Showing posts with label YBF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YBF. Show all posts

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

How Quickly The Guardian Unravels

TB is busy and he has done this before, but

MPTP
has got his digging hat on again. Robert Booth the Guardian muckracker attempting to stir up trouble has had his string pullers cover well and truly blown:

The latest installment of this story has another point of interest, a comment from Gill Marshall-Andrews, Chairwoman of the 
Gun Control Network
:
We are deeply disturbed that elements of the Conservative party are allying themselves with the organisation Young Britons’ Foundation, whose aims include liberalisation of gun laws, and that senior Conservative figures are espousing the views of this disturbing group
But hang on a second – since when was liberalisation of gun laws one of the aims of the YBF? I’d love to see Marshall-Andrews provide a source for that. You’re certainly not going to find anything on that topic 
on the YBF’s website
. She goes on to say
Ordinary people in the UK are fearful of guns and do not want to see a return to the pre-Dunblane situation where pistol shooting was the ‘fastest growing sport’. Then we were clearly heading along the American road, a road we fervently hope that the Conservatives will not take us down again.
Now I’m even more confused. Had anyone – even the more strident Labourite – ever heard the Conservative leadership propose reversing the handgun ban? I mean, I have to assume that Gill Marshall-Andrews has, because otherwise she’s just scaremongering, and doing so with a specific political target (not that it’d be the first time 
the Gun Control Network has been accused of scaremongering
).
Isn’t it a little odd that the Gun Control Network should be commenting on this story, given the lack of a direct link? Let’s just pause to note that Gill Marshall-Andrews just happens to be the husband of the Bob Marshall-Andrews, Labour MP for Medway.
On a side note: Medway, as the political geeks among you will be aware, is significant marginal. Bob Marshall-Andrews has a a majority of less than 250 – reduced from over 5,000 in 1997 – and he’s standing down this year. His replacement, Teresa Murray, is expected to lose to the renamed Rochester and Strood constituency to the Conservative PPC, 
Mark Reckless
, who, in a pleasing coincidence, is 
a close friend of Daniel Hannan MEP
a member of the YBF’s Parliamentary Council
.

Full story
here
.


Subtle move by the red team.

Monday, 22 February 2010

Pressing Buttons

Skip 16 mins into this vid from CPAC for a gem of a speech from YBF's Matthew Richardson:



The crowd reaction to buzzwords is hilarious. As is the fact taking the piss out of Kerry McCarthy has gone global.

Monday, 15 December 2008

Putting the social into socialism...


Get your tickets
here
.

Tuesday, 4 November 2008

CFers and YBFers in The Times


The Times
has picked up on the fact that 10 young Britons are campaigning for McCain in Ohio...

Monday, 27 October 2008

Guest Post - YBF

TB caught up this morning with Christian May from the Young Britons' Foundation who offers this insight into their 5th annual conference at the weekend.

This year's YBF5 was the best yet. Nearly 100 activists (including three former National CF Chairs, a host of seasoned CF activists and loads of new faces) were joined at Wellington College by leading figures from the Conservative Party and the wider conservative movement. Highlights included:

- David Davis talking about the importance of freedom and liberty
- Iain Duncan Smith passionately reminding us why social justice is a conservative priority
- John Whittingdale OBE MP talking about his memories of the Thatcher years at the Eric Forth Memorial Dinner
- Douglas Murray delivering his chilling assessment of the state of the world
- Eric Pickles talking frankly about public sector language - apparently the only stakeholder he has any time for is Van Helsing
- Iain Dale's media training
- Matt Richardson, of YBF's Legal Support and Advice Unit, talking about how YBF's legal team can help you out on campus.
- Ed Vaizey stressing the importance of 'appearing normal' to the public
- Nigel Evans reminding us to never, ever give up

