Britannia Radio

Today's top ConservativeHome features

ToryDiary: For Cameron, Clegg and Conservative MPs, the question is the same: When it comes to the EU, how far will you go?

Also on ToryDiary: Grayling says Coalition must go "much further and much faster" on economic reform

MajorityConservatism: There is a compassionate and ambitious alternative to Cameronism and Tory members prefer it

Columnist Jill Kirby is worried about a proposal that will allow women to check on the criminal histories of boyfriends: In promoting Clare's Law, the Coalition government is repeating Labour's mistakes

Mike Freer MP on Comment: The state must stop distorting the market, and allow world class universities the freedom to expand

Nick Wood on Comment reviews a new book about London's Mayor: "The suspicion (remains) that he is in it for only one cause and for only one person: Just Boris"

MPsETC: Bill Gates addresses Conservative Friends of International Development

Local government: Checking out the "check off" system for union subs

WATCH: Francis Maude warns against "disruptive and irresponsible" strike action by public sector unions

Today's ConservativeHome newslinks

Despite promises Cameron and Osborne ready to give more to IMF to rescue Eurozone

"The government is prepared to give more money to the International Monetary Fund so that it can help struggling eurozone nations, the BBC has learned. BBC political editor Nick Robinson says such a move could mean debt-ridden nations like Greece, Italy or Spain are indirectly helped by British taxpayers." - BBC

• Cameron will fly to France for a crunch meeting of the G20 set to be dominated by the debt crisis in the eurozone - PA
• The only way forward is for all governments to get their finances under control - Hamish McRae in The Independent
• "Many in Brussels are livid at Papandreou’s decision to ask the people what they think, always a no-no to undemocratic elites. But European taxpayers are also rightly angry; as far as they are concerned, beggars cannot be choosers and Greece should either do what it is told or be thrown out." - Allister Heath in City AM
• Conservative MPs are at odds over whether to join a new Eurosceptic group aimed at forcing David Cameron to take a tougher approach to the EU - Independent | Yesterday's MPsETC

In revised public pensions offer Government says "no-one within 10 years of retirement will have to work longer or see their pension income decrease as a result" - BBC

"Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary who led a trade union delegation into talks on Wednesday with Alexander and the cabinet office minister Francis Maude, praised the government for giving some ground."It is important that the government has moved. It has come rather late in this process and we welcome that they have made a move today. It is a material move in their position." - Guardian

"TAKE THEM ON" - The Sun accuses the Government of "losing its bottle" over public pensions.

"Public sector unions seem incapable of understanding the nature of the economic crisis, or the financial implications of an ageing workforce." -Telegraph leader

George Osborne is looking at options to cut billions of pounds from next year’s benefits bill by scrapping inflation-linked rises - FT (£)

"Officially Mr Osborne is sticking to the line that the government will next April uprate pensions and benefits – as usual – according to the 5.2% inflation figure recorded in September. Behind the scenes a different story is emerging. The September inflation figure is an economic and political nightmare. Economists believe the 5.2% figure is the peak of the cycle and will fall sharply, yet it would normally be used to determine the uprating of pensions and benefits for millions of people next April. Not only would that set back the Treasury an extra £1.8bn compared with previous fo recasts, but it would come at a time when public sector wages were being frozen and when average earnings were rising by about 2.5%." - FT (£)

• Coalition of women's groups accuse Cameron of "unprecedented attack": The Fawcett Society accuses the Government of “grinding down women” and causing the “greatest risk to their financial security in living memory.” - Telegraph

Cameron backed the Archbishop of Canterbury’s complaints about irresponsibility in the financial world - Telegraph

Also from PMQs:

• Tories complain of “increasingly maniacal gesticulations of the Shadow Chancellor” - Express
• The Sun meanwhile reminds us of the time Ed Balls dressed up as a Nazi.
• AND Tiddlergate: Did this Labour MP really wag her little finger at David Cameron during PMQs in a sexually charged gesture? - Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: David Cameron equal to Ed Miliband's economic attacks at PMQs

Despite all those Tory promises, fathers and grandparents will still be denied the right to see children after a divorce - Daily Mail

"Tory Iain Duncan Smith will lead protests against an official report that today says fathers and mothers should NOT have equal access to kids... The recommendations fly in the face of Mr Duncan Smith's crusade to champion the importance of dads and grandparents in children's lives. The Work and Pensions Secretary believes that fathers who give teenage boys a positive male role model can play a key part in the war against gangs." - Sun

Children who are adopted will be given priority in the hunt for sought-after school places - Independent

"Grammar schools are expected to expand their intake by as much as 50 per cent by 2018. Ministers announced yesterday that powers allowing councils to cap the number of places state schools can offer will be scrapped." - Daily Mail

Dominic Grieve says national parliaments not European judges should decide whether prisoners are entitled to the vote - Guardian | Telegraph

People have been "left stranded in appalling conditions" as a result of stopping regeneration projects midstream - BBC

I simply fail to understand how a Tory-led Government can't muster a single warship to protect this nation's shores - Stephen Glover at the Daily Mail

Voters think we should spend 7.9% of income on aid when we spend less than 1% - Independent

"The Department for International Development is being shaken up from top to bottom to minimise waste and maximise effectiveness. There is now a transparency guarantee so we can inspect how our aid is deployed. Money is being targeted on poorer nations, and there'll be no more cash for Russia and China. More aid is going to help conflict-torn nations so we do everything we can to stop countries becoming tomorrow's Afghanistans and Somalias. More money is going to support enterprise in developing countries and, like every Whitehall department, DfID is cutting its own costs by a third." - Tim Montgomerie at Coffee House

The Times backs shifting tax system to wealth

"It is a mistake to tax high earners on their income at 50p in the pound, because such a broad measure is a discincentive to economic activity... However, most taxpayers are right to observe that their income is taxed heavily while the established wealth of the more prosperous substantially escapes. Reforming property taxes so that greater amounts are paid by the most wealthy could help the Government make a reality of its claim that we are all in this together." - Times leader (£)

> Rebalancing the tax system by replacing some income taxes with wealth taxes is one of the themes of MajorityConservatism.

Peter Oborne on the rise of UKIP

"Ukip’s strength is very easy to explain. The leadership of the three mainstream parties have made an error. They are determined to cleave to the centre ground. Ukip alone has the courage to stand outside this cosy alliance and to cause havoc. Meanwhile, it goes without saying that a Tory leader can never win an election so long as the broader Conservative movement is so painfully split." - Peter Oborne in The Telegraph

John Bercow squanders £3,700 of taxpayers' money on fancy clothes - Daily Mail

Immigration ePetition is winning 1,000 new signatures every hour - Sun

Highlights from yesterday

On Comment:

• Ed Hall: What happens after the generals take charge of Greece?
• James Morris MP: The EU referendum vote was damaging for Tory modernisation - it made the Party look out of touch
• Ruth Porter: Ideas for growth are staring Cameron in the face. Time for him to get serious about them

MPsETC: Tory MP and EU rebel Tracey Crouch tells Mark Pritchard she won't be part of any "bash the PM" group

LeftWatch: Labour sides with the energy industry and Conservatives side with the energy consumer in hopeful shift of policy

PMQs videos:

• David Cameron: "There is a global storm in the world economy today"
• David Cameron warns a Robin Hood Tax would allow European countries to escape their aid pledges

WATCH: Dominic Raab MP, Chris Skidmore MP, Liz Truss MP, Iain Martin and Mark Littlewood debate the future of the Conservative Party