Boris Johnson, Eric Pickles and Lord Ashcroft all feature in ConHome's packed Party Conference programme: Click here for details of our events in Birmingham in October
ToryDiary: Ten great things that the Coalition wants to achieve
Also on ToryDiary: The lesson of Gove's fight with a quango is that the Government needs a plan to take them on
Ruth Lea on Platform: The Government's green energy policies are a threat to manufacturing industry
Nigel Adams MP in Parliament: How my Private Member's Bill will give local people power over their communities and protect local services
Local Government: Richmond freezes Council Tax and publishes spending online
David T Breaker on CentreRight: We must learn lessons from the events around Rothbury
David Cameron and Nick Clegg: We'll transform Britain by giving power away
"For both of us, sorting out the public finances is a responsibility, not a passion... Whatever the differences that exist between us and our parties, we both passionately believe in giving people more power over their lives. It has become increasingly clear to us that we can be a strong, reforming government if we build outwards from the instincts we share... Of course, central government has a crucial role to play, but it cannot and should not try to do everything. It's time for the central state to allow the genius of grassroots innovation, diversity and experimentation to take off." - David Ca meron and Nick Clegg in the Daily Telegraph
Cutting NHS red tape will save 50 lives a day
"More than 50 lives a day could be saved by “liberating” the NHS from targets and red tape, the Government will say today. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will publish his proposals for health reform later today with plans to cut £1billion from NHS bureaucracy to re-invest in frontline services." - Daily Express
"The wholescale transfer of power from the NHS into the hands of patients is a key part of the Government’s Health white paper. Under the plans to be unveiled today, the Government will release tables of information about the success rates of hospitals across the country treating a range of diseases and illnesses. Patients will then be able to use them to select which hospital they want to be treated at, and even which consultant should treat them." - Daily Telegraph
> Yesterday on ThinkTankCentral: Civitas warns against Lansley's NHS reorganisation plans
> WATCH: Andrew Lansley explains why he is giving GPs greater control of NHS budgets
Lansley to abolish Food Standards Agency
"The Food Standards Agency is to be abolished by Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, it emerged last night, after the watchdog fought a running battle with industry over the introduction of colour-coded "traffic light" warnings for groceries, TV dinners and snacks... As part of the changes Lansley will reassign the FSA's regulatory aspects – including safety and hygiene – to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Its responsibilities for nutrition, diet and public health will be incorporated into the Department of Health." - The Guardian
"The decision to reduce regulation on food companies will enrage doctors who only this weekend called on ministers to impose 'fat taxes' on unhealthy food - and cigarette-style warnings to children about the dangers of a poor diet." - Daily Mail
Melanie Phillips: These new NHS plans are plain half-baked - Daily Mail
Nick Clegg "told Brown to stand down" during coalition negotiations
"Gordon Brown's attempts to hold on to power were thwarted by Nick Clegg's demand that he step aside as part of any coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, it has been reported. The Lib Dem leader informed the then prime minister to his face that a Lib-Lab alliance was only possible if Mr Brown bowed out. According to Peter Mandelson's memoirs, serialised in The Times, former prime minister Tony Blair also told Mr Brown after May's inconclusive general election that the public would not accept him remaining in office." - Press Association
"Mandelson also claims that one Liberal Democrat negotiator, Danny Alexander, now Treasury chief secretary, pressed Labour to agree to enact legislation imposing a new way of electing MPs without bothering with a referendum." - The Guardian
"As I think Gordon must have sensed, I thought a deal between us and the Lib Dems was highly unlikely. When David Cameron went public with a willingness to seek a policy compromise and a governing coalition with the Lib Dems, I was almost alone in our ranks in being impressed. Gordon and his team told me they felt it was a mistaken show of weakness, given that the Tories had won the largest number of seats. To me, it sounded like the new politics." - Extract from Peter Mandelson's memoir serialised in The Times (£)
Peter Oborne: Treachery, poison, and the book Peter Mandelson will regret - Daily Mail
Jackie Ashley: The diary wars risk being a dangerous distraction for Labour - The Guardian
Simon Hughes adds to pressure on Michael Gove in school buildings row
"The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Simon Hughes, today distanced his party from education secretary Michael Gove over the contentious decision to cancel 700 school rebuilding projects. Hughes said he was not entirely comfortable with the handling of the announcement, adding it would be "a nonsense" to build the new free schools proposed by Gove using cash that could have improved existing buildings. Gove has agreed to meet Lib Dem councillors concerned by his announcement, and the issue is likely to be raised at a Liberal Democrat meeting of its MPs organised by Nick Clegg, the party's leader and the coalition deputy prime minister." - The Guardian
"Education Secretary Michael Gove vowed today to 'continue to invest in school buildings' despite axeing Labour's £55billion rebuilding programme." - Daily Mail
Osborne faces pressure over OBR...
