ConservativeHome's Community

Annabel Herriott

LOCATION... Huddersfield West Yorks - in the Colne Valley bit.

SELF-DESCRIPTION... Retired Health Visitor (also have general nursing and midwifery qualifications). Semi detached. Partner Edward lives at his and I live at mine - 2miles apart! I do the tea. He washes up. Comes for weekends, and we go on holiday. Perfect for a couple of stubborn old people. Life long Tory. Was YC branch secretary in Macmillans time. Based in a pub. Brandling Arms, Jesmond, Newcastle/Tyne.

Came to West Yorks in 1969 when my ex got a promotion. Acquired three little kids of 7, 8, and 9 when their remaining parent died, so never returned to the North East. Just drive up every month for lunch with my R.V.I. gang. Always been a pompous bubble pricker. Always hated NHS management. Our stars have just set in motion a plan to pretty well shut down Huddersfield Hospital. Will have to trail to Halifax for midwifery and others. Lousy road between as well. I was apparently sadly missed at "unit meetings" after retirement in 2000, as I could be relied on to open my mouth when others dare not!!

What else... I do gardening, sewing, tapestry, hate housework, love astrology. Passed the certificate of the faculty of astrological studies in 1993. Serious minded Health Visitors are allowed to have an esoteric hobby, I'd seen a client doing a chart and got hooked. Special love - political astrology. Some of the time you can see what's coming, and the rest of the time you can see why. Also, what makes them tick. I love my PC but am a total technophobe, can't even change my own ink. Good old Edward! 80 in April and he has the thing cracked!!

POLITICAL HERO... Several - each in their own era and zeitgeist. Churchill. Thatcher. Hague. Boris. DC.

FAVOURITE BLOGS... Only just discovered them during the leadership campaign, so CH.com. Also, NHS blog doctor.

FAVOURITE CH CONTRIBUTORS... William Norton. Kingbongo. My fellow ladies - A-Tracey and Patsy Sergeant.

Oberon Houston

NAME...  Oberon Houston

LOCATION... Marylebone, London

SELF-DESCRIPTION... Aged 36 and raised on a small upland farm in the North of Scotland. I went to the local state school where I did moderately well academically, but only excelled at middle-distance running. I initially worked on a local construction yard that made large oil rigs for the North Sea. After a few years there, I went to university to study Civil Engineering. After graduating I returned to the company that owned the construction yard in Scotland, but now worked as a Structural Engineer designing North Sea oil platforms in Wimbledon.

In 1999 I obtained a Masters Degree in “Petroleum Engineering” from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and after working for a number of years for BP, I moved to London to work for an American Oil Company called ‘Amerada Hess’ where I work as a Senior Reservoir Engineer. I am married with one son who is 16.

POLITICAL BELIEFS... Most easily described at a traditional “Centrist Tory”. I have a distain for political ideology and a strong ‘what works’ ethos. Although not adverse to change, I am instinctively skeptical of radicalism, from either end of the political spectrum. I believe that people are happiest when they have freedom to live their lives responsibly as they wish, feel part of a strong family, strong local community and country. I believe this is prevalent in a society that is inclusive, one that has a celebrated past and shared values and a society that promotes individual achievement. I believe in a Conservatism that promotes these ideals, and adapts to support their long term existence.

POLITICAL HERO... Robert Walpole. For a leadership that allowed Britons to become world-class achievers and his distain for the war-mongering.

FAVOURITE BLOGS... ConservativeHome.com

FAVOURITE CH CONTRIBUTOR... James Hellyer because we argue so much!

Donal Blaney

NAME... Donal Blaney

LOCATION... Headcorn, Kent and the City of London

SELF-DESCRIPTION... Christian; Chief Executive & Co-Founder of the Young Britons' Foundation and dedicated promoter of the need for a vibrant conservative movement in the uk; offshore litigation and tax planning attorney; fanatical supporter of Liverpool FC.

POLITICAL BELIEFS... Common sense Thatcherite. Favours EU withdrawal, a flat tax, personalised social security & pension accounts, vouchers for education & health, the abolition of inheritance tax & capital gains tax, the doubling of the state pension for the wartime generation that sacrificed so much for us to be free (paid for by cutting handouts for the work-shy and radically reducing the size of government).

POLITICAL HERO... Margaret Thatcher, Enoch Powell, & Norman Tebbit in the UK; Jesse Helms, Barry Goldwater & Ronald Reagan in the USA.

FAVOURITE BLOGS... ConservativeHome, Iain Dale, The Drudge Report and
my own impending blog "Enough is Enough".

FAVOURITE CH CONTRIBUTOR... Dan Hannan MEP.