The Conservative Party is changing the way it is organised so that the Northern regions have more autonomy to set budgets and organise campaigns – albeit "within the Party’s overall national strategy". The regions (North West, the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber) will have volunteer Project Directors working alongside each Regional Chairman and Director. […]
The results of the question posed in December’s ConservativeHome survey are as follows (Party members’ answers only): How should sitting MEPs who wish to be reselected, be ranked for the next European Parliamentary Elections? Option 1: 78% They should face a vote in which all Tory members in their European Parliamentary regions can participate. Option […]
I guess there must be shock all around the Commons’ tea-room this morning. Witham Tories did what, reportedly, a number of Conservative MPs thought very unlikely… they didn’t choose a middle-aged, white male but a young, Asian female – Priti Patel. Ali Miraj did himself no favours by recently adding to the tired media slur […]
This is good news for the right of the party who had hoped to see Whittingdale elected. It is also some confirmation for Richard Ottaway’s hopes to succeed Sir Michael Spicer as Chairman of the 1922 Committee. Christopher Chope’s failure to win a seat is a similarly significant knock to his 1922 ambitions. For background […]
I debated with John Bercow on this morning’s Radio 4 Week in Westminster programme. The debate was about tax and you can listen again by clicking here at any time over the next seven days. I admire John in many ways – not least for the role he has played in encouraging our party to […]
Research of political party memberships conducted by the liberal Unlock Democracy campaign shows how uneven Conservative Party membership is across the country. Approximately 20% of Conservative Associations have less than 100 members, with many northern Associations having less than 50 members, whilst 97% of constituencies have more than 100 Labour Party members. Quite encouragingly however, […]
An open letter to Francis Maude from Tim Montgomerie, Editor of ConservativeHome.com: "Dear Francis, I do not expect an immediate answer to this letter – I realise you have a very busy week ahead of you – but sometime after Bournemouth Conference it would be good to hear that members will retain full rights to […]
David Cameron, Spring Forum 2006: "We’ve signed up 20,000 new members – at a time when other parties are losing support." According to the BBC at the time of David Cameron’s election there were 253,600 Tory members. For the 2000 ballot – during William Hague’s leadership – membership equalled 302,443. * Based on participation in […]
That is the disturbing finding of a CCHQ memo – leaked to The Observer. The Observer’s Gaby Hinsliff gives no indication of the size of the sample but she reports that a "’cold-calling’ survey’, in which party workers emailed local constituencies pretending to be members of the public interested in joining, found that only a […]
The Board of the Conservative Party are consulting local Associations on changes to the membership rules, and specifically the annual subscriptions. This involves an online questionnaire for voting between various options and even a private blog. I ought to come clean and confess that I’ve been sent these details as an Area Deputy Chairman in […]
With David Cameron at 37% to 38% in the opinion polls, CCHQ has chosen a good time to launch a funding drive across the whole party membership. My invitation to give arrived in this morning’s post. The fundraising letter is posted on the right (click the graphic to enlarge it). The heart of the appeal […]
In the Party Board Elections Simon Mort and Jeremy Middleton have been re-elected and Emma Pidding has defeated John Flack and Toby Vintcent for the third slot.
Derek Tipp’s final question refers to local candidates. Whereas only a third of December’s ConservativeHome.com respondents favoured a 50/50 A-list of candidates – as prioritised by David Cameron, 71% supported more local candidates in the most marginal seats. Would you support the right of all constituencies to be able, if they wish, to consider a […]
Derek Tipp’s fifth of six questions refers to the issue which gave ConservativeHome its early life – the right of members to vote in the leadership election…Did you vote for or against the proposal to allow MP’s alone to select the Party Leader in the ballot of Constitutional College members in September 2005?
Cllr Derek Tipp’s fourth question refers to the controversial Priority List for Conservative candidates. Only 37% of Tory members belonging to ConservativeHome’s monthly survey of party opinion agree with this central initiative of David Cameron – designed to radically increase the number of women MPs. Do you agree with the current policy of creating a […]