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Today's ConservativeHome features

ToryDiary: Bojo scheme has mojo: Cameron now willing to give thumbs-up to Boris Island.

Columnist Jill Kirby: Why on earth does Grant Shapps want to give the state a bigger role in housing the elderly?

Roger Helmer MEP on Comment: I am not prepared to stand aside for some A-List Cameron protégée from St. John’s Wood

Also on Comment: Lord Ashcroft: We must unite to stamp out the evil of human trafficking

Dr Simon Less of Policy Exchange on ThinkTankCentral:We need to focus on growth and being greener – not "green growth"

Local Government: Lib Dem councillor's court summons for non payment of Council Tax

Parliament: If the Prime Minister were to fall in a national emergency, who would succeed him? Peter Bone MP must have an answer!

WATCH: The Government avoids defeat in the House of Lords over plans to replace the Disability Living Allowance

Today's ConservativeHome newslinks

David Cameron to launch consultation on new London airport

"David Cameron is to announce a formal consultation on plans for a new airport in the Thames Estuary within weeks... The Prime Minister is expected to offer his provisional support for a scheme originally proposed by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. The Government had planned to announce preliminary backing for the scheme on Jan 3, with feasibility studies beginning in the Spring. The announcement was expected to be linked to plans for a second high-speed rail line as part of the Government’s long-term vision for Britain’s transport infrastructure. Nick Clegg, the Deput y Prime Minister, blocked the announcement amid concerns that it was being rushed out and had not been thought through." - Daily Telegraph

• "BBC political correspondent Vicki Young said Conservative ministers had previously shown little enthusiasm for the Thames Estuary plan but in recent months that seemed to have changed." - BBC

Michael Gove's plan to send a Bible to every school is held back by lack of private funding

"A plan by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to send a copy of the King James Bible to every school in the country – each including a personal inscription from him – has run into trouble after government sources reported he has been told to find private funding for the project. Sources said David Cameron told Gove that while he supported the idea, the education secretary should avoid using taxpayers' money for it. But Gove has yet to find a private philanthropic sponsor for the enterprise, and some Whitehall sources said he has been told he cannot distribute the book until he doe s so, leaving thousands of copies in a warehouse abroad." - Guardian

• "The Education Secretary Michael Gove has asked Ofsted to inspect a primary school which is resisting academy status." - Independent

Government Ministers reject statutory regulation of the press

"Ministers came out against statutory regulation of the press yesterday — or laws to define what journalistic activity was in the “public interest”. Kenneth Clarke said that no one had made a compelling case “for a new law of any kind” and he indicated that on rare occasions it would not be in the public interest to prosecute journalists for breaking the law. Giving evidence to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, the Justice Secretary, said: “I take the view in a free society that this is nothing do with with politicians.”" - The Times (£)

The Government wins Lords welfare reform vote

"The government fought off a fresh challenge to its controversial welfare reform bill on Tuesday night, when peers rejected a proposal to delay the full introduction of slashed new disability payments after ministers offered concessions. ... Peers voted by 229 to 213, a government majority of 16, to reject an amendment tabled by Lady Grey-Thompson... after the government warned her plan would cost £1.4bn." - Guardian

• More than £1billion a year of disability benefits is wrongly paid to people who no longer qualify for them - The Sun

Benedict Brogan: Cameron's respect for Clegg is fraying

"Mr Cameron, in turn, is increasingly baffled by the oddities of Mr Clegg’s behaviour. He cannot understand why his deputy persists in championing policies that are toxic with the voters, or – as with Lords reform – a matter of national indifference... “He’s quite foreign, you know,” one of those close to the Prime Minister muses. “No one has noticed, but there isn’t much about him that is British.” That those around Mr Cameron have begun to wonder, only half-jokingly, about Mr Clegg’s continental background is an indication of the gulf that is appearing at the centre of the Coalition. On paper, the Deputy PM is half Dutch and a quarter German, with Russian aristocratic origins... he’s worked abroad as much as he has here... In outlook, he is more Brussels than Buckinghamshire." - Benedict Brogan in the Daily Telegraph

