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Today's ConservativeHome top features

ToryDiary: Nigel Farage's grand strategy to destroy the Conservative Party

ToryDiary: Major global media brand signs deal to become shirt sponsor of massive football club.... AFC Bluebirds

Majority Conservatism: Chris Grayling urges Cameron to find more "EU veto moments" as part of his five point election-winning plan

Columnist Andrew Lilico: Why are companies sitting on their cash?

Mark Prisk MP on Comment: Ours is the largest deregulatory package of any Government in my lifetime

Harry Benson on Comment: The Prime Minister's support plan for new parents won't work. Here's how to make it do so.

The Deep End: Can we be grown-up about grammar schools?

Local government:

• Thom Wiseman: Labour-run York's war on localism
• Adonis ditches support for Gove reforms

WATCH: Clegg fails to answer question from Philip Davies MP on voters providing photo ID at polling stations

Today's newslinks

I will defy Europe on jail votes, says Cameron as he sets on collision course with judges in Strasbourg - Yorkshire Post

"David Cameron yesterday vowed to fight to defend British sovereignty from European judges by insisting that prisoners will not be given the vote. The Prime Minister said the ban on voting from jail was for Parliament to decide rather than ‘a foreign court’. Downing Street insiders insisted there would be no votes for convicts while Mr Cameron remained in charge of the country." -Daily Mail

• "British democracy must win" - The Daily Mail applauds Cameron's promise to fight against votes-for-prisoners
• "Labour said it would back Mr Cameron if he chose to oppose the ruling. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said there was cross-party agreement about not giving the vote to prisoners and the ECHR ruling was the “wrong thing”." - Express

David Cameron promises to fight financial transactions tax 'all the way'

"A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a bad idea," Mr Cameron told reporters as he left the [EU] summit. "It will put up the cost of people's insurance, put up the cost of people's pensions, it would cost many, many jobs, and it would make Europe less competitive and I'll fight it all the way."" -Telegraph

Nick Clegg is to warn that Greece exiting the euro is something "no rational person" should advocate and would cause "irrevocable damage" - BBC

Tory MPs will get a free vote on gay marriage as issue is a 'matter of conscience' - Daily Mail |BBC

"Downing Street initially suggested that the Cabinet and junior ministers could be required to support the plans when new laws allowing same-sex marriage are debated in the Commons. However, after a series of senior government figures expressed their dismay at the development, Number 10 sources pledged to allow MPs to vote with their consciences." -Telegraph

"Stewart Jackson, Mr Paterson's former parliamentary private secretary, warned that any attempt to whip MPs would cause "serious divisions". He said: "No 10 would be foolish in the extreme to disregard this as a conscience issue. Whipping the vote would be a catastrophic error of judgement and would generate serious divisions." Peter Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, warned: "There would be uproar in the party and ministerial resignations." Mark Pritchard, a former secretary of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, claimed on the PoliticsHome website: "The Prime Minister has given a clear commitment to a free vote on gay marriage – therefore, Owen Paterson's comments are perfectly in order."" - Independent

> On Video yesterday: Two Tory MPs explain why they support same-sex marriage

A record of Cameron's insults to other MPs - The Guardian | Independent

• The electorate looks at Cameron's "laddish" behaviour and doesn't like it - Andreas Whittam-Smith in The Independent

> Yesterday on Video: "The muttering idiot sitting opposite me"

Iain Duncan Smith's new Universal Credit benefit to be tested in North West - BBC

Private school head hits out at "Communist Clegg" after he says universities should favour state pupils - Daily Mail

Cameron and Clegg fear that Vince Cable will lend his support to Labour at any time - Simon Heffer in the Daily Mail

"Business leaders stepped up the pressure over the government's reluctance to put weaker employment protection at the heart of its growth strategy when both the Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of Directors condemned the gap between the government's rhetoric and its enterprise bill published on Wednesday." - Guardian

• The Telegraph agrees: "Such game-changing measures are needed to inject life into a moribund economy. Instead, we have a disappointing and insipid absence of radicalism that is routinely and conveniently blamed on the intransigence of the Liberal Democrats. That excuse is beginning to wear a little thin."
• And so does the FT: "For all the rhetoric about deregulation, Mr Cable’s achievements have been thin. Wednesday’s enterprise bill met with a weary sigh from business. This may explain why Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s former adviser, hired Mr Beecroft in the first place."

But also in The Telegraph Peter Oborne comes to Cable's defence, arguing that "the kind of untrammelled free market capitalism which Mr Beecroft is advocating is inhumane, unedifying and unBritish". In The Times (£)Camilla Cavendish is more practical: "To help good workers you must fire bad ones".

Boris warns again against third runway

"Boris Johnson warned there was a risk the government would “tiptoe back” to consider a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport, a proposal he denounced as “a sham, a snare and a delusion”. The Conservative mayor of London, speaking at the first mayor’s question time since he won a second term at City Hall, insisted a third runway at the UK’s hub airport would be a mistake, even though he acknowledged business was strongly in favour." - FT (£)

"David Cameron is facing increasing pressure from grass roots Conservatives who believe that Downing Street is becoming out of touch with the issues they are hearing about on the doorstep" - Times (£)

The Scottish Government has said the official “Yes to independence” campaign will be a cross- party alliance and that the SNP will not be the only voice - Scotsman

• England must not give any more money to Scotland to try and save Union - Ann Widdecombe in The Express

Labour's Jon Cruddas can put tanks on Tory lawns - David Williamson for the Western Mail is impressed by the new Labour policy chief's English and traditional identity

The last thing the Biased Broadcasting Corporation needs is yet another Labour stooge at the helm - Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail

Yesterday's ConservativeHome highlights

ToryDiary: Mischief-making Nigel Farage opens door to joint Tory-UKIP candidates

ToryDiary: Cameron livens up a Beecroft-focused PMQs by calling Ed Balls a "muttering idiot"

• WATCH: "The muttering idiot sitting opposite me" - Cameron on Balls

Robert Halfon MP on Comment: Petrol prices are not just about economics. They are about social justice.

Chris Skidmore MP on Comment: How the Government should tackle health tourism

WATCH:

• David Cameron's PPS Desmond Swayne and Justice Minister Crispin Blunt record pro-gay marriage videos for Out4Marriage
• Martin Callanan MEP: The EU needs "a free trade, de-regulatory, and pro-market agenda" to achieve growth