The letter by 17 Lib Dem council leaders to the Times yesterday confirmed a high level of grassroots concern about coalition cuts by the national leadership. But it also offered a slightly misleading impression of how Tory councillors feel about the speed and depth of cuts to council budgets – implying that they were not concerned.

Of course there are some Conservatives in town halls who accept the need for the cuts and are comfortable with the 27 per cent cut to the formula grant and its frontloading in the first year. Read more

This, surely, is a candidate for John Rentoul’s questions to which the answer is no. But that hasn’t stopped the Yes campaign from telling the Guardian:

“Around the wedding it will be a coming-into-summer, more optimistic, more of a yes mood.” Read more