6.30pm LeftWatch: It's gone under-reported in the focus on the Coalition but Ed Miliband's ratings remain as dire as ever
5pm Gary Streeter MP on Comment: We start loving the Coalition or Ed Balls and Ed Miliband will be in Downing Street
Noon MPsETC: Tory MP Glyn Davies names and shames the supermarkets that allegedly exploit dairy farmers
10.45am WATCH: Chris Grayling welcomes another fall in unemployment
10am Local government: Turning round troubled families means ending the false kindness of delay
ToryDiary: Osborne and Alexander launch £50 billion infrastructure and exports scheme
Matthew Corner on Comment: Military Spending Cuts compromise defence in favour of unnecessary spending
Conservative Majority: Make more use of MPs
Local government: Planning decisions need to speed up for the UK to be competitive
The Deep End: Differences in family environment have a huge effect on educational attainment
Government underwrites £50bn infrastructure spending
"The government says it will underwrite £50bn of investment in infrastructure and exports to try to lift the economy. The Chancellor, George Osborne, said he was using the coalition's "hard won fiscal credibility" to release private sector funds." – BBC
"John Cridland, CBI Director-General, said: ‘Investment and exports will be the dual drivers of future growth in the UK and this scheme should help fire up both engines. ‘This announcement marks a big step towards unlocking the £250billion of investment needed to renew our national infrastructure, two-thirds of which has to come from the private sector.’" – Daily Mail
Osborne and Alexander: The credibility of the Coalition is helping Britons
"Two years on, as the eurozone crisis and the recovery from the banking crisis continue to drag on growth, it is even more important that the coalition partners work together in the national interest. The credibility the Government has earned by tackling the deficit is already benefitting millions of British taxpayers, families and businesses through consistently low interest rates. And that creditworthiness enables us to do much more to support our economy than some other countries at present." – The Chancellor and Chief Secretary for PoliticsHome
Allister Heath: It is time for David Cameron and George Osborne to face the unpalatable truth: the Coalition is failing badly on the economy
"Given Osborne’s visceral, personal hatred of Ed Balls, the brains behind Brownonomics, it is shocking how indistinguishable so much of Coalition policy remains from Labour’s. Osborne’s over-reliance on monetary and credit policy – including endless quantitative easing and the latest, dangerous gimmick that is funding for lending – remains straight out of the Labour rulebook. The bulk of deficit reduction so far has come from tax hikes. Total, real-terms spending cuts to date add up to barely more than 1pc of expenditures." – Allister Heath in The Telegraph
David Laws: Coalition could be most effective peacetime government for a century
"David Cameron and Nick Clegg should use this autumn’s dull-sounding “Mid Term Review” to breathe new life into their Coalition, and give it a clear sense of direction and priorities. There is no need for a second agreement – the original programme was extraordinarily bold. If we could deliver on it, we would be the most effective peacetime government of the past 100 years. Achieving existing goals, not dreaming up new ones, is what is required." – David Laws in The Telegraph
David Cameron and Nick Clegg employ more ministerial special advisers than Gordon Brown did – Telegraph
"The Government's defence is that the special advisers' total wage bill is £600,000, 10 per cent less than under Gordon Brown. They have more of them, but pay them less." – Independent
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: The rising SpAd population isn't in itself a bad thing for Britain
The government has been criticised for a lack of leadership after the first increase in road deaths for nearly a decade – BBC
The head of security company G4S has said he regrets it ever took on the Olympic security contract, as he agreed it had become a "humiliating shambles" – BBC
Education Secretary backs three schools run by groups with creationist views, raising concerns about levels of scrutiny – Guardian
Private educated pupils and children from grammar schools dominate top universities – FT (£)
In The Times (£), Liz Truss MP sets out a skills agenda: "College and school courses that don’t have academic rigour or improve workplace skills should be junked. Maths is a particular problem: the UK is 28th in the world in a subject that commands the highest earnings premium at all levels. Britain needs more maths teachers — secondary schools are 3,000 short — so let’s allow anyone with the requisite skills into the country straight away to make sure the next generation does not suffer the fate that the previous one did. We also need to expand the number of places in decent schools; we should allow profit-making ones to summon up that extra capacity."
Universal credit to go live in 2013 – Ministers insist flagship welfare reform is “on track, on budget, on time” – FT (£)
Daily Mail urges Ed Miliband to suspend Tony Blair's Labour re-entry until Chilcott reports on Iraq
"[Blair] led his country into a bloody and illegal war on a lie. This is the accusation at the heart of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry, which spent 18 months hearing evidence until early last year. Since then, the panel has produced a million words of a draft report, almost twice as long as War and Peace. Yet, incredibly, Sir John now says his findings must be delayed for a year – more than a decade after the invasion – because officials are seemingly refusing to let him publish Blair’s private messages to Mr Bush, on which his conclusions are based." – Daily Mail leader
Labour are considering plans to slap an extra tax on fizzy drinks in a bid to tackle Britain’s obesity crisis – The Sun
Two-thirds of British adults fail to take recommended amount of exercise needed to keep them healthy – Guardian
SNP ministers accused of lack of leadership after gay marriage decision is delayed – Scotsman | Herald
Forget wearing your heart on your sleeve – for today's politicos, it's all about the badge on your lapel – Independent
And finally… Batman is the "Caped Conservative" – Robert Colvile in The Telegraph
"The Dark Knight Rises is a quite audaciously capitalist vision, radically conservative, radically vigilante, that advances a serious, stirring proposal that the wish-fulfilment of the wealthy is to be championed if they say they want to do good." – The Guardian
…but in America some conservatives see the film as an attack on Mitt Romney – USA Today
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