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Congratulations to Michael Rock, one year on from his successful campaign which saw him elected Conservative Future National Chairman, along with the incumbent National Management Executive.
The year has seen much progress within Conservative Future, from the hotly debated reforms, to the creation of Regional Chairmen, and the regionalisation of campaigning, instead of the old, impractical practice of bussing activists at the crack of dawn up and down the country to flood one ’special’ seat.
Conservative Future has also fought several successful by-elections such as Crewe and Nantwich, Henley and Haltemprice and Howden.
But here at TYC we still maintain that the most important long-term initiative from the current executive has been the Student Life Tours, organised by Student Life chairman Patrick Sullivan.
These tours saw centre-right, pro-freedom organisations such as the TaxPayers’ Alliance, Freedom Association, NO2ID, plus MEPs, bloggers and more visiting campuses up and down the country. We believe that conservatism is a broad church, and its strength lies in its constituent organisations who unite around a single doctrine: freedom. Exposing students to fresh thinking on liberty can only serve to further our ultimate cause.
Patrick, we hope there’s a second round of tours in the works!
TYC took part in several of the stops on the 2008 tour and you can read our coverage here.
TYC has a feature in the latest edition of the Freedom Association magazine, Freedom Today. In it we discuss the advancement of young conservatism, the genesis of this blog, our aims and hopes for it, and why we think that the Conservative Future Student Life Tours are by far the most useful think to have come out of the current CF National Executive’s administration to date.
You can read the whole issue online over at the TFA’s site. Membership of the TFA starts at just £10 for students, and includes a subscription to Freedom Today, so why not make the TFA the conservative movement group you join this year and get involved with the broad church?
On Friday 7th TYC was fortunate enough to be able to participate in what for us will be one final stop on the CF Coalition Campus Tour – Nottingham University. Once again the turnout exceeded that of the previous stop, and the panel was broader than ever. In attendance at Nottingham were Simon Richards of The Freedom Association, Tim Aker of The TaxPayers’ Alliance, myself as co-editor of TYC, Patrick Sullivan – CF’s National Campaign Director and Student Life Chairman, and Roger Helmer MEP.
The hallmark of these tours has been the quality of questions we’ve received from the audience, underscoring the rich pool of talent and promise the next generation of conservatives comprises. Chairman Will Bickford-Smith ably chaired the meeting, ensuring a broad scope of questions reached the panel.
A few highlights which hadn’t been asked at previous stops included,
- Is Barack Obama America’s Tony Blair? For our part we submit no, he isn’t. This wasn’t, as come commentators have called it, a landslide – Obama won roughly 7% more of the popular vote than McCain, and the Democrats have failed to secure enough seats to prevent the Republicans filibustering. Certainly, the next two years up until the mid-terms in 2010 will be hard for Right in America, and this election was certainly the ushering in of a new era, but it wasn’t an American 1997 moment.
- Has Brown bounced back? We feel it’s nothing stronger than a political dead-cat bounce. Glenrothes isn’t game-changing for project Brown, much as they’ve tried to capitalise on it. Brown may come into his own in a crisis – but he creates them himself – and vox pops show voters equate Brown with the credit crisis. The polls show the Conservatives consistently not only leading, but leading sufficiently to win a General Election; and whilst in the past month our lead has dipped, it should be noted that includes a correct for anomalous polls such as our 52% position, and that our lead is growing again.
- What to do about the seemingly impending breakup of the Union. Tongue firmly in cheek we mused that if the SNP want to turn Scotland into the East Germany of the British Isles, let them, and when it fails, welcome reunification. More seriously, the devolution project has gone unchecked and Scotland allowed to drift. The Scottish Parliament has been allowed to assume the trappings and stylings of statehood. If an incoming Conservative administration wants to save the Union then it must get a grip on devolution once and for all.
In the words of Chairman Will, this event was his society’s “biggest event of the semester, if not the year.“
Next stop for the tour will be Durham, on November 10th. Sadly TYC can’t attend, but we encourage as many of you as can make it to do so.
On Friday, 31st October, whilst most people were out celebrating Halloween, a panel of leading conservatives were at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, battling with the ghoulish European Union and preaching the exorcism of the demon, tax. On this second stop in the current tour the panel consisted of Simon Richards of the Freedom Association, Phil Booth of NO2ID, myself as co-editor of TYC, Tim Aker for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, PPC Anthony Little and Patrick Sullivan, the CF National Campaign Director and Student Life Chairman.
