5pm Lord Ashcroft on Comment: If things are so bad, why aren’t more people saying it’s time for change?
4pm LISTEN: "We have had a couple of very bizarre cases." Nigel Farage speaks on Radio 4's Today Programme
2.15pm LeftWatch: Ed Miliband’s fiscal flap is as nothing compared to Ed Balls’s fiscal falsehoods
11.30am Francis Davis on Comment: A place that will drive economic and social recovery. In other words, a cathedral.
11am Local Government: Will the incumbency factor dent Labour's gains on Thursday?
ToryDiary: IDS and universal credit. "They lied to him." Trouble with the civil service
Garvan Walshe writes this week's Foreign Policy column: Time for a Syrian No-Fly Zone
Chris Grayling MP on Comment: No more Sky subscriptions. No more 18 certificate DVDs. Why I'm launching today's tougher prison regime.
On Comment, Marina Kim writes about the importance of poetry in politics: "A real poet – thank you Wikipedia – is someone who 'evokes meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning', someone who looks deeper through the muddy water and tells us what he sees at the bottom."
Local Government:
The Deep End: Has political correctness gone mad or is madness politically correct?
The Tory-UKIP wars continue: David Cameron warns that a vote for Farage is a boost for Miliband
"Speaking in Bridgwater, Somerset, Mr Cameron declined to repeat the suggestion that UKIP is a racist party. He said: ‘It’s a simple and straight choice, at your county council and at the next election, between the blue team who want to keep getting the deficit down, who want to keep reforming immigration and welfare to make it fair, or you have the red team who put the deficit up and who don’t care if our immigration and welfare system works at all.’" – Daily Mail
> Yesterday on ToryDiary: Ken Clarke is right to abuse UKIP…and Boris Johnson is right to woo it
And the columnists and leader writers have their say
Mr Cameron says that it's up to pensioners whether they hand back their benefits
"The Prime Minister said that it is for pensioners 'to decide' whether to accept the winter fuel allowance or consider handing back other benefits including free bus passes and television licences. … He also reiterated his pledge to keep universal benefits for pensioners during this parliament." – Daily Telegraph
As his latest No.10 appointment comes under scrutiny
David Cameron was accused of cronyism again last night after appointing one of his best friends to a job in Downing Street. … Journalist Christopher Lockwood will take up a post in the No 10 policy unit. … His appointment caused despair among Tory MPs … ‘Great move, Dave,’ one said. ‘Good luck trying to argue we are not a bunch of toffs after this.’ … Tim Montgomerie, a former Conservative chief of staff, said: ‘Extraordinary that Cameron has appointed yet another mate to Number 10.’" – Daily Mail
> Yesterday:
Has Oliver Letwin been sidelined by the PM?
"David Cameron has sidelined the gaffe-prone minister from writing the 2015 election manifesto. … Instead, the prime job has been given to his new No10 policy board chief Jo Johnson, 41, high-flying brother of London mayor Boris. … [Mr Letwin] will remain Government Policy Minister — but his role has been limited and he faces the sack in the next reshuffle." – The Sun
"The PM is furious local authorities can give their CEOs pay and perks that dwarf his £142,000-a-year salary — some raking in more than a quarter of a million pounds" – The Sun
More ministerial pressure for NHS savings
"Cabinet ministers will on Tuesday mount a collective attack on the 'ringfence' protecting the NHS from budget cuts, as the search for £11.5bn of election year savings reaches a critical stage. … Philip Hammond, defence secretary, Vince Cable, business secretary, Chris Grayling, justice secretary, and Eric Pickles, local government secretary, are among those insisting that the NHS must share the pain." – Financial Times
Chris Grayling's plan to curtail prisoner perks
"All prisoners currently get perks and only lose them for bad behaviour — but would have to earn privileges such as their own tellies under the shake-up. … They would need to take part in prison work or training, and addicts would be required to attend drugs or booze rehab. … Inmates will also be banned from watching certificate 18 DVDs — and subscription TV will be removed from private jails." – The Sun
> Today, by Chris Grayling MP on Comment: No more Sky subscriptions. No more 18 certificate DVDs. Why I'm launching today's tougher prison regime.
