Guest Post - BUCF

Tory Bear has a hectic week so he will be throwing in the odd guest post over the next few days. Daniel O'Doherty is the Chairman of Birmingham University CF and talks here about how to regenerate a branch and build better communications with student unions. Always somewhere to cause some amusing mischief...

First of all may I say what a delight and privilege it is to have been invited by TB to write for this fantastic blog. The topic I have been asked to speak on is one that is never far away from a young Conservatives thought: student politics. When I took over as President of Birmingham University Conservative Future our relations with our Guild and the conservative associations in our local area were close to collapse after a series of mistakes and bad fortune. Within just 2 days of taking over I was told we were facing derecognising from the Guild and to add to our woes the incoming committee found that our membership was largely demoralised and inactive which made our task to fight back against this derecognition all the more difficult.

Faced with the prospect of our humiliating forced removal from the Guild I had to take the immediate decision to ‘jump before pushed’ in order to save what remained of the society’s face. I therefore held a referendum of our members which voted for severing all ties with the Guild. However over the summer period I had time and course to reflect on this decision. Having thought long and hard I realised that despite my own distaste for guild/student politics, which incidentally I see as one Scargill short of the NUM, the long term interests of the society would not be advanced by derecognition or distancing from the guild… as much as we might have liked to believe otherwise.

I wholeheartedly sympathise with our young conservative counterparts across the country who are facing similar dilemmas within their own student’s unions and suffer from similar temptations to ‘cut and run’. As most of us will agree these places are more often than not bastions of self seeking, self righteous individuals who use their morally superior twoddle to devalue and demoralise us conservatives. They seem at times to have little if any grasp of the real world and instead prefer to shield themselves between the sheets of their Guardian newspapers. Therefore a conservative would naturally be inclined to ask; why should we want to be part of such a grouping? The truth is we have to be a part of it.

In order to reassert BUCF’s rightful place in the Guild I had to take some often unpleasant and unpopular actions which required a large degree of humility and yes, tongue biting. By far the hardest was having to address Guild Council against a pretty damn hostile backdrop however their anger and hostility toward me only made me more resolute and forceful, yet at the same time humble and reconciliatory, in my arguments. In the end it worked in our favour and we survived our derecognition procedure with a margin of 69% - 30% with 1% abstention.

From then on, our position within the Guild has been strengthened and secured. We created the new role of ‘Guild officer’ on our committee to emphasise our commitment to student politics and I am delighted to announce that one of our members has stood for Guild Council in the Guild Elections that have been taking place all this week. The results are due soon and with a bit of luck we could have our first elected Conservative on Guild Council in a number of years. This marks a massive turn around in our fortunes from last year. The fundamental point of all this is that assuming Timm is elected, the Conservatives could have a real chance to influence change on our Guild that would never have been possible in ‘political exile’.

The second pillar of our move toward reform has been in our local area. Leading figures of the Conservative party in our local area, Edgbaston, have told me over the years how frustrated they have been at some committee’s attitude toward the local area and associations. It was the belief of some BUCF committees that we, as students, had no place getting involved in local politics and our role must be confined to the student body. Utter tosh. Every Conservative Future society has a vital role to play in the future of the part as a whole and this has always been a potent part of my wider agenda for the society. This ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality which I know is practised by many in CF must end. We are all in this for the same purpose and we must remember that.

In this light, having previously had a good personal relationship with members of Edgbaston Conservative Association which incidentally is a crucial swing seat, I made it my mission to reaffirm our links with them and attend more of their socials/campaign days with our members. After a slow start our effort was rewarded when we were enshrined on their committee in a permanent role with voting rights on matters affecting the Edgbaston constituency and association. Furthermore our members now take regular and active involvement of our local associations much to their delight.

All of these reforms which have not always been easy have ensured BUCF remains in a strong position in both our local area and on our campus. It has not always been easy and as ever there is a hell of a lot more to do. However the reforms we have pushed through, which at times have gone against our natural instincts, have ensured the society’s longevity. We have made it our mission to strike that most careful and crucial of balances by remembering that we are both a Conservative and student society. For too long have the two been seen as separate even conflicting entities. The truth is we can achieve more from within than on the periphery.

Instead of retreating from our unions or our local areas or believing we have to prioritise one over the other as we have been so tempted to do in the past, we must embrace both and where we face opposition we must, in the words of Mrs Thatcher, “win the battle of ideas”. Embrace your union, engage with your local area and energise your members with a string of political and, most crucially, social events in tune with the student body. That is how to make a strong society worthy of the Conservative cause.

