Thursday, 10 July 2008

Somebody kill me please?

TB is about to put a bullet in his head.. Sixth Form Question Time is the most painful and awful carnival of idiots. I've spotted three beret/goatee combos so far. IDS is leading it and getting the claps but hell so is Wee Dougy Alexander..

It is an eternal mystery to why the entire audience clap at two contradictory points.

As for the student on the panel?

He's pretty fucking hard right.. Doesn't surprise me he is a member of UKIP... Not helping his cause! He wants to lock everyone up and he keeps getting lairy. TB is getting increasingly frustrated by the fact the kid can barely speak.. what was the criteria for the competition winner... best impression of Gordon Brown's stutter?

I'm not sure I can watch this all...

PLEASE STOP CLAPPING IDIOTIC POINTS... TB is close to tears...

The blue-scholar vote...

This
graph
from The Economist shows that all of the hard work CF campus branches and University Associations (if you go to a proper university,) have been doing is starting to pay off:

Tories really are a force once again on campus.

While TB does not want to seem to be taking credit for the national swing, he can remember the days when to be a Conservative at a student union event sparked a similar reaction to walking in with wearing a mac and holding a sign saying "I touch children!".

University Cons have played a vital role in decontaminating the brand...

Things a defiantly shifting and student CFers have a lot of political capital to play with in the coming academic year.. let's not waste it...

NUS take over anyone?

Rock on TV...


CF Chairman Michael Rock will be bashing some lefty on BBC News24's Question Time Extra program tonight at 11.30 (directly after the main program finishes.) Be sure to tune in...




Fingers crossed for his sake that it will go slightly better than this:



The former campaign manager isn't to confident though:

Charming...

It's DD for me

Lets all wish David Davis the best of luck today.
TB reckons the majority will stay around the same - about 5000. Despite the reduction in turn out that is widely expected, DD is sure to pick up some cross-party support and a few votes for being a sound bloke.


Has the by-election had the desired effect?

Sadly TB has to conclude it has not.

Wednesday, 9 July 2008

Another hatchet buried...

After what could be described as an acrimonious election battle in 2006 it seems as if Tooting PPC and former Chairman Mark Clark has buried the hatchet with his former opponent Andrew Young...





Who said he held a grudge?

Bear with me...

torybear.blogspot.com is going under a substantial redesign tonight.


Sorry if things are a bit messed up for 24 hours or so while teething problems are sorted...

More target seat frustration:

This email from a co-conspirator says it all:

"That list of seats for CF to help in is bizarre -- it doesn't include two former National Chairmen (Hannah Foster in Exeter & Cllr Justin Tomlinson in Swindon North), a former Deputy National Chairman (Cllr Andy Stephenson in Pendle) & a former elected CF NME member (Chris D. Kelly in Dudley South)! Swindon North, Pendle & Dudley South are all in the top 75 target seats against Labour whilst Exeter is target 176 according to the
ukpollingreport
"

Maybe if the Steering Committee had consulted the Chairman and NME they would have been told this...

Watch her squirm!

Hague was at his best at PMQs... nailed Harman to the wall... watch her squirm for a good forty seconds while she tries to think of something to funny to say at the end:



It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

On my command, unleash hell...

It seems TB has unleashed a wave of CF aged blogs and has some "Blue" competition...

theBlueguerilla
seems to have launched today...

Pretty sure it's spelt Guerrilla but c'est la vie.


Excellent to see another blog that seems to be pitched at a similar crowd emerge..

It's all about the accountability and the more the merrier..
In a right of reply to tBg's first post, TB reckons that you should consider the fact that the LGBT advisory board had met just once before the change over at City Hall in May... seems like a worth cost cutting measure if they weren't doing anything.

TB doesn't like the recent rise of Boris dissing that has emerged in the last few weeks. Having slaved our guts out for him lets not throw our toys out of the pram at the first opportunity.


UPDATE 15.24: TB stands corrected:
guer·ril·la or gue·ril·la
A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy, as by surprise raids.

Chris D. Kelly

Sorry Mr. Lunn, know he isn't fighting one of your choice seats, but CF owes Chris Kelly a few hours worth of support in his very winnable Dudley South (3,126 requiring a swing of 4.4%). Though he has now reached thirty Chris has been a loyal CFer since long before the days of TB.


