Battle for Monte Natale
For those wishing to buy the "Battle
for Monte Natale" at a pre order discount please go to:
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/John-Ernest-Strafford/a/5971
The book is a hard back and contains over
100 photos and maps.
Battle for Monte Natale
For those wishing to buy the "Battle
for Monte Natale" at a pre order discount please go to:
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/John-Ernest-Strafford/a/5971
The book is a hard back and contains over
100 photos and maps.
We will remember them!
National
Convention Handbook
In September 2024 CCHQ published
a National Convention handbook. It is a
useful publication with many good points included in it, but why spoil it in
the first sentence by saying:
“The National Convention
is the oldest national institution within the Conservative Party, …”
To be charitable this is
being economical with the reality! The
National Conservative Convention was formed in 1998 when the Conservative Party
constitution was created. I set out
below the differences between the National Union of Conservative and Unionist
Associations which was created in 1867 and the National Convention and
you can decide whether the Convention follows on from the National Union!
The National Union was an
autonomous body which consisted of autonomous Constituency Associations which
could select or deselect their Member of Parliament or their Parliamentary
Candidate without interference by CCHQ.
The National Convention
is a body controlled by the Party Board of the Conservative Party and
Constituency Associations can only select their Member of Parliament or elect
their Parliamentary Candidate from a list produced by CCHQ.
The National Union
Central Council representatives included five Constituency Association members.
The National Convention
has one Constituency Association member.
The National Union
included all Conservative MPs and all Conservative Parliamentary candidates.
The National Convention
includes no MPs or Parliamentary candidates.
The Constitution of the
National Union could be changed by a Constituency Association tabling a motion
at a General Meeting of the Central Council and that motion passed by two
thirds of the votes of those present and voting.
The National Convention
Constitution can only be changed by an electoral college consisting of the
National Convention and the Conservative Parliamentary Party, or by the Party
Board exercising its rights under Article 17 of the Party Constitution.
The Party Conference was
controlled by the National Union which determined its agenda and procedures.
The Party Conference is
now controlled by the Party Board through a sub committee of the Board. It decides its agendas and procedures>
The following is an edited version of a speech given by John Strafford at a packed meeting of the Vote Leave Group on 22nd October
Election of the Leader of the Conservative Party
Since 1922, the leader of
the Conservative Party has been formally elected, even when the party is in
opposition at a “Party Meeting" Attended by peers and MPs who receive the
Conservative whip, ... prospective candidates who have been adopted by
constituency associations, and ... members of the executive committee of the
National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations from England and
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland."
This is the theory and is still to some extent the case.
The Party Meeting. In the 1980s there was a court case between
the Inland Revenue and Conservative Central Office about whether CCO was an
unincorporated association or not. The decision determined whether CCO paid
Corporation tax or income tax on its investment income. The case went to appeal and the High court
said:
The Conservative Party
does not exist. It consists of three
separate bodies:
The Parliamentary Party
The National Union of
Conservative Associations and
Conservative Central
Office.
The only time they come
together as the Conservative Party is at the Party meeting to confirm a new
Leader, but no one knows who can call this meeting or who is entitled to attend
the meeting.
During the 1990s I went
to three Party meetings. 1990, 1995 and
1997.
In 1997 the meeting was
held in the QE2 centre and was packed out.
From memory the Chairman was Cecil Parkinson. He stood up and introduced himself. At that point Eric Chalker a great fighter
for Party democracy stood up and said he had a point of order. Groan from the audience. He asked who called
the meeting, who was entitled to attend and what authority did it have/ Bigger
groan from the audience. The Chairman
stated that he was following the usual procedure so he would continue with the
meeting. Applause from the
meeting. End of Point of order!
The Party Meeting doers
not appear anywhere in the Conservative Party Constitution. Today would the judges take the same view as
they did in the 1980s?
When there was a request
for a judicial review because Conservative Party members were in effect
electing a Prime Minister the judges made the point that the Prime Minister is
not elected by the Party members. It is
the monarch who invites an individual to form a government by getting a
majority in the House of Commons and if successful becomes the Prime Minister.
1940 Churchill became Leader
of the Parliamentary Party, but Chamberlain remained as the Leader of the Party
until his death later in the year.
