ToryDiary: Britain needs an immigration cap this year
Seats and Candidates: Mystery surrounds CCHQ's plans for the candidates' list and candidate selection
Howard Flight on Platform: George Osborne is to be congratulated on his Budget - but there remain a number of challenges for the future
David Cameron demands that G8 and G20 summits are more than just talking shops
"David Cameron has arrived in Canada for his first international summit as prime minister, calling for them to be "more than just grand talking shops". Mr Cameron said they should be tightly focused on key priorities. Political leaders from the G8 are meeting in Muskoka, Ontario on Friday to discuss trade, aid and maternal health in the poorest countries. The G20 group of nations gather in Toronto on Saturday, with the global economy on the agenda." - BBC
"Too often, these international meetings fail to live up to the hype and the promises made. I’m sure other leaders would admit that. A lot of money is spent laying them on. Host cities are disrupted for days or even weeks. The cavalcades roll into town. Good intentions are shared in productive talks. Then, somehow, those intentions rarely seem to come to fruition in real, tangible global action." - David Cameron writes for the Toronto Globe and Mail
"So, is there to be a fight over fiscal frugality in Toronto or not? That appears to depend not just on whom you ask, but on which day you ask them." - FT
Anger at Theresa May's decision to keep 28-day detention without charge for terrorism suspects
"Rules allowing suspects to be held for 28 days without charge are to remain in force for another six months. The Coalition has indicated that it wants to reduce the limit, which is the longest in the developed world. But in a Commons statement yesterday, Home Secretary Theresa May announced that the rules would stay in force while the Government conducts a six month review of Labour’s counter-terrorism legislation." - Daily Mail
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: David Davis challenges Theresa May over her decision to extend 28-day detention
Theresa May goes into battle with Trevor Phillips - The Independent
Francis Maude to scrap three quarters of government websites (and save £100million)
"Around 600 Government’s websites will be closed, saving £100million, Francis Maude has announced. Mr Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, said he would be scrapping three quarters of the Government's 820 websites. Whitehall sources were reluctant to name which sites will close although one suggested that www.lovechips.co.uk – a website run by the marketing department of the Potato Council – would be unlikely to survive the cull." - Daily Telegraph
Top Lib Dems fire warning to Tories over Budget cuts
"Fears among senior Liberal Democrats about the coalition with the Tories were brought into the open yesterday as Simon Hughes, the party's newly elected deputy leader, raised the prospect of tabling rebel amendments to the finance bill." - The Guardian
"The historical precedents suggest a sorry end for the Liberal Democrats. On three occasions, the Liberals and the Conservatives have formed a coalition in government and on three occasions the pact has divided the Liberals." - Times (£) editorial
Tory and Lib Dems row over winter fuel payments - The Times (£)
The Left is furious about public sector workers being asked to suggest cuts
"The Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg have written to all six million public sector workers, asking how to make "fair and responsible" spending cuts. But union leaders reacted with anger, saying they could barely believe that hard-working public sector workers were being asked to get involved in how to axe services." - Daily Telegraph
"The new chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Margaret Hodge, has written to the prime minister and his deputy to ask that they withdraw a claim that the committee will help sift through ideas from the public about how to trim waste." - The Guardian
"The Treasury is stonewalling over the publication of Andrew Lansley's radical blueprint for the NHS after officials said the health secretary's plans would "hand over £80bn of public money to 35,000 GPs who are private businesses", according to Whitehall sources." - The Guardian
The Economist's verdict on the Budget
"Mr Osborne’s budget puts Britain on the path to fiscal redemption, but that path is a hard one. The economic risks are clear; the political risks no less so. The Tories’ coalition partners have taken the fiscal-austerity whip so far, but many show signs of unease as details of spending cuts unfold. Mr Osborne’s toughness may just reveal the government’s underlying fragility." - Economist editorial
"This was the most painful budget in living memory, and one of the riskiest." - Bagehot in The Economist
European commission to go ahead with vetting of EU nations' budgets despite UK objections - The Guardian
Military covenant to become law for first time, says David Cameron
"The military covenant is to be rewritten and enshrined in law for the first time, the Prime minister announced yesterday, opening the possibility of Service personnel taking legal action against the Government if they feel it has been breached." - The Times (£)
