Update on the Conservative Democratic Organisation

 Update on CDO

Dear John This is a brief update on the ‘Next Steps’ for CDO after our highly successful Conference in sunny Bournemouth on 13th May.  Can I thank all of you most warmly again for your contribution to that remarkable official launch of CDO; which was carried on national TV and radio and was ‘national news’. Thank you to the speakers, the organisers – most notably Claire Bullivant, our CEO, and team, and all those attending. We had attendees from all over the UK, many of who made huge and often difficult journeys to attend as a result of shameful train strikes nationwide. Our numbers were very impressive particularly given hundreds were unable to attend thanks to the lack of trains.    Post Conference, CDO Officers and the Regional teams have been considering ‘Next Steps’ and we are actively implementing these now. We have needed to wait until the result of the Privileges Committee report to understand what implications there are for CDO from the point of view of democratic processes – and we have had grave reservations with the conduct and behaviour of that committee which has earned it the name of an undemocratic ‘kangaroo court’ and what it could do to shut down free expression of all ministers, MPs and advisers as a result – and for the subject of the inquiry, that of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. We will update you on how CDO may offer support to Boris in later communications.   On the ‘next steps’ measures, these are what we are now working on:

Next Steps

As a direct result of those members attending CDO Conference, we have agreed a ‘7 Step’ approach to reforming the Conservative Party’s Constitution. This was voted on, Step by Step, with John Strafford convening the session. Lord Cruddas was particularly delighted by the engagement of the members, the quality of interventions and questioning, and how refreshing it was to return to voting at a Conservative Conference! We owe Peter a great deal of thanks for his support. I confirm that CDO has now written to Party Chairman Greg Hands MP formally requesting that the CDO’s 7 Steps are incorporated into their constitutional reform process, which we understand has been announced through the National Convention. We are now sending on that letter to the Chairman to all Tory MPs and to Conservative association Chairmen. Work is still progressing to finalise a ‘full’ new Constitution, which will actually incorporate Conservative values and beliefs – a remarkable hole in the current Constitution. This is still the work of the Constitutional Working Group.     Again, as a follow through from what was agreed at CDO Conference, we will be establishing working groups on Policies and Polling – where we use polling of Conservative members, such as through Conservative Post and of 2019 Conservative voters through polling organisations – to ascertain Conservative members’ and Conservative voters’ preferences for policies, which can be fed into a future Conservative Party manifesto.   We are also establishing a working group on Candidates and Candidate Support, having debated the candidate process, good and bad, at Conference and reinforcing the principle that local associations should select candidates not Central Office, whose role is important but should focus on removing the bad, the mad and the sad as candidates. We will monitor candidate selections, not just for Westminster MPs, but others such as the London Mayoral selection, and help candidates where we can with advice and support including on the ground.   Any information you have on candidates and selections please send an email FAO the Chairman of the Candidate Working Group, Mike Rouse to Democracy@Conservativedems.co.uk We will continue, as always, to seek to build the CDO Network across the UK. We have a great structure of Regional and Deputy Regional Chairmen/women established but we are looking now for Area and local association CDO Chairmen to argue for the CDO reforms at the local level, to help manage events and speakers, and to liaise with the local Conservative Party associations.   Please contact your local Regional or Deputy Director for your region to volunteer and expand CDO for all of us. A full list of CDO Regional Chairmen and Deputies is shown below:   South East Andrew Buchanan - southeast@conservativedems.co.uk East Midlands Annunziata Rees-Mogg - eastmids@conservativedems.co.uk Thames Valley Benedict Swann - thamesv@conservativedems.co.uk Northern Ireland Frank Shivers - northire@conservativedems.co.uk West Midlands Martyn Punyer - westmids@conservativedems.co.uk Wales Matthew MacKinnon - wales@conservativedems.co.uk Scotland Michelle Ballantyne - scotland@conservativedems.co.uk North West England Milly Skriczka - northwest@conservativedems.co.uk Devon & Cornwall Richard Cuming - devoncorn@conservativedems.co.uk North East England  Joshua Clark northeast@conservativedems.co.uk Youth CDO Kane Blackwell ycdo@conservativedems.co.uk London Lord Stephen Greenhalgh london@conservativedems.co.uk East of England Lord Stewart Jackson eastengland@conservativedems.co.uk West England Scott Richardson westeng@conservativedems.co.uk CDO is looking to a major event, or series of events, at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester and details of these will be circulated. A ‘Democracy Zone’ is a good theme.

Thank you again for your interest and support. CDO has come a very long way in just 6 months and established a remarkable presence and reputation at the highest levels. Now we intend to go further and faster in our range of activities.   Thank you.     Best wishes,    David Campbell Bannerman Chairman

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