Dan and co blog regularly at

www.bucf.co.uk

If you would like to write a guest post, send 400-700 words to editor@torybear.com asap.

Totty Watch: Maria Sergeyeva

A bit late to this story, but TB thought he would liven up your Sunday evening with Maria Sergeyeva. Maria is a 24 year old Putin-loyalist Russian lady-blogger and she is creating quite a storm with the press around the world. She was named "The Russian Sarah Palin" by the

American press

, and both the

Times

and

Mail

have profiled her over here. She is a leading light of the Putin's youthful army of devout loyalists and she's not afraid to flaunt her good looks to drive up the traffic to her site. A prize for the first reader to track down the elusive bikini pics that were apparently released not long ago. Maria states that Thatcher is her idol and is causing quite a stir in the Russian political scene...

TB wouldn't recommend a date to Itsu with her though.

Where things stand.

Having slept on it, it is clear to see just how damaging this election will be to Liberal Youth. The briefing and counter briefing, leaks and bitchiness has not only been directed at the candidates but at the Liberal Democrat party in general. The party machine at Cowley Street has taken a particularly brutal kicking. Both candidates have called for the organisation to be closed down, either publically or privately, and Tory Bear wouldn't be surprised if the re-open nominations box has got a lot of ticks once the votes have been counted.

The Downfall video that appeared anonymously, and then disappeared, caused a fair amount of controversy. Sadly due to one libellous line the argument moved away from the organisational tactics and people skills of the current Chairman Elaine Bagshaw, and instead focussed on the laughable suggestion she might be the Lib Dems Lewinsky. Tory Bear understands Bagshaw has been summonded to Cleggs office for a bollocking first thing Monday morning.

Well luckily TB has got hold of a copy of the video, and with some slight editing, has brought it back for your viewing pleasure:



If there is one person who knows their stuff on youth elections, it's the strange yet distinctly fascinating John Moorcraft. He has been keeping an eye on this election and offers comment over at the

Liberal Youth Forums

about where it ranks in relation to past bitter youth battles. He is a bit of an expert on this sort of thing, and TB couldn't have put it better himself:

"Having given your post some considerable thought.....It is my pleasure (I think...) to inform you that this most recent interesting and explosive outburst has propelled you [Liberal Youth] well inside the top 10 (not quite podium yet though I'm afraid). This is one of the most explicit calls by a candidate for an overhaul of a youth organisation officially affiliated to a mainstream political party ever. (I have investigated most youth “elections” since 1906...) Rarely has the issue of organisational reform been associated with all main chairperson candidates. Referring to Central Command (in this case Cowley Street) in such disparaging terms (“sheer corporate incompetence”) is not unique, but it does up the ante further. Apologising for apologising (over heckling) is my personal favourite bit and quite remarkable and extremely novel. Only on a handful of occasions has this happened (usually people stick to a decision they have made in youth elections). Another leak to Tory Bear (the resignation letter) is good stuff – it shows a conservative blogger is still considered the wrestling ring of choice (I'm with Stronty and echo calls for mud wrestling).
In a nutshell, you're moving up the ladder of shame fast. Given the stiff competition, this is quite some achievement!! This election has been extremely controversial, very bitchy, mega personal, an utter disgrace, totally ridiculous and a complete embarrassment. I hope ordinary members condemn all involved as openly and vociferously as the rival camps have each other. In all seriousness, RON must now be the only option.

Leaving seriousness aside and getting back to taking the p**s...To be challenging the big boys at the top of the leaderboard (some of the old Young Labour elections...FCS in the 1980's, YC late 80's and the odd CF election) we need some of the following...

More leaks to Tory Bear.
More leaks to me
More leaks to any other non-Lib Dem
Lots more Facebook bitching
Mass party resignations in protest
RON to win
For the election to be so bad the party decides to reform or abolish you
For the election to be so bad the party launches an internal investigation into what went wrong
For mediators to be called into the first exec meeting (Edit – i see this may happen!)
Allegations of email, blog and website hacking from the rival camp
Fake websites appearing declaring the other candidate to be evil/Thatcher in disguise/a liar
Suggestions Cowley Street are fixing he election
Proof to emerge that Cowley Street are fixing the electon
A punch up between rival camps (this would put you right up there)
Catchy, but really personal, election slogans
Another youtube video to reappear slamming one of the candidates
Videoblogs showing one candidate personally bagging the other
Claims to emerge that one of the candodates has thrown the towell in
Claims to emerge about the other ones sex life (preferable suggestions they have been doinking Tory Bear). In fact, can I start this one now and say I heard a rumour that TB has been caught in a compromising position with RON)
The exec to refuse to serve under the new chairman
A candidate to be expelled from the party
For the election to attract condemnation from a Lib Dem politician
For the mainstream media to cover it
For a big boy blogger to cover it (Guido must be considering it...)