He got in touch to please ask lots of CFers to head to his campaign days that are near and close to the time of conference in Birmingham at the end of September:

Saturday 27th Sept.
Sunday 28th Sept.

Wednesday 1st Oct


Be sure to join his Facebook
group
too.

Best of luck to him...

Tuesday, 8 July 2008

We may very well think that, but he couldn't possibly comment...

Michael Lunn - the only member of staff for Conservative Future in CCHQ has an approval rating of just 19.2% amongst CF members. 35.9% of those surveyed had no idea who he was or that they could contact him and 44.9% say they are unhappy with the way the job he is doing for the members.
There were serious concerns raised in the survey about the "Youth Development Manager" - (£35,000pa) . Obviously there was the expected; "The stuff about Hilley was a disgrace and he should have had the good grace to fall on his sword." and the standard; "no contact, never seen/heard from him."

However more alarming was the outrage felt about the decisions of the CF "Steering Group". This consists of Justine Greening MP- the Party's Vice Chairman for Youth, Mr Lunn and George Eustice- the former head of Press at CCHQ and now, well something in DC's office. Obviously the role of CF is to be the foot soldiers to the party machine come election time, but with a complete disregard for their views Mr Lunn has forced a list of 16 target seats through the Steering Group and imposed it on the membership, without consultation with the Chairman or the NME. Requests for funds for any activity in other seats are turned down and this included a complete refusal to provide accommodation for the countless CF members who decamped to Crewe and to Henley for weeks on end. Tory Bear understands that members of the NME who do not wish to be named spent a significant amount of their own money in providing support for by-elections and other activities. It seems as if the NME are trying to down-play this fact and "campaign funds" has been a euphemism for some time for personal spending. A number of people have raised this fact with TB. This is frankly a disgrace.
Tory Bear got in touch with Mr Lunn to ask him to spread some light on not only the fact he is terrible at responding to members but also about the target seats issue;

In a charming manner he replied "Thanks for your email. We have discussed it and in answer to your question we do not accept your online survey and do not comment on media speculation about target seats."

Well you may dismiss it as speculation Michael, but you know these documents are real:

(click to enlarge.)

There is enough
speculation
going on about how these seats were chosen (not only in the comments on this site but elsewhere,) so TB is not going to add his own two cents. Granted CCHQ have every right to tell the media, in whatever form to piss off, so TB urges any member who wants to know what exactly it is about these 16 seats that makes them so special to email michael.lunn@conservatives.com and ask him yourself.

Surly he will answer to the members?

In his capacity as a member of the Conservative Party TB's alter ego has written to the Party Chairman before to complain about the appalling disregard CF is held in and would have no qualms in doing so again.

What right does this unelected official have to dictate where CF can and cannot campaign or how the CF budget is spent. These are decisions for the elected Chairman and NME.

A totally unacceptable abuse of power
once again
from Mr Lunn.

NB:
TB has been trying to get hold of the National Campaigns Director for the last 24 hours to discuss issues relating to this list and whether he approved it. Has he disappeared on one of legendary jaunts to foreign lands otherwise known as Nottingham...?

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.

A t-shirt you might actually wear....

It seems that the offer of a CF bottle opener isn't too appealing and there are many out there like TB who has a drawer full of them. Same goes for Rock badges and Boris ones...

While on a quest to create a decent prize TB stumbled upon a gem of a site that allows you to buy a fantastic range of I ♥ Tory Bear apparel and badges...

The prices are in dollars but given the brilliant exchange rate at the moment this is works to your advantage...

T-Shirts from just seven quid!*

Fifteen pounds isn't too bad for a hoody either...

And my personal favourite.. thongs - just six quid!

Why not buy a badge for a pound...





Tory Bear promises to buy a ridiculously overpriced cocktail from Mahiki at the YBF summer party (which btw is set to be epic!) for anyone seen sporting an I ♥ Tory Bear t-shirt...
or thong ; )


Happy shopping


*TB would like to assure everyone that Owen Meredith had absolutly no creative input in the design of these t-shirts.

Monday, 7 July 2008

She's no Tory Bear but...

A flurry of activity tonight as TB gets tipped off by no fewer than six CF keenbeans in the space of ten minutes that CF Top Totty Alexandra Swann has launched her very own blog at
www.alexandraswann.co.uk






TB is rather glad Miss Swann has taken his advice and started a blog about Surrey - hopefully now she will write it down and stop boring people to tears with her tales from the Patio of England.