Feedback from the attendees has been really encouraging - showing not only an increase in support for YBF but for conservative politics amongst the youth in general. Here's a sample of the comments:
"My impression of YBF has very much improved - I am now an evangelist!"
"I love you guys!"
"YBF is going from strength to strength."
"My impression has really improved - morale here is brilliant."
"This was my first YBF event so I had no idea how organised YBF would be. Having been here for the weekend I can say I'm really impressed."
"I've always had a high opinion of YBF but it has improved due to the high quality of the whole conference."
"I'm inspired. Very impressive speakers, friendly people and great fun."
"I had very little knowledge of YBF before this weekend, but have been hugely impressed by its ethos and the work that it does."
"The conference exceeded all expectations - the speakers were brilliant."
"I'm new to YBF so wasn't sure what to expect, but I've got a lot out of it and have really enjoyed it."

There was also a lot of interest in YBF's Summer 2009 USA Conference Tour. Details of this are to follow.

Donal and I would like to thank all those that attended and helped to make this weekend the success that it was. Plans are now coming together for YBF's Christmas Party. Watch this space.

Sunday, 26 October 2008

The Eric Forth Award

Congratulations to Matt Sinclair and Mark Wallace who won the

YBF Eric Forth Award
this year. Their fantastic work for the
Tax Payers' Alliance
is outstanding and their work for the movement is second to none.


By all accounts the YBF5 conference was a roaring success...

TB is very sad he couldn't be there.

Friday, 10 October 2008

Fancy a pint of freedom?

The credit crunch might be hitting us all, but the good folk at YBF are helping us through it. Thanks to a recent donation, YBF are able to lower to the cost of their excellent conference - YBF5 - to a mere £50 for students. To book a ticket,

click here
.

TB will hopefully see you there for what promises to be an excellent weekend of training, banter and drinking alongside appearances from David Davis, Iain Duncan Smith, Eric Pickles, Ed Vaizey, Iain Dale, Matthew Elliott, Douglass Murray and many more leading Tories.

Sound.

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

TB interviewed...

TB was interviewed for the
YBF website:


"YBF tracked down Tory Bear – a prolific blogger on the CF scene – to find out what makes him (or her) tick. The Bear talks openly about what the blog aims to do, his (or her) relationship with CCHQ, his (or her) plans for the future and why he’d (or she’d) bring back fox hunting.

Tell us why you created the blog - what did you set out to do?

TB was bored of getting his regular hits of 14 readers a day and some of the best advice about blogging I’ve ever been given was find a niche - CF was lacking a regular blogger that had comedy, so that’s the direction I took my blog in! I also get frustrated with the careerists so it’s nice to bring them down a peg or two from time to time.

Why did you decide to be anonymous?

It was more a decision to write in character than to be anonymous. If you look at

The Devils Kitchen
,
Guido
or
Dizzy
you can see how effective this can be. The identity of Tory Bear also generated a lot of interest in the first few weeks that got people talking and ultimately drove up the traffic. Lets be honest though, it’s hardly anonymous…

Do you feel there was some kind of learning curve? Has the blog changed at all since you started it?

Like I never imagined, not just on the technical side but in terms of the blogsphere too. TB is trying new things every day and trying to rewrite the rule book in some ways. In terms of the blog changing, well people have said that it has calmed down a lot since the early notoriety or leaked documents. That isn’t necessarily a decision by me to tone it down but the fact is that people are a lot more wary of getting involved in a leak witch-hunt and seem to be a lot more guarded. There is a rumour going round that I got threatened by the Party Board, that’s just not true. If the worst that happens is a certain CCHQ official googleing my life and then sending it to other bloggers then I’m not exactly shaking in my boots.

Are you planning any other developments or changes to your blog?

Absolutely! The site is due to go under a significant renovation before conference - where I will be live blogging. Tory Bear is also throwing a party in Birmingham. More details on that soon. In term of long term goals and directions to take the blog in, I am looking to expand the focus from just CF to a broader look at the grassroots and coalition.

As well as the luxury of saying what you please, do you think a blogger has any responsibilities too?

