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The Guardian has a feature this weekend on women in the Conservative Party. It’s worth a read, but pretty predictable Tory-bashing stuff, including as it does the apparent assertion that Tory rejection of positive discrimination is a bad thing. Whatever happened to discrimination being, well, discriminatory (i.e. bad)?
The Guardian states: “The Tories have worked hard to help women candidates with training and resources but the supply of good women isn’t really the issue.” With respect, parachuting in candidates to fill quotas is an appalling idea. Tokenism, anyone? Where is the merit? Where is the consideration for people who don’t fit the quota criteria but who have a long, strong record of commitment to the Party? Surely special treatment is only likely to engender resentment. The Guardian, however, seems smitten with the controversial A-List, implemented earlier on in Cameron’s reign (its current status unclear/possibly retired).
However, the Guardian clearly doesn’t read ConservativeHome. If it did, it would have noted their recent feature tracking the A-List selected candidates, which revealed that over a quarter have abandoned their candidacy. That doesn’t seem like a very good way to improve the representation in the party (although I concede the percentage of non-A-list candidates to abandon their candidacy in the same period is unknown).
The proper way to fix it is to bring more women up through the ranks, train all party activists well and offer them all opportunities to advance in whatever direction they wish, subject to merit – i.e. determinate on their historic involvement and commitment to the Party. Anyone who has been monitoring the state of Conservative Future, the Party’s youth wing, will have noted how the number of young women has consistently been increasing over recent years. It will be this generation – comprised of dedicated activists like Liza – which, in the fullness of time, will markedly change the complexion of the parliamentary party.
Conservative Future is offering activists the chance to win a curry with Party Chairman and campaign guru Eric Pickles MP.
The competition is divided into two parts. The activist who clocks the most campaigning on the ground in Norwich North, and the activist who spends the most time at the GenEVA telephone canvassing centre in Millbank Tower will both win a curry with Pickles.
To be in with a chance of winning, obviously, get stuck into the Norwich North by-election.
This weekend Conservative Future has two action days in Norwich North, and a free coach is going up on Saturday from central London. Those wishing to make calls on behalf of Tory candidate Chloe Smith should contact the GenEVA team.
In both cases, activists must make sure they record their attendance on sign-in sheets, and indicate on the sheet that they are CF.
Sounds like a great competition – just stop and think for a moment: what would you discuss with Pickles over a Vindaloo?
What will the other parties do to incentivise their activists?
ConservativeHome has today published a list of the ten young Conservatives standing as candidates in seats which are either notionally Conservative or appear on paper in the top 200 target seats for the Conservatives at the next election. They are:
Peter Lyburn (Perth and North Perthshire, pictured) – April 15, 1984
James Wharton (Stockton South) – February 16, 1984
Annesley Abercorn (Hazel Grove) – Feburary 1, 1984
Douglas Ross (Moray) – January 27, 1983
Will Quince (Colchester) – December 27, 1982
Chloe Smith (Norwich North) – May 17, 1982
Robert Jenrick (Newcastle-under-Lyme) – January 9, 1982
Stuart Penketh (Ellesmere Port and Neston) – December 4, 1981
Keely Huxtable (Birmingham Northfield) – November 7, 1981
Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) – May 17, 1981
This year’s Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester, is surely going to be one to remember, setting the stage as it does for a General Election in 2010 (assuming Gordon limps on that long!). Conservative Future will have a strong presence again, with Young Britons’ Foundation training in the political arts, and plenty of socials – not to mention the Fringe.
If you’ve never done a Party Conference before then what better time to start than this? They’re a unique experience which you won’t forget in a hurry!
So make sure you send in your applications by the end of today because from July 1st the fee rises from £70 to £120!
Wednesday’s Independent ran a profile of the youth wings of political parties – even giving the Young Greens (but not Young Independence?!) equal column inchage – though the Lib Dems somehow manage to dominate the article. Michael Rock presents the case succinctly for Conservative Future. As one might expect, the Indy takes every opportunity to attack the Conservatives and Thatcherism. As is customary for a left-wing piece, they first blame Thatcher for slaying British industry and throttling civil society, classically misquoting The Lady’s “declaration in 1987 that there was “no such thing as society” and her subsequently shafting of the miners“. That much was to be expected. But it took a further leap into unreality to blame the decline in youth participation in politics on her, too.
“The decline in the power and influence of party youth wings can be tracked alongside the decline of student radicalism…A sense of futility segued into an age of apathy, as universities became more about preparing for the job market than broadening one’s mind. At the same time, the main parties developed increasingly powerful PR machines; casual fascism or liberal rebellion among the youth ranks would no longer be tolerated.“
Equipping young people to find employment, start successful careers, and thus contribute to society? Horrendous! How could you, Maggie. In reality, what died out in the 80s – a loss the author cannot abide – was Union blackmailing of the taxpayer, the subsidising of inefficiently, and socialism – particularly in economics (though the later may have simply been left in a 20 year coma, recent events suggest). Leftists can search for excuses and scapegoats all they like, but the the 80s were a triumph for freedom across the global. Left-wing politics were shown to be on the wrong side of history, and liberty.
