David Cameron has decided to take a massive political gamble and abandon his party's commitment to match Labour's spending commitments.

With the Tory leader and his shadow chancellor taking increasing flak for failing to counter Gordon Brown's rising political stock over his handling of the economic crisis, the leadership had to do something dramatic.

Having lived in fear of being accused of threatening to cut public services Cameron has decided that the recession actually provides him with an opportunity to take a radically different course from the government.

This will please the Conservative right-wing who have been agitating for a spending and tax cutting agenda, even the sacking of Osborne.

It also provides the electorate with a clear choice between Labour attempting to massively borrow to cut tax and spend more to mitigate the effects of the downturn and the Tory's spending and limited tax cuts.

The test for Cameron's new approach will come very soon when he will have to decide whether to vote against the government's Christmas tax cuts that will appear in the pre-Budget report.

This morning's DCMS committee hearing into the BBC's commercial operations was, unsurprisingly, dominated by questions about "Sachsgate".

So keen were the MPs to ask director general Mark Thompson and BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons about the Ross and Brand scandal, the witnesses were kept in the hot seat for an hour longer than scheduled - until Sir Michael started to warn he was going to miss his train to Cardiff.

When they did get onto the subject of the inquiry proper, there was an interesting suggestion that the corporation has toned down its plans for BBC Local.

The service would see video news added to its network of local websites, and is under fire from commercial media providers concerned that BBC muscle will jeopardise local papers and TV.

But Thompson said the proposals are now more than four years old - pre-dating his arrival as DG - and have since become much more "focused".

He suggested the websites would allow local councillors and interest groups to access the public, but would be "punctiliously public service" rather than the "super-local TV" originally envisaged.

The issue of Lord Mandelson's accountability to the Commons has taken up a good chunk of the business secretary's appearance before the BERR select committee this morning, with MPs particularly unhappy that of his six-strong ministerial team, two others are in the Lords and four are shared with other departments.

The secretary of state insisted that appointments were a matter for the prime minister, although he did stress the high quality calibre of his colleagues. But pressed on the matter - and noting that he was straying "way beyond" his official brief - Mandelson wondered whether he should be allowed into the Commons to answer at the despatch box, a modernisation that would have some traditionalists up in arms. But given the pace of change in Parliament, don't hold your breath.

The Treasury's bail-out of the banks is pretty much the only political story in town today, but there were a few mentions of the Glenrothes by-election in this morning's papers.

The Times limits itself to reporting that Gordon Brown "wants" to campaign in the Scottish constituency ahead of the November 6 poll.

The Mail goes further, saying that the PM will "put his leadership on the line" and buck the convention - ignored on several occasions by Tony Blair - that the premier steers clear of by-elections.

The reports are based on comments by new Scottish secretary Jim Murphy, who according to the Scottish Press Association told reporters while out knocking on doors that "he would be an enormous asset to the campaign here in Glenrothes".

"I would like him to be here, he would like to be here, but his first responsibility in Glenrothes is to get a solution to the international economic crisis," Murphy said.

"If he can do that as well as come to Glenrothes, he would like to, I would like him to, [candidate] Lindsay Roy would like him to.

"He is a phenomenal, formidable campaigner and he is determined to try and come here."

This could be a strong hint Brown will attend, but it could also be the words of a minister trying to answer press questions on the ground without using a sterile formula about prime ministerial convention.

The Herald's political blog thinks Brown will turn up for an hour or two, and there could well be a backbench question on the subject at the first PMQs of term this afternoon.

In a list of all the MPs named David (there were 39 at the last count) thought likely to cause Gordon Brown trouble, David Cairns would have not figured very high among them.

Messrs Cameron, Miliband, Laws and Davis would all have certainly been considered better prospects to give the prime minister a headache.

A middle-ranking Scotland Office minister, who has never said a word in anger about his government in public, Cairns was probably seen as someone who might be one of the last to turn against Brown.

But as well as his already well-noted former research work for the first rebel to break ranks, Siobhan McDonagh, there are two other factors worth considering.

