ToryDiary: The Government is to take the axe to middle class benefits. So it should.
Stuart Carroll and Gary Jones on Platform: If fortune favours the brave, the Government's NHS White Paper makes the right noises and is to be commended
Local Government: After the Audit Commission, should Ofsted be next for the chop?
"I’m a Conservative because… history will judge that Conservative policies are the ones that work.” - Andrew Bridgen MP answers ConHome's Twenty Questions for the Class of 2010
ThinkTankCentral: Reform sounds a note of concern about contradictions in the Coalition's programme after its first hundred days
Chris Kelly MP on CentreRight: Reflections on a very valuable week in Rwanda with Project Umubano
WATCH: George Osborne says his cautious optimism over the economy is not a step away from austerity
As the Coalition enters its hundredth day, a new poll shows George Osborne is winning the argument on the economy
"David Cameron's first 100 days in Downing Street have seen the coalition win the key argument over the economy, with a Guardian/ICM poll today showing that voters back austerity measures to reduce Britain's record peacetime budget deficit. The monthly snapshot of public opinion suggests strong initial support for George Osborne's controversial cuts-based recovery strategy, with the chancellor reiterating today that the government would wreck the economy if it "budged" from its plans to slash borrowing during the course of the parliament. Despite claims from Labour that front-loaded s pending cuts risk a double-dip recession and will hit the poorest the hardest, 44% of those polled said the coalition was doing a good job in securing economic recovery against 37% who said it was doing a bad job." - The Guardian
"Chancellor George Osborne on Tuesday hit back at accusations that spending cuts would plunge the economy back into recession, saying deficit reduction was the only way to navigate a choppy recovery. Osborne pointed to the fall in long-term borrowing costs in recent months as evidence that investor confidence in Britain had recovered, and said the biggest risk to recovery -- a spike in long-term gilt yields -- had been avoided." - Reuters
"Mr Osborne's task yesterday... was to refine that message by accentuating the positive – by offering a glimpse of the fairer, more prosperous society that will accompany economic recovery. This was overdue. Talking with too much zeal about the age of austerity was a necessary counterbalance to Labour's lethal complacency, but now that the case has been successfully made, the Coalition needs a more nuanced and upbeat message." - Daily Telegraph editorial
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: It's my way or "ruin", says Osborne in attack on Labour's "deficit deniers"
David Cameron vows to act early and fast...
"One of the lessons I learned, not just from Margaret Thatcher but also from what happened under Labour, is you've got to act early. That is the time to take difficult decisions. You have a limited time to use the goodwill that you have to try and turn that into concrete results." - David Cameron interviewed in The Sun
...as others make their own judgments on the Coalition's first hundred days
"On the central question of British politics — reducing the deficit — the Lib-Con coalition has made an impressive start. The Budget was more ambitious than expected; to clear the structural deficit in the course of a single Parliament cannot be done without pain. It would have been easy, having talked hard in opposition, to act soft in government. Decisive action on fiscal policy and public sector pensions shows that the coalition has not done that." - Times (£) editorial
"The first 100 days of David Cameron’s government have suggested confidence in the handling of power. The Con-Lib coalition took office in unpromising circumstances but seems determined to move quickly to change the shape of Britain’s state. While it is difficult to judge from just these early moves, the picture emerging is of a government not so much rolling back the frontiers of the state as giving them a violent shove." - Tony Travers in the FT
"One hundred days into Mr Cameron’s Premiership and the parallels with Mrs Thatcher are all too apparent. While it is clear that Britain’s deficit needed to be addressed, the draconian measures Mr Cameron has taken run far. Too far and too deep." - Daily Mirror
"These are still, however, very early days. If the coalition's introduction of fixed-term parliaments (unnecessarily rushed like much else in the reform agenda) goes ahead, the government intends to have more than 1,700 more days to run. Uncertainties in the economy, the impact of unwise and unfair spending cuts, and the inevitable waning of the coalition's novelty will all shape the longer term future." - Guardian editorial
"David Cameron has been the most discussed political subject among UK Twitter users during the coalition's first 100 days" - BBC
"The politics and values we aspire to are a belief in responsibility: government responsibility for the public finances, personal responsibility for our actions and social responsibility towards each other. It is a belief in enterprise and aspiration. A belief there is such a thing as society, it's just not the same thing as the state." - Baroness Warsi sums up David Cameron's philosophy in The Guardian
