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Over at CF.com they’ve posted a review of Conservative Future’s activists at Conservative Spring Forum. With a record turnout they managed to deliver 22,000 pieces of literature for local PPC Mark Coote in a ‘Cheltenham Surge’, petition against ID cards, launch a campaign for a referendum on the EU Treaty AND make time for tea at Thatcher’s. A good weekend’s work!
Conservative Future have just announced a campaign with pro-freedom group NO2ID at the upcoming Conservative Spring Forum:
“Many of you will be aware of CF backs NO2ID: our support of NO2ID, the campaign against the Government’s planned ID card and National Identity Register.
In the coming months you will see this campaign step up a gear as we prepare for the General Election. Many of our branches have been working hard to pass student motions against ID cards on their campuses; we will soon be launching a map to show these. We will also be working to push for many more University branches to do the same. It is crucial we make as many students aware of the cost of having this system implemented, with students being one of the first groups to be targeted for ID cards.
Many CF branches have also being getting out and about to collect signatures for petitions against ID cards (see here) and we want to utilise the large CF presence at the Spring Forum to alert the public in Cheltenham to the cost of ID cards.
‘CF backs NO2ID’ campaigning session @ Spring Forum
Saturday 25th April @ 3:00pm
Join us during the Saturday afternoon of the Spring Forum to hold a campaigning session on Cheltenham High St. We will be collecting signatures for a petition, as well as alerting members of the public to the cost of ID cards. Mark Coote, the PPC for Cheltenham, will also be joining us.
All the materials will be provided – just show up and help!
Location: meet where the High St meets Pittville St (google map)
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.
The NO2ID stance is sweeping the country and it is becoming apparent that we can, with the support of the public, stamp this bureaucracy ridden policy into the ground.
The first action to implement ID cards was to enforce it on international students.
However, former Exeter CF Chairman, Dan Ericsson, and myself have just successfully passed an opposition motion against ID cards at Exeter University. We opposed the introduction of ID cards on the following grounds:
1. To oppose the introduction of ID cards, compulsory registration and national Identity Register.
2. To hold a student-wide referendum on affiliation to the NO2ID campaign.
3. That the NUS representatives of the University raise this matter to the national executives. The motion passed with no opposition… A prime example that the young conservative movement can work to make a difference and make the resistance to ID Agenda campaign a real success.
So spread the word on your campus, it doesn’t matter how people are politically affiliated, it is apparent that a vast section of the public disagree with the implementation of ID cards. Whatever else we may disagree upon, we can all rally around freedom and individual liberty.
In terms of students, the cards are estimated to cost over £100, which is a big hit to any student budget. Not to mention the unfairness of alienating the international students by making them get the cards first. In hindsight, ID cards do not provide any benefit.
And by far the most daunting element of this policy is that all our information will be placed onto to one database, an invasion of privacy for one, and the track record of the government loosing vital information of members of the public is not exactly comforting! If they’re really such a great idea, why doesn’t the Government roll out their introduction in Whitehall? At least that way we’d know who was responsible for losing, leaking and prying into our lives and personal data.
So, NO2ID – spread the word…..the young conservative movement is making a difference!!
If you want to present a motion against ID Cards to your Student Union, a template is available here courtesy of Conservative Future and NO2ID
This excellent news comes as NO2ID launch a potent new viral video:
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!
Exeter Christian Union (ECU) certainly seem to think so. In a motion set to be put before the General Meeting of the Guild of Students tomorrow they call for the amendment of the Guild’s Equal Opportunities Policy. They submit that the current policy, whilst admirable, fails to protect the collective right of groups. The proposed amendments are:
I. It shall be permissible for particular clubs or societies to impose restrictions on eligibility to join or participate on such grounds as Belief.
II. A club or society shall only be allowed to impose such restrictions if they are the grounds upon which their purpose as a society lies.
III. Societies which are permitted to restrict membership or participation in this way shall not be allowed to restrict the attendance of anyone, member or not at any of their events on the basis that the society is required to show a commitment to the principles of free enquiry and free speech within the law. The only event at which such societies shall be allowed to limit attendance will be the society’s committee meeting.
The proposal, which echoes a 2006 row (a part of which saw the Guild try to rename ECU ‘Evangelical Christian Union’), has elicited a strong response from campus students, including a nearly 900-strong Facebook group in opposition.
The amendments raise interesting points of philosophy as much as law. At what point does one group’s rights trump those of another? One can hear overtones of the numerous rows over freedom of conscience, such as the Catholic adoption agencies disapproval of gay couples in which the Government appeared to rule that not all rights are equal. The proposed amendments are clearly carefully couched so as to press for discrimination only in the context of membership, not attendance.
Exeter University Conservative Future Freshers Rep Sophie Kelk commented
“People have been fighting for their rights for years, and it seems incredibly backwards that this is being put forward! However, the response from the university students has been huge and I expect for the motion to be crushed!”
Also on the agenda for the meeting are various motions, including one which seeks to halt the university practice of placing Bibles, funded by the University, in rooms; and also a motion from EUCF seeking the Guild’s endorsement of NO2ID. We’ll be following this story with interest.
Our friends at the Conservative Future NME blog have published a draft motion for campus activists to present the their student unions asking them to endorse the NO2ID campaign opposing ID Cards and the Database State. Whilst the draft is just that, a draft, and will need amending to fit the rules and criteria of your union, it’s an excellent starting point.
We welcome this step towards making Conservative Future focus on issues-driven campaigning, very much in the Young America’s Foundation, proactive tradition of campus activism which we so highly laud here at TYC.
If you present the motion to your union please get in touch with us and let us know how it goes.
NO2ID and Open Rights have been particularly busy lately, and have also produced this arresting campaign poster for international Freedom Not Fear Day 2008. Again, we note how much it recalls the YAF style posters, such as the one we published here on No More Che Day, which was made up of the faces of the people Che murderered. In this case the poster is comprised of images sent in by the public that illustrate the database state we’re in. I’m sure it too will go down well on campuses.
Students for Freedom bring word that Conservative Future is set to officially endorse the NO2ID campaign. Whilst this comes as no great surprise as the Conservative Party site has carried a protest against ID cards for some time, it is both a welcomed move and long overdue.
The event, to be held this Tuesday evening, will be hosted by UCL Conservatives on their campus, with speeches from:
Damian Green MP, (Shadow Minister for Immigration)
Guy Herbert, (NO2ID General Secretary)
Phil Booth, (NO2ID National Co-ordinator)
Becky Hogge, (Executive Director, Open Rights)
and with introductions by Michael Rock (CF National Chairman) and Eamonn Hurley-Flynn (UCL Conservatives President)
Further details of the event are on the UCL Conservatives’ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=41543072504
For more on the NO2ID campaign see http://www.no2id.net