The first is that he was deeply involved in Labour's Glasgow East by-election campaign, often being put up by Number 10 as a spokesman for it. This would make it much harder to dismiss him as "David Who?" if he does decide to resign, or speak out and be sacked.

Especially with the Glenrothes campaign about to get underway, Cairns would have some authority in claiming that Labour is now unable to gain any traction even in its own heartlands.

Secondly, the very fact of his previous good behaviour is important. If this is a co-ordinated plot, one key characteristic of it is that it is being led (in public at least) by figures who cannot be characterised as the usual suspects on either the left or the Blairite right. Rather they are all loyalists who can claim they have the best interests of the party at heart, and not factional or personal grudges.

One of the less remarked-upon aspects of the whole episode is that these are almost a carbon copy of the tactics used to unseat Tony Blair in the "curry house coup" of 2006, which many believe were devised by Brown.

"What a superstar" conference chair Lynne Featherstone declared as Vince Cable stepped down from the stage.

But Cable is a pecluliarly reluctant superstar, a trait signalled by his decision to duck straight off the conference stage as soon as he had finished, rather than soak up the lengthy appluase.

Thanks to his starring exploits as stand-in leader and precipitous warnings on Northern Rock, the party's Treasury spokesman and deputy leader is probably better known now than any other Lib Dem (with the possible exception of Lembit Opik) and more loved by the party faithful than any other figure since Paddy Ashdown.

But he is still an unusually shy politician, not naturally given to big set-piece speeches.

That is not to say he did not perform well, he just did so in his dry, understated way.

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Sir Menzies Campbell will not be exercising his right to give a set-piece speech to the Liberal Democrat conference. At a briefing for journalists today ahead of the Bournemouth gathering Duncan Brack, the chairman of the party's federal conference committee, revealed that the former leader had been offered the opportunity to address activists.

However true gentleman that he is (and perhaps in a nod to his own predecessor Charles Kennedy, who was thought to have slightly undermined him with an overlong speech in 2006), Ming replied that while he was grateful to have been asked, "the place for former party leaders is on the fringe".

I've always been mildly suspicious of what Travelodge calls its annual books left behind index - the titles abandoned in its hotel rooms over the summer.

The fact that some of the big political books pop up made me wonder if it wasn't compiled with an eye or more on the press release.

But Travelodge's press office explains that it does actually get hotel managers to keep a record of all the books they find, before they return them to their owners or give them to a charity shop.

Last year Alastair Campbell's weighty The Blair Years, which some of us are still crawling through, was top.

This year the winner/loser is John Prescott with Prezza - Pulling no Punches, with 92 copies recovered.

In third place is Cherie Blair's Speaking for Myself (key take-home point: the Blairs used "contraceptive equipment") with 62 copies carelessly abandoned.

In both cases they were mostly found in London. No sign of anything by the Hagues or any copies of Nudge.

Is Stephen Carter sacked, sidelined or staying put?

Yesterday's Independent on Sunday was first to claim he was being moved to a lower-key role, and the Telegraph this morning said the PM's strategist is being sidelined after losing a turf war with Downing Street permanent secretary Jeremy Heywood.

Number 10 is denying the story - the prime minister's spokesman said it wasn't even a story but a sentence without "any substance at all".

He had, he told reporters, checked with both Gordon Brown and Carter and confirmed there was "no truth in the allegations".

But clearly some insiders say otherwise - Jane Merrick, the IoS political editor who broke the story, is standing by it and says it was triple-sourced.

Other versions of the story are popping up, with the Mail saying he may be found a "blue sky" thinking role similar to John Birt under Tony Blair. Or Julius Nicholson I suppose.

PR Week's David Singleton, who has proved to have fruitful sources inside No 10 is also running the story with fresh details.

Incidentally, is it fair to describe Carter as a PR man? He was a former chief executive of Ofcom who moved to be chief executive of the PR consultancy Brunswick, so isn't he more of a boardroom bigwig than ace public relations practitioner?

News that the Liberal Democrats have chosen their candidate for Glenrothes means Labour are the last major party to pick a by-election contender.

