Brian Jenner: It’s time to put the ‘Party’ back into the ‘Conservative Party’

Brian Jenner is a member of Bournemouth West Conservative Association  and has been involved in urban regeneration for the last six years.

As a member of the Anglican church I am familiar with the prayer for ‘all that builds up our common life.’  What is our common life? And what’s so good about it? Only now it’s starting to disappear does its value become clear. We’re living longer, we’re getting married later, some of us separate from spouses and it has a consequence. There is a growing number of single households in every street of our villages, towns and cities. Involvement in churches, political parties, amenity groups, and unions of all kinds has declined. We are a society of individuals.

The Conservative Party has suffered badly from this trend. Its independent local constituency structure was once a cornerstone of the local community. When elections came around they had an army of volunteers. They attracted clever and fashionable young men and women. No more.

Look at the Conservative Party website and it says, join us, deliver leaflets, and be part of the team that returns the Conservatives to power. Why would anyone want to do that? The modern consciousness is not conditioned to promote causes out of duty instead it asks, ‘What’s in it for me?’ – and of course, unless you want to be a councillor or an MP, there is nothing.

The Conservative Party has made an effort to change its policies but no effort to change its culture. Its attitude to its volunteers is extremely patronising. The Party is obsessed with fundraising: tickets for events, money for raffles not to mention regular begging letters.

Common life may be in decline, but people are unhappy about it. How has the church dealt with declining membership? The wing of the church that is in rudest health is the evangelical wing. Holy Trinity Brompton and its off-shoots the pews are packed. The secret of their success? Worship with a social network. They are constantly organising things and involving people.

The Conservative Party has to develop a strategy that involves people without preaching to them. Why not identify the decline of our ‘common life’ as a political evil it is determined to deal with? By discovering its roots as a well-organised organisation which brings smart people together it can succeed. Party officials need to focus on creative engagement with the communities they seek to govern. No return to the days of cheese and wine parties where the volunteers tug their forelocks to the MP. There are many more imaginative ways to raise funds and engage a new audience.

If a new restaurant opens in the town why can’t the agent contact them and ask them to lay on a buffet for the local Conservative Association? The restaurateur promotes his business, the agent organizes a lively event. Young professionals will pay £20 to attend a speed-dating event. Wouldn’t they prefer to go to decent political soirée with none of the stigma of a singles night?

The future of political parties is as training organizations. In London I chose to join a group called Toastmasters’ International instead of the Conservative Party. It’s a kind of public speakers’ anonymous. I spent five years practising public speaking, evaluating colleagues, organising meetings and recruiting new members. This is the kind of thing a political party should run for the benefit of its members. The slogan would be – join the Conservative Party and we will teach you how to speak in public and how to manage people.

Instead of initiating all new members into the art of leaflet delivery, identify the skills their members have and use them in a pro bono capacity. If you want to be successful in politics you have to be alert to technological change. If the Association hasn’t got someone with the skills to produce a decent newsletter or a website, contact the local university to find out if a young person will help them out in return for work experience.

The Conservative Party somehow thinks it can win again without reforming the local branches. One of my colleagues joined the Conservative Party two years ago. He worked extremely hard as a volunteer expressed the sentiment: ‘The more I get involved with the Conservative Party, the less inclined I am to vote for them.’  Electoral fortunes will not improve until this problem is addressed.

Comments

[John Coulson]

This is one of the most sensible platforms I have read on here. The party does need to make the most of all members. If a young person offers help to a local Association, unless your dad or grandad was one of the bigwigs, you are given pretty short shrift. I have never understood this.

The older members of the Associations are wonderful, in their own way. However what they offer local parties is very different to what students and other young people can offer. Perhaps it is worth trying to be more inventive. I know that the Labour party uses its young members in a much more constructive way.

Fantastic post Brian!

[Paul G Fox]

This is a very prerceptive post Brian. But you might be wasted on the Conservative Party. Is there anyone there listening to you?

Younger people value learning new skills and Conservative volunteers in the past have traditionallly be of a different sort: females with too much time on their hands and no need to or interest in honing their life skills.

It has worked well where there has been a common interest or other agenda, as you suggest. eg Young Farmers

It's time for a change - in a creative way

[Lillian Avon]

I agree. I have been toying with the idea of joining the Conservatives and I think Brian's thoughts are valid and the way forward.

[Rob]

As a young and frustrated member of the party I would definately welcome such changes.

