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Todays top ConservativeHome features

ToryDiary: Back from Ibiza, Cameron is ready to focus on the NHS and crime. He should also start worrying about Europe.

David Campbell Bannerman MEP on Comment: The Conservative Party - not UKIP - offers the most realistic way out of the EU

Seats and Candidates:

• James Arbuthnot becomes the first MP to announce his retirement at the next general election
• New research suggests the Lib Dems will be hardest hit by boundary changes resulting from the reduction in MPs

Local Government:

• LGA told to suspend recruitment of Chief Exec
• Cllr Andrew Cumpsty: Labour and Greens should be open about their deal on Reading Council
• Enfield Council recruits Head of Sustainability on £63,000

International: Portugal's general election delivers defeat for its Socialist government and the formation of a new centre-right coalition

Today's ConservativeHome newslinks

Universities 'complacent' over Islamic radicals, warns Theresa May...

"Theresa May told The Daily Telegraph that universities were not taking the issue of radicalisation seriously enough and that it was too easy for Muslim extremists to form groups on campuses “without anyone knowing”. She also said the Government would cut funding to any Islamic group that espoused extremist views, and set out the “key British values” to which those seeking support must subscribe. It is understood that about 20 groups are already losing their funding." - Daily Telegraph

"David Cameron has won a cabinet battle to toughen up the UK's counter-terrorism strategy and take a harder line against Islamic traditions that fail to "reflect British mainstream values". - The Guardian

• 40 UK universities are now breeding grounds for terror as hardline groups peddle hate on campus - Daily Mail

> Last week's ToryDiary: Is Al Qaeda no longer Britain's main Islamist problem? Lessons for the Prevent Review

...as she heads for Calais for talks with the French on border controls

"Today I will be going to Calais to inspect the controls we have in place to stop illegal migrants entering the UK. I will be meeting with frontline officers and staff to discuss their work and their joint action with their French counterparts to secure our border." - Theresa May writing in the Daily Express

Killers, sex offenders and muggers will be freed early as jail terms are slashed for 10,000 criminals each year

"Up to 10,000 criminals a year will have their jail terms slashed under Ken Clarke’s blueprint for softer sentences. Police Minister Nick Herbert revealed that is the number – including killers, sex offenders and muggers – who could benefit from the Justice Secretary’s plans to go easy on those who plead guilty early." - Daily Mail

• Report proposes closing women's prisons - The Independent

> Video from yesterday: Nick Herbert defends Tory law and order credentials on BBC1's Politics Show

David Cameron to put his reputation on the line with five pledges on the future of the NHS

"David Cameron will commit to “five guarantees” on the future of the National Health Service in a speech on Tuesday designed to reassure critics of his controversial health reforms, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. The Prime Minister will promise to keep waiting lists low, maintain spending, not to privatise the NHS, to keep care integrated and to remain committed to the “national” part of the health service." - Daily Telegraph

"Andrew Lansley is battling to ensure the fundamental principles of his plans are maintained amid suggestions he could quit the Cabinet if he believes his original vision has been discarded. He won a boost yesterday when a survey of Tory members by the ConservativeHome website found 72 per cent supported his proposals." - The Independent

• Cameron's NHS pledges tell us he's worried, blogs Benedict Brogan of the Daily Telegraph

> Nick de Bois MP last week on Comment: Now is the time to back Andrew Lansley - and competition in the NHS

David Cameron backs proposals tackling sexualisation of children

"David Cameron has given strong backing to proposals to shield children from sexualised imagery across the media and tackle the commercialisation of childhood, but insisted that the way to bring about change is through "social responsibility, not state control". - The Guardian

• Libby Purves: The problem isn’t little girls. It’s adult ones - The Times (£)

> Saturday's ToryDiary: Government-backed report will recommend restrictions on billboard, television and retail sexualisation of children

Top Tories reject clamour for economic Plan B

"There is no need for a “plan B” for the economy even if conditions change, senior Conservatives insisted on Sunday as Ed Balls renewed his attack on the government’s “reckless” deficit reduction programme... William Hague, foreign secretary, said there could not be the “luxury of a plan B” and there was no alternative to reducing the debts left by the last Labour government." - FT (£)

Vince Cable to warn of prospect of new anti-union laws at GMB conference

"Vince Cable will today become the first Cabinet minister publicly to raise the prospect of changing the strike laws, as relations between the coalition and the unions enter a new phase. The Business Secretary will say that there will be pressure to act if unions take industrial action that causes “serious damage to our economic and social fabric”. - The Times (£)

137 peers have not spoken or asked a question in the Lords for a year - The Independent

> Yesterday's on ConHome:

• Conservative grassroots turn against an elected House of Lords
• Timothy Barnes: An elected Lords should not become inevitable

William Hague hails Libyan rebels as an inspiration...