That list should get you started. If you are really committed to holding the worst youth election ever, you better get cracking!!!"

There are still two weeks of voting to go so who know what else is going to happen.

Gone for ten pieces this week, due to a particularly strong edition of the Sunday Times, and some juicy bits elsewhere...

• Ever wanted to know why Boris was called Boris? Stanley Johnson previews his autobiography in the Times.

• The Times follows 14,ooo blogs and cottons on to Spotify, something that TB can't get enough of.

• Rod Liddle talks some sense for once over the Luton "nutters".

• Stop press. Jeremy Clarkson chooses the French over the Americans.

• The Mail reports that Labour head honcho Ray Collins is a little bit racist. Bit steep.

• Matthew d'Ancona in the Telegraph captures the significance of Cameron taking the gloves off this week.

• Simon Heffer rages against the waste of time and money that is the G20, again in the Telegraph

• David Mitchell goes to war with his online foes in his Guardian column.

• The NOTW reports that the tin-hat brigade are pushing their 9/11 documentary to television from the net.

• And finally the Times reports on the friendly council "re-education" plans

Good morning Liberal Democrats.

Just as it looked like things were calming down, there has been a Saturday night twist in the Liberal Youth election. Sara Scarlett, one of the candidates for Chairman has gone nuclear on not just her opponent, but on the whole organisation too. In a message to supporters she lambastes Elaine Bagshaw, her opponent and the current Chairman, and she goes onto call for Liberal Youth to be completely overhauled. Both the candidates for the Chairman of the organisation have now, either publically or privately, called for it to be scrapped. Are you listening yet Cowley Street?

Dear Friends,

As a matter of conscience I feel like I can no longer stand by the apology I made five days ago.
The words were not my own and they do not reflect how I actually feel. I am not sorry for heckling Elaine but I felt as though I owed a contrition to the many who put in effort into my campaign. Although I do thank them profoundly: I must retract my apology.

The fact remains that the reason Liberal Youth is allowed to continue in it’s current state is due to sheer corporate incompetence on the part of Cowley Street. To place the sole responsibility of all recruitment, campaign literature and political strategy, for members of the party under the age of 26, on the shoulders of unqualified individuals with no relevant experience is insanity. Had I known then what I know now I would never have put myself forward for this role. The organisation is essentially set up to fail and those who attempt to make something productive of it are tarred with the same brush.

The heckle was the consequence of a lot of nervous energy and anxiety I have gained from the frustration surrounding this election and this organisation as a whole. There’s no denying that this election was semi-personal.
Elaine has been an atrocious person to work with. The sycophancy she indulges in and the sycophants she surrounds herself with amidst a non-existent ideological cadre is a caricature of bad politics. Her leadership instincts are essentially New Labour. If this were a professional organisation someone with such poor interpersonal skills would never have made it through a human resource filter to the detriment of Liberalism's soul. This is something I’ve told her to her face.
A lot of the negative campaigning from my camp came from individuals who choose to support me due to their personal dislike of Elaine’s leadership style rather than a belief in my own. My personal animosity towards her amplified the schadenfreude which occurs naturally in elections. I hate that I took so much pleasure at the expense of others for what I realise now is an insignificant prize and I hope that the relationships that have broken down during this election are not damaged beyond repair.

Joining the LibDems was and still is one of the best things I have ever done in my life. The people I have met have been some of the most exceptional and courageous people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. And some of those I have met have been the extreme opposite...

However, my allegiance is to Liberalism first and to the Liberal Democrats second. I think the LibDems are failing the many young people in this country who self-define as liberals. After the next General Election I will be writing a letter to the Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats which will include my recommendations for an alternative to Liberal Youth.
In the words of a man significantly wiser than myself: “Elections are like thunderstorms; sometimes a lightning strike is fatal, sometimes they clear the air...”

Here's hoping for a bit of both.

