Politics blog + Conservatives

Delegates listen to the TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, at the annual TUC conference in Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Perhaps inevitably, spending cuts will be the dominant theme at the 142nd TUC conference, which begins in Manchester today.

Union leaders will attempt to challenge the coalition government's insistence that deep cuts in public spending are needed over a short time – or that they are needed at all, in the case of leftwing unions such as the Public and Commercial Services union.

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Parliament is preparing to welcome up to 350 new MPs, potentially the highest intake in decades. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Join Andrew Sparrow for rolling coverage of all the day's developments from Westminster and beyond

Andy Coulson has said he knew of no illegal activity while editing the News of the World. Photograph: Reuters

During a chat with harassed Tory press officers last week, I said: "I believe William Hague – I don't believe Andy Coulson."

Is that verdict based on any information that's not freely available to everyone? No, it's just my judgment as to where the balance of probability lies, reinforced by decades spent as a journalist.

Listening to Yates of the Yard struggling over the News of the World phone-hacking story against an under-briefed Justin Webb on Radio 4's Today programme – here's Andy Sparrow's take on it – did nothing to change my mind. This problem won't go away. Read Nick Davies in today's Guardian – or yesterday's Observer feature to catch up.

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David Cameron is under growing pressure to defend Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who is now his communications chief. Photograph: Reuters

Join Andrew Sparrow for rolling coverage of all today's events at Westminster

John Redwood never recovered after he was filmed struggling to to sing the Welsh national anthem. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

John Redwood, the former cabinet minister and failed Tory leadership contender, became the most senior Conservative to criticise William Hague today.

On his blog, which usually covers weighty economic matters, Redwood said Hague had shown "poor judgment" in sharing a hotel room with his former special adviser, Christopher Myers.

This is what Redwood wrote:

His statement confirms that he has shared hotel rooms with a young male assistant, and argues that this assistant was well qualified to become a special adviser to the Foreign Office. Mr Hague has now accepted the resignation of this special adviser, Mr Myers. Mr Hague tells us he did not have an inappropriate relationship with this young man.

Let us hope this is now an end to the matter. Mr Hague himself now seems to believe that it was poor judgement to share a hotel room with an assistant.

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David Cameron and Tony Blair in 2006. Photograph: Jonathan Buckmaster/PA Archive/Press Association Ima

Tony Blair devotes relatively little space amid the 718 pages of his autobiography to David Cameron or the Conservative party. But in comments set to rile the left of the Labour party, the former prime minister makes some positive noises about certain strands of Tory policy, prompting Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the Treasury, to claim Blair is backing Tory economic policies in the book and rejecting the policies followed by Brown and the Labour party.

On the economy, Blair counters the consensus view among Labour's leadership candidates, who are criticising the government for trying to cut the deficit too quickly amid claims that doing so will put the economy at risk.

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The aftermath of the 1972 Claudy bombing: a report on the cover-up has been handed to the government. Photograph: PA Wire/PA

Should we be offended that a British government and police force colluded with the Irish Catholic hierarchy to protect an IRA priest mixed up in the 1972 Claudy bombing?

Nine people – five Catholics and four Protestants, among them two children – were killed in the blast, which happened without warning. Thirty more were injured.

You have to take a very deep breath before answering: "No, but we should learn lessons from what the authorities did."

The story of Father James Chesney's role as the IRA's local "director of operations" (don't you love the title?) in South Derry is in today's papers because an official report has just been delivered to the British government.

But the outline has been known for years. Chesney was a tall, dark and handsome rascal who drove around in an open-topped Austin Healey, the life and soul of many a party. His ardent republicanism was not revealed to people such as Ivan Cooper, the distinguished local nationalist MP at the time.

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Nick Clegg. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

What should we all be making of the flurry of weekend rumours about Charles Kennedy-led defections from the Liberal Democrats to Labour? Though I reported this development during my annual August stint on the news rota, it was a matter of duty. I don't think it will happen. The Australian election result complicates matters too.

No one denies that there are problems looming for the Lib Dems inside the coalition, as events of recent days have underlined. As Jackie Ashley notes in her Guardian column today, Simon Hughes – the unofficial leader of the internal opposition – got cross about Michael Gove's "free" school policy and demanded party vetoes.

Then there was the problem over Sir Philip Green's appointment to look at Whitehall waste. Apart from being a loudmouth bit of City rough who famously abused the then-Guardian City editor Paul Murphy on the suspicion he might be Irish, Green is keen to avoid his family wasting too much money on tax: his wife, who lives in tax-lite Monaco, owns much of their wealth. Sir Phil sees her at weekends.

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David Cameron and Nick Clegg at the coalition's first press conference. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

When we asked for your experiences and thoughts on the coalition's first 100 days in power, it was a tentative toe in the water: most stories about the coalition on guardian.co.uk elicit a pretty polarised – and usually negative – response.

But of the more than 200 comments, there were many thoughtful statements. And the general feeling was by no means overwhelmingly anti-coalition.

Inevitably there were wildly different views on its performance so far.

"What has surprised me most about the coalition is their vindictiveness and the way they are shamelessly removing support for those most in need,"

respectmyauthority offered a different perspective:

"I'm surprised at how good the new coalition is. I think it's great to see cuts – after 12 years of financial mismanagement it's time to bring the country's accounts back to a semblance of normality."

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Nick Clegg giving a speech on social mobility today. Photograph: BBC News

Haroon Siddique with minute-by-minute coverage as David Cameron and Nick Clegg mark a milestone in government

The Guardian and ICM have been conducting monthly polls since 1984. Here is the full data going back to then. Plus, for the first time, we can bring you the trends in the big questions and how they've changed over time. Continue reading...

A Tweetminster graphic marking 100 days of the coalition government. Click image for larger version. Photograph: Tweetminster

To mark the coalition's first 100 days tomorrow, Tweetminster – which organises and displays political Twitter messages – has analysed five million tweets about the new government.

Its most interesting conclusion largely backs up what conventional opinion polls have found, and will add to Nick Clegg's worries as he attempts to recapture some of his pre-election popularity while David Cameron is on holiday:

Since the election, sentiment around the Conservatives has remained stable, while for David Cameron it has slightly risen. Sentiment around the Liberal Democrats, and for Nick Clegg especially, has dropped.

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Nick Clegg today. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Haroon Siddique with minute-by-minute coverage of Nick Clegg's Q&A session at MSN's offices in London