With an influence of a readership that is made up of the public as well as party faithful, of course there is a certain amount of responsibility involved. Ultimately there is one enemy and that is Labour and TB doesn’t want to give them ammunition. However, that can’t stop CF needing a “critical friend” from time to time. I have to weigh up posts I make and any story I do put up that could be construed as negative, I believe has been in the interest of the members and fully sourced. I am yet to regret a post.

In terms of comments well it’s my sandpit, so my rules. My moderation policy is fairly random and if I find something tedious I won’t publish. Racism and homophobia as well as general abuse that isn’t obviously a joke is not allowed. People moan that I don’t publish there thousand word essays on the Common Agriculture Policy or why TB is “ruining CF” but if you don’t like it, start your own blog.

Tell us about your observations of CF today - how is it reacting to the rise of CF bloggers?

It’s not political enough. People back their mates at elections, candidates promise the world and rarely talk about their political beliefs. I want to see CF being the political force it once was. The party has shifted to the centre yet CF represents all of it’s voters under 30 - a formidable force if we were to start calling for the libertarian ideals to be listened to again!

The Tory Bear blog is I believe having the right effect, people are beginning to lighten up a bit and stop taking everything so seriously. Obviously there are still a few out there who whine about bloggers but they are normally the ones with the most to hide. The positive responses far outweigh the negatives that have been thrown my way, though the fact that CCHQ IP addresses top my hits, one computer in particular, makes me think that the powers that be are going to take a little more persuading.

Where can CF improve?

CF needs to take a good hard look in the mirror, if the members spent half as much time and half as much energy sweating over minuscule internal problems and instead focused that energy on campaigning we would be the formidable force that we once were. In terms of the direction we seem to be going in recent months, I think that any reforms of CF need to be done openly and under the watchful eye of the membership, who for some reason care deeply about these issues.

What do you think of the relationship between CF and YBF?

CF needs strong ties to all aspects of the broader coalition. I think it is fantastic that CF understands that YBF are at the forefront of activist training in this country and rather than trying to rival them, calling on them to work together instead. People moan about a potential conflict of interest that arises in having a senior CF figure working in a senior position at YBF but I can see very little harm in this as long as YBF remains neutral in internal elections. The coalition needs strengthening and the YBF relationship should be a model for CF to follow with the rest of the movement.

Do you have any thoughts on the next set of CF elections?

I hope there are another set of CF elections ; )

Joking apart they are a long way off and only time will tell who has the stamina to go all the way. People shouldn’t start campaigning yet, they will only exhaust themselves and people will get bored of them. If the elections are held next August the final months of the campaign will be very different from previously due to the fact the universities will all be on holiday. The whole dynamic of the get-out-and-meet-voters campaign will have to change.

What are your plans for the future?

TB struggles to think about his next meal let alone any long term plans… The blog has opened up some interesting opportunities though…

If you could repeal one law, which would it be?

Just one? Hunting Act 2004 if we are being specific. TB is big fan of legalising lots of things as well…

If you could make a law, what would it be?

Any person who pays tax in this country should have the vote. It’s disgusting that there are soldiers and sailors who are under 18 yet fighting for their country and paying tax but do not have the vote. I am not calling for the voting age to be lowered, there are a lot of 16, 18 and even 21 year olds who aren’t mature enough for a vote – but there should be no taxation without representation. Whatever your age, and only if you pay tax do you get the vote."



Interesting that the following line was the only one cut out:

"The potential for a split in CF over these reforms is very real, not necessarily because of the content of them but the way in which they are being imposed."


Wednesday, 20 August 2008

The censored version..

Well it's lacking in the booze and AK47's but YBF has just realeased this video:



Get involved here...

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

Revenge?

While the NUS is indoctrinating this year's student union sabbaticals with cold tea, curled-up sandwiches and the occasional sit down protest outside Heathrow,
The Young Britons' Foundation's
indoctrination in the USA sounds much more fun. Wild nights of passion, copious numbers of cigars and beers, shooting handguns, AK47s and MP5 sub-machine guns and yesterday it seems, renting a jet boat and buzzing around the bay at Santa Barbara at 60mph.