There was no Party meeting!
1963 When Harold
Macmillan’s decision to resign was announced during the Tory party conference,
there was no formal procedure for selecting a new leader, only vague ‘customary
processes’. Among the leadership contenders, the 2nd Viscount Hailsham (Quintin
Hogg) was ready from the outset and disclaimed his peerage by means of the
recent reform won by Anthony Wedgwood Benn,
Home’s eventual emergence
as leader fuelled the suspicion that Macmillan had been determined all along to
thwart Rab Butler. Enoch Powell and Ian
McLeod refused to serve under Home and the furore meant that rules were drawn
up for Leadership contests.
1965 Home resigned after
the Conservative defeat in 1964 and the new rules were brought in for the
Leadership election. The rules required
the victor to have both an absolute majority (which Heath narrowly achieved)
and, in the first ballot, at least a 15% lead of votes actually cast (not
counting abstaining members - this would be changed in the mid-1970s review of
the rules). As Heath had not achieved the latter hurdle, the election could
therefore have gone to further rounds. However, Maudling conceded defeat and
Heath was duly declared leader.
The 1975 Conservative
Party leadership election was held in February 1975. The party's sitting
MPs voted Margaret Thatcher as Party Leader on the second
ballot. Incumbent leader Edward Heath stood aside after the first
ballot, in which he unexpectedly finished behind Thatcher. The rules also allowed new candidates to come forward in a second
ballot if the first ballot was not decisive.
The voting in the second
ballot was by the alternative vote and Margaret Thatcher got over 50% and the
other candidates withdrew.
A review was conducted under the auspices of Heath's predecessor Sir Alec
Douglas Home. Two recommendations were made, the leader
would henceforth be elected annually, whether the party was in opposition or
government, in the period following a Queens speech though in most years
this would prove a formality. Also on the first round the requirement for a
victorious candidate to have a lead of 15% over their nearest rival was
modified so that this would now be 15% of the total number of MPs, not just
those voting for candidates.
1989 Margaret Thatcher
easily beat Sir Anthony Meyer but Meyor got 33 votes and there were 30 odd
abstentions. Up to this point a
candidate only needed a proposer and seconder.
1990 John Major won in
1990 on the second ballot. Michael Heseltine had challenged Margaret Thatcher
on the first ballot. Thatcher had won but was four votes short of the required
15% threshold and withdrew. Major was
two votes short of receiving over 50% on the second ballot, however the other
two candidates withdrew.
1997 Leadership election
won by William Hague after 3 ballots.
1997 Party conference
Jeffrey Archer proposed that the Leader should be elected with the MPs having
50% of the vote and the Party members having 50% of the vote. I spoke and demanded the full monty of Party
democracy 100% of the vote. This was
accepted but then the MPs introduced a rule that they would only put two
candidates to the Party membership for election.
In 1998 Hague was elected
by the MPs and had a confirmatory vote on his Leadership which he easily won
and at the same time brought in a Party Constitution which made the 1922
Committee responsible for the rules for a Leadership election in consultation
with the Party Board. The new
Constitution included a clause which said that if only one Candidate came
forward for election by Party members there could be a confirmatory vote of the
membership. This did not happen when
Michael Howard, Theresa May and Rishi Sunak became Leaders.
2005 Michael Howard tried
to change the rules so that members reduced the number of candidates to two and
the MPs then elected the Leader. His
motion was defeated as it did not get the required majority.
Current position and why it must be changed
Under the Party's rules,
a member can vote in a leadership election even if they are not a British Citizen,
do not reside in the UK, and do not have the right to vote in British Elections. It cannot be right that a citizen of Russia,
China, India, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, etc. can vote in a Conservative Party
Leadership Election as there is clearly a conflict of interest. Are they loyal to the UK or to their home
country? This must be changed
The Leadership election
is an election in which ultimately the members decide who the Leader should be
and yet every election the rules are changed by the 1922 Committee without any
reference to the members. No consultation, no vote nothing. The members have no say about the process.
The
rules for the election of the Leader should be part of the main Party
Constitution and which could only be changed by a meeting of Party members to
which all members are invited.
How
is the current process undemocratic?
