Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Leadership and Parliamentary Candidate Selection by Mark Taha

 Leadership and Parliamentary Candidate Selection 

by

Mark Taha

"Re candidate selection- I believe in fixed term four yearly general elections at the beginning of May. All candidates to.be selected the previous January by one member one vote postal ballot with Alternative Vote, the shortlist consisting of anyone who can get a proposer and seconder from the local party members. Each member would be sent a ballot paper and another piece of paper with a maximum 100-word election address from each prospective candidate. Bye- election candidates to be selected in the same way as far as possible.

For the party leadership- annual election every July. 10% of MPs to nominate each candidate. Postal ballot of all members - if nobody gets over 50% a runoff among MPs between the top two. The leader nominates their deputy and makes all other appointments subject to confirmation by MPs. If the leadership falls vacant during the year, the deputy leader takes over."

Comment by John Strafford:  Interesting proposal, although postal ballots are too expensive at a local level.   The internet could be used instead.

Monday, December 13, 2021

Decisions at the COPOV Forums, 11 December & 25 September

 At the COPOV Forum on 11th December attendance was 28 with representatives from nine Constituency Associations.   The following votes were taken:

1) Should vaccinations for COVID19 be made compulsory?

Only one person was in favour.

2) Should vaccination passports be introduced and used for entry into different venues?.

The vote on this was 7 in favour and 11 against, others abstaining.

3) Should Boris Johnson resign as Prime Minister immediately?

A clear majority thought that he should resign now.

At the COPOV Forum meeting held on the 25th September the following motion was passed unanimously:

"COPOV believes that it is in the long term interests of the Conservative Party for the Party Board to relinquish its ultimate control of all decision making and for the Conservative Party to become an accountable, accessible, democratically elected organisation."

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Mulled Wine and Mince Pies Forum December 11th, Gerrards Cross

 Do join us for this last Forum before Christmas. The Agenda includes Selection of Candidates, Immigration, Climate Change and much more.   See Events

Friday, October 8, 2021

Time for the Conservative Party to be Conservative by John Strafford

 


Watch the video of the speech on Youtube.   Transcript below.

Time for the Conservative Party to be Conservative - Full Speech by John Strafford

 

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.

 

 

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Conservatism! Is the Conservative Party compliant?

 Conservatism

by John Strafford


Inherent in and at the core of the Conservatism is a belief in:

An economy based on:
Free markets and trade
Private ownership and enterprise
Monetary and fiscal probity
Gainful employment
Minimum intervention by the State
Low taxation

A society based on:
Patriotism and duty in defence of the realm.
Reciprocal rights and responsibilities
Respect for law and order
Equal educational opportunities

Conservatism:
Accommodates the view that each human being is an individual, answerable to and for him or herself and also a responsible citizen of the community
Allows that there are bound to be social and economic inequalities in life and that the strong have a duty to help the weak and encourage them to help themselves
Leads to policies that are justified by common-sense rather than doctrinaire theory

Objectives
Conservatism is more a statement of belief in the nature of things than one of intent or action which, respectively, are the foundations of strategy and policy.   The perceived aim of the Conservative Party is to build a democratic society that is both prosperous and at ease with itself.   To achieve this aim the following objectives must be pursued by the Party:
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 to 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
A foreign policy which is conducive to our National interest.
 Ensure the integrity and security of the realm.

   Ensure a fair democracy based on the principle of One Person, One Vote.

Thursday, September 9, 2021

"Time for the Conservative Party to be Conservative"

 

NHS hires army of "200,000 bureaucrats 
In today's "The Daily Telegraph", 9 September 2021, John Strafford is quoted on the front page regarding the above headline: 
"There were signs of disquiet about the move yesterday at all levels of the Tory party in comments to "The Daily Telegraph", John Strafford, the chairman of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy, which represents grassroots activists, said party members had begun to resign.
He said the tax rise was "a complete departure from Conservative values" and will now organise a fringe event at the party conference next month titled "Time for the Conservative Party to be Conservative".

The fringe event will be at 2.45pm to 4pm at the Museum of Science and Industry, Liverpool Road, M3 4FP



Friday, August 6, 2021

COPOV Barbecue 21st August

 Do come and join us at the COPOV Barbecue on 21st August.   Tickets are limited so it is first come, first served.   For further details see EVENTS

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

COPOV Forum and AGM 31 July 2021

 Do come and join us at the COPOV Forum for Discussion and Debate.   For further details see: Events 31 July 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Election of the Conservative Party Treasurer

  Every few years there is a row about how Party funds are spent.   When will we learn? The Treasurer of the Party should be elected by and accountable to the members of the Party at an Annual General Meeting of the Party to which every member is invited. At the AGM the Treasurer should present the Accounts of the Party for Adoption by the members.