Regards,
Sara Scarlett

Later on she resigned her position as a Vice Chairman of the organisation:

This is definitely game-changing but TB can't quite work out how yet. Either it will lead Sara to pick up even more support against Bagshaw, or it will make a Bagshaw victory distinctly pyrrhic.

Haha whatever next.

Freeeedom.

The

Young Conservative

blog gives an excellent round up of Wednesday's YBF Freedom rally at Westminster, which TB sadly missed:

The Rally began with Douglas Carswell MP, one of the finest Parliamentarians of his generation and co-author of

The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain

, lamenting the unrelenting decline in liberty on these shores.“The failure of the revolution of 1776 was that it took place on the wrong side of the Atlantic.”

You can read the full account

here

.

The final word.

The Downfall video might be gone but if you still fancy a laugh at Liberal Youth check out this promo:



Cringe is an understatement.

Conservative Future Update.

So the Downfall video was removed and the Liberal Youth executive are standing on the street corner whistling... move along people... nothing to see here. While it's been fun and games laying into to the Liberals, TB thought he better update what's going on with CF at the moment. A while back NME member Owen Meredith said he would be stepping down once the year long term he was elected on had past. It passed this week, but no word yet from Mr Meredith. The last week saw ABB resign yet again, and as far as TB can tell from new facebook group he has been invited to, Adele Douglas has taken over the social action side of things. Patrick Sullivan has been awarded the non stop fun task or coordinating this years freshers campaign, and will be focusing completely on his Student Life portfolio. In an intriguing snippet of news, it seems that Ed Hallam moves up a notch to take of as National Campaigns Director. All in all it seems that things have gone a bit quiet in the last few months and TB is wondering how the planning is going for the biggest of all battles coming up.

May 2010 is rapidly approaching. CF has to be ready.

+++Liberal Youth put a bit of stick about+++

TB just had the privilege of having a little chat with Liberal Youth Chairman Elaine Bagshaw to try get her to go on the record about the email leak and the ensuing depiction of her downfall. While she was remaining tight lipped, she did confirm what TB had been hearing in the last few days. Apparently they are taking this very seriously and a thorougher internal investigation is underway to find the source of the leak, (and no doubt to find the creator of the video!) Sources have confirmed that the members of the executive have been ordered by Elaine not to speak publicly, or comment, on the video.

Elaine referred TB to the

Liberal Youth constitution

to find out exactly what this investigation will entail. A riveting read it may be, it does however fail to include any specific details of how the witch-hunt is being run. Lucky then dear readers, that Tory Bear has eyes and ears everywhere. Elaine and her close allies on the exec are the ones leading the investigation, arguably opening up all sorts of conflicts of interests, given that she is currently a candidate in the on going elections. The Cowley Street IT unit has apparently been on the case too. TB is awaiting the developments to come to a head, but they seem to be heading that way with the Executive, on Elaine's prompting, today apparently voting on whether to suspend one of their own.

TB is working on finding out who it is, but you'll read it here first.

The circus continues...

+++developing+++

Do some work.

The Labour

twittering classes

, led by the normally funny

Tom Harris MP

are having a field day with the little tool they found online that allows them to make oh so witty and imaginative Conservative branded slogans.

So there's one for Tom, who is currently pissing your money up the wall while he sits on his laptop, twittering and blogging this nonsense instead of representing the people who sent him to Westminster.

‘Severely utilitarian and philistine’

Apparently "This is a very large painting that was painted about 100 years ago":

Sister Bear curses what New Labour have done to the cultural education of British youth for The Spectator this week.

Read it

here

.

Liberal Youth's Downfall

It seems to be a modern day benchmark of failure. When someone or something goes titsup, the shit hasn't really hit the fan until someone makes a Downfall spoof of you.

Well Elaine Bagshaw, Chairman of Liberal Youth, your day has come:



Thank you to the anonymous 3am VforVendetta256, obviously someone very much on the inside.

If you don't like the West Wing, look away now.

As many have pointed out, there is only one profession with a lower public opinion rating than politicians, and that's journos. A vicious pack of hacks are a formidable bunch and no one will know that more than the White House press spokesmen. For West Wing fans, CJ's sometimes effortless put downs to this feral bunch were some of the best moments of the whole show. But now that the West Wing is gone, TB has to fill his days with watching the actual White House in action.