There is, however, one genuinely interesting paragraph:
“With no place or desire for dissent or radical thought, youth wings have arguably become nothing more than parliamentary pre-schools for ambitious youngsters to play politics. And if that means emulating the grown-ups, it’s no surprise these organisations are rife with the kind of tribalism and “Punch and Judy” politics that characterises much of what we see in Westminster.“
The conclusion there is certainly true. It’s also fair to assert that in controlling their youth wings, political parties have greatly reduced the avenues for free debate and discussion of ideas, replacing them with party lines. But they have done this for fear of negative media headlines generated by “dissent or radical thought”. So is the print and broadcast media, in its desire for headlines, the real culprit, guilty of undermining youth participation in politics?
Conservative Future activists in London will remember back (fondly I hope) to the day well over a year ago when teams of us targeted taxi ranks at mainline rail stations, handing out pads of BackBoris taxi receipts to the cab drivers. At the time we thought it was a novel way to spread our message to Londoners, tapping into a great, original social network. It caused a bit of flap during those dying days of Ken Livingstone’s era, with Transport for London telling cabbies not to hand out the receipts.
It seems, though, that cabbies did hand them out – but we could never have guessed where one of those receipts would end up.
The BBC is reporting that none other than controversial left wing MP and George Galloway submitted one as an expenses claim.
Just seeing Galloway’s face when the cabbie handed it to him would be worth the expenses claim alone.
A little late posting this, but none the less it’s good news for Conservative Future and their experiment with live blogging. You may remember a week ago Sunday TYC joined ToryBear and others in blogging live coverage of the European Election Results. Well TYC has just seen the stats and it seems the exercise proved popular with readers:
Moreover CF’s head of Media, Internal Relations and New Media, Richard Jackson, is very pleased – “during the night 2 people emailed me wanting to setup CF branches – DIRECTLY because of the live blogging!“
Following the powerful showing at last week’s polls by the Conservatives, no one can doubt that they are the natural party of local government.
Many young activists have already stood successfully for election to councils on the Conservative ticket, and today Conservative Future is launching a guide as to how you can join them.
Are you a Conservative who wants to improve your local area? If so, you are an ideal candidate to become a Conservative councillor.
Becoming a councillor is a uniquely rewarding experience. It gives you the opportunity to help your local community and be part of a dedicated team providing key services for your area.
Being a councillor is also a great way to gain political experience and useful skills in public speaking, debating and problem solving.
Serving councillors are a broad mix of people from the local community. New councillors are good news. They mean fresh ideas and fresh enthusiasm, and that will be good for your council and your local area.
By becoming a councillor, you really can make a difference to your local community.
Who may become a councillor?
To be eligible you must be:
- A British subject or a citizen of the Irish Republic or the EU and resident in the UK.
- At least eighteen years old on the day you are nominated.
- Either on the electoral register for the council area in which you are seeking election, or have lived or worked in that council area for at least the last twelve months.
- A member of the Conservative Party.
If you have not already done so, you will need to become a member of the Conservative Party.
You can find out more about becoming a councillor by clicking here
Already a councillor? Then join the Facebook group for Conservative councillors.
Read the rest of the article at ConservativeFuture.com
If you plan to stand for council election, or have already done so and would like to share your experiences on TheYoungConservative, email me – edward@theyoungconservative.co.uk
Following the European election results last night Michael Rock, National Chairman of Conservative Future, has written about the BNP’s success. Part of the article includes:
“It is patently obvious that the BNP are racist but that doesn’t mean all the votes they receive come from racists; their message of protectionism, of support for a larger state, of restricting free trade is a classic mixture of left-wing politics. Not only have Labour let down the country with their mishandling of the economy, their sustained attack on our freedom and constitutional vandalism, they have let the left wing down by not fighting the BNP on political grounds.
“We should all fight the BNP but Labour have to wake up; the BNP are left wing and are taking Labour votes.”
You can read the full piece here:
http://www.conservativefuture.com/2009/06/08/bnp-left-wing-labour-votes/
Michael Rock has written about the BNP being left wing before: http://www.conservativefuture.com/2009/02/01/fight-left-wing-bnp/
TYC’s View: Labour, and the Left collectively, bear full responsibility for electing the BNP last night. They ought to be utterly ashamed of their ineptitude over the past 12 years which has directly fostered extremism. This country deserves an apology – we recommend it comes in the form of a General Election, the only way which we can begin to wash this stain from our national character.
