CF National Executive Blog

The position of Deputy Chairman is an interesting one to try and sum up in a report; the role is largely about dealing with problems that arise and communicating with various levels of CF. Therefore much of what I’ve been dealing with can’t be produced in a public document. However, there are plenty of other projects that I’ve been working on and the time is right to update you all.

Area Work:

Along with my NME colleagues I have a region of the UK that I’m responsible for. As well as talking to Chairman throughout that region I am also planning a visit to each of the universities in that area – including Oxford and Cambridge.

CF Bulletin:

I’m working on getting a new e-bulletin up and running that will hopefully be available to download from the website – making it much more accessible. I also want to improve the content by encouraging guest authors from (and beyond) the CF scene.

International Links:

I’ve authorised Matt Lewis to go to Malta (on our behalf) to observe the European Democratic Student conference. I look forward to his report. In the meantime, I will be meeting leading Young Republicans in the States to discuss ways that the UK youth Conservative movement to enhance its presence and effectiveness.

YBF Training

As the Conservative Party step closer to Government, all levels of the Party will come under increased scrutiny. It is therefore essential that anyone who represents the Party at an elected level is media trained, switched on and smart. Enter, YBF. I’ll be helping to co-ordinate the training of CF activists at this year’s Party Conference, as well as delivering training on campuses right around the country.

CF Convention

I idea that I’m passionate about is bringing together every single Branch and Area Chairman for a one day convention. More details to follow.

Areas

I have worked hard since being elected to iron out any problems that have existed or which have arisen in my areas, and am now confident, that although not perfect (there is always room for improvement!), we have got Kent, Sussex and Surrey up and running smoothly. A special mention really must go to my Area Chairman for Kent, Matt Doy who held a meeting this weekend with his area executive to catch up on how various projects are going. They have had some fantastic ideas in terms of social action such as working with old people through visits to elderly retirement homes as well as working with young offenders through 5-a-side football tournaments.

Also in Kent, our branch in Gillingham and Rainham, set up in November continues to go from strength to strength with the full backing of their local PPC Rehman Chishti – who I am really looking forward to meeting in the not to distant future. In Surrey, my AC Alexandra Swann is working hard on an upcoming national conservative campaign day in Guildford on the 20th of September as well as working closely with myself on our Christmas social which is shaping up to be a cosy night of mulled wine, mince pies and festive politics.

Social Action

My social action work recently has been focussed mainly on CF’s effort for this years conference project on Welsh House farm estate in Birmingham where we are working closely with the locals to help support their “WE LOVE WHF” project. The project aims to transform their local community Haven centre into a community hub with internet connections, a garden for outdoor activities and plenty of space inside for an office.

On the 13th, I travelled up to WHF to help with the community spots day which was just fantastic and a real eye opener to what it is that we can achieve if we really work hard together. Many thanks to my little team of social action peeps who came up for the day Liza Chantelle, Alister Cooling and Alex Agius. There will be a second “WE LOVE WHF” day in September which will span an entire weekend, but will keep you posted nearer the time. With “WE LOVE WHF” now up and running and the partys social action team working hard, I am now moving on to looking at projects closer to home such as SOUP and “Light Up” which will both be coming in to play within the next month. SOUP in particular is something I am really excited about as it was an already existing initiative when I got elected, which I now want to take and make bigger and more efficient.

I want to aim to have a team of around 20 London based “CF-ers” who can be distributed one morning every month to various soup kitchens right across the capital. Hopefully this will be a great success and we can then roll this out in other cities such as Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. I have also been working hard with Richmond Conservative Future on helping them to start up their social action project which consists of going out on litter picks. The initiative was fully backed by their local association and Zac goldsmith and even made the local press. I have since spoken with the social action team at CCHQ and it has been agreed that the Richmond CF litter picks would become a regular occurrence.

I first got involved in my local Conservative Association by helping the Parliamentary Candidate (Oliver Colvile) in the 2005 General Election when I was President of The University of Plymouth Student’s Union

Why I became a Councillor?
My Term of Office had finished as President in Plymouth and I was working in East London helping long term unemployed people into work in Tower Hamlets. I then got a phone call from The Plymouth Conservative Association saying the local elections were coming up and would I stand? We were 3rd in the Polls the last time in 2003, behind the Lib-Dems and Labour but I knew If I could go knocking on doors in 20 story Tower Blocks in Tower Hamlets in one of the most deprived areas in Britain I knew I could win a Council seat in Plymouth! So I took a massive gamble, left London for Plymouth and Duly Won!

What the role entails?
Having to be good all the time! - It makes you a better person because If you are bad people will not like you and inturn will not vote for you, so you are forced to be good!! Which I quite like!

