"History of the Selection of Conservative Party Candidates"

 Speech given by John Strafford on 3 October 2023 at a fringe meeting of the Tory Conference organised by the Campaign for Conservative Democracy and the Conservative Democratic Organisation.

See Here to view the speech

Conservative Conference - Dates for your diary - updated

 CONFERENCE FRINGE PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED!!! 

Venue for the meetings: Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester, M2 5NS

MESSAGE FROM CDO PARTY CHAIRMAN, David Campbell Bannerman

 Dear CDO Members,

 RE: CDO FRINGE PROGRAMME NOW ANNOUNCED!

I am delighted to let you know that as well as the excellent Black Tie Gala Dinner coming together so well for Sunday 1st October (don’t be disappointed – please book now as selling out fast!) we can now announce an impressive Fringe.

CDO is offering a full Conference Fringe Programme, and we can now reveal the details. All these events are hosted in what we are calling the ‘Democracy Zone’, which we are sponsoring, in cooperation with the Bruges Group.

This is our Fringe:

Monday 2nd October 6pm to 7.30pm – we are honoured to be hosting one of our CDO Patrons, and now a TV star presenter through GB News and the ‘State of the Nation’ Programme, Jacob Rees Mogg MP to talk about the importance of democracy to the Conservative Party. This will be at 6pm-7.30pm Monday, with questions afterwards. Jacob as you know is a highly principled and intelligent MP who served as Business Secretary and was Chairman of the ERG (European Research Group) at a key moment. Chaired by David Campbell Bannerman.

Tuesday 3rd October 11am to 12.30pm – ‘Selection of Candidates – All You Need to Know’ – Joint session with COPOV (Campaign for One Member One Vote). A Question and Answer briefing session useful for those standing as candidates or those involved or interested in selecting candidates, especially Parliamentary candidates. Hosted by Constitutional Expert John Strafford, Chairman of COPOV and CDO’s Constitutional Adviser, and CDO’s Mike Rouse, who has overseen a number of candidate selections and is an expert on the rules of Candidate Selection. 

Tuesday 3rd October 1pm to 2.30pm – ‘How Democracy can save Conservatism’. Panel session with top journalists Allison Pearson a senior columnist at the Daily Telegraph, Author and Presenter, Emily Carver, Presenter with GB News and formerly of IEA, and our CDO Patron Priti Patel MP, former Home Secretary, International Development Secretary, Employment and Treasury Minister and a great believer in backing the members. Chaired by David Campbell Bannerman.

NOTE: These fringe meetings are all outside the Party Conference area, so that means you do not need a Conference security pass to get there. Which may save you quite a bit of cost; especially at this late stage. You can just turn up and support us there. If you do have a pass, the venue is very close to the Conference Centre so it is easy to pop in and out of Conference to attend.

Please do support CDO at these four major events at Conference – it is important to show backing for our aims and objectives to take back control of the party democratically and to support our excellent Patrons, supporters and members. I look forward to seeing you there!

Best wishes

 David

David Campbell Bannerman

Latest Conservative Democratic Organisation Newsletter - See John Strafford speech to 1997 Party Conference.

 See here the latest Newsletter from the Conservative Democratic Organisation.   It includes a link to John Strafford's speech to the 1997 Party Conference.   As relevant today as it was then!

Conservative Democratic Organisation - Letter from the Party Chairman!

 Here is the latest newsletter from CDO including a letter from Greg Hands MP. Conservative Party Chairman!

Conservative Democratic Newsletter latest!

 

Keep up to date with the Conservative Democratic Organisation Newsletter.

Read it here

Speech by John Strafford about the Conservative Democratic Organisation

 Speech by John Strafford to the Taplow Branch of the Beaconsfield Constituency Conservative Association  about the Conservative Democratic Organisation on July 8th 2023.   Watch Here

Priti Patel MP speaks for real Conservatives!

 Priti Patel MP made a great speech at the Conservative Democratic Organisation Conference held on 13th May 2023 at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre.   Here is an extract from her speech.

Full account of the CDO award to John Strafford

 

Watch a full account of the Conservative Democratic Organisation Cleithenes award to John Strafford with postscript on May 13th at the Bournemouth International Convention Centre.

Getting Noticed! Courtesy of "Private Eye".

 

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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