• Clegg: We will defy anti-gay marriage rebellion - Independent

Liberal Democrats uneasy over tactics for police commissioner elections -Guardian

Ed Miliband calls for an end to Britain's "rip-off consumer culture"

"Ed Miliband has called for an end to what he described as Britain's "rip-off consumer culture", saying that government should crack down on companies levying exorbitant charges for savings, holidays, banking and parking." - Guardian

Daniel Finkelstein: Ed is not for U-turning. He’s for O-turning

"When you listen for ten full minutes to Mr Miliband or read an entire lecture by Mr Balls to the Fabian Society, you grasp their point in the end and see how apparently contradictory points may actually not be contradictory. But, well, most people don’t do this. At one point in their Sunday interview Marr tried again. “Let’s just go one more time around the roundabout,” he said. And so they did. An O-turn." - Daniel Finkelstein for the Times (£)

Alan Johnson warns trade unions against becoming "delusional left"

"The union movement is at risk of plunging back to the "fantasy utopias" of the 1970s, the former home secretary and former union general secretary Alan Johnson warns today after Britain's third largest trade union suggested it might disaffiliate from the Labour party over Ed Miliband's pledge not to reverse the freeze on public sector wages." - Guardian

• "Some on the left inhabit a fantasy utopia. But this week Labour showed it is a credible alternative" - Alan Johnson for the Guardian
• Miliband vows to back public sector cuts – even if union backers withdraw their cash - Independent

National Labour Party accused of using constituency Labour HQs to shore up central finances - The Times (£)

Scottish MPs could lose the right to vote in the House of Commons on English matters under new proposals

"Ministers have unveiled details of a panel which will look into whether MPs in Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish seats should only vote on laws affecting England. However the delicate cross-party consensus between Labour and the Tories over trying to save the Union threatened to break down almost immediately, with Labour protesting about the lack of any serving or retired MPs on the commission." - Daily Telegraph

• English head of Scottish civil service tells his staff to expect an SNP victory in poll - Daily Telegraph

Britain's coastline is wide open to illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug smugglers — as cutbacks have left all of our smaller harbours unmanned -The Sun

Rise in the number of council staff earning more than £50,000 in Midlands -Daily Telegraph

Notorious killers can die behind bars, rules Europe - Daily Telegraph

• Only judges, not MPs, will defend human rights - Vernon Bogdanor in the Times (£)

Cutbacks shrink the Army to smallest size since Crimean War as Gurkhas bear the brunt of latest military cuts - Daily Mail

Non, non, non... et non! Sarkozy refuses to answer question about France's credit rating downgrade FOUR times during conference - Daily Mail

And finally… Ed Miliband invents a new phrase

"Ed Miliband boobed again last night — by saying he takes opinion polls "with a pinch of sugar". The beleaguered Labour leader had meant to say "a pinch of salt". ... One Westminster observer said: "Maybe it was a Freudian slip — he's admitting he finds the polls so unpleasant he has to sugar-coat them."" - The Sun

Highlights from yesterday

ToryDiary: Any Tory rebellion against the Government's plans to allow gay marriage will be embarrassing for Cameron

Andrew Percy MP on Comment: Israel is a country which is misunderstood and misrepresented

Loanna Morrison on Comment: Nick Clegg's "right to request" plan could bring as much risk as reward

MPsETC: Children exposed to domestic violence need to receive targeted Government support, says Tim Loughton

Local government:

• Pickles says councils have a "moral duty" not to push up Council Tax
• Bournemouth Council leader resigns

WATCH: Ed Miliband: "We oppose the cuts now, but it would be irresponsible, 3 years from a General Election, for us to start making specific promises"

LISTEN: Harriet Harman: It is "simply not the case" that Labour is accepting the Government's spending cuts