Residents rarely ring you to praise you! - So when the phone rings it will normally be a resident with a problem which you have to deal with, this is the ‘bread and butter’ of being a Councillor and is known as casework.

Most problems/issues are waste/parking/planning issues, the list is endless and I’m sure that this list is generic across Britain.

Why the role is important/ vital
You are the peoples mouth piece and you must do your utmost to represent your constituents to the best of your ability. Difficulties arise when a vocal minority ‘claim’ to represent the rest of the community and you have to do what you believe is best.

It’s vital that we have local Councillors to represent the people as democracy is a gift so let’s be part of it!

How you win?
Well that would be telling (Spies everywhere) ! If you want to win tell me your circumstances and I’m sure I can assist Tory to Tory!

Get Involved - You can do it!!!

Today the Executive held our 3rd ‘official’ meeting of the CF year at CCHQ. Various issues were discussed, including the CF training conference, and the minutes will be avaliable for CF members soon. Each Exec member also produced a report which will be going up on this blog in the coming days.

If you have any questions for the Exec then either post here or email the specific person.

For the last year or so we have operated our Facebook prescence through a Group. This was great until we reached our 1000 member limit - this meant we could not communicate with members properly! We moved to having 2 Groups which made communication even worse. Because of this we have now moved & setup a Facebook Page for Conservative Future!

This will allow us to communicate with members (including targeting messages to regions to cut pointless messages) in a much better way. More will be added to the Page, but it currently has:

• Contact details: for CF and the Exec
• The wall: for members to chat & promote events
• The discussion boards: for in-depth analysis/discussion
• Photo gallery: for us to display images from events, but also for members to upload their own photos
• Posted items/Event sections: for us to promote ‘main’ events
• Feeds: news feeds from Conservatives.com & the Exec blog

If you have any more ideas for features we could have on the Page then please use the discussion board!

Join here!

NME Report – Owen Meredith
July 2008 

Responsibilities: 

• Region 4: Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire & Worcestershire, Birmingham & Solihull
• Wales
• Fresher’s Packs
• Working Life

INTRODUCTION 

Another busy few months – most of my time has been taking up organising the student campaign for fresher’s this year – which is on course to be the best organised and most successful event we have ever done. I’ve been trying to attend more events throughout the country recently, and now I have completed by degree have more time to spend meeting branches.  

DETAILED REPORT 

Freshers’ Packs and the Student Campaign 

I have been working hard for the last 2 months on design of materials, sourcing literature and products as well as building up a database to ensure we are present in as many Universities as possible in September.  Most of my work on this has been behind closed doors – for what are obvious reasons, so despite the fact I have publically been a bit quiet lately, I can assure you that I have been working harder than ever.  

This year’s campaign will focus on promoting the Conservative Brand – and with recent student opinion polls showing a strong Conservative lead, this will hopefully convert to strong membership growth with the right message. I have purposefully tried to keep my plans out of the public eye – while consulting with people on the direction of the campaign. There has unsurprisingly been a lot of discussion and speculation about what the fresher’s packs will contain this year – most of which I can assure you is inaccurate. We have also put in place new systems to ensure that membership data held by branches, Associations and CCHQ all match up – making sure we know who our members are, allowing us to communicate with them better and ensuring that everyone gets a vote in the election! 

Regional Directory 

I had promised to get my regional directory finished by this month, but have unfortunately failed in this task. Fresher’s has taken over my life, and I haven’t had the chance to finish it off yet, I do have most the information in and should be able to finish it in the next few weeks. 

The NME Tour 

I have updated my map on my website (www.owenmeredith.co.uk), which contains details of my visits across the country in my capacity as NME member. Hopefully this will demonstrate by the end of my term that the NME is not London centric and will allow CF members to ensure I am working as hard as you expect. 

A Word on Wales 

CF in Wales is growing from strength to strength. Paul Rogers has taken on the role of CF Wales Chairman, and has now been elected to local council. He is still working on putting together a full committee in Wales, but we have planned coverage of most the Welsh Universities for fresher’s and will hopefully deliver a refreshed and vibrant CF in Wales in September.  

Final Word 

I would like to thank all those CFers who gave up time to help out in the Henley by-election – delivering a fantastic result!  If anyone has anything they would like to discuss with me, please do not hesitate to contact me on 07816 156925 or on email: owen@owenmeredith.co.uk.

A small party is being held to thank Conservative Future members that worked to get Boris elected back in May. This night is a chance for a thank you to members who ‘actually’ helped out during the campaign.

