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Today's top ConservativeHome features ToryDiary: Stormed at with shot and shell, Nick Boles rides into planning's Valley of Death Also on ToryDiary: New group Conservative Voice aims to help build an election-winning Tory machine Columnist Peter Hoskin: The threat posed by the Green Party Peter Lilley MP on Comment: The statistical sophistry of the Stern Review on climate change MPsETC: Tory Chairman Grant Shapps unveils his new team, including Deputy Chairman, Sarah Newton MP Local Government: LGA tells councils to be sex snoopers The Deep End: Natural gas – Israel’s “manna from heaven” Today's ConservativeHome newslinks Dave and Boris (and thousands of athletes, volunteers, spectators, etc) bring London's summer of sport to a close  Boris Johnson confirmed his status as the big political winner of the Olympics and Paralympics as he shamelessly upstaged David Cameron at yesterday’s victory parade. ... As the Prime Minister looked on somewhat uncomfortably, the London Mayor left the huge crowd cheering ‘Boris, Boris’." - Daily Mail Nick Robinson: Talk of Boris becoming Tory leader is no longer fanciful - Ephraim Hardcastle column, Daily Mail Why the whiff of success clings to Brand Boris - Rachel Sylvester,The Times (£) > Yesterday: ToryDiary: Dave and Boris go about celebrating the Olympics in their own divergent ways ToryDiary: The Boris Manifesto looks to be taking shape Columnist Bruce Anderson: London needs more airport capacity — but we can ignore Boris’s madcap, self-serving proposals WATCH: David Cameron's speech for the Olympics victory parade WATCH: Appearing alongside Games Makers on Downing Street, David Cameron celebrates Britain's "golden summer" WATCH: Boris hails "the most successful team of athletes this country has ever assembled" — and the crowd loves it And the PM also offers his congratulations to Andy Murray for winning the US Open As Westminster chatters about more plots to usurp Mr Cameron "Anyway, the grouping I am talking about is quite a bit bigger than two people. It has met a handful of times in the office of a Tory former minister and privy councillor. I believe it’s most recent meeting was this month. It has focused on one of its group being a 'challenger' to David Cameron. That individual is more prominent than Bob Stewart in Tory backbench circles and is someone who would know their way round the party rules very well. ... Members of the cabal talk of maybe running the candidate in May next year after, what one predicted, were bound to be dreadful results at the Corby by-election and the local elections in May 2013." - from Gary Gibbon's Channel 4 blog yesterday "If Mr Cameron does not recover his standing in the opinion polls then there is every likelihood of Conservative MPs casting round for an alternative before the 2015 general election. ... And with no viable alternative visible within their ranks Mr Johnson stands out as the one person who could just pull off an unlikely Tory victory." - Patrick O'Flynn, Daily Express The Coalition's new industrial strategy — which includes a "state bank" for lending to small businesses — will be detailed by Vince Cable today "The Lib Dem minister will use a speech today at Imperial College, London, to set out a revamped industrial strategy, with car makers, aerospace, life sciences, construction, energy, higher education and creative industries to be named among the big winners. ... Mr Cable will dismiss those who favour a ‘laissez-faire’ approach to the Government’s handling of the economy, insisting it is right to intervene to support key growth sectors." - Daily Mail "Mr Cable will say in a speech in London that a state-sponsored body dispensing loans to small and medium-sized companies would work with smaller 'challenger banks' and other alternative providers." - Financial Times (£) David Cameron and Owen Paterson to meet with supermarket bosses in a bid to tackle youth unemployment - Daily Telegraph > Yesterday's video to WATCH: Ed Balls: "I could work with Vince"  And measures to help employers sack bad workers will be announced later this week "The package will: Change the cap on payouts for unfair dismissal from £72,300 to a year’s pay. ... Slash the minimum time for redundancy consultations from 90 days to six weeks or less. ... Make it easier for tribunal panels to strike off the more vindictive claims. ... Publish template 'settlement agreements' online for employers to simply download and agree with departing workers — cutting out the need for lawyers." - Sun But MPs criticise some of the Coalition's pre-existing growth measures "A report by MPs found that business has received less than 5 per cent of the £1.4 billion allocated to the Regional Growth Fund since its creation in June 2010. By May the scheme had generated only 5,200 of the 36,800 jobs it was supposed to deliver by 2014." - The Times (£) Michael Gove to unveil his plans to replace GCSEs with a more rigorous examination before the next election  "In a little-noticed move, the new Conservative education minister Elizabeth Truss has been handed responsibility for exam reform following last week’s Government reshuffle, rather than Mr Gove’s new Liberal Democrat number two, David Laws. ... The proposals will be put out for consultation before the new examination is introduced in 2014." - Daily Mail Thousands of GCSE English results were downgraded