In the words of Supergrass

"Thanks to everyone for everything you've done by now its...time to go!". My PhD is drawing to its conclusion and I am about to commence employment somewhere where I believe blogging under my own name is not really an option. I have no doubt whatsoever though that those who have enjoyed reading my ramblings over the years will still be able to find them if they search the political bloggersphere hard enough in the coming weeks and months.

For now however, it is goodbye.

The Bloggerspherezzzzzz

Iain Dale has put up a fantastically boring post discussing the amount of visitors he gets to his usually brilliant website. Tim Ireland and Gudio meanwhile have been discussing the distinction between unique visitors and absolute unique visitors over that the Devil’s Kitchen.

The political bloggersphere at its vibrant best ladies and gentleman.

For the record, I believe I got three absolute unique visitors last month and I would like to thank my mother, brother and sister for loyally following my inactivity.

The Boat Race...

Is a fantastic tradition and one I hope is preserved for many years to come. However, am I the only one who watches the action willing both boats to sink?

CF Election Results…

Are as follows

Chairman

Michael Rock - 291
Daryl Williams - 249
Matt Richardson - 228

National Management Executive

Christian May - 413
Adele Douglas - 400
Owen Meredith - 380
Steve Ricketts - 378
Anastasia Beaumont-Bott - 358
Patrick Sullivan - 347
Matt Lewis - 339
Karen Allen - 323
Charlie Groome - 320
Craig Cox - 299
Anne-Marie Bray - 273

First and foremost, my congratulations are extended to the victorious and my commiserations to the unsuccessful. This has been a particularly long and frequently unpleasant campaign which I have no doubt whatsoever all involved will be pleased to see conclude. I hope all candidates will now be big enough to put the bitchyness behind us so we can all pull together and concentrate on the two things that matter; making CF as good as it can be and putting the Conservative Party back into government. I wish them all the best of luck.

The CF Elections have produced some interesting results. For the Chairmanship, the much mooted close contest did in fact come to pass, although it was Darryl rather then Matthew who finished runner up. An interesting side issue is that Michael pulled exactly the same number of votes as outgoing Chairman Mark Clarke. Michael has an extremely ambitious manifesto and it will be interesting to see how CF develops with him at the realm. I look forward to offering whatever assistance I can to the cause in due course.

At Exec level, 2 of the 6 candidates elected were on the FT slate. I am extremely pleased Christian May topped the poll. I personally thought Christian was exceptional at the Bristol Hustings and his record at Exeter CF speaks for itself. Anastasia and Patrick are also pleasing additions to the CF Exec and I look forward to seeing how Steve Ricketts, Adele Douglas and Owen Meredith perform. No doubt Thomas Wales and his CF4B chums will be pleased to see that the Exec will be made up of people whose CF experience is of involvement in Exeter, Manchester, Keele, Plymouth, Scotland and Nottingham. Not a Londoner in sight! Dare I suggest we need to address the problem of London exclusion within CF! My thanks go to the outgoing incumbents for the work they have done on the Exec this year. I hope all will continue to be involved nationally.

My congratulations are once again extended to the winners and I look forward to offering whatever assistance I can to you all if required over the coming weeks and months.

CF Elections. The Result I REALLY want…

In one of his Facebook messages, CF Chairman Candidate Matthew Richardson correctly identified this set of CF Elections to be of particular importance. His analysis was, as ever, spot on. After all, the CF Exec elected this time around will be the one that oversees the development of CF in the run up to the next General Election. More importantly however, my good self and another prominent CF activist have a £10 bet on whether Karen Allen successfully gets re-elected. I personally think she is a deserved shoe in… I sincerely hope the CF Electorate have done the decent thing and elected the candidate who will oversee the continued enhancement of both CF Working Life and, far more important, my bank balance :-)

The very best of luck to all candidates.

The Saga Continues...

