ToryDiary: Graham Brady for Chairman of the 1922
Azeem Ibrahim on Platform: The Welfare State cannot sustain the current levels of long-term unemployment
Parliament: Peter Lilley warns that regular hung parliaments will lead to voter disenchantment
Also on Parliament: Richard Harrington, Mark Spencer and David Morris are the first of the 2010 Conservative intake to make their maiden speeches
Simon Jenkins: Was this Queen's Speech radical? Hardly.
"Cameron has already U-turned on his intention to abolish regional government. It first mutated into abolishing just the development agencies, and now only those in the south and east are to go. Like Michael Gove's abolition of just one quango, such reform fails the first test of radicalism: what you do not achieve in your first month is unlikely to be achieved thereafter. Almost every innovation of value under Labour came at the very beginning – devolution, Sure Start, elected mayors. The arteries then hardened, and the dark waters of the Treasury closed over ministers' heads... If this is the coalition's most radical moment, it is not very radical. The withdrawal of ID cards and the children's database is hardly controversial. Both were toys arising from Labour's infatuation with computers. There is no curbing of such regulatory monsters as the Criminal Records Bureau or the Health and Safety Executive. There is no review of farm payments, the NHS computer or the lunatic digital radio edict. As for Osborne's proposal to freeze council tax, it is the purest centralism. Whatever the Queen says, local councils will stay shackled to Whitehall." - Simon Jenkins in The Guardian
Michael Gove is writing to all primary and secondary schools in England inviting them to become academies - BBC
"The fact remains that this Government will support any parent who wants to open a new school — unless it is a grammar school. That seems strangely at odds with the new spirit of freedom and people power." - Times leader
Queen's Speech appears to dilute CGT plans and strengthen immigration controls"Government documents last night said CGT rates would be brought 'closer to those applied to income tax', suggesting a rate above the current 18 per cent but short of the 40 per cent tax rate on higher earners. A flagship Conservative pledge that annual immigration will be brought down from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands - also absent from last week's pact - was reinstated in the Queen's Speech documents. The moves on tax and immigration were seen as an attempt to reassure Right-wingers who believe the Prime Minister has given away too much to the Lib Dems as the price of their support." - Daily Mail
The Independent and Times agree: "David Cameron tilted the coalition away from the Liberal Democrats with a Queen’s Speech that defined tax, immigration and police reform on Conservative terms."
Britain is prepared to press ahead alone with a tax on banks to insure against future collapses, says Vince Cable - Express
Liberal Democrats push for May 2011 referendum on AV, but Tories resistant - Guardian
The Lib Dems will almost certainly stay in the coalition until the referendum on the alternative vote - Peter Riddell in The Times
"There are signs that the "new politics" the two leaders want to achieve has not yet spread to their MPs" - Andrew Grice in The Independent
Quentin Letts: Cameron was at the top of his game yesterday"Not since May 1997, when Tony Blair cruised into the Commons all sleek and gleamily cufflinked, has a Prime Minister creamed the Chamber with such assurance. David Cameron tonked every ball. He somehow managed to be suave and aggressive and expert and amateur and partisan and prime ministerial - all at the same time. If he needed to show his party's churning back benches who was boss, he duly did so. Mr Cameron will not have many better days. Some might feel he should have been more charitable in his hour of triumph. I suspect he was justified in forcing home his advantage." - Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail
Labour left Britain in 'appalling mess' says Cameron - Telegraph
"The Prime Minister’s vitriolic attack in his first Commons appearance of the new Parliament raised eyebrows on a day when MPs usually act as though they can rise above party politics." - Times
Cameron slashes MPs' recess, Parliament may sit in August if key reforms aren't passed - The Sun
William Hague plans to visit India over the summer as Britain’s new Government tries to turn cultural and trade ties with the emerging superpower into a “genuinely special relationship” - TimesMajor electoral fraud alleged in seat of Halifax - Independent
The Commons expenses watchdog is to hand MPs up to £4,000 more cash up front in a bid to calm complaints about the new system - Metro
German push for treaty could allow Tory power grab, says EU
"José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, is afraid that a new round of EU treaty talks would be an opportunity for the Prime Minister to "repatriate" sovereignty back to Westminster. If Germany continued to demand increased EU powers to enforce euro zone budget rules, Britain would use its veto during "treaty modifications" to transfer powers from Brussels back to London, Mr Barroso warned." - Telegraph
ToryDiary: Twelve of the new intake are standing for the Executive of the 1922 Committee
Local government: Spectator's attack on Boris misfires
Alex Deane on CentreRight: Charities adopt "liberal" positions that are nothing to do with their core mission - a mistake, perhaps
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