There is a fascinating insight

here

into how the seats in Obama's press briefing room have been allocated and exactly what this pecking order means. Here is the layout from February:

And here is March:

Interesting to note the creeping rise of

Politico

from sixth row to fourth. The further forward you are, the more likely Press Spokesman Robert Gibbs will answer your question. Politico, though it does have a small print edition, is seemingly leading the blogging revolution right to the heart of the White House. Not even the Obama worshipping lefty love-in the

Huffington Post

gets a seat.

In just three months of this administration, a blogging news service is almost at the front of the press pack, how will things look in a year?

Gordon has a friend!

LabourList is orgasmically proclaiming an apparently fantastic

endorsement

from an international statesman. Yes the man who lost the Cold War is now endorsing an equally successful lefty. TB wouldn't be too proud of this proclamation if the ball was in the other court:

Speaking during a visit to the Evening Standard Newspaper, Mr Gorbachev - the former Soviet leader whose Glasnost policies brought new freedom to Europe and helped end the Cold War, said he felt the Tory leader is too wedded to the policies of the Eighties:

"To me, the Conservative Party is not ready to give up the policies of the Reaganomics era. Maybe they would like to take the initiative but they are not ready for that yet."

Speaking of Gordon Brown, however, Mr Gorbachev said "I think he has made several really wise decisions that have been taken up by his partners in other countries."

David Cameron is clearly on the right track if failed former communists don't want him to be the Prime Minister.

The Royal Bank of the Glorious Democratic People's Republic of Scotland

RBS and the FSA have some serious explaining to do after Fraser Nelson's breathtaking expose, the details of which can be found

here

. You can quite clearly hear the state owned Royal Bank of Scotland employee ask Nelson, before he can open an account with them, whether he is a member of a political party:



Do you hear the people sing?

Revolution used to be cool.

TB is quite proud of the fact that despite working on this sodding dissertation for a fair few months now, he has only today, for the first time typed his subject matter into Wikipedia. What a treat greeted him when he did - once again proving what a reliable and steadfast source Wikipedia is, this 1982 song by The Kinks is stated as a historical source:



And rightly so.

Classic.

Dolly is getting a lot stick from the

Twitter

masses today. Firstly he denied that his account was suspended, then he claimed that it hasn't had any contact from Twitter, then he claimed if he was suspended, he was restored because he did nothing wrong.. blah blah blah. Classic bit of old school NuLab spin.

Hence why TB nearly choked on his jaffa cakes when this popped up on his twitter feed.

Oh dear...

Well it's

not quite happily ever

after now is it - The news has emerged that Bristol, the wild child daughter of Sarah Palin has split up with the father of her child, and forced fiance Levi Johnston.

TB is really shocked, he really thought those kids actually wanted to get married.

The fall out continues...

TB has a eyes and ears everywhere but he doesn't envy his little friend in Lib Dem HQ today though. Apparently the whole email leak has gone down like a cup of sick with the Returning Officer of the Liberal Youth elections. A full scale witch-hunt is now under way to determine who the source was. Well Elaine certainly knows how to "wind up" the organisation in every sense of the word.

The party's press office had very little to say on the subject. TB put some questions to them earlier and they finally got round to replying:

Q. Is it true that the Cowley Street IT department are attempting to find the source of the leak?
A. "This won't be something we will be commenting on."

Q.What would the consequences for any person found guilty of this?
A. "This won't be something we will be commenting on."

Q.Do the Liberal Democrats officially condone the repression of free speech and the right to a free press by banning journalists from their youth forums, with false accusations?
A. "This won't be something we will be commenting on."

We'll take that as yes then.

An unbelievably helpful bunch! It's almost as if they are seriously contemplating taking up Elaine's helpful suggestion of scrapping the whole organisation.

Something tells TB that this whole saga isn't quite over yet... watch this space.

Totty Watch: Behind every great man...

As the dust settles from the ground breaking news that

Cities of London and Westminster CF

Chairman Ed Hallam had finally cut his hair, the reasons behind the chop have become clear. Regardless of the wrongs and rights, it has to be accepted that in these modern times, politics is increasingly focused on image. Political leaders go through makeovers, some work and some don't, (Nick Clegg looks about six years old now!) However newly appointed campaigns director of CLWCF, one Lucy Roblin, is shaking things up...

Tory Bear understands that Miss Roblin stood over the personal stylist bought in for the makeover, clipboard and blackberry in hand, giving orders. It has also been confirmed by sources that Ed is now the proud owner of a pair of hair straighteners, and uses a range of products to keep his hair smooth and smart, all on the recommendation of his new PR guru.


Is Mr Hallam building his team, and image, for that long expected leadership bid?