ToryDiary: If the choice is tax rises or defence cuts, we should opt for the latter
Mark Reckless MP on Comment: We can cut Britain's uncompetitive income tax rates if we tax high-end properties
Also on Comment: Steve Baker MP: The Fed is very nearly bust and it is probably not alone amongst central banks
LeftWatch: Sayeeda Warsi claims Alistair Darling's memoirs reinforce doubts about Ed Balls' suitability for high office
Gazette: Advertise your fringe event in ConservativeHome's Party Conference newspaper
Local Government: Increase in councillor allowances to be imposed in Wales
WATCH: Gunfire as Libyan rebels advance towards Sirte
Downing Street moves to oppose abortion advice reform proposals
"The Prime Minister and Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, will vote against the proposals put forward by pro-life groups and campaigning MPs, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Their opposition follows claims that ministers were preparing to change long-established rules on advice given to pregnant women. The matter will still be debated in the Commons, but No 10 made it clear for the first time that Mr Cameron would vote against the amendments to the Health Bill tabled by Nadine Dorries, a backbench Tory MP." - Daily Telegraph
- Women who have abortions 'face double the risk of mental health problems' - Daily Mail
David Cameron demands Libyan rebels hand over last WPC Yvonne Fletcher murder suspect
"The Prime Minister said he expected the country’s new National Transitional Council – which could not have swept to power without Britain’s military help – to co-operate fully with detectives investigating the murder outside the Libyan People’s Bureau in London in 1984. Suspect Matouk Mohammed Matouk is believed to be still alive. One senior Libyan official said: ‘We know where he is.’" - D aily Mail
"David Cameron is joining leaders of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) at a meeting in Paris in an effort to build international support for the fledgling rebel administration." - Press Association
> From yesterday - WATCH: David Cameron: "I am confident" the new authorities in Libya will cooperate with Yvonne Fletcher investigation
Alan Duncan helped Libyan rebels get access to oil
"The so-called "Libya oil cell" helped block fuel supplies to Tripoli while ensuring that petrol and diesel continued to get through to the rebels in the east. ... The unit was the brain child of the international development minister, Alan Duncan. The former oil trader convinced the prime minister in April that part of the solution to the conflict lay in oil. He persuaded the national security council that Gaddafi would defeat the rebels unless they got access to fuel and he was deprived of it." - BBC
Cracks in Coalition over bank reforms as Tories fear swift shake-up may harm recovery
"The biggest shake-up of British banking in a generation must not be delayed, senior Liberal Democrats warned last night. It emerged that plans for strict 'firewalls' between traditional High Street banks and their 'casino' arms, which concentrate on risky investment banking, may not be implemented until after the next election in 2015. David Cameron suggested the Government would not be 'taking risks that put jobs at risk' by pressing ahead too rapidly – highlighting the crucial role banks need to play to boost stuttering economic growth." - Daily Mail
- David Cameron says banks need to start lending again - Daily Telegraph
- Clegg backs Cable in battle over bank reform - Independent
- MPs call for bank reforms to be delayed - City AM
- City hits back at Vince Cable over banking reform comments - Guardian
- Bank reforms missing the big picture - Allister Heath, in City AM
> From yesterday - WATCH: David Cameron: "We do need to make sure that our banks aren't taking risks that put the economy at risk"
Defence personnel cuts begin
"The transformation of Britain's armed forces will begin on Thursday... By the end of it, the army will have been cut by one-fifth to 82,000. The RAF and the Royal Navy will have shrunk too, with each service seeking 5,000 job cuts between now and 2015, and no guarantee of no further losses before 2020. And that does not take into account the 32,000 civilians jobs that are being axed." - Guardian
"The Gurkhas have also been hit hard, with infantrymen from the historic Nepalese brigade making up most of those in the army who will be told that they have been selected for compulsory redundancy." - Guardian
Wootton Bassett holds memorial service to mark end of repatriation ceremonies in town - Daily Telegraph
- The Sun pays tribute to Wootton Bassett: "The town can now look forward to taking on its Royal status, conferred by the Queen as a mark of gratitude. It means Wootton Bassett — like the 345 heroes whose coffins have passed through it — will forever be remembered for what it has done for this country." - The Sun Says