[malcolm]

Good post Brian.You should forward your ideas to Francis Maude and the head of Conservative Future (sorry don't know who that is).I would be interested to hear their replies.

[Brian]

Thanks for that Malcolm.

In The Unfinished Revolution by Philip Gould, he mentions at one point that Labour began to do better when they realised that all these people had been contacting them with good ideas and offers of help, and the letters had gone unanswered or been put in the bin.

[wasp]

yes Conservative Future is a joke at the moment it only exists in London and Universities.

CF needs to have active regional officers opperating on a county or city wide basis that can encourage branches that cover a constituency.

Our best people are getting nothing. It also doesn't help that the national membership system doesn't work but that is how younger people join because you do it through the website. Hopefully this will improve soon!

[Les]

This excellent article very much reflects my own feelings about the Conservative party.

Sadly, the party organisation seems to be a collection of little 'fiefdoms' where the talent and ideas of new members have no value until they have 'done their time' and gained the approval of their 'elders'.

Rocking the boat with suggestions of change is unlikely to speed-up the process of acceptance.

I am sure that if Lord Saachi were to join the party today, he would be assigned to delivering leaflets rather than writing them.

I despair when I see the two Davids competing on the basis of the best 'sales pitches' for the next election - What the party deperately needs is 'leadership' including a fundamental rethink of the way in which membership resources are deployed.

[Father Brian]

I concur with the gist of Brian's argument but feel the problem lies in there being no clear definition of what it is to be a Conservative. As an Anglican, Brian has the Apostles' Creed - a clear statement of beliefs that one either accepts or butts out.

In recent years, the definition of Conservatism has varied with each of the inadequates that have been chosen to lead the Party since that post returned to the male sex. For instance, what made Sunken Myth a Conservative? Little that I could see.

As a previous contributor has said, the current leadership candidates (such as they are) have conducted their campaigns as if promoting soap powder, not a political philosophy that should appeal to the vast majority of the population. Until that changes, I shall be conservative with a small "c" only.

[malcolm]

Who is 'sunken myth'?

[EU Serf]

Brian you are right.

It is also easier to get people delivering leaflets when you have helped them enjoy themselves for the past few years.

[Keith Standring]

What an excellent and thoughtful article Brian. Congratulations! The phenomenon you address I suspect accurately reflects the situation in most Conservative Associations in the country. The solutions you pose are both realistic and effective, it just needs the leading lights in Associations to subdue their ego's a little and start work recruiting the next generation of Conservatives. In this life you must 'Stand for something or you'll fall for anything'.

[Gifin Lorimer]

These are issues which we are in the process of addressing in our local association which has, like most, an ageing but still active membership.

Our association has a Conservative MP; Conservatives run the County Council and Borough Council. We need to renew our membership and recruit our next generation of Council representatives; the people we want to join are probably best defined as active, successful and keen to do more for their community.

The big question as I see it: Would they be more fulfilled by joining a local charity than their local Tories?

The people we want to recruit will not settle for social activites, tombolas and leaflet delivering. We have to develop mechanisms that open all aspects of political decision-making to those who are willing to get involved. The CPF (which I chair locally) seems to be simply a feedback mechanism for decisions taken elsewhere.

The Internet has given us new opportunities to reinvigorate political debate - as happens here. Now we have to do somehting with it - nationally and locally.

[Keith Standring]

Response to Gifin: Well said Gifin. What you've written applies in every respect to my own constituency association. The struggle to attract the young generation to the Party must I regret, be waged against the vested interests that dominate most associations.

Let's hope that in the event that David Cameron wins the Leadership vote, he engages the membership in policy-making. This would help to demonstrate to the young that we are a Party whose leaders listen to and take account of what the members tell them.

Strong leadership will win future elections, but not if it adopts an authoritarian attitude to its own members.

[Matt Wright]

Very good artcile hitting the nail on the head regarding changes in society and the difficulty political parties have in enagaging people nowadays. I think our Party should think less of recruiting members and more about involving people and facilitating community organisations that can effect change. That way being Conservative will mean being relevant and in-touch. Having said all this it is the case with a few people that they want to join but spend the whole time second guessing more experienced members. Wasp says he wants to write the leaflets but not deliver them but we actually do need people to deliver. It does take sensitivity to involve young people but also get across to them that in fact they actually might not know what they are doing when they try to write leaflets.