The Lib Dems, who announce a new Scottish leader later today, have nominated local businessman Harry Wills..

The SNP has already picked Peter Grant, leader of Fife Council, while the Tories have selected Maurice Golden, who stood in Central Fife at the last Holyrood elections.

Labour are choosing their man or woman at a meeting next Monday - the Courier has some tips on who it might be, although Henry McLeish has since ruled himself out.

John Prescott seems to be easing himself further back into public life.

The MP for Hull East, who steps down at the next election, dropped out of sight after the departure of Tony Blair - re-emerging only to publicise his autobiography.

Recently, and surprisingly for a man who once seemed to regard bloggers as his mortal enemies, he has been posting in typically combative fashion on Labourhome.

He was also speaking at a lunch for the Oldie magazine on Tuesday, when he told Mail diarist Richard Kay that he wouldn't accept the offer of a peerage.

Kay says this puts an end to the prospect of "a Prescott coat of arms showing a right hook rampant and an outsize chip".

At the end of the Blair era there was much speculation Prescott would be a shoo-in for the Lords, but he told Kay: "I still want to make a contribution."

Peers might be rather miffed to hear the former DPM doesn't think they make a contribution.

Presumably what he means is he wants to be able to continue trading body blows with the Tories, which wouldn't be possible from the rarefied atmosphere of the red benches.

It must be August - as that Policy Exchange report about abandoning the North (I paraphrase) continues to feature heavily in what political news is about.

The Independent profiles "David Cameron's favourite think-tank", while Michael Brown on the op-ed pages says it risks reinforcing the impression the Conservative leader is a metropolitan elite.

Over at the Guardian, Policy Exchange's chief economist hits back at G2's paint-by-numbers feature on the report, "We didn't say people should leave Leeds".

But the Times says history shows that shifting patterns of trade and economics have always benefited some regions at the expense of others: "Look on King's Lynn, ye mighty, and despair".

Following the Commons public administration committee's report into the rules governing memoirs by former diplomats, Sir Ivor Roberts has criticised the FCO regime for "damaging the country's democracy".

Sir Ivor is the former ambassador to Italy, and his valedictory dispatch - in which he said British diplomacy has been taken over by a "bullshit bingo" management culture - led to the end of the traditional parting memo.

In an interview with Civil Service Network he is scathing about the current restrictions on memoirs, which prevent former diplomats speaking about anything connected to their work for the rest of their lives.

"I'm sure there was political pressure on the Foreign Office to make sure they didn't get any more kiss-and-tell memoirs and so they've invented this absurdly draconian over-reaction which, I think, is unworkable and brings the whole system into ridicule," he says.

Following our interview with Chris Huhne talking about the Lib Dems' electoral fortunes - and Three Line Whip thinks he was confused or badly-briefed - Peter Riddell considers their strategy in today's Times.

He advises looking at the regional press - like this in the Birmingham Post, via Liberal Burblings - for signs of a shift towards targeting Labour seats.

Riddell's analysis in part agrees with Huhne, suggesting the party is adopting a defensive strategy against the expected swing to the Tories in the South while moving its big guns to seats in Labour areas where plenty of MPs look ripe for toppling.

But Riddell sees two problems - electoral credibility, because the party keeps performing badly at by-elections, and the difficulty of tuning its policies to help defend against the Tories on tax cuts while appealing to Labour voters on fairness.

Chris Huhne delivers an upbeat assessment of the Lib Dems' general election prospects in an interview with ePolitix.

It's often said that their vote is being squeezed by the resurgent Tories, while the party risks becoming less distinctive to voters as key issues like Iraq fade.

But Huhne argues that while two or three elections ago most of the Lib Dem target and marginal seats were against the Tories, the picture is now more evenly balanced.

So if the Labour vote collapses, he says, Nick Clegg's party will pick up plenty of target seats.

Combine this with his party's "defensive capability against the Conservatives" - that would be the talent of incumbent Lib Dem MPs to dig in and build their majority - and he thinks they could be heading for a "remaking of the electoral geography".