ToryDiary:
- Brown's hung parliament strategy enters final phase
- Party members support return of Iain Duncan Smith and David Davis
Charles Walker MP on Platform: Radical surgery is required to rebalance our democracy - and we should start by removing the Executive from Parliament
Local government: How Boris cut the Council Tax precept by 10%
Seats and candidates: A stock take of selection outcomes in Tory-held seats
82% want David Cameron to be clearer about what he would do on the economy - Independent
> Yesterday evening's ToryDiary: Conservative lead down to 7%
George Osborne will set out eight benchmarks against which success of a Conservative government's economic plans would be judged - BBC
"David Cameron's decision to soften his earlier rhetoric on spending cuts risks blunting the only clear economic message that his party has communicated to voters, pollsters said yesterday." - FT
Tories admit they had so far identified only £1.5bn in spending cuts to be introduced this summer if they win the general election - Guardian
"The Conservatives are facing intense scrutiny for the first time. I am not sure they are ready for it." - Steve Richards in The Independent
"A majority may want to call a halt on tax and spending, but eight out of 10 would like more money for hospitals and seven out of 10 for schools. Square that circle. As for tax cuts, less than one in 10 are keen if the price is less cash for vital services. So Mr Cameron would be mistaken if he believed Britain is ready to embrace the age of austerity he promised last autumn; nor has there been anything that could be called an ideological shift in favour of a smaller state." - FT
"David Cameron has dropped a proposal for a £50bn loan guarantee scheme as he reshapes the Conservative party’s manifesto to reflect the end of the recession. The Tory leader’s decision to axe the plan, which he first suggested at the height of the credit crunch in November 2008, is an implicit admission that the economy is recovering." - FT
It’s time to halt quantitative easing - Allister Heath on City AM
Treasury minister admits that top earners are dodging 50p tax rate - Times
"You couldn't make it up. Labour ministers have given bailiffs the go-ahead to collect credit card debts by credit card." - Grant Shapps in The Sun
Rachel Sylvester: The Tories are being taken over by timidity
"There is a nervousness verging on paranoia in the Tory high command, just as there was in the senior ranks of new Labour in the months leading up to its landslide win 13 years ago. A party that has been out of power for more than a decade is terrified that the smallest error could cause a precious victory to slip between its fingers and smash on the House of Commons floor." - Rachel Sylvester in The Times
MPs are to be asked to vote next week on holding a referendum on electoral reform - BBC
"A beaten party doesn't need a new leader as much as it needs a new discussion – about what went wrong, about what needs to be done now, about the long term. Rushing to elect a new leader is a distraction – as the Conservatives found out in 1997 and 2001." - Martin Kettle in The Guardian
Rush to Iraq war 'left troops without vital body armour' - Independent
Give MPs a £15,000 pay rise, says parliamentary watchdog - Daily Mail
Scots turn away from Scottish to British television programmes - Telegraph
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