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Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: Another escalation in the battle against Whitehall’s permanent government Columnist Pete Hoskin: Labour are up to something major on property ownership - the Tories should strike back hard Nick de Bois MP on Comment: Taxpayers should not be asked to spend any more money on aid until it is proven to be well spent John Bald on Local Government: The evidence shows phonics works - so why do the Left still resist it? The Deep End: You are not a brain scan – challenging the rise of neurotrash: "At the heart of all of this, of course, are the intellectual forces of materialism. Having killed- off God (at least, to their own satisfaction), the abolition of the human soul is the next thing on their to-do list." WATCH: Ed Balls in impromptu piano playing incident Today's ConservativeHome newslinks Miliband keynote speech preview: personal history and education "In a speech aimed at revealing personal experiences that have shaped his politics, the Labour leader will say: “My family hasn’t sat under the same oak tree for the last 500 years. My parents came to Britain as immigrants, Jewish refugees from the Nazis. I would not be standing here today without the compassion and tolerance of our great country, Great Britain, a country that my parents saw rebuilt after the Second World War.”" - Scotsman "Ed Miliband will put himself on the side of the "forgotten 50%" on Tuesday by drawing on his state school roots and promising to reform an education system that he says fails half of Britain's teenagers by giving them second-rate vocational qualifications of little value to employers." - Guardian "All pupils will have to study English and maths until 18, Ed Miliband will announce today as he sets out plans designed to give Britain the skills to prosper in the 21st century." - Times (£) Labour plans German-style vocational qualifications - Independent Geeky Ed Miliband to claim I AM like you in speech - The Sun Is Ed Miliband hungry enough for power? That's the real test - as his brother David knows only too well - Lance Price for theIndependent > Coverage from yesterday: LeftWatch: Miliband's model for Britain - the era of bread rationing Columnist Bruce Anderson: It's Miliband, not Cameron, who is possessed by a sense of entitlement Columnist Andrew Lilico: Ed Miliband is wrong - Retail and investment arms of banks need not split WATCH: The problems of Ed Miliband's personality Double poll blow casts shadow over Miliband's big day "Only two out of 10 people believe that Ed Miliband has what it takes to be a good Prime Minister, according to an opinion poll for The Independent which highlights the mountain the Labour leader still has to climb. ComRes found that almost twice as many people think David Cameron can be a good Prime Minister, and the Conservatives are more trusted on the economy than Labour despite the slide back into recession." - Independent Balls says austerity would continue under Labour "Balls warned the UK’s austerity measures would continue under Labour and ruled out a “post-election spending spree”, as the party conference voted against the coalition government’s public sector freeze. Mr Balls used his keynote speech in Manchester yesterday to suggest he would stick to the coalition government’s spending limits for the first year in power... Balls admitted Labour would have been forced to make cuts if the party had won the 2010 general election, as well as telling the conference that he could not promise to reverse the austerity measures imposed by the Conservative-led government." - Scotsman Ed Balls vows to 'rebuild Britain anew' - Guardian Unions hit back at Ed Balls over public pay freeze - Times (£) Labour out of touch over public sector pay freeze, say union leaders - Guardian Balls calls on Olympics chief to revive economy - Daily Telegraph We are constantly told how clever Ed Balls is, so why can't he give us clear answers? - Simon Heffer for the Daily Mail So who got us into this mess, Mr Balls? - Daily Mail editorial Ed Balls: I have no shame over my Nazi uniform - The Sun > From today: Columnist Pete Hoskin: Labour are up to something major on property ownership - the Tories should strike back hard > Coverage from yesterday: WATCH: The Shadow Chancellor makes a joke in his speech to Labour's conference WATCH: Balls echoes Miliband's nostalgia for the era of bread rationing and emergency budgets Labour toys with backing an EU referendum - Times (£) "I don't deny I'm ambitious" says Chuka Umunna - Independent  Lord Coe to address Labour conference over London 2012 success - Guardian  Johann Lamont set to portray Alex Samond as heir to Margaret Thatcher - Scotsman Rachel Sylvester: Miliband and Labour haven't fully accepted they were rejected in 2010 "Certainly some in the Shadow Cabinet are happy to bury their heads in the sand. I have heard one frontbencher argue, apparently without irony, that “the voters got it wrong — they will soon see sense and come round to our way of thinking”... They are ignoring the truth that their party lost badly in 2010. Too many people believed it had sacrificed economic credibility, run out of ideas and reneged on Tony Blair’s promise to create a “new kind of politics”. Labour will only regain the respect of the voters if it in turn respects them." - Rachel Sylvester for the Times (£) Comment: Behind the mask of modesty, Labour is developing an arrogant streak - Benedict Brogan for the Daily Telegraph Miliband and Balls do have a plan, but they needn't reveal all yet - Polly Toynbee for the Guardian Balls and Miliband know talking about themselves is easy, but policy is hard. At least they've made a start - Steve Richards for theIndependent "Nothing threatens Labour more than the widespread perception that it cannot take tough decisions" - Janan Ganesh for the FT (£) Keith Vaz faces inquiries by police and parliament over "suspicious" cash movements through accounts "A Scotland Yard investigation found “significant amounts of cash” which were said to have been of a “suspicious nature”, according to reports yesterday. ... Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said Mr Vaz should stand down from the committee he chairs until the matter has been fully investigated by the parliamentary authorities. He has also wrote to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner demanding an investigation into the payments." -Scotsman Vaz’s 'extreme’ mortgage bill was seven times higher than pay -Daily Telegraph Is Alistair Campbell planning a comeback? Former spin doctor could make return as MP - Daily Mail Boris Johnson to challenge David Cameron on "nonsensical" airport delays "David Cameron must speed up his decision on a new airport for London as current delays are "unnecessary" and "nonsensical", Boris Johnson will say this week. The London Mayor, a major rival to the Prime Minister, is disappointed at the Coalition's failure to support his plans for an airport on an island in east London and fears a u-turn over a third runway at Heathrow." - Daily Telegraph > Yesterday on ToryDiary: It's too easy to challenge a Tory leader. It should be made harder Osborne blocked cap on elderly care costs "George Osborne blocked a plan to cap social care costs that had been due to be announced this summer after a row with Andrew Lansley... Mr Lansley had spent months drawing up a proposal to means-test people who receive care in their own homes, in the same way as those moving into a nursing home.... Mr Lansley’s plan was angrily rejected by the Chancellor during a meeting of the quad of senior ministers to discuss reform of social care." - Daily Telegraph "Ministers have dropped plans to prevent private hospitals profiteering through “cherry picking” NHS patients by paying providers a reduced rate." - FT (£) Maude pushes for civil service accountability "Francis Maude will step up his drive to sharpen civil service accountability on Tuesday... In a speech at the Institute for Government... [he] will say: “At the moment our system works on the basis that ministers are accountable to parliament, which is quite right. But what must flow from that is civil servants are directly accountable to ministers. It sounds obvious but all too often it doesn’t happen.”" - FT (£) Don't block our reforms, Francis Maude tells civil servants - Daily Mail > Today on ToryDiary: Another escalation in the battle against Whitehall’s permanent government Allister Heath: Are we seeing green shoots or aren't we? Different measures indicate different stories "The average forecast for UK GDP growth for 2013 has dropped from 1.8 per cent to 1.3 per cent in the last four months; this will probably fall further. By previous standards, such a performance would be pathetic – but compared to the dire figures seen in recent quarters, any growth could plausibly be taken as proof that the long-awaited green shoots are finally upon us. Welcome to the New Normal." - Allister Heath for City AM It will take time to restore trust in the banking industry - Andrew Tyrie MP for the FT (£) The pension revolution: Shake-up for 11m workers as every employer is forced to provide staff retirement schemes "The pensions revolution affecting up to 11million workers began yesterday. It is the biggest shake-up of pensions for more than a century and was hailed by ministers as ‘a truly radical social change’. For the first time, every boss will be forced to pay into a pension for their workers, who will be automatically signed up to the scheme." - Daily Mail Independent Scots would have to apply to rejoin EU, says Lord Wallace "An independent Scotland would have to negotiate its way back into the European Union as a new state, the coalition government’s top law officer north of the Border will say today. Advocate General Lord Wallace will claim Scotland’s obligations would be thrown into doubt after independence, with the country “likely” to find itself outside the EU." - Scotsman Greek debt talks deadlocked as lenders demand new wage cuts -Guardian Welsh government: Talks under way on £15bn draft budget - BBC New school building designs hit by curve ban - Guardian Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan could be speeded up, says Rasmussen - Guardian BBC execs get £400k expenses - The Sun And finally 1... in praise of Michael Gove's new glasses - Independent And finally 2... "A rightwing insurrection is usurping our democracy"... George Monbiot concocts a link between Lord Lucan and the Free Enterprise Group - Guardian Highlights from yesterday's ConservativeHome Columnist Andrew Lilico: Ed Miliband is wrong - Retail and investment arms of banks need not split Comment: Charlie Elphicke MP: Ed Balls is a deficit denier who has learned nothing and forgotten nothing Samuel Kasumu: The Conservatives must win a new generation WATCH: Balls echoes Miliband's nostalgia for the era of bread rationing and emergency budgets The problems of Ed Miliband's personality The Shadow Chancellor makes a joke in his speech to Labour's conference