4.45pm WATCH: How can the Conservatives win ethnic voters? Sam Gyimah MP records a film for BBC Newsnight
3.45pm WATCH: Boris celebrates rowing victory when race is actually only half finished
3.30pm ToryDiary: Whoever is the next US president it'll be good news for Cameron
12.45pm Chris Pincher MP on Comment: If we don't get our energy policy right we'll suffer outages of the kind India has suffered
ToryDiary: If the Lords is not to be elected it should be reformed
Columnist Bruce Anderson: Britain's civil service can be great again
David Nuttall MP on Comment: Encouraging trends for smoking, alcohol and drug abuse
MajorityConservatism: Tory grassroots see blue collar message as more important to Tory fortunes than Europe, crime or immigration
Local government: Councils to save £75 million a year by sharing data with DWP on benefit entitlement
The Deep End: High-finance — it's a lot of bull
VIDEO: Cameron and Putin disagree over Syria and weakness of Russian civil liberties
Cameron called on the international community to ‘ramp up’ the pressure on Syria as Kofi Annan quit as special envoy to the country – Daily Mail
David Cameron is to abandon plans to reform the House of Lords
"The Prime Minister will announce in coming days that the reforms have been shelved in a decision likely to cause a major Coalition rift. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader, had viewed the introduction of elected peers as a key policy and senior Conservatives now fear he will scupper planned reforms to electoral boundaries." – The Telegraph
Conservative Party income £7 million less than equivalent period in last parliament – Daily Mail
"The Conservative party's income almost halved last year, dropping by almost £20m to its lowest level since 2003, official figures have shown. Accounts for 2011, published by the Electoral Commission, showed that the party took in £23.7m and spent £22.8m – and had liabilities totalling £8.7m." – Guardian
The Scotsman reports on the SNP's continuing financial strength: "The SNP massively outspent its Scottish rivals last year and still managed to set aside £1.5 million for its war chest… The SNP spent almost £3.5m in 2011 – the year of its landslide election victory – while its closest rival, Labour, spent just £781,569, more than the £735,774 it received in income."
Cameron says Osborne will stay until 2015 – Guardian | City AM
"He and Osborne must come up with a radical supply-side agenda for growth over the next few months, while retaining the planned public spending cuts. They need to show that they get it. If they don’t budge, and the economy continues to shrink, and the deficit to rise, the clamour for a change of leadership at the top of the Conservative party – still a minority view among MPs – will become unstoppable." – Allister Heath in City AM
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Osborne will still be Chancellor in 2015
George Osborne told by Conservative aide that 'dramatic' action needed to escape ‘economic mire’ – The Telegraph reports on yesterday's intervention on ConHome.
The Telegraph's Donata Huggins: "Mr Stride's suggestions for George – even when sandwiched in plenty of caveats and flattery – demonstrate that Mr Stride must be feeling confident in his criticism. Statements like Britain needs "something pretty dramatic to pull us out of the current economic mire" aren't exactly party line."
George Osborne’s allies slam talk of plan to nationalise RBS as ‘nuts’ – Scotsman
"Alistair Darling came within a whisker of fully nationalising the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds in January 2009 as their share prices plunged, the Financial Times has learnt. The former Labour chancellor eventually refrained from doing so, deciding instead to keep the money in reserve in case further bank bailouts were needed."
Rupert Murdoch could back Boris Johnson to take over as Tory leader – Guardian
"The only way back to popularity for the Tory party is for David Cameron to improve his personal best, not to pretend that there is any prospect of salvation from the Olympic Village idiot." – Philip Collins in The Times (£)
> Yesterday's MajorityConservatism: Installing Boris as Tory leader comes 20th in list of 23 ways to win next election
Olympics chief, ex-Tory minister Lord Moynihan, blasts 'unacceptably' high number of privately educated Team GB medallists
"‘It’s one of the worst statistics in British sport,’ he claimed. ‘It is wholly unacceptable that over 50% of our medallists in Beijing came from the private sector. ‘It tells you that 50% of the medals came from 7% of the population." – Daily Mail
The number of state schools teaching the international GCSE has soared by 300% since Michael Gove gave them more freedom to do so – Daily Mail
The Prime Minister is planning a big shake-up of middle-ranking ministers while leaving the majority of the Cabinet untouched – Times (£)
If Cameron continues to pander to the Liberal Democrats the Conservatives face destruction at the polls – Frederick Forsyth in The Express
Nigel Farage has claimed he "could not care less" who wins the next election as the UK is "governed from Brussels" – BBC
Cough drops won't do when chemotherapy is required; Polly Toynbee encourages Miliband to be radical against capitalism – Guardian
Labour has doled out 13 House of Commons security passes to unions behind a wave of damaging strikes – The Sun
Research shows that the wages of under-30s have dropped by more than 10% – Independent
And finally… Earlier in the year Obama explained basketball to Cameron – yesterday Putin was explaining judo to the British PM – Daily Mail
The Sun reports what Putin might have said to Cameron about Boris… it also reports: "Meanwhile London Mayor Boris Johnson challenged the president to “strip to the waist” for a judo match. Joker Boris said: “I hope he’ll take part. Isn’t he a dab hand? I think that’s what people want to see — stripped to the waist. We want the politicians’ Olympics.”"
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