The ceremony is over, cake is cut. David Cameron will on Saturday unveil a £550m marriage tax break — funded by a levy on banks of at least £1bn.

It’s a transferable allowance for married couples on the basic rate of income tax. If the wife or husband stays at home, it knocks up to £150 off the working partner’s tax bill. Clever politics. But the economics looks a bit less convincing. Here is the Institute for Fiscal Studies take on the measure. And this is my breakdown of the pros and cons: Read more

The shadow home secretary has back-pedalled on his claims that B&B owners should be allowed to turn away gay couples. He was conspicuously absent from PMQs on Wednesday, as a survey of gay people found their support for the Tories dwindling.

Grayling may yet make it into a Tory cabinet. Rumours of his imminent demise are already circulating, however. Read more

Business leaders who backed the Tory NI policy have been deluged with “hundreds” of emails pleading with them to change their minds. Only problem is – they all have almost identical phrasing (apparently there are two or three versions). Even more pathetically, many haven’t even bothered to write in the name of the relevant chief executive.

I believe this is known as an “astroturf” (fake grassroots) campaign.  Read more