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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
The storm surrounding Kingston University Student Union’s Territorial Army ban, which bars the TA from campus, is growing. Yesterday’s edition of the Kingston Guardian featured quotes from local councillor Robert-John Tasker, and TheYoungConservative. In their editorial Councillor Tasker, branding the ban an “utter insult”, said,
“This clearly is a contemptible decision by the Students’ Union and one which needs to be reversed as quickly as possible. The main problem is the ignorance surrounding the TA and the wider army. Many of our servicemen are sent to different corners of the globe to protect innocent people, and the role the British Army has played throughout history should be a cause for celebration.“
This comes only a few days after the Lib Dem leader of Kingston Derek Osbourne council was challenged by Tasker to condemn the ban – and failed to do so. It may be of note that Councillor Osbourne previously dismissed the idea of a homecoming parade to honour troops returning from Iraq.
Meanwhile TheYoungConservative, quoted from the ‘Lift the Ban at Kingston University‘ Facebook group where we sought to highlight how the ban is an attack on students’ freedom, said:
“It really isn’t even about your feelings towards the military or current conflicts, but a question of whether students, who pay for their campus opportunities and whom are adults have the right to decide which organisations they listen to and become involved with”.
This military ban has always been illiberal, and the mounting pressure to overturn it will soon result in another toppling of discriminatory, authoritarian Union politics, as happened at UCL, in favour of student choice and freedom.
If your campus is threatened by a ban, or if you’re fighting to overturn one, let us know so that we can publicise your cause.
Make sure, also, that you’re in touch with the Young Britons’ Foundation who can furnish you with FREE advice, resources and support in your fight. YBF has produced a FREE pack to get your campaign started – just ask for one.
If you go down to Southampton University you’re in for a big surprise – the Tories are having a tea party…Southampton University Conservative Future’s Michael Shields guest posts on importing a modern American phenomenon – the TEA Party.
My Conservative Future colleagues and I will be hosting a Southampton TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party on Tuesday 26th May at the University of Southampton.
As a massive pro-American I regularly keep up with US news by checking out Fox News.com every day. I was so glad to see that ordinary Americans came out in their thousands to organise TEA Parties, inspired by the Boston Tea Party, all over the country to protest against the new economic policy of the new Democrat administration – higher taxes, large government borrowing and huge increases in public spending. And I thought, if the Americans are protesting against this, then why not us Brits, considering that the Labour government under Gordon Brown is steering our economy in the same awful direction?!
While we give away free tea and coffee under our Union Jack and Stars and Stripes decked out gazebo on the Uni concourse, we shall be informing students that thanks to Gordon Brown and the Labour government they will be saddled with debt that not only they will have to pay through years of tax increases, but also their children and grandchildren will probably have to pay too.
I think it is so important that Conservative associations at universities across the country are visibly active on campuses. Leafleting and posters are great, but an event like the Southampton TEA Party will send a visual message to everyone that the Conservative Party is alive and kicking at Southampton University. We hope to have a few local Conservative Parliamentary Candidates who will be able to hear what students concerns are today, and in return the candidates can spread the Conservative message.
Hopefully the sun will be out on May 26th and so come and have a cuppa on us! We shall also be selling raffle tickets with the chance to win a hamper of quality teas, all money raised going to a local charity.
TYC’s Verdict: Here are some pictures of American TEA Parties which show the scale, and non-party-political nature, of these protests. When you see children begging Obama to stop spending their future, it feels like home, and Brown mortgaging ours.
Freedom Week is an annual one week seminar Cambridge University. Running from 13 to 17 July 2009, 30 lucky UK students will live and learn liberty at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. Renowned lecturers teach students about the basic philosophy of a free society based on individual liberty and the free market.
The one week format allows students to form a network with fellow students, lecturers and think tanks which will help them to defend freedom at university and in their future careers.
Freedom Week is free for the students, and paid for by private donations. All you need to do to attend is apply – quickly – before the places are all allocated.
To apply go to www.freedomweek.org.uk and send in your application. The deadline for applications is 25 May, but the earlier you apply, the more chance you have of being accepted. For any questions, please contact JP Floru , or Xander Stephenson
Facebook reference: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=76503354025
Students and graduates - sign this 10 Downing Street petition urging the government to bring our student loan interest rates into line!