TB is yet to get over Miss Swann's audacity at even threatening to reveal who she thinks is his alter ego, but to be fair her first two posts have made an entertaining read.

Favourite quotes thus far - "Whoever you are, TB, i salute you. And think you’re rather sexy." and;

"it’s awful; living for nearly 2 weeks where everyone else is male means I’ve put on around a stone and further wrecked my liver"

Come on now Alexandra from what Tory Bear hears it was you who was leading the eating in Henley. What was it that waiter said? Something about pies?

On a slightly more serious note her post about
Henley
, and more specifically the internal workings of CF should be read by all members and taken on board.

After the little coup d'etat in Surrey Miss Swann has burst onto the CF scene with quite some force in recent months and seems to be climbing trees the ladder at a rapid rate.

Best of luck to her...

Pop Quiz #2

Brentford & Isleworth
Ealing Central and Acton

Kingston
and Surbiton
Berwick Upon
Tweed
Stourbridge

Brighton
Pavilion
Dagenham & Rainham
Lewes

Guildford

Hammersmith
Loughborough
Reading West

Tynemouth

Bolton
North East
Bolton
West
Leeds
North East

Q. What do all these seats have in common?

Standard TB rules apply.. CF bottle opener for the first correct answer.

Murder on the dancefloor...

Grumpy today aren't you!?

For the record I have no personal vendetta against either Patrick Sullivan or Anastasia Beaumont-Bott. So please stop emailing TB asking what my problem is.

And as for those of you who got in touch to suggest that there was some sort of rift between those said members of the NME, well hate to break it to you but TB has from good sources that this is bullshit.

Further evidence of these two getting on was emailed to me last week, think now would be an appropriate time to put it up:



If that doesn't cheer you up I don't know what will... hot moves.

Survey results - Social Action

Seems that Social Action splits the readers, but those thinking we should stick to our constitutional commitments to provide the party with election support slightly have it:
The feedback left wasn't a glowing endorsement of the project. This quote hits the nail on the head, many people left such sentiments on the survey, but this one sums it up very well;

"my dad was a yc in the 60s and they essentially ran a local children's home, most of the members adopted or fostered people as a result my university branch ran a coffee morning for old folk in the area all these things happened because we wanted to do it, not because it would provide a photo opportunity for some chinless candidate now, none of these things happen but at least some of the people who are now at my uni go picking up litter in a bit of wasteland for 10 mins with stupid t-shirts on while being photographed tell me - which was more worthy?"

As for TB's view, well I've already been accused of being on a solo-mission against ABB today (I'm not for the record, people have said the same of Patrick, also not true - he at least can take a joke,) so I will look back to before she got involved in order to sum up my views of Social Action. At Blackpool last year the CF contingent were all organised to go down to help on the garden project on the afternoon before the CF drinks. The numbers of people who said they would come weren't looking to healthy so a decision was taken that anyone who helped out with SA would be given champagne at the evening reception.. the mini bus soon filled up. This just about sums up the shallow nature that SA can have it's not done properly.
It's good to see that this years Birmingham project is starting now and hopefully it will consist of more than
William Hague playing with goats.


Jury is out on this one.

Of course Social Action is doing good things but are hearts really in it?

ABB's tips for success...

Good relationships with agents eh?


; )

Some thoughts...

"I’m weary of politicians tokenising trans people merely to gain credibility. If they’re not prepared to engage with us and listen to what we say - and incorporate that in meaningful policies which we can be sure will be implemented, then would they kindly leave us alone. We’re quite capable of surviving without their cynical use of us for publicity with no practical support beyond the headline-grabbing stuff. We are not here to provide material for T-shirt slogans."

This is the only comment on so far on the new
www.lgbtory.org.uk
website...





It got TB thinking about this sensitive project that could very easily back-fire. Some questions:

Apart from the photo-ops what exactly are LGBTory planning on doing?

Also what accountabilty measures are in place?

Why no committee?

Friday, 4 July 2008

The NME ratings...

Thank you firstly to the 82 respondents to Tory Bear's first survey of how the CF National Management Committee have done in the first three months since their election. The results are a pretty accurate gauge of the CF electorate given that 768 people voted in the election, 9.3% of the those voters took part in this poll.

