Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution - More grabs for Power!

 

     Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution - more grabs for power

Under the present Constitution it states:

“Any nominee for any such office or post referred to in Paragraph 2.2 herein shall have been a Member of the National Convention for not less than two years.”

It is proposed to change this to:

“Nominees for officers of the National Convention to have been Convention members for the two preceding years.”

So if you have previously been a member of the Convention for two years, ceased to be a member and the returned at a later date you would then have to wait a further two years before you could stand as an officer!

***

Under the present Constitution it states:

“Any nominee for the office of President shall have been an elected member of the Board for one year.”

It is proposed to change this to:

“Nominees for President must have been a current member of the Board at the time of nomination.”

So, if you were a member of the Board for a year, then ceased to be, you could not stand for President until you had stood as an officer again.

I am always wary when an elite propose a restriction on who can be a candidate for their position.   Is it because they do not trust the members of the Convention to exercise their own judgement or is it because they fear that they may be kicked out?   Whatever, it is certainly a distortion of democracy and once more a power grab by the elite!

 

Parliamentary Candidates - Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution

 

Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution – Parliamentary Candidates

 

Yesterday 27 October, Paul Goodman wrote on the Conservativehome web site:

“We are trying to imagine what Boris Johnson, in his buccaneering days as a Daily Telegraph columnist and aspirant Conservative candidate, would have made of an e-mail telling him that “we are moving away from the linear two-pass model and instead are transitioning to a nine-box lattice model”.  And that “this will provide a much broader and flexible range of development paths”.

Our guess is that he would run for the hills.  Or for his word processor.  Or both.

That may also be the instinct of members of the Conservative candidates’ list, who as we write this piece, are receiving a note containing those words.

The e-mail also refers to “a reimagined competency framework” and ensuring “that our new platforms are populated with one source of truth” and offering “a supportive and bespoke development journey for each one of you”.  So, what’s going on?”

 

One of the things that is going on is a proposal that the Constitution of the Conservative Party is to be changed.   At present the Party Board:

 “ shall establish and maintain in accordance with the provisions of Article 19.2 a Committee of the Board on Candidates, (“The Committee on Candidates”} the composition and membership of which shall be as the Board shall from time to time determine, but which shall be chaired by a chairman (“the Chairman of the Committee on Candidates”) who shall report directly to the Board.”

This is proposed to be changed to:

“The Chairman of the Committee on Candidates(sub Committee of the Board) shall be nominated by the Chairman of the National Conservative Convention. Appointed by the Board.”

In other words, whereas currently any member of the Party Board could nominate the Chairman of the Committee on Candidates, now only the Chairman of the National Conservative Convention can do so.   This is a blatant naked power grab by the Chairman of the National Convention.   One more reason why the National Convention should be abolished.

The Chairman of the Committee on Candidates should be elected by and accountable to all Party members at an Annual General Meeting of the Party to which all Party members are invited.   At that AGM, The Chairman of the Committee on Candidates should report on the state of the Candidates List and answer any questions members may have.

Parliamentary candidates should be selected by the local Constituency Association without interference by CCHQ except in those cases where the membership of the Association is less than 100

Without these radical reforms we will continue to get the nonsense illustrated by Paul Goodman above!

 

Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution

 

Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution

 

Last week the following email was sent to members of the National Convention by CCHQ

 

National Convention Ballot

All members of the National Convention (predominantly association chairmen) should have received an email this week with details on how to vote upon a set of amendments to the Party Constitution. These have been discussed widely since 2015 and members are encouraged to cast their votes as soon as possible. The ballot closes on 17 November. Association Chairmen with Conservative MPs are asked to remind their MP of the importance of casting their votes as members of the Constitutional College in order to reach the threshold required for amendments to be passed.

 

For five years these amendments have been under discussion.   They were started under Lord Feldman.(who’s he?).   Because of the three-year rule very few members of the Convention will have participated in the first three years discussion.   Those members who have just joined the Convention (approx. one third of the Convention) will have no knowledge of the discussions.   You would think that in these  circumstances there would be a full debate with the opportunity to move amendments. Not a chance.   Once again ordinary Party members are treated with the utmost contempt.    At the National Convention meeting earlier this month not a word was said about introducing these changes.   I wonder why not?

 

Will the new members be told that the Constitution is not worth the paper it is written on because the Party Board can effectively take whatever action it thinks fit and overrule the rest of the Constitution as it has done several times?   No changes there then!

 

What has happened to Boris’s promise to radically reform the Conservative Party, which he made during the Leadership election?   No sign of it in these proposals!

 

WATCH THIS SPACE!   We will try to keep ordinary members of the Party informed.

 

Tory membership - a conversation on Facebook

 

Craig Heeley

I think it’s fair to say that the last Chairman who genuinely took membership growth seriously was Ken Baker. I remember meeting with him a few times in 1990 when he ran the ‘90 new branches in 1990’ campaign. I set up a couple of YC branches in that year. Some of the Chairmen since then have been abysmal. They should just be honest and say they don’t actually want members, they just want us to donate and deliver leaflets.

John E. Strafford

Craig, Peter Brooke launched the "Bulldog" campaign in 1988 with literature etc. Big splash at Party Conference. This was the last time members were taken seriously. Ken Baker at least tried!

Mike Chattey

David Cameron sent 1m letters boosting flagging membership in 2006...

John E. Strafford

Mike, didn't work because the establishment had just tried to stop members having the final say on the election of the Leader. Trust was missing!

Mike Chattey

 you'll be pleased to note that the 1m campaign worked in spades.

Mark Cotterell

Membership fell substantially under the DC/GO Cameroon decade. Indeed El Comm submissions prove this in 90% of Assocs.

Mike Chattey

Yup they did after 2012 ..DC massively boosted them when he became leader.

John E. Strafford

 When Cameron became Leader Party membership was 255,000. In 2013 it was 149,800 as per House of Commons library. Where did your 1 million go

Mike Chattey

 As you well know ...single sex marriage act had a reaction. I guess if members had been allowed a vote...Milliband would still be in power..hey ho

John E. Strafford

 Milliband never was in power. Pure speculation. Why not just stick to the facts which you got spectacularly wrong!

Mike Chattey

The fact is you have been flogging a dead horse for all these years ...you are on the wrong side of the argument...and will remain so. Over and out.

John E. Strafford

That is what they said when I proposed a Party Board. We got one three years later. That is what they said when I proposed a Party Constitution. We got one four years later! For the Tory Party to survive it will have to become a democratic organisation!

John Strafford

Mike Chattey As the Acting Chief Executive of CCHQ you should know the Total membership figure for the Conservative Party. How about sharing the information with us? Regards.

 

 

Today's Telegraph. See detail below.

 

Tory Party Censorship

 Tory Party Censorship

I have just attended the Virtual Conservative conference session "Meet the Chairmen". This was a question and answer session so I put the following question to the Chairmen: "Why do you refuse to give Party membership and would your answer be different if you were elected by and accountable to Party members? The question was submitted at 7.36pm and was shown as "Your question is currently waiting to be reviewed by the event organiser." I waited only to see many questions including anonymous ones submitted after mine be approved and put to the Chairmen.

Eventually I put another question "Why do you refuse to answer my question? Censorship! Guess what it went in "waiting to be reviewed" These were the only questions put in that category. Will the Party ever learn?

Over the last thirty years I have invariably managed to put a question to the Party Chairman. Not now. With this new technology you just get freezed out,

"When the members fear the Party you have tyranny, When the Party fears the members you have liberty" with due acknowledgement to Thomas Jefferson.