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My Week

Saturday 14th June

Went to Henley to help in the by-election.   Had a friendly and efficient welcome.   Ended up delivering literature in Chinnor.   I was surprised by the amount of effort being put in by UKIP, BNP and the Lib-Dems.   There is a danger of saturation by literature but we need to step up a gear in the last week of the campaign.    Bumped into Emma Pidding (Vice President of the National Convention) and James Elles MEP.   Good to see the hierarchy working.   Good also for morale.   Well done.

Tuesday 10th June Martin Linton MP chairs a meeting of the Electoral Reform Society with Anthony Barnet and Rob Richie.   Fascinating meeting.    Rob Richie explained how the United States constitution will be changed from the bottom up to make it more democratic.   If only we could do the same.

Tuesday 10th June. Ryan Shorthouse Political officer of the Bow Group chairs a meeting on child care with Gill Kirby of the Centre for Policy Studies on his right and Maria Miller MP and Polly Toynbee of the Guardian on his left.    Good meeting but low attendance.   I questioned whether any politicians understood the difficulty for small firms that maternity leave causes.

June 8th

My Week

June 2nd Left: Lee Summers with Nick Herbert MP at the TRG supper club.    As these suppers are held on Chatham House rules all I can say is that in a vigorous question time Nick Herbert gave some very interesting answers.

June 1st

My Week

L to R: Ian Johnson, Damon Clark, Heather Harper (Chairman, Beaconsfoeld Conservatives), Dominic Grieve QC MP June 1st A quiet week politically but ended with a most enjoyable occasion.   The Chairman of Beaconsfield invited all the members of the Association to duck racing (plastic) at her home.   Drinks, nibbles all free, but the event raised a large sum of money for the Party. This was grass roots Conservatism at its best.   It did not matter whether you were poor or rich, all were welcome.   A great occasion and congratulations to Heather and her team for making it so enjoyable.

May 25th

***** Star of the Week ***** This has got to be a five star week for the Conservative Party.    The victory in the Crewe by-election is the most significant political event for sixteen years.   Congratulations to all concerned.   The result is the first real sign that the Conservative Party could form the next Government with an overall majority in the House of Commons.   The turnout of 58% was on a par with a General Election.

One point to bear in mind.    The forecast majority in a General Election is 328 seats.   Is it fair that with our electoral system a Party that gets just 49% of the votes and just 28% of the electorate voting for it, ends up with 75% of the seats?

State Funding for Party Conferences

Many Party members will be giving the Party Conference a miss this year due to the high cost of attending.   The Application online costs £68.00 or £78.00 if done by post.   In addition the cost of hotels in Birmingham is putting a lot of members off.   Soon the Party conference will have no members at all.   It was with interest that I saw the following advertising by the National Council of Voluntary Organisations:

Smaller charities invited to apply for party conference bursary scheme

Following on from the success of last year, NCVO is once again inviting smaller charities (with incomes of less than £500,000) to submit applications to attend one of the three main Political Party Conferences in 2008 as part of the Party Conference Bursary Scheme.

Party Conferences can be tremendously useful forums for bringing together charities with relevant peer groups and politicians, however, the cost can often prohibit smaller charities from attending. Last year, for the first time, NCVO offered fifteen charities the chance to attend the Conferences. This opportunity ensured that the views and interests of smaller organisations with limited income were represented at the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat conferences, despite not having access to sizeable budgets.

Jim Vaughan from the British Federation of Youth Marching Band Organisations was one of the organisations that attended the Liberal Democrat conference in 2007

Organisations from within community and voluntary sector interested in applying for a week’s pass to the Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat party conferences plus two nights accommodation and travel, should contact NCVO’s Parliamentary Campaigns Officer.

This raises some interesting issues.   Is it the taxpayer that funds the National Council of Voluntary Organisations?   Are we moving to Party funding by stealth?   Of the 8,000 people expected at the Tory Conference only about 2,000 will be Party members.   The others are media, exhibition stand organisers, large donors and now we find uncle Tom Cobley and all coming in.   This used to be a Conference for the members of the Conservative Party.    No longer - no debates, no discussion, no participation.   Why should a Party member go at all?   Why is it that the Party hierarchy fails to understand that a Party without members will eventually collapse.   You can get a large number of helpers at a by-election but it is a different matter when we have to fight a General Election.   There is a huge prize just waiting for the Party which is genuinely democratic.   That prize is government of the country.