CF Diary are now reporting that ERS have requested the announcement of the result of the CF Election be delayed by 24 hours. Unfortunately, no details are provided for why more time has been asked for, but one does wonder whether anybody involved in the organisation of what has been one of the most shambolic sets of UK young conservative elections ever could actually organise a piss up in a brewery. The one good thing that has emerged of late however is the apparent refusal of a request for the current Chairman to be present at the ballot verification process. Whilst one can understand the obvious arguments in favour, I think it would be inappropriate for a known vocal supporter of one particular Chairman candidate to be in attendance at this most sensitive of stages.

On a personal level, I have lost considerable faith in the whole administration process and have consequently declined to vote in these elections. I wholeheartedly apologise to Christian, Anastasia and Patrick who would have received votes from me this year had all this not blown up. I simply do not accept enough safeguards are in place to guarantee secrecy (the design of the ballot is appalling) and believe the behavior of some during this election process has been absurdly childish and a complete embarrassment. Serious debate regarding the administration of CF is required once this election process is over and I sincerely hope the new Exec, in collaboration with the Youth Development Manager and the 2 other promised administrative staff, can drive through what is required to put this behind us, build on what is world class in CF and make the organisation the group its membership deserve to have.

Darryl Responds...

The one change I would like to see made to CF in the next 12 months is we create an organisation that puts more trust in its members.

Conservative Future, despite the criticisms it sometimes suffers, is in my view a really good organisation. The reason for this is simple and that its strength is its members. If you fail to value this, you will never recognise the potential CF has and what is needed to help members assist the organisation to grow.

I value the hard work of our members. From experience I know the challenges of serving as a Branch and Area Chairman. When I was a member of the National Executive I travelled the country, meeting activists and learning from them new ways of moving the organisation forward and what support they required. I also have a unique perspective of having fought and won a local election campaign, serving as a local councillor for four years and being promoted as Havering’s first Champion for Younger People.

My experiences of politics are varied and it is important to note that not only have I successes but I have made mistakes too. You might be wondering why I would admit this when battling to become Chairman, however, I believe that to reach maturity in politics, you need to be aware that sometimes you learn more from the things you do wrong than from those you have done right. No one is perfect and many of you will from time to time deal with difficult situations and then wish you had taken a different approach. I think it helps to have a Chairman who can sympathise with the problems you face and can reassure you so you do not lose confidence and help you keep going.

As a national team we need to become a service provider, and recognise that our activists are those who make the biggest difference campaigning, recruiting members and undertaking social action projects. We need to help you doing this with the good Conservative principle of looking at what we do and trying to be more efficient. We can make improvements to CF by being practical and improve the way we work together. It is not always the case that we need new, bigger and more adventurous policies supported by an ever growing budget. Sometimes, we need to look at where we are and simply work on ensuring we are getting the basics right.

The five pledges I outlined to members when I began this campaign was in essence all about placing trust in our membership.

My first pledge is to ensure my team travels to a different region each month for our monthly executives and then hold a national event whilst there. This is about working alongside you rather than for you. We are not going to make all our decisions based in London, but will travel and meet with our activists, holding events and engaging with you.

My second pledge follows on from my first, that at the national events, time will be allotted for a Q&A session between the national team and our membership. This is about giving you the opportunity to hold the team you elect to account. I want to give members the responsibility to ensure their national team and indeed I as Chairman are living up to the promises we have made to you.

My third pledge is to create a regional campaign committee in every region of England and Wales. I want to devolve power and give members greater control over decisions related to campaigns in their region and maximising their impact helping us return seats at the next election. I have promised to have a period of consultation with the members before any new committees start.

My fourth pledge is to work with partner organisations and offer new opportunities for training and to discuss policy. I want to ensure members have every opportunity to develop and grow and believe strongly in giving you a real voice. My aim is to work alongside leading think tanks so young members have the opportunity to join policy groups and deliver real policy documents that will be seen by our politicians.