Invites have been sent out to those members - if you campaigned for him & have NOT received an invitation then please email me. Only those on the guest list will be let into the event.

Email me: rngjackson@gmail.com

The Guardian are currently running a poll: Should Margaret Thatcher have a state funeral?

It’s the Guardian so you can probably imagine which way it is swinging! We call upon all CF members to visit the poll and vote!

Click here to visit the poll

There seems to have been a whirlwind of blogging activity and new alter-egos spring over the past few weeks and not all post have stood up to further scrutiny. I’m generally inclined to take the rough with the smooth but I will always support Branch and Area Chairman who have been the subject of posts that have somewhat questionable veracity.

Sam Billett, the former Chair of the flagship CLWCF branch has the following clarification to offer:

“For the record I thought I should correct a few untruths that have been posted on certain blogs regarding Ed Hallam and CLWCF.

1) ‘Sackings’
Rohan McCulloch (My oldest best mate and recent flatmate) agreed to join CLWCF prior to its re-launch in order to support me as an exec member. Two months in he resigned citing a lack of interest and commitment in and to CLWCF.

Steve George resigned citing a busy work schedule and a want to support his partner Claire in South London CF.

With regards to excluding CLWCF members, this only occurred once, following a conversation with the Association. The person in question had purposefully and happily broken our Data protection, and left us with no other choice.

2) Elections
The AGM was coordinated and undertaken by the Association. Neither Ed, the new /old exec or I played any role in organising or advertising the AGM. Members on our Facebook site are not members. In order to be a member you must have paid the £10 fee. Those who are full members have their details logged with the Association and received a letter via post, courtesy of the Association.

No advertisement was given on facebook, as those eligible to stand (members only) were notified via post. Advertising via facebook would have merely alerted non-members of the impending AGM; something they are not permitted to attend nor vote at (by orders of our association). As such, our Association disapproved advertising the AGM via facebook.

From what I understand, the Association Agent Donald Stewart has not yet received any complaint regarding the AGM. May I recommend that those who have issue or disagreement with the AGM contact him immediately.

halcyon@eburyst.demon.co.uk

The AGM took place with additional members present, and everyone was voted in accordingly.

3) Lastly

Patrick Sullivan was only voted into the exec at the recent AGM in the presence of the Association Agent Donald Stewart. I had no role whatsoever in his appointment. Nor did I ‘appoint’ Ed Hallam. Following his great work with CLWCF I gave him my backing as the outgoing Chair for the Chairman position. Ed was voted in at the AGM in the presence of the Association Agent Donald Stewart.

I include my email address should anyone wish to contact me regarding these comments:

sam_billett1@yahoo.co.uk

I hope this may clarify the situation.

With thanks & best wishes,

Sam Billett (Ex Chairman of CLWCF)

The 2008 Haltemprice and Howden (H&H) by-election was somewhat different from other by-elections, as such the presence of Conservative Future (CF) on the ground was sporadic.

Due to the date of the by-election, Thursday 10th July 2008, CF experienced a problem with finding people available to attend. Due to the end of term and exams in early June many of the CF membership both locally and nationally were either working to pay for the next year of University and could not afford to take time off to help or they were away on holiday. A third issue was that some members of CF did not agree with Mr Davis’ stance, this further depleted CF resources in H&H.

The most active CF members in Haltemprice and Howden, excepting myself, were Neil Cropper (former President of Hull University CF), Alex Wheeler (Southampton Uni CF), Anna Appleton (York Uni CF) and Victoria Chamberlin (Islington CF). We had intermittent support from York and Hull CF members during the fifteen days I was in H&H which helped with leaflet drops. It should also be noted that we received help from Edward Keene + 2 and the Young Britons Foundation.

In the end the H&H by-election was run by a small number of people and was assisted sporadically by membership from all age ranges, the account I have given for numbers and support given roughly matches the support from other party members from around the country as well as general public support which came in, especially going into the last week.

It should be noted that while the issue of the by-election caused consternation to some members of the party and some members of CF, it also brought in a number of new people who had not previously either joined or supported the Conservative Party. The two starkest examples of this are a girl from Sheffield who campaigned for George Galloway in the 2005 G.E. and a 30 year member of the Labour Party who has now resigned and joined the Conservative Party. Although this does not apply directly to CF activity it is worth noting and appreciating that Mr Davis does appear to have struck a chord with certain people across the political divide.

In all, I believe that CF has put in a good showing in H&H, it did not achieve the levels of active support that Crewe and Nantwich did, but neither Labour nor the LibDems were standing and the ticket was single issue.

Dan Paterson
CF campaigns co-ordinator for CF H&H 08

photo: David Davis for Freedom