning recruitment of new civil servants will save £163m a year, on top of £513m worth of cuts to be found by abolishing or reducing government quangos." - The Independent

"Vince Cable’s Business Department will bear the brunt of £6 billion in cuts outlined today as the coalition makes its first moves on the deficit." - The Times

"Trade union leaders are gearing up for a fight with the coalition government about its plans to cut public spending by £6bn and pave the way for more academy schools and the part-privatisation of Royal Mail." - FT

Royal Mail workers threaten to strike over post office sell-off - Daily Mail

Child Trust Funds to be scrapped - The Sun

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Where will the axe fall for the £6 billion in cuts being announced?

Osborne's war on speed cameras in bid to win over motorists and save taxpayer money

"New speed cameras will be dramatically blocked today under government plans to win over motorists and save the taxpayer money. Chancellor George Osborne is planning to scrap grants worth tens of millions that are handed to local councils each year to fund new speed traps, the Daily Mail has learned... If a local authority wishes to install a new camera, it is believed, it will have to publish detailed information justifying the decision and fund it from council tax." - Daily Mail

Osborne set to be handed boost with improved growth figures

"George Osborne, the Chancellor, is set to receive a pre-Budget gift tomorrow in the form of new data revealing that tghe economy has been performing better than previously thought. The Office for National Statistics is to publish its second estimate of GDP growth for the first quarter of the year, and is widely expected to raise its initial assessment." - The Independent

Lord Saatchi: Come on David Cameron, give us something to believe in

"Our new leader has the intellect, the charisma and the courage for history to judge him “a great prime minister”. To deserve the title, he will have to ignore the Conservative press officer who replied to a query about his party’s philosophy: “If you want philosophy, read Descartes”, and the Conservative candidate who agreed: “We don’t want philosophy and fluff”. - Lord Saatchi in The Times

Speaker's anger at Queen's Speech leak

"The government is facing demands to clarify how an entire draft of the Queen's speech fell into the hands of newspaper journalists in a leak, just days before it will be read, that was described as unprecedented by the office of the Speaker." - The Guardian

> Lee Rotherham on CentreRight was outraged at the leak of a draft of the Queen's Speech

> The weekend's ToryDiary: The Sunday Telegraph previews Tuesday's Queen's Speech

Liam Fox tells troops in Aghanistan they will be rewarded

"Liam Fox, the defence secretary, used his first visit to southern Afghanistan since taking office to promise troops a bonus for their efforts on the frontline. After flying into Lashkar Gah, Mr Fox was pressed by servicemen and women about the Tories' pledge to double the operational allowance for those serving in the country." - Daily Telegraph

Fox "slapped down" over Afghan policy - Daily Mail

Ministers in Taliban raid 'copter scare - Daily Mirror

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: William Hague explains the Government's policy towards Afghanistan

> WATCH: William Hague, Liam Fox and Andrew Mitchell pay their first visit to Afghanistan as Cabinet ministers

Ministers to press ahead with plans to cut MP numbers

"The government is pressing ahead with plans to redraw constituency boundaries across the UK and cut MP numbers. Ministers are preparing a bill that will be presented to the Commons before the summer which could see the number of MPs cut from 650 to below 600." - BBC

> Gareth Knight on Platform yesterday: Reducing the number of constituencies and equalising their size is a daunting task - but should have positive effects 

Lord Rees-Mogg: Tory MPs need their safety valve more than ever

"Mr Cameron seems to have made two significant mistakes. One was the attempt to protect the coalition by requiring a 55 per cent vote to dissolve Parliament before five years. That is unworkable and constitutionally objectionable. In effect, it could increase pressure for a dissolution if the coalition suffered a serious defeat. The second, which has caused greater offence, is the attempt to return to the wartime practice of having ministers sit in the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee." - Lord Rees-Mogg in The Times

Bruce Anderson: Momentum is the key for Cameron

"Leading a minority government, Mr Cameron would have made as good a fist as possible, insisting that he would act in the national interest, defying the other parties to defeat him and thus precipitate a second election. Maybe that would have worked. But at best, it would have meant prolonged uncertainty, which the markets would have hated... Mr Cameron was right to reject the risk. Like all good Tories, he has a fundamental political principle: that his country's interests and his party's interests are always identical. So he acted, decisively and dramatically. Most of the rest of the political world is still struggling to catch up." - Bruce Anderson in The Independent

The Tories and Lib Dems are fighting each other with gusto in Thirsk and Malton

"Their national leaders may still be dancing cheek to cheek, but Anne McIntosh, the former Shadow Environment Minister, and her Lib Dem rival, Howard Keal, treat each other with barely disguised contempt. Accusations fly back and forth. He urges voters to examine her expenses claims as MP for the now defunct Vale of York seat. She pauses during a tour of Helmsley on market day to challenge him to reveal the money that he and his wife claimed as members of Ryedale council." - The Times

Scottish Tories "lack leadership"

"The Conservatives in Scotland lack leadership and have become a marginalised force, a former Scottish secretary said yesterday. Lord Forsyth – who as Michael Forsyth was Scottish secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government – branded the Tories’ recent general election showing in Scotland “disastrous” and warned there was no connection between MSPs and the party’s grassroots." - The Press and Journal

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Lord Forsyth gives a stark assessment of the state of the Scottish Conservative Party

Prescott: I'm the man to sort out Labour's finances

"They say that old soldiers never die, they just fade away – but the former deputy prime minister John Prescott is not even prepared to do that... Yesterday morning, "Prezza" formally launched his campaign to take one of the few jobs in politics that he has not already held: treasurer of the Labour Party." - The Independent

> Yesterday on LeftWatch: John Prescott signals his desire to remain on the political stage as he runs for Labour Party Treasurer

I’m special because I’m ordinary, says Andy Burnham - The Times

Clegg admits he begged Brown not to quit while he negotiated with Cameron - The Independent

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