Conservative Party - will they ever learn?

 It has been announced that Kevin Hollinrake MP has been appointed the new Party Chairman, so once again we have a Party Chairman unelected and unaccountable to the members of the Party.   He is the 26th Party Chairman in the last 25 years, so can we expect the next Party Chairman to be appointed within the next year?   CCHQ needs to be completely reorganised, but don't expect it to happen!   The best and most successful Party Chairman was Lord Woolton who served as Chairman for nine years.

The Tories confirmed that sitting MP Bernard Jenkin has been made Vice Chairman of the Candidates Committee.   Another position unelected and unaccountable to Party members!   The Establishment at work!

On 21st July an invitation was made to become a Conservative Party Parliamentary Candidate.   It said

We want to build an army of candidates that can be successful.

Hear hear! 

We need to select candidates who can be champions for their local areas but who, in time, can serve in a radical, transforming government once again. 

Hear hear!

We want a new cohort of future Conservative politicians who really believe in less tax, less interference, less regulation and a government that achieves the change that our country needs. Candidates who are going to hold the civil service to account, who are willing to change things, and who are willing to make difficult decisions.

Hear hear!

We are searching for people from across the community, with a wide variety of transferable skills and experiences. We are prioritising the four Cs - communication, charisma, cleverness and conservatism.

Sounds good but who is going to judge whether someone has a variety of transferable skills?

Who is going to judge what skills they should have?

Who is going to decide who has charisma?

Who is going to decide who is clever?

Who is going to decide what is conservatism ?

These are all subjective and each person will have a different view.   That is why Parliamentary Candidates should be elected by Party members with minimum interference from CCHQ.  After all do we really believe that Clare Hambro, Bernard Jenkin and Elizabeth Gibson are the founts of all wisdom?

This is a classic Establishment stitch up of the kind that has been demonstrated to be a disaster for the last twenty years

As a Conservative politician you will have the opportunity to make a real and lasting difference to the constituents who elect you and to the future of our great country.

Hear hear!

 

Conservative Party - Hope for the future!

 

Speech to the New Forest Conservative Association 13 June 2025

Essential Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution!

The following changes to the Conservative Party Constitution are essential in order to create a democratic Party Constitution.   They were agreed overwhelmingly by the Conservative Democratic Organisation at its conference in the Bournemouth International Conference Centre in 2023 and have been approved in General Meeting by the Campaign for Conservative Democracy.   All Conservatives who wish to have a Democratic Party with a Democratic Constitution should support these measures.

 ·       The Party Constitution should be capable of being changed by a motion at an Annual General Meeting of the Party, to which all Party members are invited on the basis of One Member One Vote with a 60% majority of those voting.

• The Chairman of the Party Board, Two Deputy Chairmen, Treasurer, Chairman of the Candidates Committee and Chairman of the Conservative Policy Forum to be officers of the Party on the Party Board, elected by and accountable to Party Members·
• Constituency Associations should have the right to determine who their Conservative Parliamentary Candidate is, with minimum interference by CCHQ.   This includes both selecting and deselecting candidates and selecting or deselecting their Member of Parliament.  Any member of the Party should be able to apply to be the candidate. Local candidates i.e. those resident in the Constituency, should be invited for interview by the Executive Council.   Where a Constituency Association passes a motion of no confidence in their MP in a General Meeting the Association they should be able to immediately start the process of selecting a new Parliamentary Candidate.
• The Party Conference should be controlled by a subcommittee of the Party Board consisting of a majority of voluntary members of the Party and should have motions for debate and votes taken on those motions, with some motions selected by the members
• The Rules for the Election of the Party Leader to be incorporated within the main body of the Constitution.

Good News - Review of the Conservative Party Constitution!

 Julian Ellacott (Chairman of the National Convention) has written to all Party members as follows:

Conservatives

Dear John,   The Party’s Constitution, last updated in 2021, underpins the way the Party is run.   As with any credible organisation, especially one which aspires to run the country, it is a pre-requisite to be able to run our own affairs fairly, robustly and transparently.   Reviewing the Constitution is therefore important, especially following our defeat in the General Election last year. We have to learn from our past mistakes and apply those lessons to our own structure (just as we are doing in terms of our policy platform).   To that end the Party Board has instigated a thorough review of the Party’s Constitution, which will run into 2026 and involve all members and elected representatives.  A dedicated committee will coordinate this work and will consult on potential changes in various phases, each covering different topics.   At the end of it the changes will be put to a vote of the Constitutional College (in line with the terms of the current Constitution).   The members of the committee want to hear your views on which subjects within the Constitution you think need to be focused on most, as well as your views on high level principles for guiding the review. Please therefore complete this short survey.

 

We will provide regular updates on the progress of the review via the member email bulletin, but if you wish to receive more frequent updates you can also opt into this in the survey. Your local Association/Federation chairman will be involved at each stage, and will also be encouraged to discuss individual topics with local members throughout.   Thank you in advance for your participation in this important task.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Julian Ellacott  Chairman of the National Convention and Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee  This is excellent news.    First of all congratulations to Julian Ellacott for getting this important item onto the Party Agenda. I make the following initial comments: 1)    "A dedicated committee will coordinate this work and will consult on potential changes in various phases, each covering different topics." The "dedicated Committee" should include ordinary members who are not part of the vested interests mentioned in 2) below. 2) It states in the survey that the review will be implemented on 1 January 2027 We should aim to implement changes by 1 Jan 2026.

When the Constitution was created it took too long to review it, which meant that the members lost interest and the vested interests (CCHQ, Party Donors, Constituency Chairmen, Women's Organisation, 1922 Committee etc.) moved in to strengthen their positions to the detriment of ordinary Party members.

    3) The survey asks you to indicate how strongly you agree with making us a stronger campaigning force.   

Of course you have to answer "for the strongest possible", but what exactly does it mean?

    4) The survey lists a number of areas of the Constitution, and asks which three should have the highest priority?

They all should have priority but the three most important are 

a) Rules for the election of Leader

b) The Board of the Party

c) How future changes are made to the Constitution.

The most important issue is c) above

The new Party Constitution should be capable of being changed by a motion at an Annual General Meeting of the Party by Party members on the basis of One Member One vote, with a 60% majority of those voting.

In which case after the new Constitution has been agreed under the existing Constitution it should be put to a meeting of all Party members for approval, with the ability to move amendments to the Constitution at the meeting.

Battle For Monte Natale - Could the British Army fight it today?

 Speech given to the New Forest Conservative Association on 13 June 2025 questions the capability of today's British army.

Remember Margaret Thatcher

 The following speech was given to the New Forest Conservative Association on 13 June 2025 by John Strafford.   It recalls a speech made by Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party Conference in 1968.

Changes to the Selection of Conservative Parliamentary Candidates!

The following video is an extract from a speech given to the New Forest Conservative Association on 13 June 2025

 

What is in a name? Includes a trip down Memory Lane!

 The following speech was made to the New Forest Conservative Association on 13 June 2025:

What is in a name?   Includes a trip down Memory Lane!

Winter Fuel Allowance - A Conservative Approach

 The following speech was made at the COPOV Forum on 31 May 2025

Margaret Thatcher's speech at the 1975 Conservative Party conference!

Extracts from Margaret Thatcher's speech at the 1975 Conservative Party conference, shortly after she became the Leader of the Conservative Party.   She didn't wait four years before setting out what was needed!