Respondents were asked to rate each NME member as either "good", "alright", "you're fired" or if they did not know who they are, or had not heard much from them, then "who?".

Starting in reverse order the Exec are ranked by their overall approval rating (the sum of their "good" and "alright" scores.)

Without further delay.. bringing up the rear... Cllr Steve Ricketts:

A pretty shoddy performance so far it seems from our man in Plymouth. Seems nobody has heard of him and even those that have don't seem too impressed. TB understands that Steve has expressed his concern to his NME colleagues that he feels some what out of the loop as Plymouth is a long way from the London centric organisation but despite this fact there is a hell of a lot of room for improvement here. Approval Rating: 25.4%

Next up it's Owen
"Delivering For Everyone - Aspiration For All"
Meredith:

Despite the endless press -releases in the latest news section of his ever hilarious
website,
Owen is failing to connect with the membership. A hefty 29.3% would also like to see him fired. Would put that rumoured Chairman bid on ice my friend and concentrate on proving your up to scratch here. Approval Rating: 33.4%

With another large "who?" lingering over her, next we have Adele Douglas:

Adele has done wonders in Manchester but needs to work harder to improve her national profile it seems. Of those who do know her it's a pretty solid "alright" in this poll but TB reckons they could easily be converted to "good" with a little more action. The appeal of a candidate of CF age (
Stuart Penketh
,) standing in what is now a winnable seat, a campaign Adele is running the CF side of, should have CFers flocking to help out. Up the game a little and you'll go far. Approval Rating: 43%

Chair of the CF poetry committee & Deputy Chairman Christian May is lingering mid-table:

Pretty average results for the Forward Together survivor. The Exec were clearly quite clever in over-promoting Christian to a position where he can't cause too much trouble. Having been one of only two of the FT slate elected, Mr May could have cut a divisive figure on the NME but good on him for clearly buckling down and getting on with the job. Approval rating 46.9%

Next up it's Anastasia Beaumont-Bott:

These are by far the most interesting figures. Splitting almost exactly down the 25% lines - love her or hate her ABB is defiantly Miss Marmite of this survey! High profile projects such as LGBTory and Social Action have raised her profile no end in the last few months but still more people would like to see the back of her (26%) than think she is doing a good job (24.7%.) The rumours of what would be, given her age, an extraordinary bid for Chairman next year just won't go away. If it is a case of no-smoke-without-fire than TB's advice would be to sort out that 26% who aren't ABB fans, because if these figures were translated into votes- it will be FT town for you... Approval Rating: 48.1%


If the Rock was DC then Richard Jackson would be Steve Hilton, or maybe Andy Coulson:

The first of this NME's co-options has proved to be a hit. The
CF Exec blog
is a great new inititive, as were the Twitter and Flickr updates from Henley. The strategic brains behind the Rock4CF phenomenon, and part time CCHQ Press Officer, Richard is clearly getting his teeth stuck into his new role as communications guru for the NME. Although 31.6% of respondents don't know who he is, that can hardly be held against him given the fact that he didn't have all the publicity of the election. The man behind the scenes image is one the suits him well and his excellent Approval Rating of 62.1% is thoroughly deserved.

After the storming successes of Crewe and Henley the National Campaigns Coordinator Patrick Sullivan is your most highly rated member of the NME:

So the joke goes that the Tories didn't win by-elections and then they put Patrick in charge, well TB wouldn't go that far but you have to hand it to Mr Sullivan - he is doing an excellent job so far. Having tested out methods and found a solid formula during the Ealing by-election last summer, CF national campaigns have gone from strength to strength, especially for Boris and in Crewe. While de-camping around the country to fight on the front, Patrick has also juggled the pressure of relaunching the StudentLife committee, of which he is the co-chair. He has clearly got his name recognition sorted and it seems work hard,play hard is a winning formula! Approval Rating: 68.4%
Well done to Richard and Patrick for their approval ratings about 50%. Plenty of room for improvement amoungst the other members though - was hardly a glowing report. TB won't be doing these monthly but they will be held every so often. The final result for Chairman Michael Rock is 72.4% of respondants think he is doing a good job (giving him a score above 5/10) - solid.

Still to come from the survey are some re-election figures for the NME and a look at possible candidates for next time round, as well as the verdicts on Michael Lunn and Social Action.

TB is getting lashed this weekend so don't expect too much.