My Week

	Saturday 24 May Desmond Swayne MP addressing a meeting of the COPOV forum at Colbury, Hampshire.   He made an excellent speech and answered questions openly and honestly in a vigorous manner.   He is a great credit to the Tory Party and very impressive.   I hope David Cameron listens to him.	Sunday 25 May Anne Main MP thanks members of the Beaconsfield Conservative Association for their help during the local elections in St. Albans.    This was a very enjoyable occasion.
Tuesday 20th May Pete Picton, the Editor of Sun Online chairs a Hansard Society meeting on e-Petitions. He was joined by Bethan Jenkins of the National Assembly for Wales and Andy Williamson of the Hansard Society.   The House of Commons is trying to improve its handling of e-Petitions.   It could learn from the National Assembly for Wales which ensures that action is taken on the petitions it receives.   There is still an element of arrogance in the proposals before the House of Commons which unfortunately the Hansard Society seemed to support.			Thursday 22 May An enjoyable meeting of the COPOV Management Committee.    From left to right: Myself, Stephen Parker, Anne Egleton, Cllr Julia Long, Cllr Derek Tipp, Cllr Trevor Egleton and Jo Sommer.

May 18th

My Week

	Friday 16th May Maria Miller MP at the Buckinghamshire Supper Club with the Chairman Sheela Mackintosh.   Former Chairman of Beaconsfield Association Brian Rigby shares the Joke. I was very impressed with Maria Miller.   She was straight forward in answering questions and a credit to the Conservative front bench.
	Tuesday May 13th Bruce Anderson spoke to the City Conservative Forum.    The meeting was chaired by Keith Laurence.   Bruce was on good form.	Tuesday 13th May Baroness Gillian Shephard speaks to the "Off the Loggers".  John Mason, Chairman of "Off the Loggers looks up with interest. In reply to a question from myself she responded that the Conservative policy of a mainly elected House of Lords had not been policy very long and she hoped wouldn't be policy much longer.   I hope for the sake of democracy she is wrong.
	Monday 12th May Ken Clarke MP addressing the Conservative Group for Europe watched on by Ian Taylor MP - Chairman of CGE. Ken Clarke asked an interesting question- When was the last time a European regulation imposed on the British people against the wishes of the British Government?    Let COPOV know the answer.

Party Finance

At one time the Conservative Party would never accept any donations which had strings attached to them.   It appears to have changed this policy so that a donor can stipulate how the money should be used, e. g. to finance the office of a Shadow Minister.   It is quite clear that in some cases the objective would appear to be to obtain some influence, why otherwise should an estate agent or mortgage broker finance the office of the Shadow Minister for Housing?   This practise should stop immediately and we should revert to the former principle.   We should not accept any donation with any strings attached.

As Others see us by James O'Fee

John Strafford's theme in his speech last Friday to the North Down Conservative Supper Club was the decline of our democracy. This is a subject into whose historic roots John has researched deeply. John is Chairman of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy.

John is an old friend of ours. 21 years ago, without any Irish family connections, John first became interested in the affairs of Northern Ireland as a result of receiving several circular letters. At the time John was Chairman of the Beaconfield Conservative Association, with 6,100 members, one of the wealthiest and most powerful Conservative Associations in the country. Before that, John had been on the Conservative Group on Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council.

John's voice will be a familiar one to those who follow politics closely. Over the years he has given over 500 interviews on radio and television. The media always call on John as the Conservative Party Conference approaches.

In 1988 we formed the North Down Conservative Association (followed by constituency associations in other Northern Ireland constituencies) and applied for affiliation to the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations i.e. for recognition as an official Conservative Association. We expected resistance from the hierarchy of the Conservative Party and the National Union, so we assembled in numbers to press our case at the 1988 Tory Party Conference in Brighton (which was, more correctly, the Conference of the National Union).

The final debate in the conference was on Party Organisation and John was called to speak last in that debate. Margaret Thatcher's conference address followed immediately so that Mrs T and the entire hierarchy of the Conservative Party was sitting behind John as he made his speech. Of course, John's speech was entirely loyal but the sting was in the tail. He called for the Conservative associations of Northern Ireland to become fully recognised.

Immediately John became a hero to us activists from Northern Ireland. Exiting the conference he crossed a group who had been watching the speech on a television screen in a retailer's. They mobbed John at once with their congratulations and invited him at once to visit Northern Ireland to speak. He accepted and the following Friday addressed a packed meeting.