1)
Under the original rules to be a
candidate all you needed was a proposer and seconder. This changed to 10
nominations, 8 nominations, back to 10 nominations and in the last election 100
nominations. This time it is back to 10.
We should stick to having ten nominations.
2)
The length of the contest. Last time for the Rishi Sunak election it
was to be done in 8 days. Graham Brady
thinks it should be 3 weeks. This
contest is being spread over 14 weeks. It
is absurd to spread it over the length of this election, 3 weeks is sufficient.
3)
There should be 4 candidates go to
the members to vote upon and voting should be done by preferential vote for
both the MPs vote and the members vote. Balloting round by round as the MPs do
leads to manipulation as the MPs vote on the basis of what’s in it for me.
Margaret Thatcher was elected using the preferential vote, we should do the
same.
4)
The expenses that MPs can spend on
campaigning should be limited and the size of donations they can accept should
be limited to £10,000 from any one individual.
Corporate and other donations should not be allowed. The current limit for
expenditure is £400,000 and I am afraid that in the current election in raising
this amount of money hedge funds offshore have been prominent.
5)
The four candidates who went to the
Party conference had each to pay CCHQ £50,000.
The last two candidates had to pay a further £150,000 to CCHQ. This is totally unacceptable. It restricts
the candidates to the wealthy, or those with wealthy friends or they have to
mortgage their home. This is not
democracy and these payments to CCHQ should be abolished.
6)
If there is only one candidate then
that candidate has to have a confirmatory vote from the members of the
Party. This is in the Party
Constitution but only William Hague has done it.
7)
Voting should be secret and counted
after the ballot has closed.
Graham Brady was given the voting figures every two
days!
Tory members measure up leadership
finalists
BBC News, 9 October 2024
By Joshua Nevett, Brian Wheeler
“John Strafford, veteran campaigner for greater
grassroots democracy in the party, said the system currently used for choosing
leaders is an “absolute disaster”.
He argues that the final four should have been put to
a vote of the membership after they had delivered their speeches at last week’s
party conference, rather than being whittled down to two by the MPs.
Under the current system, which was brought in by
former leader William Hague, the best candidate does not necessarily win,
argues Mr Strafford, who chairs the Campaign for Conservative Democracy.
“The whole thing is manipulated. Bribery takes place.
The MPs will only vote on the basis of ‘what’s in it for me?’ They are looking
for jobs, titles and honours. It’s a terrible way in which to do things.”
He is campaigning for leadership contests to be taken
out of the hands of the 1922 committee of backbenchers, which he says keep
changing the rules, and put into a new party constitution.”
23 Sept 2024 John Strafford
Meeting with Tom Tugendhat MP on Thursday with the Chesham & Amersham Conservatives. He asked me about the rules for the Leadership Election. I told him the rules should be in the main body of the Party Constitution and should only be capable of being altered by the members of the Party in a General Meeting to which all Party members were invited. Also that four candidates should go forward to the members for them to ballot and that voting should be on a preferential basis including when MPs ballot to produce the four candidates to go forward so that the wheeler dealing between rounds was eliminated. He agreed. I agreed with his speech, 100%. Great speech.
6 September 2024 - John Strafford
I put the following question last night to Robert Jenrick MP; "Do you agree that the Conservative Party Chairman should be elected by and accountable to Party members? His response: "I am sympathetic to the idea."
Another distortion of Democracy in the Conservative Party
Leadership Election!
Shown below is an edited version of an Article by
Ben Quinn – in “The Guardian”
It raises a series of questions:
Is it right that Candidates can spend £400,000 on their
Leadership campaign and how many candidates may be excluded by this? A maximum
of £150,000 seems a reasonable limit.
Why should a Candidate pay anything to CCHQ just to get
into the last Four? When did democracy
have a price attached to it? Even worse
than this why do they then have to pay a further £150,000 to be in the last two
Candidates.? Each Can should pay a Deposit
of £5,000 to CCHQ which is forfeited if they receive less than %5 of the votes.
It cannot be right to raise money for the Leadership
Election from Corporations and Non UK Citizens. For what?
Donations should be limited to £7,500 per individual who must be a UK
citizen.
CCHQ say the monies received are to offset the costs of
the Party Conference but in recent years the Conference has made substantial
profits so why charge the Candidates now?
