Peter Hoskin

Here's one of the most striking leitmotifs of the Lib Dem conference: how party figures are rushing to slap down talk of an electoral pact between themselves and the Tories. Vince Cable was at it yesterday, writing in the Independent on Sunday that: "Our parties remain totally independent and will compete in future national and local elections." And Nick Clegg is expected to repeat that message, with even less equivocation, in his speech today. To some extent, this isn't surprising. The Lib Dems could hardly go around beating the drum for a pact, some five years before polling day. But the 100 percent certainty of their denials still jars with the "no plans" ambiguity of No.10 on this issue.

If you're looking for a spot of LibCon strife that might actually mean something, then how about Tavish Scott's interview in Scotland on Sunday? Judging by what he says about David Cameron, the leader of the Scottish Lib Dems clearly isn't one for coalition niceties: "I suspect that (David Cameron) doesn't even think about Scotland. It is not even remotely on his radar screen. He has a Scottish Secretary, and that's that." With the Scottish general elections drifting into view, there's little doubt that Scott is dissociating his Lib Dems from a Tory party that is unpopular and – as Alex has frequently noted – inept north of Carlisle. But the question for the Scottish Lib Dems is how far they want to take that process.

The images from inside Westminster Hall right now: Captions please...

Trust Bob Crow to turn down the charm. Explaining why he was boycotting Mervyn King's address to the TUC today, the RMT union boss managed to liken the Governor of the Bank of England to both the "devil" and the "Sheriff of Nottingham". Unsurprising, perhaps – but it's yet another reminder of why, for the Labour leadership contenders, marching in lockstep with the unions may not be such a good idea. To Harriet Harman, a Labour Party bound to Crow & Co. might be a “progressive coalition”. But to the rest of the country, it will probably look slightly left of sane. Only David Miliband, to his credit, seems to have properly grasped this fact – and the fact that he might hope to work alongside people like King one day.

Carry on cutting – and carry on making the case for cuts. That's the message that David Cameron drilled into his ministers during a political session of Cabinet this afternoon. Paul Waugh has a typically precise account of what was said, and the Press Association has a decent round-up, but the key observation is just how forceful Cameron was in making his point. The government, he said, should take on the "vested interests" arguing against cuts – and the Budget was the right action taken at the right time. The PM, you sense, is limbering up for a fight. As Ben Brogan suggests over at the Telegraph, Cameron is right to hold the line. This is not a time for wavering at the chopping block, even if the public have their qualms about the bloodshed to come.

Far more heat than light generated by this afternoon's urgent question on welfare spending – but a telling spectacle nonetheless. The question had been put forward by a dissenting Lib Dem voice, Bob Russell, and it was up to George Osborne to answer it. He did so with sweeping observations, and attacks on Labour, rather than specifics. And so we never really got into the small print of those £4 billion extra benefit cuts, but Osborne did wonder why Labour have never apologised for "leaving the country with the worst public finances in its history." It was knockabout stuff.   This is not to say that Osborne was ineffective. In party political terms, he had a message – and he pushed it as far as he could.

Two years ago, Richard Hooper wrote a report on Royal Mail which recommended part-privatising the service, among other measures. And today, with the official update to that report, we learn that his views have barely changed at all. If anything is different between then and now, it's that the need to modernise Royal Mail has become even more urgent. The number of letters they're sending has plummeted by more than forecast, and their pensions deficit has become even more unsustainable. The rot has quickened – and, yes, it's up to the government to combat it. For their part, the coalition are using Hooper's update to stress just how crucial privatisation is for Royal Mail.