"George Osborne will come under pressure to increase the independence of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) when its head, Sir Alan Budd, is grilled by an influential body of MPs this week. The Treasury Select Committee is expected to ask Budd, who is due to step down as chairman on 19 August, whether there are sufficient safeguards against government interference in the OBR’s work." - City AM
> Last night's ToryDiary: The next OBR Chief should publish forecasts that recognise that some tax rises reduce revenue
...as he considers scrapping Pre-Budget Report
"George Osborne is considering dropping the pre-Budget report from the coalition Government's roster of economic events. The move would be another example of what increasingly looks like the Chancellor's attempts to torch some of Gordon Brown's lasting legacies at the Treasury." - Daily Telegraph
Ministers ready to axe £250m aid bill for India
"Ministers are poised to axe aid to India and other fast-developing countries in an attempt to quell growing anger over the decision to protect the wider international aid budget from cuts. International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, who has already indicated that aid to China and Russia will be axed, yesterday suggested that the £250million a year of British taxpayers' money sent to India could be stopped." - Daily Mail
Government to review extradition arrangements with US - FT
Norman Tebbit: public-sector workers doing utterly pointless jobs should be first for the chop
"There are thousands of middle-income, middle-class hard-working staff — some may even be Tory voters — doing jobs that are unnecessary or positively damaging. A strike there would not reduce the GDP for a moment. " - Lord Tebbit in The Times (£)
> Cllr Peter Craske in Local Government yesterday: Why councils should welcome the cuts
Cuts will cause 'unwelcome consequences' for bus and rail users, says transport minister - The Guardian
Planning policy shift undercuts homes drive - FT
Labour questions David Mundell's election expenses - The Times (£)
Jeremy Hunt seeks high-speed broadband ideas - The Guardian
Stephen Glover: Is there a mole inside 10 Downing Street?
"There is a suspicion that a Labour-friendly mole is lurking in No 10, and may even be having his strings pulled by mischief-making former Labour spin doctors." - Stephen Glover in The Independent
Probation watchdog sparks reoffending costs row
"Murders and other serious crimes committed by released prisoners may have to be “accepted” by society because it is cheaper that keeping them locked up, the probation watchdog signalled today." - Daily Telegraph
EU order means Britain must open NHS jobs to thousands from Eastern Europe - Daily Mail
Speaker wants cameras to expose rowdy MPs
"Rowdy MPs could be caught on TV camera under proposals to improve parliamentary behaviour suggested by Commons Speaker John Bercow... Allowing the actions of raucous MPs to be broadcast would shame offenders into better behaviour in future, he claimed." - Press Association
- Cameron tells Daily Mail that Tory voters are getting 80% of the Conservative manifesto
- We under-regulated banks in the boom and are over-regulating them in the recovery, warns Redwood
- School building won't stop under the Coalition, insists Gove, but Labour's wasteful programme had to end
David Amess MP on Platform: It is time for us to actively support the organised Iranian opposition
Kyle Thornton on Platform: The Scottish Conservatives should be a bit more Scottish and be bold enough to back holding a referendum on Scotland's constitutional future
Dominique Lazanski on Local government: Hurry up with local referendums
LeftWatch: Cameron is "jolly" but has no fixed ideology, says Mandelson
Alex Deane on CentreRight: I see no reason not to have women bishops
Matt Sinclair on CentreRight: What will the climate change policy backlash look like?
WATCH:
- 'Politics is my life', says John Prescott, defending his agreement to go into the Lords
- Peter Mandelson describes himself as 'Prince of Darkness' in promotion for his book
- Stephen Pound: I've never known a Speaker make such long speeches
- Sarah Palin's new anti-Obama video warns of a women's backlash against his policies
- Republican Congressional candidate compares Obama's healthcare plan to slavery and Auschwitz
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