Nick Clegg to outline plans for social mobility
"The Government's plans for closing the gap between rich and poor will be set out by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Wednesday... The address - titled Closing the gap: building an opportunity society - comes days after it was announced that Labour former cabinet minister Alan Milburn had been appointed the Government's independent reviewer on social mobility. Mr Clegg is expected to set out further details about Mr Milburn's role, which will see the former health secretary report annually on efforts to boost social mobility across Government and public bodies, including the NHS and universities." - Press Association
Simon Hughes calls for Lib Dem coalition veto
"Liberal Democrat MPs should have a veto on policies put forward by the coalition government, the party's deputy leader Simon Hughes has said. His party should be able to say to the Conservatives "No, we can't go down this road", he told the BBC. Mr Hughes also suggested that a coalition between the Lib Dems and Labour was "still on the agenda" for after the next general election." - BBC
ICM poll is small comfort for the Lib Dems - The Guardian
Ken Clarke to slash legal aid bill for asylum seekers as Ministry of Justice seeks cuts
"Ken Clarke is preparing to take the axe to the legal aid budget – ending abuses of the system by prisoners and failed asylum seekers. The Justice Secretary, who is under pressure to cut his departmental budget by up to 25 per cent, wants to slash the £2billion spent every year on legal aid. He will target payments made to lawyers who make repeated challenges to decisions to turn down claims for asylum." - Daily Mail
Osborne reiterates that MoD has to pay for Trident - Channel Four News
Ministers will force BBC bosses to reveal star pay - Daily Mail
Ed Vaizey attacks Film Council
"Culture minister Ed Vaizey has written to the head of the UK Film Council demanding "urgent reassurances" over claims it is using public money to fight its proposed abolition." - Press Association
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Ed Vaizey warns film quango to stop briefing against ministers
Shopping centres could be turned into magistrates' courts as part of Government cost cutting - Daily Mail
Police call on Theresa May to ban English Defence League march - The Guardian
Alistair Darling to blame Brown for election defeat"The former Chancellor Alistair Darling will tonight use a lecture at the Edinburgh Book Festival to launch a coded attack on ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, laying the blame for Labour’s election defeat at his door. Although not mentioning Mr Brown by name, Mr Darling will say that Labour failed to recognise public concern over spiralling government debt, instead getting “sidetracked” into an argument for “investment over cuts” - a phrase which became a constant Brown refrain." - The Times (£)
David Miliband brands Coalition anti-business
"David Miliband, frontrunner in the race to be the next Labour party leader, has lambasted the coalition as an “anti-business” government which has undermined companies through its planning, education and immigration policies." - FT (£)
Ed Miliband claims he is "within touching distance" of winning the Labour leadership" - Daily Telegraph
Michael White: Labour has not given the coalition the hard time it would have under a lean and hungry leader - The Guardian
More coverage of Lord Pearson's resignation as Ukip leader
"Lord Pearson of Rannoch quit as leader of the UK Independence Party yesterday, insisting he was not good enough for the job. In a resignation notable for its honesty, the peer who only took over in November said the party “deserved someone better” to put the case for leaving the European Union." - Daily Express
"Ukip's vote rose by 50 per cent at the last election. If this is failure, one might ask, how should one gauge success?" - Independent editorial
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: New leader for UKIP could create headache for David Cameron
And finally... The Times records 100 things you may not know about the first 100 days of the Coalition
"12. Both Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg have bilingual spin doctors: Gabby Bertin, the Tory leader’s press officer, is half French. Lena Pietsch, Mr Clegg’s press secretary, is German; 30. Mr Cameron, William Hague and Mr Osborne celebrated together in Downing Street with pizza the night they entered power; 47. Mr Clegg supported Holland in the World Cup final — choosing to side with his Dutch mother over his Spanish wife — but switched allegiance at half time in protest at the aggressive tactics of the Dutch." - The Times (£)
ToryDiary: The price of governing with the Liberal Democrats
Local government: Council registrar swapped shifts to avoid civil partnershipsMelancthon on CentreRight: Younger voters like AV and older voters don't (and older voters are much more likely to take part in the referendum)
Matthew Elliott on CentreRight: Dragons slam wasteful government grants to business