ToryDiary: The CBI and IoD back the Conservatives on early spending cuts
Also on ToryDiary: Boris Johnson's capitivating belief in human progress
LeftWatch: No, Lord Mandelson, the unions have you by the balls and Labour pours another £11bn of poison into the wells
Peter Snowdon on Platform: The Conservatives may have come back from the brink of annihilation - but the party now faces the closest election battle in decades
Local government: Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers Alliance suggests a rewards scheme for council staff who some up with efficiency saving ideas
Also on Local government: Cllr David Meikle, a Conservative councillor on Glasgow City Council, reports on the resignation of the Labour council leader Steven Purcell follow a storm of allegations about chemical dependency and more
Seats and candidates: John Bercow doesn't deserve Tories' automatic support, says increasingly independent Tebbit
LeftWatch: Guess what? The unions are spending more in the marginals than the Conservatives
Tory lead at 2%, 5% and 9% in two Sunday newspaper polls ToryDiary summarises the three polls
LeftWatch: "Not true," Mr Brown, Defence chiefs accuse the PM of starving the armed forces of funds
Seats and candidates: Janice Small puts her face on the back end of a bus
"The Conservatives yesterday vowed to reduce the number of private schools by offering them a route into the state system. A David Cameron government would create a new breed of state-funded independent school with freedom to vary the national curriculum as well as teachers' pay and conditions." - Daily Mail
"Schools that opt to leave the Local Authority umbrella will be free in virtually every other respect, says Gove. “They will not be bound by the national curriculum, they will be free to pay good teachers more, they will be free to hire their own architects and builders, free to choose their own IT, free to shape pay and conditions in interest of their staff.” But the government will continue to have control in one important respect: admissions. “They won’t be free to select by ability,” says Gove “They will have to be comprehensive.”" - Michael Gove is interviewed for City AM
City AM's Editor describes Mr Gove as "an unusually gifted and principled politician."
A leader in The Times worries about Michael Gove's plans to 'traditionalise' the curriculum and give schools more freedoms
> Saturday's ToryDiary: Gove will invite best minds to draw up a traditionalist core curriculum for Britain's schools
Conservatives and Labour deny rumours of 'VAT on food' - Express
Liam Fox says Brown's £100m plan to buy 200 new armoured vehicles for troops in Afghanistan falls short of previous commitment to buy 400 - FT
"Dr Fox’s comments came as Conservatives also attacked Mr Brown’s visit to frontline troops, with former Tory prime minister Sir John Major claiming Mr Brown used the military as a ‘party political prop’.
‘To use our soldiers as a cynically timed pre-election backdrop is profoundly unbecoming conduct for a prime minister,’ he said." - Metro | ITN report
As a result of Brown's malfeasance, men have died who ought to have lived - Bruce Anderson in The Independent
Chris Grayling embarrassed by questions about his future "Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, was forced to admit that, unlike some of his colleagues, he had not been told by Mr Cameron that he would stay in his post if the Conservatives won the election. There has been speculation that Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary who is close to Mr Cameron, could be given the job in a Tory government. Asked on Sky News why Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, had been guaranteed a job, when he had not, Mr Grayling insisted that the defence post was an important one, before looking embarrassed when it was pointed out that the Home Office was one of the great offices of state." - Telegraph
ConservativeHome comment: "More than two years ago David Cameron told the Today programme that Andrew Lansley would be his Secretary of State for Health. That very unusual commitment set a dangerous precedent and Mr Cameron has since given other commitments to other frontbenchers. The commitments to the likes of Osborne, Hague, Gove, Fox and Lansley have simultaneously undermined the likes of Chris Grayling (my top choice as Tory attack dog). Mr Cameron's desire to see individual frontbenchers master their briefs is a good one but it is best left unspoken."< /p>
"Ever since Scottish and Welsh devolution in 1998, the absence of England from the constitutional settlement has been a grotesque omission." - Telegraph
Tories red-faced after 'Samantha for Labour' gaffe - Guardian | Saturday evening's ToryDiary
Meet Michael Farmer, the Tories' £2.3 donor - Telegraph
Liberal Democrats are willing to take seats in either a Tory or Labour Cabinet"Until now, the Liberal Democrats had indicated that they would be unlikely to take part in a formal alliance with another party, suggesting that a hung parliament would result in a minority government. But in an apparent change of tack, Vince Cable, the deputy leader, said that he would even be willing to serve as a cabinet minister in an alliance government." - Telegraph
> Saturday's LeftWatch: Clegg fears Liberal Democrats will split if he backs minority Tory government
"I would have given my arm and leg to be part of a three-way leaders' debate" - Charles Kennedy talks to the BBC about the massive opportunity that election debates have given to the Liberal Democrats
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