ToryDiary: Ken Clarke's challenge to Michael Howard's legacy
International: Ten reasons why Republicans can look forward to substantial gains in November's mid-term elections
Anatole Pang on Platform: The 55% rule is right - not least because the public want fewer, not more, elections
LeftWatch: Bob Crow calls for civil disobedience and mass strikes in protest at the Government's "fiscal fascism"
Parliament: The voice of the anti-EU Tory Right will be heard on the influential new Backbench Business Committee
Local Government: Witch hunt begins for the planning officer whistleblower
WATCH: Sky News reports on the reopening of the Chilcot Inquiry after a break for the general election
Police plans anger Tory backbenchers
"When senior Tories were handed the top positions at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, the party’s MPs assumed its dominion over “law and order” was safely enshrined within the new coalition government. But since then the actions of Theresa May, the home secretary, and Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, have left anxious Tory backbenchers suspecting the Lib Dem wing has somehow acquired the upper hand." - FT
"Home Secretary Theresa May last night abolished the remnants of Labour's police targets regime. Mrs May scrapped the final target as she pledged to lift the burden of red tape from forces and preserve the front line." - Daily Mail
"If police budgets are to be cut, there are many savings that can be made before a single bobby is taken off the beat – and certainly before the unnecessary restructuring of police forces that some have demanded." - Daily Telegraph editorial
Boris wins control of the Met as police targets are scrapped - City AM
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Fewer police officers + fewer local police stations + fewer offenders going to jail = political trouble
> WATCH: Theresa May scraps Labour's police targets and calls for more visible policing
Actress Brooke Kinsella gets job as Government 'knife tsar' two years after brother Ben's death - Daily Mail
Cuts "will cost 1.3 million jobs"
"George Osborne's austerity budget will result in the loss of up to 1.3m jobs across the economy over the next five years according to a private Treasury assessment of the planned spending cuts, the Guardian has learned. Unpublished estimates of the impact of the biggest squeeze on public spending since the second world war show that the government is expecting between 500,000 and 600,000 jobs to go in the public sector and between 600,000 and 700,000 to disappear in the private sector by 2015." - The Guardian
Coalition scraps "bloated regional quangos"
"The government said on Tuesday it was allocating £1 billion over two years to a regional growth fund, less than half amount spent now on nine local development agencies the coalition has pledged to scrap." - Reuters
> Matt Sinclair on CentreRight yesterday: Why we don't need the RDAs, and we don't need regions
Was yesterday's Cabinet trip to Yorkshire worth it?
"Two years ago, the Tories poured deep scorn on Labour's PR gimmick of holding cabinet meetings in provincial cities. Taking a 'day trip' wouldn't solve any of the country's problems, they said. The Daily Mail has huge respect for the people of Yorkshire. But was it really necessary for David Cameron to squander £100,000 on yesterday's cabinet away day in Bradford?" - Daily Mail editorial
> WATCH: David Cameron takes Cabinet to Bradford to launch regional growth initiative
Ken Clarke first off the blocks with departmental cuts
"Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, is expected to play a key role in deciding where spending cuts will fall in other government departments after impressing the Treasury with his own cost-cutting plans... The Chancellor, George Osborne, will offer ministers who agree their budgets a place in the Cabinet "star chamber" to resolve disputes over the average 25 per cent cuts demanded of all departments except health and international development." - The Independent
Clarke to overhaul judicial appointments system - The Times (£)
Cameron: Lib Dems are not being taken for a ride
"Prime Minister David Cameron has rode to the defence of his deputy Nick Clegg, denying that the Liberal Democrat leader had "sold out" to join the coalition Government... "This is a partnership Government," he said in an interview with Real Radio in Yorkshire. "I want people who voted Liberal Democrat to know, not that they are being taken for a ride in some way - they are absolutely not. I don't take steps without consulting with Nick, we work very, very closely together." - Press Association
"We cannot be certain that the Liberal Democrats’ left wing will eventually kill off the coalition but we do know that Conservative MPs — however nutty — would never vote against their government in a motion of confidence. So Mr Cameron has been forced to trade the security of a full Parliament in office for the short-term convenience of being able to ignore his backbench awkward squad." - Tim Montgomerie in The Times (£)
> Last night's ToryDiary: "David Cameron's good fortune was not to have won the election"
David Cameron agrees terms to UK torture inquiry
"David Cameron and the foreign secretary, William Hague, are understood to have agreed the terms of a judge-led inquiry into claims that British security services were complicit in torture of terrorism suspects." - The Guardian
Royal Mail will be sold off
"Postmen are to be given stakes in Royal Mail under radical Government plans to sell it off this year. Ministers plan to transform the ailing firm into a John Lewis-style trust, like the department store whose employees are 'partners', owning shares and receiving annual dividends based on its profits. The offer will dramatically undermine attempts by militant trade union leaders to persuade staff to oppose the privatisation, which is expected to be the biggest in Britain for two decades." - Daily Mail
David Cameron will back down in fight with EU, say officials
"David Cameron will break his promise not to transfer powers to Brussels by yielding to plans for an EU "economic government" and City regulation, senior European officials have predicted." - Daily Telegraph
Boris Johnson defeats Parliament Square peace camp
"A High Court judge has ruled that peace protesters camping in Parliament Square must be evicted by 1600 BST on Friday... Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who brought the action, said the camp caused "considerable damage" and added that he was "pleased" with the ruling." - BBC
Michael Gove pledges continued support for Holocaust Educational Trust's school trips to Auschwitz - Daily Mirror
Lord Ashcroft tells Parliament he no longer heads Belize bank - Daily Telegraph
Cameron to visit India at end of July - Times of India
Strike threat as BBC moves to cut pension bill by a third - The Times (£)
Ex-MPs in court over expenses want to be tried by Parliament, not the courts - The Guardian
How Defra spent £51,000 on promotional goodies - The Sun
And finally... Tory Minister reportedly calls Speaker Bercow a "sanctimonious dwarf"
"Health Minister Simon Burns allegedly made the comment during Health Questions. The minister had made the mistake of addressing his answers during the session directly to a backbencher, instead of addressing the Chair, as is custom. The Speaker intervened and warned Mr Burns that he should always address his remarks through him and not to turn his back on the Chair... Mr Burns was then heard by other MPs in the chamber to heckle Mr Bercow, prompting a complaint from Ian Paisley Junior about his behaviour." - Sky News
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