"Foreign Secretary William Hague hailed Libyan rebels’ fight for freedom as “inspiring” yesterday after visiting the volatile city of Benghazi. Mr Hague made a surprise trip to the rebel stronghold as UK assault helicopters joined Nato-led air strikes for the first time. He said he had a “fairly clear sense” of the make-up of the opposition group Britain backs to take control of Libya." - Daily Express

"Libya's rebel leaders must plan in detail how they would run the country if Muammar Gaddafi stood down and should learn from Iraq after the 2003 invasion, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Sunday." - Reuters

• Hague: Libya campaign could continue beyond Christmas - Daily Telegraph

...as he warns that Yemen could become a more serious threat to Britain

"William Hague yesterday warned Yemen could become a ‘much more serious threat’ to British national security as its president fled an increasingly violent uprising. The Foreign Secretary said he was ‘very worried’ a power vacuum could develop following dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh’s flight to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after he was injured in a rebel attack on his compound." - Daily Mail

Bruce Anderson: Cameron needs to best the Tory Bennites

"In the 1980s, Tony Benn used to insist that Labour would not win elections until it promised full-scale socialism. Labour moderates despaired or defected; the Tories were delighted. Today, there are Tory Bennites who believe Mr Cameron should have fought the last election by campaigning for the repeal of the 50p tax rate and refusing to ring-fence NHS spending. Although there are arguments for both of those propositions, none of them is an electoral one. The voters could not have been persuaded." - Bruce Anderson in the FT (£)

Labour funding crisis as private donations plummet

"Private and company donations to Labour have plummeted to a 10th of their pre-election average in the first six months of Ed Miliband’s leadership, according to research by the Financial Times. Many former donors have turned their backs on the opposition party, leaving it increasingly reliant on unions, which provide the bulk of its private income." - FT (£)

• Balls and Harman forced to leap to Labour leader's defence - Daily Telegraph

> Video from yesterday: Harriet Harman says that 70,000 new members are helping Labour repay its £17 million of debts

> Recently in ToryDiary: The Conservatives continue to receive more in donations than Labour (which relied on unions for more than 85% of its latest donations)

Political news and comment in brief

• Universities braced for abrupt fall in applicants as higher fees deter thousands - The Times (£)
• A private university that will take on the cream of the Oxbridge rejects is a simply brilliant idea - Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph
• Charity numbers fall leaving 'big society' pledge under threat - The Guardian
• Local residents to win power to rid streets of the clutter of unnecessary signs and bollards - The Times (£)
• Is Blue Labour the way forward for the left? - Amol Rajan in The Independent

And finally... Rowan Williams becomes an editor for a week

"The Archbishop of Canterbury will guest edit this week's issue of the New Statesman. Dr Rowan Williams has commissioned a wide range of essays, articles and reports, as well as interviewing Iain Duncan Smith and writing the leading article for the left-leaning current affairs magazine." - The Guardian

Other highlights from the weekend on ConservativeHome

ToryDiary: Could George Osborne be the next Tory Prime Minister?

Comment:

• Oberon Houston: Let's help the economy grow and create additional jobs by abolishing our archaic Sunday trading laws
• David Merlin-Jones: The Government's demands on carbon reduction are anti-industry and will drive business abroad
• Graeme Archer: Rage Against The Machine
• Graeme Archer at The Daily Telegraph

Seats and Candidates: The fragility of many Conservative MPs' majorities should be a cause for concern

ThinkTankCentral: Phillip Blond's Respublica think tank in financial difficulties

LeftWatch: On Planet Polly all profit-making is bad. Conservatives must never make the mistake of thinking all government is bad.

LeftWatch: "Ed Miliband is a disaster. Not just for Labour but for democracy."

Local Government:

• Suffolk's "enabling authority" plans on hold
• LGA Labour leader accuses Pickles of "totalitarian tendencies"
• Most councillors shut out of decision making process
• Kirklees Council's online viewing figures exceed 14,000

WATCH: Greece will default says leader of Tory MEPs... Portugal probably will too