Our popular democracy today is and must remain party politics. The health of our democracy, therefore, can be measured by the health of our political parties. 21 years ago, the Beaconsfield Conservative Association had 6,100 members. Today it has lost the large majority of its membership and membership stands at 1,600 members. And the Labour Party, John pointed out, stands even worse. Labour has lost even more members than the Conservatives.

21 years ago, the Conservative Party raised a large proportion of its funds, the bulk in fact, through local associstions. Today that has fallen away and the Party raises more money from huge individual donations from wealthy individuals. The same goes for Labour.

The result has been the loss of influence on the Party Leaderships by the rank-and-file members, breeding further disillusion in the branches.

John pointed to financial scandals in Britain and (even worse) in Europe, and the lack of financial accountability. He believes that both the Chairman and the Treasurer of the Conservative Party should be elected by popular vote, rather than appointed by the Leader. He believes that there should be an Annual General Meeting where the office-holders would report to members on their stewardship.

John believes that the annual Party Conferences have today become a waste of time. They are so controlled by the Leadership and the spin-doctors that genuine open disagreement and debate has become impossible.

The response of many in authority to John's campaign ever seems to resemble that of Saint Augustine - "Chastity, but not yet." John, may your courageous efforts bear fruit.

May 11th

My Week

John Strafford addressing the North Down Conservative Supper Club.    On my right is Myrtle Boal, the Chairman of the Supper Club. You will not meet any more enthusiastic, loyal, Conservatives than the Conservatives in Northern Ireland.   For too long they have not been given the support they deserve from the Conservative Party.   I hope this will change.   They should have a full time professional helping them.   If anyone would like to sponsor their invaluable work I would be happy to put them in touch. My wife and I were superbly well looked after whilst we were in Northern Ireland.    It was so nice to meet up with old friends.   We were particularly grateful to Terry Dick - former Chairman of the Northern Ireland Conservatives - for showing us around on Friday.

Party Conference

The cost to apply to attend the party conference this year is a whacking great £68.00 if your application is done on line.    However, if you send in a postal application it will cost you another £10.00 supplement.   Many of our older members do not use computers so they will be faced with a total bill of £78.00.   This is disgraceful.   Once again, members are treated with contempt.   Ever since Central office took over the Conference from the National Union it has deteriorated.   Do they want members any more?   I am beginning to wonder.

How not to win friends

We are fighting a critically important by-election in Crewe, which hopefully we will win so why does John Maples, the Deputy Chairman (Candidates), and Shireen Ritchie (Chairman of the Candidates Committee) send out a threatening email to all parliamentary candidates?   It reads:

Note the bold type.   Big Brother is watching you!    This is not the way to get the best out of people, but then as both the Deputy Chairman and the Chairman are unelected and unaccountable, perhaps we should not expect anything better.

May 4th

Star of the Week *** The Conservative Party***

for its spectacular results in the local elections and in the London Mayoral election.   Congratulations to all involved.

My week

Thursday

During the local election campaign I spent time canvassing in Slough and telling and literature distribution in St Albans.   We won both wards in which I was working, but what was disappointing was that the Labour Party took control of Slough and the Liberal Democrats took control of St. Albans.   The Tories could have won both seats if they had had better organisation and more mutual aid.

Prior to the Party re-organisation in 1998 the Areas drew up a Regional Strategy for mutual aid.   Was there a strategy?   Is anybody looking at this?   Southern Region seems to have gone missing.   I get the impression things are better in the North of England.   With the decline in Party members a strategy is vital to use the resources in the best locations.    Otherwise we may get a very high share of the vote but the seats gained will be minimal.   Central Office need to take this on board.

< John Strafford                                         Caroline Strafford >      About to start a 3 hour telling session

Party Conference

Those of you who have applied to go to the Party Conference will have noticed that included in the application fee is £3.00 for "carbon offsetting charge".   Is this political correctness gone mad?    Who decided this charge?   How was it calculated?   Who gets the proceeds?   I think we should be told.   I was hoping that with the increased scepticism about man-made climate change our Party would start to show common sense on the subject.   It is the biggest political con trick of the century.   The people do not believe it.   When politicians espouse it, is it any wonder the people do not believe the politicians?   Birmingham is expensive enough as it is for a conference.   There is no need to increase the cost with this stupidity.   Anybody want to bet that the numbers attending this year's conference will be the lowest ever?   When will the party start to think about the grass roots?