There are minimal extra costs involved.
This whole process is going down the road similar to the United
States system where money dictates politics – a dangerous route to tread. The Presidential Election in the USA costs
billions of dollars. Do we really want
to follow suit?
In 2006 a Director of CCHQ told me that the Conservative Party
should be like the Republican Party in the USA. The Republican Party does not have members. When there is a Presidential Election they
set up a Committee to support the candidate.
Billions of dollars are raised to fight the election. As a result pork barrel politics dominates. States are promised government money,
Companies are promised contracts, gerrymandering is rife! Big donors dominate policy. Democracy disappears! Every Senator is a multi- millionaire!
Over the last 20 years we have seen the Conservative Party
travel down that road moving ever closer to the USA system:
·
Members rights have effectively been
eliminated.
·
No longer do Constituency Associations have
an open list when selecting their MP
·
No longer can they deselect their MP without
vigorous opposition from CCHQ.
·
The members vote in a Leadership election is
distorted in the process.
·
Membership has become worthless and has declined
to its lowest level in Conservative Party history and the Party has done
nothing about it.
·
Motions at the Party Conference have been
scrapped so members have no influence on policy.
·
There used to be a limit on the amount an MP
could give to his Constituency Association to prevent Associations being
bought, but that has now been abandoned.
Jeremy Hunt MP has given over £100,000 to his Constituency in the last
couple of years.
· Now we see the big money syndrome creeping into the Tory Party. How many promises will be given when candidates are raising money for their campaigns? We now know that large donors to the Labour Party have been given jobs in the Labour Government administration. Could the same happen in the Tory Party?
·
How many candidates will be put off by the
requirement to raise such large sums of money?
The following is an edited version of an Article by
Ben Quinn – in “The Guardian”
Fri 26 Jul 2024
The Conservatives have set the spending limit in their
leadership contest at £400,000, as the party tries to use the race to cover
costs.
Robert Jenrick, a frontrunner who has been preparing for the
contest for some time, had pressed for a higher cap. The £400,000 limit is
£100,000 more than it was in the last contest, two years ago.
The contest will also be a “pay to play” affair, with
candidates needing to have raised £50,000 to reach the final four, who will
make their case to party members at the Tory conference in the autumn. Money
raised will go towards the cost of that event.
Candidates will then need to have £150,000 to make the final
shortlist of two, which will be put to party members.
The higher spending limit reflects what will be a longer
race, but it also comes as the party’s coffers are badly depleted after a
disastrous election campaign in which many donors who supported the Tories in
2019 turned their backs.
The ability to attract donors is likely to be brandished as
an asset in the race. A friend of Jenrick’s said: “In order to build back we
will need a leader who can raise funds. Rob has a track record of not only
being a significant fundraiser himself but also as someone who has helped other
colleagues.”
The former immigration Minister had already raised £50,000
from three donors in the months running up to the general election.
Records show they included a donation of £35,000 on 3 April
from Quantum Pacific Corporation UK Ltd, owned by Idan Ofer, a London-based
shipping and mining heir whose father, Sammy, was once Israel’s richest man.
Jenrick also received a £10,000 donation in May from
Financial Recovery Technologies UK Ltd, which is controlled by two American
brothers, Howard and Jeffrey Wolk.
As well as their staffing costs and their contribution to
the party conference, each candidate will be spending money on polling and
advertising. “It’s hard to convey just how you burn through money in campaigns
like this,” said one source.
Donors are expected to open their wallets now that the full
slate of declared candidates has become clear. A breakdown of what has been
donated in recent weeks will be declared at a later date.
A source in one of the campaigns said: “It might be the case
that at least one of those running has already raised a considerable sum. But
also when you start running, that is when you can really go in front of someone
and ask for that support.
In 2022 Liz Truss was given more than £500,000 for her
leadership campaign, with about half coming from donors linked to hedge fund
bosses and other City financiers.
A Conservative party spokesperson said: “There is always a
spending limit set for each campaign during a Leadership contest.”
At last action from CCHQ in response to my post Conservative Clowns Head Quarters:
See https://www.conservativepolicyforum.com/cpf-papers/conservative-values-in-policy-making