Not all of the YBFers went on the boat though... Part-time CCHQ Press Officer Richard Jackson thought he would do things with a Cameroon twist and hired a segway (top speed 12mph,) boasting of its environmentally friendly credentials. Having explained how impossible it was to fall off this ridiculous gadget, bad-boy Joseph Lynch managed to do precisely that - breaking his elbow in the process.

Rumours that a vengeful Ed Hallam had anything to do with this incident are strenuously denied.


UPDATE 00.17:
Texts from Richard Jackson -

RJ:
"You git."
TB:
"Check out the update."
RJ:
"Thanks and it actually goes 14mph..."
TB:
"Oh god that is going to have to go up too!!! haha tb has sources everywhere"
RJ:
"I don't care - it was so much fun to ride!"
TB:
"haha and that.... Ah this is gold dust."
RJ:
"No comment."


PS can someone out there bring Tory Bear a John MacCain '08 t-shirt back please?

Letters from America 2

TB's source across the pond got in touch again to offer another instalment of gossip from the Young Britons' Foundation USA Lads/Ladettes On Tour Activist Training 2008....

After Oliver Cooper's previous "activities" on the first half of the trip in Washington, TB learns that fellow travellers also did their best to cement the Special Relationship in their own special way. Indeed the late night antics of YBF's very own Christian May so offended a religious nutter that he is currently receiving hate mail for his 'lack of Christian morals."

Indeed Oliver "the stud" Cooper managed to ensnare his second American lady of the trip - something my co-conspirator tells me he'd be hard pressed to do back home. TB has been promised and will be publishing a special USA Totty-Watch in a couple of days. He is reliably informed it is worth the wait but we shall see eh boys?

But it hasn't all be McLovin, indeed there was a distinct lack of love and harmony yesterday between Joseph Lynch and Ed "ZanuCF" Hallam. While two YBFers frolicked in the pool, Lynch pushed Hallam in - fully suited and holding his phone, cash and passport etc…

TB understands that Lynch's punishment will involve some kind of waterboarding.

Tuesday, 5 August 2008

Letters from America

Donal Blaney is leading his annual jaunt across the pond at the moment. This time students of the Young Britons Foundation have enjoyed an exclusive tour of the White House, (surely the last for eight years if Obama wins?) as well as having fantastic courses in media training, TV technique, campus activism and campaign technology. All of this can be deployed in the UK to expand CF's presence and activity.

However one young delegate has got himself into a little trouble it seems – nothing like a good sex scandal to further Anglo-American relations. A co-conspirator across the pond has got in touch with this little tale…

While the YBFers stay at George Washington University, Oliver Cooper has taken a leaf out of Hugh Grant or even Clinton's book and much to the apparent surprise of the other delegates, has shacked up with "the hottest girl".

This developing special relationship was however nearly over before it had fully bloomed…

Mr Cooper, 21, a leading UCL Tory, was caught and reprimanded by campus security for "indecent exposure" relating to what can only be described for some sort of naughtiness that took place late a night on a park bench…

The young lovers were escorted back to their separate dorms.

Ouch!

TB is waiting for a photo of the "hotty" - go on send it someone...

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Tories + Cocktails =

(click to enlarge)

So to Mahiki for the YBF summer party...

A solid effort to those early birds who managed to burn through the promised free cocktails in just 20 minutes.

TB is tired and still fairly hungover.

Come back tomorrow for more pictures and the gossip...

Tuesday, 8 July 2008

YBF summer party...

Don't forget to get your tickets for the YBF summer party that is being held at Mahiki next Wednesday. Have a feeling this is going to be a good one... TB will be there... So you better all behave. Somehow I don't think that is going to happen.

All the details can be found
here


Night out in Mahiki for a tenner?

Bonus.