Philip Hammond criticises Network Rail bonuses
"Network Rail has been criticised for paying senior management a total of £2.4m in bonuses last year, despite a warning from the rail regulator. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said he was "very disappointed", and called for a "far-reaching" review of pay." - BBC
New intake to dominate the select committees
"By my reckoning, of the 82 select committee members elected by a secret ballot of the parliamentary party (excluding ministers), no fewer than 69 were new boys and girls. That’s a stonking 84 per cent of all Tory select committee members (excluding the chairs). It was a clean sweep for the 2010 intake in half the committees." - Jo Johnson MP on the FT website
> Yesterday in Parliament: Members of the 2010 intake dominate the Conservative membership of Select Committees
Retirement age may be raised every five years
"The age for retirement will rise every five years under radical moves by the coalition to curb the £55 billion-a-year state pension bill. New laws are expected to be introduced in this Parliament that will link pension payments to life expectancy for the first time, senior government sources told The Times." - The Times (£)
"When the current retirement age of 65 for men was fixed in 1940, their average life expectancy at birth was 60; for women it was 65. Now, according to the Office for National Statistics, a 65-year-old man can expect to live for another 17 years, a 65-year-old woman for 20... An early rise in the retirement age is, therefore, unavoidable." - Telegraph editorial
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Iain Duncan Smith confirms that the state pension age will rise to 66 ten years early
London's Evening Standard assesses how Boris Johnson is doing as Mayor
"On some issues — expanding rape crisis centres, promoting cycling — he has stolen a march on “progressive” Labour opponents. On others, like ousting Sir Ian Blair from the Met, he has displayed raw muscle... Yet the question haunting him is how much difference to people's daily lives he has actually been able to make." - Evening Standard
> Yesterday in ToryDiary:
- Boris Johnson summarises his key achievements in London over the last two years at the annual State of London debate
- Boris needs to make a new offer to fire up his re-election chances
"Some MPs carried on claiming expenses right up until tighter new rules came into force, while others took heed of the public outcry and scaled back their claims in the six months of last year, figures released yesterday showed... Almost all the fall was accounted for lower claims towards the cost of MPs’ second homes – the aspect of their expenses which has caused the greatest amount of controversy." - The Independent
David Miliband: Osborne and Cameron are "Thatchers in trousers"
"It felt like I was looking at a page from Mrs Thatcher's diaries," he says. "The bit where she would write, 'I wish we didn't have to do these cuts but we all have to take our medicine.' Osborne and Cameron are simply updated matrons in trousers." - Daivd Miliband interviewed in The Mirror
Will Clegg follow Cameron's lead and turn down the plum pension?
"David Cameron's promise to give up his £66,000 pension puts the spotlight on his coalition partner and deputy, Nick Clegg. Why doesn't he do the same? As well as his parliamentary pension well-heeled Clegg, whose father was chairman of United Trust Bank, will also draw a £17,000 EU stipend as a former MEP." - Daily Mail
Families saving more money than borrowing for first time in 20 years - Daily Telegraph
And finally... 44 days after resigning, Brown is finally spotted in the Commons chamber - for a moment
"Questions were being asked about when Mr Brown would return to the Commons and some opponents were privately suggesting that he was "sulking" about losing the election... However, yesterday Mr Brown, 59, returned to the Commons surrounded by minders who kept journalists at bay. He spent a short period in the Chamber talking to some fellow Labour MPs before having a brief exchange of words with Speaker John Bercow and then leaving. It is understood that he does not intend to make a speech in the Budget debate." - The Scotsman
ToryDiary: Could Osborne emerge as the darling of the Right - and a challenge to David Cameron?
ToryDiary update: John Howell and Lee Scott are latest PPS appointments
- Richard Fuller and Andrew Jones commend the work of charities and social enterprises in their maiden speeches
- New Lancashire Conservative MPs Mark Menzies and Eric Ollerenshaw cover defence matters in their maiden speeches
Local government: Boris and Dalston's £40 million concrete slab
Robin Simcox on CentreRight: Does the government have a control orders policy?
Melanchthon on CentreRight: Cameron agrees there should be a new EU Treaty
Gazette: Robin Walker MP pays tribute to his late father, Lord Walker of Worcester
WATCH: Julia Gillard addresses the Australian Parliament as Prime Minister for the first time
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