My fifth pledge is to create a CF Training College. I want to provide training and support for our membership. A range of seminars, training days and online resources all designed to help you develop your skills which will help benefit the Party. Supporting the activists of today is to invest in our Parties future.

I have launched my full manifesto that continues to build on these important principles of trusting our members and allowing you and the organisation to grow – www.darylwilliams.co.uk

In my manifesto I have said I will create several new working groups inviting the members to develop national policy for CF. There will be a students group inviting those who have been on campus and involved with student politics, to help determine future policy when it comes to dealing with Students Unions and the NUS. I will work with those with the knowledge to develop a way forward.

A new international working group will be created to look at ways that we can engage with political parties who share our values overseas. The group will be asked to build links with the international office and our MEP’s to look at what opportunities are available to forming a new international young conservative movement.

Graduates and young professionals working group will be set up for young professionals and members within the older age bracket of the Party to develop a new range of events.

Finally, there will be the member’s retention working group that will look at ways of ensuring members who join the Party stay with us.

I will trust the members and I hope you will place your trust in me and make my purpose serving our organisation. This is my vision, I hope you share it with me, so it becomes our vision, a vision for a Conservative Future.

Campaigning…

One of the things that has annoyed me most whilst studying youth politics is the view many senior constituency activists and officials in all parties have on the subject of campaigning. Far too many people in all political parties believe that the role of the young is to pay a membership fee for the privilege of being leaflet fodder. With respect to the Conservative Party, the exceptional piece of research undertaken by Paul Whiteley, Patrick Seyd and Jeremy Richardson revealed that Conservative Party members under the age of 35 were nearly twice as likely to be politically active then those aged 36 and over. When one then considers that the average Conservative Party member is a pensioner and that numerous academic studies have suggested a direct link between local activism and an increased share of the vote in marginal seats, it perhaps becomes understandable why some CF branch chairmen have to field countless phone calls from the local association blue rinsers pestering them to come and do some campaigning.

Now, quite a lot of people in Conservative Future actually enjoy being politically active. The political careerists (in part) see it as a means to prove their suitability to be an elected representative. The politically motivated see it as a way of getting the Conservative Party into government and/or removing Gordon Brown from Number 10. Philosophical purists will deliver leaflets out of a love of conservatism or a distrust of other ideologies. Some will do it as a means of meeting like minded individuals; others will do it only at election times. An extremely small group of people will do it out of a love of campaigning (think Mr. Seery). However, whilst all such individuals will always go campaigning, either on nationally organised days or locally in the constituency they are based in, it leaves a considerable number of young conservatives under the age of 30 who are not politically active. And when one thinks about it, who can really blame them.

I wish somebody could tell me what the incentive is for somebody to pay to be a member of an organisation that then puts understandable pressure on them to go campaigning. Why should anybody but the most committed to the cause drag there arse out of bed on a rainy February weekend morning when they could instead be doing far more productive things, like watching the rugby, sinking a few beers with mates and relaxing after a hard weeks work? Back in the old days, the social side of the YC was excellent and campaigning was often combined with a function at the end of the day. However, in the age of the Wii and mass entertainment for all, one cannot help but believe supping a pint with the fossils down the ConClub no longer cuts the mustard.

I have no doubt whatsoever (indeed I have the empirical evidence to prove it) that CF is a good electioneering force that has the potential to be world class. However, I personally believe its potential will only be fulfilled when its members are seen as individuals with political and social needs rather then mere leaflet fodder. It will also only be realized when we recognize that the vast majority of our membership need a reason to be politically active. As hard as this must be for some to acknowledge, we must accept that grand proclamations about getting rid of Brown and putting Cameron into Number 10 will not persuade the vast majority of young conservative minded individuals to swap the playstation for leafleting…

It will be interesting to see if the new CF Exec tries anything new with national campaign days and to observe what the impact is on turnout

Reflections…And Questions.