The facts:
The Student Loan Interest Rate: 1.5%
The Inflation Rate: -0.3%
The government says “Student loan interest rates will match inflation”
The Problem: The Interest Rate is 1.8% higher than it should be.
The government links post 1998 student loans to the RPI inflation rate, the RPI inflation rate is now below zero at ~-0.3%, but our student loans are not going down. It is meant to be linked to that inflation rate but the interest rate is 1.5%.
The average 3rd year student will have around £22,000 worth of debt, that means they are being charged £400 a year more than they should.
The Adam Smith Institute invites you to enter their new competition which is open to anyone under the age of 19. There are some great prizes on offer for penning just a few hundred words on Liberty.
To enter you simply have to write three, short, different articles on the subject of:
The Three Greatest Threats to Liberty in 21st Century Britain
The title of each article is entirely up to you.
1ST PRIZE:
- £500 cash prize
- 3 articles published on www.adamsmith.org/blog
- 3 books on the subject of liberty
- 2 weeks work experience at the ASI
- Invitation to the prize giving on the ASI Summer Boat Party
2ND PRIZE:
- 2 articles published on www.adamsmith.org/blog
- 2 books on the subject of liberty
- Invitation to the prize giving on the ASI Summer Boat Party
3RD PRIZE:
- 1 article published on www.adamsmith.org/blog
- 1 book on the subject of liberty
- Invitation to the prize giving on the ASI Summer Boat Party
To enter:
- you have to be under 19 years of age at the time of entry.
- all articles must be under 400 words.
- the entry must reach the ASI by the deadline of 15th June 2009
Please email andrew@adamsmith.org for more information.
This morning we posted Conservative Future’s standard letter calling on the Prime Minister to hold a General Election. Note the use of a broon envelope, and second class postage for a second rate PM.
Have you sent yours yet? Email us a picture when you do: edward@theyoungconservative.co.uk
Conservative Future is starting May with a bang by today introducing a new campaigning tool in the run-up to the European and council elections on June 4th.
Like the main Party’s new Campaign Together tool, they have put together a map of the UK which exclusively displays upcoming CF campaign days, with contact details for every event, so that activists can easily locate events in their region to support. This map will allow activists to see at a glance all CF’s campaigning events, and contact their organisers.
In addition, the map shows highlights from past campaign days.
More details, and how to promote your events on the map, at ConservativeFuture.com
As promised, today TYC did it’s bit for the Libertarian Party UK’s ‘Shirt off your back‘ campaign, and posted Gordon a suitable garment plus covering letter, the text of which is reproduced below. We also sent it recorded delivery so that we can confirm Broon has received our pressie…
“Dear Prime Minister,
Thank you for mortgaging my future.
On behalf of this nation’s youth, thank you for squandering a golden economy through 12 years of wilful fiscal ineptitude.
You tried to spin the Budget as sharing the pain with the highest earners. In fact, we all know that you merely expanded the pain to virtually every worker in this country.
I’m 24 years of age. Based on the numbers, by the time we repair the violence you have done the British economy (2032) I shall be 47 – effectively double my current age. I will spend the better part of half my working life paying for your recklessness.
This is truly generational debt you have lumbered Britain with – and for what? What will your legacy – and New Labour’s epitaph – be? I think I could write it…
One recalls Rousseau: “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” Chains you wrought, Prime Minster – every Briton is now born owing in excess of £20,000. Thank you, Prime Minister, for making debt into a birthright.
In the years to come stringent savings will have to be made – not just by governments, but by every Briton.
And so I enclose the shirt off my back. For once this is a Briton giving you something, instead of having it taken. Does it feel novel?
Labour, New and old, will be remembered by my generation with enduring bitterness.”
Have you sent your shirt to Gordon yet? Send us a picture when you do: edward@theyoungconservative.co.uk
(Feel free to use any or all of our letter)
Libertarian Party UK member Henry North London has written in to say he has sent Gordon the shirt off his back, and has quite gone to town with it!
TYC’s shirt will be in tonight’s post – stay tuned.
Have you sent yours in yet? Let us know.