This is the way nearly all normal organisations work. It is time the Conservative Party did the same.   The following article is published. today.   It quotes what I said ten years ago.   It was right then.   It is right now.

Published: by conservativehome.com  April 27, 2021

Conservative Party Board members “raising questions about Party funds and the Prime Minister.”

By Paul Goodman

For the record, ConservativeHome takes a relaxed view of Party funds being paid to the Party leader – to cover, say, entertaining Tory MPs for party purposes; or travel costs; or, perhaps, legal fees.

Until Simon Case’s inquiry reports, and perhaps not even then, it won’t be clear who originally put up the money for the contested Downing Street flat wallpaper.

Reports suggest that Party funds weren’t used for this purpose straighforwardly, because Lord Brownlow was due to make a donation in October last year of £58,000 to cover part of the costs of the project.

This site leaves aside for the moment questions about whether and when any such gift will be declared, and who would be due to pay how much tax on it.

We want to focus instead on part of the purpose for which ConservativeHome was originally created: providing a forum for the views of Party members, and campaigning for their rights – present and future.

A donation that goes into Party funds and is then passed on to the Leader is, well, one that comes from those funds, even if the money concerned has been raised for a special purpose.

It may be that Lord Brownlow’s gift was passed onto Johnson and then duly returned to the Party, and perhaps to him; it may also be that it was never sent on to him at all.

This site is told that the Conservative Party Board isn’t due to meet until late May, but that Board members “are asking questions about what happened”.

It has also been reported that the Party helped the Prime Minister with legal bills when he was contesting claims that, when Mayor of London, he used his position to “benefit and reward” Jennifer Arcuri, who has claimed they had an affair.

One member of the Board told this site that “I know nothing about that at all”.  What would be right course for the Board to take in such circumstances?

Party members will be well aware that their control over its spending is so limited as scarcely to exist.  To some extent, it rests with the Treasurer of the Party, currently Sir Ehud Sheleg. 

The Party’s website tells readers that each Association has a Deputy Chairman for Membership and Finance, but says nothing about the Party’s own Finance Committee, which makes reports to the Board.

Finance Committee members say that they have no recollection of payments to cover costs associated with the Prime Minister’s legal bills being discussed at any time.

The Committee does review the Party’s legal costs but, according to one member, “what tends to get discussed are unbelievably boring cases of why Person A is suing Person B”.

A senior backbencher said: “while there would be no legal requirement for the Finance Committee to approve such payments, I think that, were the Acuri costs covered, it would have been appropriate for the committee to approve them in advance”.

All in all, it is hard to argue with the proposal floated ten years ago on this site by John Strafford that “the Treasurer of the Party should present the Annual Accounts of the Party to the Annual General Meeting for adoption by the members”.

But as we say, ConservativeHome takes a relaxed view of Party funds being paid to the Party leader for the purposes we described earlier.  We will see from our forthcoming monthly survey whether or not our Survey Panel members agree.

 

Monday, March 29, 2021

Conservative Party Membership - a 60% increase - true or false!

 At the Spring Forum  the Party Co Chairman announced that "membership has soared 60% to over 200,000", implying that this was all due to Boris.

Boris Johnson went on to say "having grown our membership by 60% over the last few years to over 200,000."

If these figures are correct they would demonstrate a remarkable achievement, so are they accurate?   A 60% increase to 200,000 means a base figure of 125,000, i.e 125,000 plus 60% equals 200,000.

In July 2019 we had accurate membership figures because of the Leadership election.   Boris got 92,153 votes and Jeremy Hunt got 46,656 votes, giving total votes of 138,809 but the turnout was 87.4 % so 138,809 is 87.4% of the total membership, which means that the total membership was 158,820.   A bit different to 125,000!

So if the total membership in July 2019 was 158,820 it has increased by 41,180 to arrive at 200,000, i.e.it has grown by 25.9% not 60%, a creditable performance.

Of course if the Party was transparent with its membership figures we would be able to see on a yearly basis how membership was going, but that will not happen until we have a Party Chairman elected by and accountable to the Party membership.