Enough time has now passed in order for a more considered reaction to recent developments in Conservative Future to be posited. I still stand by the vast majority of the rant I published on here previously and I have no doubt whatsoever that my post encapsulates a sense of anger and frustration that many in CF currently have regarding the CF Election process. However, one cannot help but believe we are still a long way from the truth of all of this coming out and a number of questions still have to be answered.

Firstly, one does wonder why ConservativeHome seemingly sat on a story which, if subsequently proved to be 100% accurate, has significant implications for the integrity of both the CF Elections specifically and the entire UK young conservative movement as a whole. If the ConservativeHome editorial team were aware of the story, why did it take a blogger with no overt links to CF whatsoever (Dizzy) to put this into the public domain?

Secondly, Mr. Lunn has adopted a position of dignified silence up to now. In many respects I would expect nothing less of a man who I personally believe has contributed much to the development of CF since taking up his position last year. It is also understandable given he is after all an administrator rather then a politician; meaning he in theory only has to explain himself to his CCHQ masters rather then the CF Electorate. However, the fact is that, as things stand, we only have one side of the story so far. I therefore believe it would be enormously beneficial for the Youth Development Manager to publicly deny the accusations made against him. If they are not true then come out and say so mate. That would restore significant confidence in the whole process and allow us to draw more comprehensive conclusions on this whole regrettable affair. Specifically, I believe it would be helpful if the “reservations” comment regarding Mr. Rock, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Williams was explained/dismissed, since it is this section which seems to be troubling many regarding the whole thing. Whatever happens, I wish to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Lunn for the considerable work he has unquestionably done for CF up to now. As somebody who does not seek a political career, I try and look past the careerism of many involved with CF and when I do that with Michael I have to say I see a man who does care about CF and who is a decent bloke. I feel sorry on a personal level that all this has happened…

Thirdly, Mr. Rock and Mr. Williams really must articulate a position publicly regarding this. As candidates for the Chairmanship, they could well be working alongside somebody who allegedly has reservations about them. Mr. Richardson has unequivocally indicated that he believes the Youth Development Manager should resign. That is something the CF Electorate should consider when casting votes in my view. However, given the nature of this story, I believe it is important for Mr. Williams and Mr. Rock to publicly state their feelings on the matter…

Finally, either CCHQ or ERS needs to give us assurances that the farce that has become ballot paper design and distribution will be rectified before voting closes. I have personally received assurances from CCHQ that the ballot will be secret and that the declaration section will be removed from the voting form. However, stories doing the rounds about 3,500 names being removed from the electoral roll, non-members getting ballots, members not receiving voting forms and scores of individuals getting 2 or more are extremely concerning and I believe we now need promises from ERS that all problems will be corrected and from CCHQ that this will not, under any circumstances, be allowed to happen again. Its time this annual problem really was resolved…

Nick Webb has suggested on his blog that the debate on CF Diary constitutes a witch hunt and that he will be taking no part in it. I bet you have been following the debate though Nick (a non-active participant in methodological speak)! I accept his point in the sense that I believe some of the comments are unnecessarily provocative. However, many contributors have legitimate questions that deserve an answer. I would rather have an inquisitive website that is occasionally personal then one where debate is shelved and the party line parroted. Owen Meredith has called for us all to remember that CF Diary is a public forum. I would echo his words, but do not condemn those who have used the website as a mechanism for articulating understandable anger and reasonable questions. Others have suggested they have no intention of using their ballot papers in protest of what has apparently gone on. I can understand this reaction, but also accept that it is not the candidates’ fault all this has blown up. I guess it is up to the individual whether they turn away from the process or engage with it given what has happened. After some reflection, I am now in two minds…

However, whilst many more words will doubtless be written regarding this, I believe it is important to remember in any argument that alternative viewpoints always exist. I for one am open to hearing them in this case and I hope they are put forward and some of the outstanding questions answered swiftly…

From the Ashes

Received the following text message about my previous post… It made me laugh out loud so I thought I would share it.

“I can exclusively reveal that Michael Rock does have smelly feet”

Excellent stuff :-)