Britannia Radio

Today's top ConHome features

ToryDiary: 74% of Tory members think Cameron missed opportunity to repatriate powers and cut EU budget

International: Ten things you need to know about tomorrow's US elections

Oberon Houston on Platform: The Big Society is a failure of messaging, not substance

Local government:

• Windsor and Maidenhead plan Big Society reward points scheme
• Cash-strapped Swansea City Council pays Trade Union Wage Bill
• Mark Wallace: Now abolish the local standards boards

Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: The Sun blasts the BBC as "the pompous voice of defeated socialism"

Today's other newslinks

Michael Gove will free primary and secondary academy schools from council limits on numbers

"News of the proposals, to be included in a White Paper published in the coming weeks, came as applications closed for places at secondary schools for next September in many parts of England and Wales. Tens of thousands of children are likely to miss out on their first-choice school because the best are oversubscribed. The number of pupils that a state school can take is usually set by the local authority, and can be exceeded only in exceptional circumstances. However, there is concern in Whitehall that councils are limiting the success and size of popular schools to stop them draining pupils from inferi or schools nearby." - Express

Cameron and Sarkozy to sign defence agreement

"David Cameron will tomorrow outline plans for unprecedented military co-operation between London and Paris that will see British and French troops deployed as a single brigade in future conflicts. Amid rising concerns among Eurosceptic Tories about a Anglo-French military treaty, to be signed at Lancaster House on Tuesday, the prime minister is expected to tell MPs that the co-operation derives from a "hard-headed" assessment of Britain's national interest." - Guardian

"Mr Sarkozy was convinced before the UK election that the Tory leader would be more pragmatic once in office. He has been proved right, with Mr Cameron pulling back from confrontation over new EU rules for hedge funds and keeping the Eurosceptics in his own party in check." - FT (£)

Cameron and Merkel meet at Chequers

"Angela Merkel, German chancellor, ended a weekend meeting with David Cameron, British prime minister, reassured that the UK would back a small change to the European Union treaty to help manage national budget crises in return for a limit on EU spending." - FT (£)

Boris Johnson 'will not get housing budget control' after David Cameron benefit row - Telegraph

In his Monday column for The Telegraph Boris Johnson says "yesterday’s clock-change is harmful to health, personal safety and the economy".

Lord Young appointed as David Cameron's enterprise adviser - Express

"David Cameron has admitted that government is “institutionally biased” against small businesses and that ministers had been “cavalier” in introducing regulations. The Prime Minister will today appoint Lord Young of Graffham to become his enterprise czar and to carry out a “brutally honest” review of how government departments interact with small business. In a letter to Lord Young, Mr Cameron said that he was seeking a wholesale change in government’s attitude to small businesses, which account for 60 per cent of the country’s jobs." - Times (£)

The Daily Mail looks at the challenges facing small businesses: "Maternity leave, paternity leave, health and safety, PAYE, sex discrimination, ageism, flexible working, parental leave, tougher employment tribunals, a new Equalities Act. It’s amazing that Britain has any entrepreneurs left at all, given the mountain of red tape that businessmen must cope with — and that’s before they can get on with creating jobs."

Tuition fees will be capped at £9,500 - Times (£)

"Further education colleges – the long-forgotten “Cinderella sector” of the English education system – are poised to become serious competitors to universities, senior figures in the sector believe. As university fees rise, FE colleges hope to present themselves as a serious low-cost alternative." - FT (£)

Cameron fears "Car crash" over control orders

"Tensions were running high within the Coalition Government last night over whether to retain the control order regime for terrorist suspects. Ministers have repeatedly delayed a final decision on the controversial policy inherited from Labour, as they attempt to reconcile competing political pressures and security advice. The problems in resolving the situation have become so intense that David Cameron was yesterday reported to have warned colleagues: "We are heading for a f**king car crash."" - Independent

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Will Cameron curb the "judicial jihadists" so that the security services can hunt down the real jihadists?

What kind of idiots would tell police to tick 238 boxes on a safety form before they save a life? - Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail

Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin or crack'

"Led by the sacked government drugs adviser David Nutt with colleagues from the breakaway Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, the study says that if drugs were classified on the basis of the harm they do, alcohol would be class A, alongside heroin and crack cocaine. Today's paper, published by the respected Lancet medical journal, will be seen as a challenge to the government to take on the fraught issue of the relative harms of legal and illegal drugs, which proved politically damaging to Labour." - Guardian

Every year, 750,000 Americans are arrested for possessing small amounts of cannabis: a waste of time and money - Mary Ann Sieghart in The Independent

In partnership with Salvation Army, Morrisons supermarket will create 1,000 jobs for homeless - Express

And finally... Margaret Thatcher is still most influential woman in world

"Baroness Thatcher came ahead of other pioneering females including Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa and Oprah Winfrey in the survey of more than 2,000 people. Supermodel Kate Moss came bottom of the poll with only 1% of the vote." - Express

Highlights from the weekend

ToryDiary:

• When every 'child in care' costs £25,000pa why are rates of adoption falling?
• How the Right-wing press have reviewed David Cameron's performance at the European Council

International: Is Angela Merkel the new Iron Lady of Europe?

Parliament:

• An 'internet bill of rights' should be considered to protect people from "Big Brother Google", suggests Robert Halfon MP
• Jacob Rees-Mogg is fast becoming the star orator of the 2010 intake

WATCH: Ann Widdecombe is spun around the dancefloor to tune of 'Wild Thing'

Roger Helmer MEP on CentreRight reviews an uncomfortable encounter with the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia: Who are the deniers now?

Rebecca Harris MP on Platform: We must now revisit the idea of permanent Daylight Saving Time

ThinkTankCentral: Conservatives and Liberal Democrats meet together to discuss 'Coalition 2.0'

Gazette: Damian Green heads the line-up at TRG's 35 anniversary conference, delivering an address emphasising the need for the Conservative Party to remain moderate and progressive