The Coalition's new planning laws "will put countryside in peril"
"Under the Coalition’s proposals, a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” will replace the strict limits on building in rural areas that have been in place since the 1940s. Opponents believe large swathes of unprotected rural England will be opened up to building projects after ministers told towns and villages that they had a “responsibility” to accept new developments." - Daily Telegraph
"The Government must “hold its course” as the row intensifies over proposed changes that would create a “presumption in favour of sustainable development”, David Frost, the departing chief of the British Chambers of Commerce, told The Times." - The Times (£)
- The great taboo about why our countryside is being ripped apart by the bulldozers - Stephen Glover, in the Daily Mail
- A shameful way to treat rural Britain: The Coalition is trying to railroad its national planning policy framework without debate - Daily Telegraph editorial
Jesse Norman MP: The CBI has failed taxpayers on every issue that matters
"But what has it actually achieved? Its recent record on key issues such as bank reform, the private finance initiative and executive pay is lamentable. On all three it has consistently taken the side of big business against the interests of its smaller members and the taxpayer, and has done so in defiance of the facts. ... It has cost us £20 billion more to fund projects through PFI than it would have done through the Treasury — a ludicrously high premium for transferring risk to the private sector. There has just been a devastating report into the PFI by the Treasury Select Committee, of wh ich I am a member. Some £200 billion of new infrastructure is up for funding. Thousands of businesses could benefit from a leaner, less finance-driven and more flexible approach. Yet the CBI consistently defends the PFI." - Jesse Norman MP, in the Times (£)
- Investors 'using tax havens to cash in on PFI contracts' - Guardian
David Cameron and the Duchess of York pay last respects to senior Tory found dead at Glastonbury - Daily Mail
Matthew d'Ancona: David Cameron must get back to being the great moderniser
"These are tough times, economic recovery is slow and millions of households are feeling the pinch. Yet to seal the deal that eluded him in the last election, the PM needs millions more people to trust Tory motives and to believe that all the tough decisions were taken in the public interest rather than for ideological or sectional reasons." - Matthew d'Ancona, in the Evening Standard
Murdo Fraser wins support of another front-bencher -The Scotsman
Paul Goodman: Go ahead, belittle Nick Clegg – but he is not nearly as weak as he looks
"Clegg has manoeuvred his party back to office after an exile lasting the best part of a century, and himself to the second most senior Cabinet position. These facts alone ought to give pause to those who dismiss him with scorn. You don’t make it to near the very top of British politics – as either a member of a third party or a man who has, to date, served only a single full Commons term – without being a very cool operator indeed. Anyone who doubts it should look back to those videos of Clegg outsmarting both Cameron and Gordon Brown during the first general election debate." - Paul Goodman, in the Daily Telegraph
Scottish Secretary Michael Moore calls on Alex Salmond to reveal SNP secession plans
"He laid out a series of questions on subjects including membership of the EU, the cost of pensions in an independent Scotland, and the shape of a future Scottish army. And he also called for the Scottish Government to put a figure on "the bottom line" – the cost of independence." - The Scotsman
Alistair Darling savages Mervyn King and Ed Balls in memoirs
"Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, would have been sacked three years ago if the Labour government could have found another candidate. ... Mr Darling's memoirs confirm for the first time a widely rumoured story that Mr Brown tried to prise him out of the Treasury in 2009 to put Mr Balls in his place. Mr Darling was offered the chance of a different cabinet post, but insisted that he would either stay where he was or retire to the back benches, after which the Prime Minister relented." - Independent
- "Revenge, the saying goes, is a dish best served cold — and Alistair Darling has had his in the fridge for 15 months." - The Sun Says
Ed Miliband calls for G20 talks on growth - BBC
- Complacent Cameron must leave the sidelines - Ed Miliband, in the FT (£)
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