5.30pm WATCH: Andrew Marr makes his first television appearance since suffering a stroke
2.30pm Update: James Forsyth tweets that Andrew Cooper isn't leaving No.10 yet, but…
2pm ToryDiary: The media are taking Ukip more and more seriously – how will the Tory leadership respond?
12.15pm Donal Blaney on Comment: Introducing the Margaret Thatcher Library & Museum
ToryDiary: As Andrew Cooper departs No.10, the question for David Cameron is “Why?”
Mark Field MP on Comment: Whatever happened to that export-led growth?
WATCH: Carol Thatcher talks of the "tough and tearful week" ahead
Andrew Cooper to leave No.10 – are differences with Lynton Crosby to blame?
"Andrew Cooper, Mr Cameron’s personal polling guru and a key modernising figure at No 10, is returning to his private business after being usurped by outspoken Australian ‘fixer’ Lynton Crosby. … Last night, a Tory source said: ‘There was never going to be room for both Andrew and Lynton.’ … A No 10 source played down Mr Cooper’s resignation and said: ‘Andrew always planned to return to his business around this time and will carry on doing some work for the Conservative Party.’" – Mail on Sunday
> Today on ToryDiary: As Andrew Cooper departs No.10, the question for David Cameron is “Why?”
Angela Merkel urges David Cameron to crack down on tax havens
"The coalition's plans to crack down on Britain's tax havens were discussed at a meeting between David Cameron and chancellor Angela Merkel, amid growing concerns in Germany. Merkel is understood to have had questions about the monitoring of British sovereign territories used as tax havens by the rich." – Observer
And the Sun urges Mr Cameron to do a deal with Nigel Farage…
"Crucially Mr Cameron must somehow persuade a hostile Farage to take his calls. … Because unless those two can strike a deal, Ed Miliband could wake up in Downing Street on May 8, 2015, without an idea in his head but with power in his hands." – Sun on Sunday editorial
…as Ukip stand to gain from lost Tory votes in next month's local elections
"Tories are set to lose 380 councillors — a quarter of their 1,450 seats up for grabs — and the control of 11 councils. … more than one in four who voted Tory in 2010 would not do so now, YouGov found. Three-quarters of deserters will back UKIP." – Sun on Sunday
Carol Thatcher: "This is going to be a tough and tearful week, even for the daughter of the Iron Lady"
"Carol Thatcher said yesterday that she was expecting a ‘tough and tearful week’ as she prepared for her mother’s funeral. … Speaking outside the family home in Belgravia, Central London, Margaret Thatcher’s daughter said she felt ‘like anyone else who has just lost a second parent’." – Mail on Sunday
> Today's video to WATCH: Carol Thatcher talks of the "tough and tearful week" ahead
Norman Tebbit remembers Thatcher, dimisses Cameron's chances, and slams John Prescott… in interview with the Mail on Sunday
"And at 82, the Chingford Polecat still has a few scores to settle. … He boasts of having ‘scuppered’ Heseltine’s chances of taking Thatcher’s place in Number 10 – and claims it was a ‘patriotic act’. … And he lambasts Thatcher’s Labour foes, calling John Prescott a ‘flabby, fat, fornicating fool’ and Neil Kinnock ‘narrow minded’ for snubbing her funeral." – Mail on Sunday
Other tributes to the Iron Lady…
> Yesterday, by Peter Hoskin: Margaret Thatcher, screen icon
…after yesterday's protests
"About 3,000 people gathered in the rain in Trafalgar Square on Saturday night to 'celebrate' the demise of Margaret Thatcher. A few people chanted obscenities and at least two bottles were thrown at police, with the call of 'Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead' ringing out intermittently." – The Observer
Peter Hitchens: Prime Minister Thatcher was a tragic failure
"…her 11 years in office were a tragic failure, if you are a patriotic conservative. She was an active liberal in economic policy, refusing to protect jobs and industries that held communities together. … She was a passive, defeatist liberal when it came to education, morality and the family." – Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday
And a selection of other newspaper comment:
And of editorials:
> Yesterday on MPsETC: Gove's critical take on Thatcher: "Social bonds need to be nurtured more carefully"
"Supporters of Baroness Thatcher are planning to create a museum, library and educational centre as a permanent memorial to the former prime minister" – BBC
The police commander in charge of Margaret Thatcher's funeral provokes anger
"The police commander in charge of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday has provoked outrage by condoning disrespectful demonstrations planned outside the ceremony. … Ms Jones, who masterminded security for the Royal Wedding, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We are not there to uphold respect, we are there to uphold the law’." – Mail on Sunday
> Yesterday video to WATCH: Grantham-Style!
