Britannia Radio

Today's top ConservativeHome features

ToryDiary: Cameron says we don't need a "washed up", debt-denying politician like Gordon Brown running the IMF

Antony Calvert on Comment: Why I oppose AV (even though it might have helped me beat Ed Balls)

Also on Comment, Brian Binley MP: The Camp Ashraf massacre defines Tehran’s influence in Iraq

Local government: The battle for Brighton and Hove

ThinkTankCentral: The Conservative Policy Forum wants to know your views on the effect of an ageing working population and the challenge of personal debt

WATCH VINCE CABLE: I understand "revulsion" Scottish people had for Thatcherism and we've stopped Cameron doing similar things

Today's ConservativeHome newslinks

Support for AV collapsing

• ICM/ Guardian poll gives 'No' a 16% lead
• The same poll has Labour on 37%, Conservatives 35%, Liberal Democrats 15%
• Latest YouGov/ Sun voting intention Con 36%, Lab 42%, LD 9%

Labour MPs attack John Reid for sharing No2AV platform with David Cameron - Independent

Reid was so conservative he made Cameron look like Robespierre - Andy McSmith in The Independent

• "Conservatives MPs are plotting a guerrilla campaign against the alternative vote even if Britain says “yes” to changing the system in the May 5 referendum. Some die-hard Tories are even prepared to bring down the coalition with the Liberal Democrats to stop a voting system that they oppose." - Times (£)
• Elections will give Scotland unfair influence over AV result, warn MPs -Telegraph
• "AV would make coalitions more likely – with politics, as we’ve seen over recent months, losing all conviction and becoming increasingly a game of back-room deals between parties." - Mail leader

Huhne blasts "gutter politics" of No campaign

"Mr Huhne accused the No campaign of "gutter politics" and "downright lies" in their claims about the costs of changing the electoral system. "I am frankly shocked that coalition partners can stoop to a level of campaign that we have not seen in this country before," the Energy Secretary told the BBC's Newsnight programme. "I think it is damaging. There is no doubt about it. I can never remember a campaign that has stooped as low as the No campaign in dredging up stuff that they know is downright lies." He added: "I think this is the politics of the gutter." Mr Huhne also complained that he had s till not received a reply to a letter he sent to Tory chairman Baroness Warsi earlier this month demanding an end to "scare and smears"." - Express

Clegg deletes draft remarks from speech, suggesting Lib Dems had stopped Cameron acting like Thatcher - Scotsman

• If I am sacked I can double my income, brags Cable - Daily Mail
• The unique usefulness of a maverick - The Independent pays tribute to Vince Cable

75% of universities have opted for maximum fees; Tuition fees reach £8,679.20 average

"Willetts said the shift from the teaching grant to tuition fees will empower students as well as enabling private universities to enter the higher education market on a level footing. In an article for the Guardian's Comment is free site, Willetts writes: "This … shift, by removing the privileged inner circle that gets teaching grant and instead allocating money via fees and loans, opens up HE to a wider range of providers doing things differently. "And universities will get their money by focusing on the teaching experience for students, which has been their greatest weakness."" -Guardian

Disability charity supported by David Cameron has its funding cut - Independent

Tory MPs Peter Bone and James Clappison question UK's status as lead aid donor to Libya

"Conservative MPs said that that Arab nations should be contributing more to aid work in Libya. Peter Bone MP said: “British voters would expect the Arab nations and the non-combatant European nations to be piling in with money. The Arab nations in particular should have no problem with making more financial contributions.” James Clappison MP said: “We want to see the burden of Libya shared more evenly across the international community, and particularly by countries in the region. I believe the British public support helping people in need, but they do not want to see this country shouldering a disproportionately large share of the financial burden.” - Telegraph

• "The Libya operation received the full backing of the Arab League, yet only one or two Arab states have made a contribution of any kind to the anti-Gaddafi effort. Many of them are oil-rich. Shouldn’t they be funding all humanitarian measures?" - Telegraph leader
• Lord Owen: Declare Misrata a safe haven and send in troops - The Times (£)

"New powers promised by PM David Cameron to name criminals on the loose have been quietly dropped. Criminals have used data protection rules and the Human Rights Act to stay anonymous." -The Sun

The Sun Says: "Even by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke's soft standards, it is an outrage. At least 47 murderers, rapists and paedophiles are on the run after breaking early prison release terms. But The Sun is banned from naming them to protect their human rights. David Cameron promised to stop this nonsense. What's keeping you, Prime Minister?"

Steve Baker, Graham Evans, Andrea Leadsom, David Lidington - The FT(£)reports on the anti-HS2 Tories

Cameron hosts Irish PM at Downing Street

"David Cameron has told his Irish counterpart he "admires" the economic decisions being taken in Ireland, as Enda Kenny made his first formal trip to Downing Street. The Prime Minister marked the occasion by pledging to work "extremely closely" with Ireland as the two countries both battle with their finances." - Sky News

The Tories' not-so-secret weapon in Scotland... Annabel

"Annabel Goldie may be the first politician in history to go into an election calling on people to "vote for the old bat... Thirty odd years since the Tories were sent to purgatory by Scots voters, following the 1980s recession, Annabel Goldie may finally have found the formula for breaking through the ancient antipathies. She now gets in the self-deprecation before anyone else. It was her notable achievement, at the start of this campaign, to score higher than Lab-our's Iain Gray in a poll on the most popular First Minister. Annabel can claim to have joined Margo among female Scots politicians who no longer appear to require a surname." - Eddie Barnes in The Scotsman

> Annabel Goldie fronts the first broadcast of the Conservative campaign for the Scottish Parliament election

Civil servants have been too ready to say 'Yes, Minister' when more caution was needed - Philip Stephens in the FT (£)

The Toryism that loves John Lewis and workers' co-ops - John Harris in The Guardian

Leader of Liberal Democrat council in Sheffield questions frontloading if local government cuts - Guardian

Labour modernisers are planning a 'Purple Book' to set out new mission for party - Rachel Sylvester in The Times (£)

Cash-strapped BNP 'turns to racist hardcore'

"The anti-BNP campaign group Hope not Hate said it had compiled a dossier of extremist postings of candidates standing on 5 May, either in council elections or those to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Among the postings the group collected from Facebook pages were... One candidate urges his followers to "Stamp out diseases today. Spray pakis and poofs with hydrochloric acid". An activist in Wales, who has a photograph of his endorsement by BNP leader Nick Griffin on his Facebook page. Underneath it reads: "My grandfather was killed in Auschwitz. Apparently he got pissed and fell out of the watchtower!"" - Independent

Highlights from yesterday

ToryDiary:

• S&P to Obama: Do what Osborne is doing
• Would the Conservative Party "go demented with fury" if England rejects AV but "a Celtic yes" kills First-Past-The-Post?

On Comment:

• Andrew Lilico disagrees with Tim Montgomerie on what should be done if AV passes
• Robert McIlveen: The IPPR's unconvincing claims about AV

Local government:

• Boris Johnson appoints new Deputy Mayor
• Only one in 15 children aged more than five is being taken out of care
• Trafford Conservatives launch election manifesto

Video from yesterday's AV press conferences:

• Gordon Brown might still be Prime Minister if AV had operated at last election, claims David Cameron
• Vince Cable says Ann Widdecombe would have won Strictly Come Dancing under First-Past-The-Post
• Ed Miliband says a vote for AV is a vote for hope and change

ThinkTankCentral: BBC World Service cuts wouldn't be necessary if we cut ineffective EU aid budget