10pm ToryDiary: Despite Ed Miliband's huffing and puffing, more voters trust Cameron on hacking
6.15pm Parliament: Cameron under fire for not coming to Commons to answer questions on Hackgate
5.45pm ToryDiary: Oliver Letwin sets out five principles for public service reform
4.15pm WATCH: Dowler family meet Nick Clegg over hacking scandal
2.45pm Tim Montgomerie on Comment: The BBC has a monopoly and it's abusing it
Noon ConHomeUSA: Today's US newslinks focus on the 'Debt Deadlock'
ToryDiary: The Cameron-Murdoch relationship didn't win the last election for the Tories. It helped lose it.
Mark Fox and Paul Goodman interview Liam Fox: The Secretary of State defends the decision to replace the Harrier, operations in Libya and his reforms of the Ministry of Defence
Graham Brady MP on Comment: It's time to stop aviation taxes flying out of control
WATCH:
David Cameron to unveil blueprint for public services
"At a speech in London, the PM will vow to end the "take-what-you're given" culture, and deliver "more freedom, more choice and more local control". He wants to allow companies, charities and community groups to bid to run everything from local health services to schools, libraries and parks." – BBC
David Cameron is expected to restate his desire for local communities to have more power over decisions which affect them. He will say: "Total public spending increased by 57% in real terms from 1997 to 2010. But on no measure can we claim that things have improved by more than 50%. It's about ending the old big government, top-down way of running public services… The old dogma that said Whitehall knows best – it's gone." – Independent
"Under the plans, communities will be allowed to set up neighbourhood councils to commission services on a hyper-local level, individuals will get more personal budgets to buy their own services and the use of payment by results will be expanded to encourage markets to develop across the public sector." – Guardian
Cameron ready to sink BSkyB deal until 2014
"Downing Street revealed the Prime Minister wants to prevent the tycoon buying out the television company until criminal proceedings have concluded into the News of the World hacking scandal. That could delay the £10billion takeover bid until 2014 and the Prime Minister's aides hope it will completely put an end to the politically toxic deal, which has exposed Mr Cameron’s close links to Mr Murdoch's News International empire." – Daily Mail
British government lawyers are drawing up plans to block Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy out the broadcaster BSkyB – Reuters
Huhne claims Clegg told Cameron of the ‘very serious risks’ of taking on Andy Coulson – Metro | Telegraph
Ashcroft will publish evidence of Tom Baldwin's dirty journalism within days – Telegraph
Guardian's Peter Wilby fears Daily Mail will be main beneficiary of News International's decline
"The main beneficiaries of the NoW's demise and the weakening of Murdoch's other papers (particularly the Times) will be the Daily Mail and its Sunday sister, which today distributed money-off coupons "to ensure you have a great newspaper to enjoy on a Sunday". The Mail, with its suburban, curtain-twitching prurience, is in some respects worse than Murdoch's tabloids, which are at least fairly honest about their mission to titillate. It is every bit as hardline and influential on law-and-order issues as the Sun. It has been a consistent enemy of liberal policies on, for example, abortions. It remains deeply hostile to scientists warning of global warming, while all Murdoch's papers – thanks mainly to his son James – support green policies. If there were ever a British Tea Party, the Mail would be its house journal." – Peter Wilby in The Guardian
This is a chance to escape Murdoch’s embrace – Alastair Campbell in the FT (£)
It's not just News international; Government charged with being too close to Google
"Freedom of Information requests [reveal] that the company secured more than 20 meetings in the last year with senior politicians, including David Cameron and George Osborne, and Downing Street advisers." – Telegraph
Economic storm clouds gathering…
> On ToryDiary yesterday Tim Montgomerie set out three flaws in George Osborne's economic policy.
David Wighton in The Times (£) welcomes a "seismic" shift in Tory industrial policy; away from laissez-faire and towards protecting domestic suppliers – The Times (£)
Dismissing scare stories about green energy, Huhne says cleaner power sources will get cheaper – BBC
Goverment set to invest £7 billion in low-carbon technology – Telegraph
"Cheap energy is the elixir of economic growth. It was Newcastle’s cheap coal that gave the industrial revolution its second wind — substituting energy for labour drove up productivity, creating jobs and enriching both producers and consumers. Conversely, a dear-energy policy destroys jobs. Not only does it drive energy-intensive business overseas; according to Charles Hendry, the Energy Minister, the average British medium-sized business will face an annual energy bill £247,000 higher by 2020 thanks to the carbon policy. That’s equivalent to almost ten jobs it must lose, or cannot create." – Matt Ridley in The Times (£)
Tom Richmond: Cameron must focus on the substance
"After 10 years of “spin” and PR stunts by Blair, voters do not want to know whether their Prime Minister went running in his football team’s shorts. They want to know what he is doing to make Britain a better place, and what he is doing to prevent the policy muddles, u-turns, splits and so forth that are beginning to define the coalition." – Tom Richmond in the Yorkshire Post
Sir John Major says Holyrood should be handed extensive new powers in order to put a stop to Alex Salmond’s independence agenda
"The former Prime Minister has intervened in the growing debate about Scotland’s constitutional future by saying that the country should have full powers over raising all the money it spends, while continuing to share foreign, defence and macro-economic policy making with the rest of the UK." – Times (£)
By emphasising Margaret Thatcher's individual qualities the new film about her time in office continues the current artistic trend of reducing politics to the personal – Ben Walters in The Guardian
And finally… Boris Johnson declares his love of… paintballing – Telegraph
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