The contrast with our previous stop, in Exeter, a week earlier, was clear. The Exeter crowd had drawn up a varied selection of questions; the UEA students, some in unholy festive garb, were predominately interested in the EU and taxation – so much for students not caring about tax. The common factor, though, was the quality of questions, ranging from the small details of the FairTax, to levels of European integration (or, preferably, none).
Also in common with Exeter the event was well attended, and the debate passionate. It was also heartening to see dissent amongst the panel, and the students, which ensured we had insufficient time to thrash out all the points we’d have liked to have made.
Once again the Freedom Association generously held a Free Spirits event in the student bar afterwards, and raffled off a bottle of finest ‘Free Spirits’ label gin to one lucky student.
Hats off to chairman Paul Wells for hosting the evening and keeping the debate moving along; and, as ever, to Patrick Sullivan for organising this fantastic tour. Onwards to Nottingham!
(l-r) Patrick Sullivan, Edward Hallam, Simon Richards, Mark Wallace
On Thursday evening TYC joined the CF Coalition Campus Tour panel at Exeter University in a Question Time style event, taking questions for the award-winning Exeter Conservative Future. We were in sound company, seated between Simon Richards of the Freedom Association and Mark Wallace of the TaxPayers’ Alliance to one side, and CF NME member Patrick Sullivan to the other. Kudos to Patrick for having put together this entire nationwide tour under his remit as Student Life chairman; undoubtedly the highest achievement of the NME this year, and hopefully a new fixture in CF life for the years and administrations to come.
The abiding sense I took away from the evening was the value and importance of going into schools and universities and disseminating ideas. We were undoubtedly preaching to a home crowd and there wasn’t a great deal of dissent, for better or worse. But I do think it was of great worth to bring non-Party speakers before the activists; people prepared to give fresh answers, not trite Party-line ‘isn’t it exciting to be a Conservative’ platitudes. I was particularly impressed by the quality of the questions asked. All were well thought out, erudite inquiries, not simplistic paeans for tax cuts and the like.
(l-r) Dan Ericsson (EUCF Chairman), Patrick Sullivan, Edward Hallam and Simon Richards
Following the event the Freedom Association laid on one of their famous ‘Free Spirits’ events for all who attended, as well as a raffle, won by Alexander Cook, for a bottle of ‘Free Spirits’ Gin. We thank them for their generosity!
Undoubtedly there were some lessons to be learnt from this first date, and we’ll be channelling our feedback to Patrick, but the principle of the evening was sound, and was a welcome step towards a YAF-style interfacing of activists with the broader conservative movement. We see in this event the foundation of something indispensable, a new facet for Conservative Future which should grow and become a mainstay of what CF is about. We’re now very much looking forward to the next stop on the Tour – UEA.
TYC is, as we speak, on a train headed to Exeter for the inaugural fixture in the CF Coalition Campus Tour itinerary. We’re really looking forward to the tour – it’s precisely the thing the British conservtive movement needs, a proactive approach to spreading our ideas and challenging liberal campus bias and consensus. If you’re at or around Exeter please come down to the university tonight and meet the team.
I respect of us being engaged in Exeter blogging will be light tonight.
Tonight we can exclusively reveal several new speakers have confirmed their place on the CF Coalition Campus Tour which begins its initial five date tour of university campuses on Thursday.
TheYoungConservative has agreed to take part in two dates – Exeter on October 23rd at 8pm, and UEA on October 31st at 7pm. Do come along and meet us! We’ll be on the panel with the TPA and Freedom Association.
We can also confirm several other speakers have agreed to join the tour at various dates – more on those names soon!
Tonight we can break our silence and exclusively announce the Conservative Future Coalition Campus Tours. This is exactly the type of proactive approach that the British conservative movement needs to be taking – bringing our message into schools and onto campuses, exposing students to fresh ideas and challenging the Left in their heartlands.
The five campus first wave, organised by CF Student Life Chairman Patrick Sullivan, will target Exeter, UEA, Nottingham, Durham and students in the Leeds/Yorkshire region. TYC understands that a second tour is already in the works. The first tour has already confirmed a host of leading lights from the British conservative movement, including The Freedom Association, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, journalist and blogger Jonathan Isaby, local PPCs and councillors, and some other very special guests….
The tour will be crisscrossing the country with the following itinerary:
October 23rd at 8pm, University of Exeter
October 31st at 7pm, University of East Anglia
November 7th at 7pm, Nottingham University
November 10th at 8.30pm, Durham University
December 11th at 7.30pm, Yorkshire & Humberside region
TYC has some even more exciting news on the Tours, but we’ll keep you waiting for that…!