Justine Greening to announce an end to British aid for South Africa
"Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, will make the announcement today … Ms Greening said the decision to stop aid to Africa’s biggest economy was based on 'enormous progress' made since the end of apartheid almost 20 years ago. … 'I have agreed with my South African counterparts that South Africa is now in a position to fund its own development.'" – The Times (£)
A privatised Royal Mail would be quicker and more stable, suggests Michael Fallon
"Mr Fallon told an audience at the Policy Exchange that privatising Britain's national postal operator was 'the way to put Royal Mail onto a long-term sustainable basis'. … One advantage was privatised postal operators in Germany and Austria had been able to deliver post quicker than the state controlled Royal Mail." – Daily Telegraph
Rob Wilson keeps on writing for an invesigation into the Leveson lovers
"A Conservative MP has written to [Lord Justice Leveson], who was in charge of last year’s public inquiry into Press standards, querying his insistence that Carine Patry Hoskins had no input into its key conclusions." – Daily Mail
Peter Lilley: The green spin of environmental activists has skewed the fracking debate
"When you hear shale gas and fracking described as 'controversial' or 'risky', bear in mind that most campaigners against it are not concerned about fracking as such. Their main motive is to prevent us from exploiting fossil fuels. … That is why they grotesquely exaggerate the supposed environmental risks of fracking." Peter Lilley, Daily Telegraph
Janan Ganesh: A strong economy at the next election could harm the Conservatives
"…a strong economy could relax voters into experimenting with a Labour party they do not really trust. The other extreme – outright recession – would surely see off the Conservatives too. The electoral sweet spot, then, is actually tepid, shuffling growth, real enough to be prized but too fragile to comfortably withstand political upheaval." – Janan Ganesh, Financial Times
Rachel Sylvester celebrates IDS's "missionary zeal" after the launch of the Universal Credit…
"Mr Duncan Smith repeatedly lost his temper with the mandarins. On one occasion, he heard a member of his team being berated by the Treasury, seized the telephone and, according to a Whitehall source, shouted down the line: 'If you ever speak to my officials like that again I’ll bite your balls off and send them to you in a box.'" – Rachel Sylvester, The Times (£)
> Today on ToryDiary: IDS and universal credit. "They lied to him." Trouble with the civil service
…As Labour warm to the scheme
"Labour voted against the scheme when it was debated by Parliament last year. But yesterday Mr Byrne said the universal credit system was a ‘fine idea’, albeit one with some details still to be ironed out. … Shadow employment minister Stephen Timms also said the scheme was a ‘sensible’ idea which would ‘potentially simplify’ the benefits system." - Daily Mail
"Compassionate Conservatism has been sidelined" – Nick Clegg in local election mode
"Nick Clegg has accused David Cameron of 'pulling to the Right' over welfare, human rights and the environment … In a bid to shore up support for the Lib Dems in local elections, the Deputy Prime Minister claimed compassionate Conservatism had been 'sidelined'." - Daily Mail
> Yesterday, by columnist Jesse Norman MP: Adam Smith's great insight. Compassion isn't pity. It's fellow feeling.
Ed Miliband's borrowing bungle x 10
"Mr Miliband refused on ten occasions to admit that his party would increase government borrowing, despite outlining plans that would require more than £28billion of borrowing. … He then revealed that Labour’s policy review would investigate whether to axe universal benefits for pensioners such as the winter fuel allowance and free bus and television licences. … His aides were later forced to insist that they would stay." – Daily Mail
> Yesteday's clip to LISTEN to: THAT Miliband World at One "car crash" interview with Martha Kearney
Polly Toynbee reckons that housebuilding will be Mr Milband's "golden policy key" at the next election
"But if Miliband needs a golden policy key, housebuilding looks set to be it. Build a million homes to cut housing benefit waste, employ hundreds of thousands, create apprenticeships, breathe life into the real economy, stop house price bubbles, replace those right-to-buy social homes. Building is not just good policy, but the best symbol for optimism." – Polly Toynbee, Guardian
> Yesterday on the Deep End: Britain needs to build its way to recovery
"Why are Labour's leading ladies so invisible, Ed Miliband?" – Cathy Newman, Daily Telegraph
Margaret Hodge warns over "sweetheart" tax deals
"The scale of the government's "sweetheart" tax deals can be revealed for the first time after previously unseen documents showed that just four settlements were worth £4.5bn between them. … Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said: 'If we got £4.5bn in, how much did we not get? That is what taxpayers will want to know, and I'll be raising this with HMRC through the committee.'" Guardian
MPs urged to probe Europe's insurance reforms
"A top British financial regulator has called on parliament to probe an EU overhaul of insurance regulations … In a letter to the head of the Treasury select committee, Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, warned that efforts to finalise Solvency II had 'ground to a halt' in the face of conflicting national interests." – Financial Times
News in brief
And finally… Visit Downton Britain, urges Maria Miller
"Britain is a nation full of servants like those in Downton Abbey, according to the Government’s new tourism campaign. … The upstairs-downstairs TV hit will be used in a major drive to reverse the falling trend of transatlantic tourism. … The campaign is part of Visit Britain’s new tourism strategy to be unveiled by Culture Secretary Maria Miller today." – The Sun
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