Speech
Party Conference 4 Oct 2021 Liberty Zone, Manchester
By
John
E. Strafford
Chairman,
Campaign for Conservative Democracy
Ladies
and Gentlemen, it is a great honour and privilege to be sharing a platform with
such distinguished guests. I have an
affinity to them all. With the Bow
Group my son Guy is a past Chairman. Joy
Morrissey is my Member of Parliament in Beaconsfield and a brilliant Member of
Parliament she is. With Miriam Cates
the MP for Penistone and Stockbridge the
connection is a little bit tenuous so let me explain.
Penistone
is quite close to Sheffield. Like
Miriam, I was born in Sheffield. The
Strafford family goes back to 1765 and earlier. My mother’s maiden name was Waterfall. The Waterfalls go back in Sheffield to the
18th century. In the 19th
Century the Waterfalls were a big family, so large that they had their own
cricket team. In the middle of the
century some cricket teams started to play football in the winter to keep
fit. Bramall Lane, home of Sheffield
United was built as a cricket ground.
It is now the oldest existing football ground in the world.
In
1857 three men got together to form Sheffield Football Club. One of those men was John Charles Shaw who
was born in Penistone and was educated at Penistone Grammar school. John Charles Shaw served as President of
Sheffield Football Club for 14 years. It
is the oldest existing football club in the world. He was married to Annie Waterfall who was
the niece of my great, great grandfather.
In 1860 he moved to Sandygate in Hallam and formed the Hallam football
club which is the second oldest existing football club in the world and in 1860
there were three Waterfalls in the Hallam team including my great, great
grandfather William Waterfall.
John
Charles Shaw was an Area agent for the Conservative Party and in 1875 he was
appointed the organising secretary of the Conservative Party for the whole of England and Wales. In this role he modernised the Conservative
Party.
He
revolutionised the way we campaign in a General Election. He did so well that not one but two
testimonial dinners were held for him and the Duke of Norfolk presented him
with a silver cup, a silver platter and £1,200. About £100,000 today.
So,
a little lad from Penistone in Yorkshire brought football to the World,
modernised the Conservative Party and revolutionised campaigning.
Miriam,
Joy, Jonathan you can do the same for the Conservative Party and the country
today.
It
is time to bring the Conservative Party into the 21st century.
1)
The Chairman of the Party, Deputy
Chairman, Treasurer, Chairman of the Candidates Committee and Chairman of the
Policy Forum should be elected by and accountable to Party members and present
Annual reports to an Annual General Meeting to which all Party members are
invited.
2)
The National Convention should be scrapped.
3)
Constituency Associations should have the
right to determine who their Parliamentary Candidate is with minimum
interference by CCHQ.
4)
Motions for debate should be allowed at
the Party Conference.
5)
The Party Constitution should be capable
of being changed at a General Meeting of the Party by members of the Party on the basis of One
Member One Vote.
That
will modernise the Conservative Party.
But,
what has happened to Freedom, Liberty, Democracy and Justice in this country?
In
the last two years we have seen:
The
internet dominated by a small number of
big tech companies who delete all information that they disagree with.
Schools
and universities have ceased debate and enquiry. People with contrary views have been barred
from campuses. Student newspapers have
been censored.
Employees
have been made to undergo psychological re-education.
People
have been sacked from their jobs for saying there are two biological sexes.
Families
have been kept from dying loved ones.
Daughters have been arrested for collecting their mothers from care homes
Vast
numbers of children have been sent home from schools and denied a proper
education because one class-mate has lost their sense of smell.
We
have been told to have an anti-virus vaccine although the vaccine isn’t
compulsory, yet those who have refused it have been sacked from their jobs. We have been stopped from going to bars and
stadiums.
Our
unassailable Leaders have ignored the rules they have set for others again and
again, blissfully untroubled by cries of hypocrisy.
Global
Leaders, bureaucrats, scientists, royalty and the super-rich have met in
private to discuss how we all must live.
Blinded by hubris they believe that they alone can bring about a utopian
future. The language they use is made up
of meaningless phrases like “sustainable development”, “Build back better”,
“levelling up”
Few
will question what all this means and those that do will be insulted, ridiculed
and pushed to the margins of society so that they are effectively silenced.
It
is time for us to return to Conservative values. The Conservative Party must
•
Maintain itself as a democratic national organisation supported by a broad
section of the population from all walks of life
•
Uphold the rule of law and order and the concept of equality of all before the law.
•
Create favourable conditions for the creation of wealth and thereby sustain
high levels of employment and living standards
•
Promote free enterprise, maximise choice and minimise regulation.
•
Provide or enable the provision of high-quality services in fields where the
State must provide them.
•
Control public expenditure within a balanced budget and with low levels of
taxation.
• Ensure the integrity and security of the
realm.
Ensure a fair democracy based on the
principle of One Person, One Vote.
I
am in the sunset of my life, so I look to a new generation to uphold these
values. I look to Miriam, Joy and
Jonathan to hold the torch of the Conservative Party, the torch of liberty and
freedom. In the words of Ronald Reagan I will be a foot soldier in
your army and do everything I can to assist you in your endeavours. Let us go forward with hope. Let us all
now create a Party and a country we can be proud of.