only two weeks before they were due to be published - Daily Mail Francis Maude discusses his plans to save money along Whitehall with the FT "The government, he said, 'ought to be the most effective customer there is. We have the best credit. We operate at scale. We pay very quickly. We should be a fabulous customer and as a result of that get exceptionally good pricing but we don’t and that’s what we’re changing.'" - Financial Times (£) The boss of G4S faces another showdown with MPs, as a decision over prison contracts looms - Financial Times (£) IDS says single mothers could keep fornightly benefit payments - Daily Telegraph IDS's Universal Credit programme will rot the souls of recipients, claims Frank Field - Frank Field, Guardian Home Office "months late" with police commissioner election rules - Daily Telegraph A multimillion-pound advertising campaign to promote the Police and Crime Commissioner elections is to be launched by the Electoral Commission - The Times (£) Senior police and security officials are concerned about the government's plans to reform counter-terrorism policing - The Times (£) U-turn on curbing payments to victims of minor criminal assaults -Guardian A new Conservative group has been launched to promote pro-business, anti-EU policies "Conservative Voice, formally launched today, is a challenge to some of David Cameron’s ideas on how the party should appeal to voters. ... Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary, and David Davis, the former leadership candidate, are among the Tories backing the new movement inside the Conservative Party. ... As well as Dr Fox and Mr Davis, the new group is backed by several Conservative MPs first elected in 2010, including Steve Barclay, Conor Burns. Robert Halfon, Priti Patel and Dominic Raab." - Daily Telegraph Why Conservative radicals are uniting for victory - Don Porter, Daily Telegraph > Today on ToryDiary: New group Conservative Voice aims to help build an election-winning Tory machine Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke makes "Northern Island" slip-up on Twitter - Daily Telegraph Richard Littlejohn: Hillsborough families want something more than an apology from David Cameron "Cameron’s statement will come in response to demands from campaigners. But what purpose will it serve? ... Soothing words from the Prime Minister will not salve the hurt, which burns as fiercely today as it did almost a quarter of a century ago in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. ... The Hillsborough campaigners want prosecutions, not platitudes." - Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail Could the Hillsborough lies ever happen again? - Gaby Hinsliff,Guardian Mary Riddell: Cameron demolition job risks tearing the country from its past "Competition is vital, but so is preserving the institutions showcased by a Games that celebrated our heritage, from woodlands and countryside to the NHS and volunteering." - Mary Riddell, Daily Telegraph > Today's column by Peter Hoskin: The threat posed by the Green Party Black Wednesday was twenty years ago this Sunday; Philip Johnston remembers it in today's Daily Telegraph - Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph Allister Heath offers three reasons why the economy will eventually improve - Allister Heath, City AM The Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb calls for reform of the laws on assisting dying - Daily Telegraph  Ed Miliband warns the unions that there is no public appetite for strikes - Financial Times (£) Unions encourage teachers to refuse routine non-teaching duties, such as supervising children at lunchtime, as part of the continuing row over pensions - Daily Mail No.10 says that strike action benefits no-one - Daily Telegraph > Yesterday:  LeftWatch: The “general strike” threat in perspective Local government: Adonis highlights the need to act against union "pilgrims" T-shirts anticipating Margaret Thatcher's death are on sale at the TUC conference  "Conor Burns, a Tory MP who regularly visits Lady Thatcher at her home in central London, said: 'These sickening sentiments speak to something disordered in the human condition. ... It shows an ugly side to the hard left who cannot move on from their utter defeat at the hands of this remarkable, but now frail, lady. ... Not for the first time Lady T shows why she amounts to so much more than her opponents.'" - Daily Telegraph Ed Balls promises a crackdown on bogus self-employed - Daily Telegraph Unions will challenge Ed Balls over his tacit support for the Coalition's freeze on public sector pay - The Times (£) The former deputy leader of the SNP has accused Alex Salmond of turning it into an "intellectually dumb" and "totalitarian" party - Daily Telegraph Yesterday's highlights on ConservativeHome ToryDiary:  The Boris Manifesto looks to be taking shape Dave and Boris go about celebrating the Olympics in their own divergent ways Local Government:  Adonis highlights the need to act against union "pilgrims" Bob Neill to be become Conservative Party Vice Chairman for Local Government LeftWatch: The “general strike” threat in perspective WATCH:  David Cameron's speech for the Olympics victory parade Boris hails "the most successful team of athletes this country has ever assembled" — and the crowd loves it Appearing alongside Games Makers on Downing Street, David Cameron celebrates Britain's "golden summer"