Mitchell versus May. Source of contention: Plebgate
"Former Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell is demanding an apology from Theresa May after privately accusing the Home Secretary of masterminding his exit from Government over ‘Plebgate’. … He is convinced he lost his job last autumn because of a police conspiracy – and that Mrs May was instrumental in turning the Cabinet against him when his fate hung in the balance." – Mail on Sunday
Doubts about whether the Government's Work Programme can keep pace with unemployment
"The coalition's flagship Work Programme for the long-term unemployed is failing because there are just too many people needing help, according to a government report. … The quality of the service is being affected by the high level of demand, according to the companies responsible for training the unemployed." – The Observer
Conservative Way Forward publishes a paper on immigration – which proposes that other countries be paid to process asylum claims
"Poor countries should be paid to process asylum seekers who are trying to get to Britain to stop them ;disappearing' onto our streets, says a plan published by a group of influential rightwingers within the Conservative party. … 'Third World countries with plenty of space' should be paid large sums to set up their own centres to deal with asylum claims to Britain." – Sunday Times (£)
"The mayor of London has described his colourful style as a 'cunning device' to get attention from people bored by conventional politicians" – Sunday Times (£)
Adam Boulton has been impressed by Ed Miliband
"His Commons tribute was more substantive and heavier than Cameron’s and quoted more of Thatcher’s own words. He cleverly linked her to the Miliband school of politics in which 'ideas matter' and to the European intellectual tradition through Friedrich Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom." – Adam Boulton, Sunday Times (£)
But David Blunkett wants more from his party's leader
"Ed Miliband's leadership faced fresh criticism as David Blunkett, a former home secretary, backed Tony Blair in calling for a 'one nation' Labour party based on more than just backing the 'grievance of a resentful and selfish' public sector against budget cuts." – The Observer
Labour goes on the attack over hospital waiting times
"Official NHS data reveals a growing crisis in England’s A&E wards with one in every three patients now waiting four hours or more for emergency treatment in the worst affected areas. … Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: ‘England’s A&Es are struggling in a way not seen since the bad old days of the mid-Nineties’." – Mail on Sunday
Sally Bercow versus both Margaret Thatcher and Lord McAlpine
"Sally Bercow, the wife of the Commons Speaker, has rejected an invitation to the funeral of Baroness Thatcher, a leader whom she believes ushered in a 'very greedy and selfish society'." – Sunday Times (£)
"Sally Bercow, the wife of the Commons Speaker, has refused to back down in her legal battle with Lord McAlpine and will this week face High Court proceedings over an allegedly libellous tweet linking the Tory grandee to false child sex claims." – Sunday Times (£)
Police commissioner Ann Barnes, who employed Paris Brown as a youth crime tsar, is still hiring
"Embattled Police and Crime Commissioner Ann Barnes is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on staff and personal advertising campaigns – despite describing her job as a ‘wilful waste of public money’." – Mail on Sunday
News in brief:
And finally… Dominic Grieve's lost gifts
"As the Government's chief legal officer, Dominic Grieve must be scrupulous in his rejection of the gifts that he is given. And what gifts they are. … Mandrake can disclose that among the long list of presents of which the Attorney General has had to dispose during the past year are two Cartier wrist watches worth more than £3,000 and a pair of Longines watches, at £1,790." – Sunday Telegraph
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