Gazette

Ruth Lea decides not to renew her membership of the Conservative Party

Tim Montgomerie

I learnt yesterday that Ruth Lea had decided to join the growing number of people who have decided not to renew their membership of the Conservative Party. As far as I'm aware she hasn't joined another party. She certainly hasn't made any attack on David Cameron. She just doesn't feel part of the Conservative family anymore.

Ruth was one of the party's most reliable allies during our leanest years. When other people - who should have known better - were flocking to join Blair's big tent she stayed with conservatism. Whether it was on BBC Question Time, Radio 4 or in the daily newspapers she was an advocate for staying out of the €uro, keeping taxes low, upholding the family and solidarity with the people who did the right thing - the savers, the people working long hours, the good neighbours. She even lost a lucrative job at the IoD, in part, because she refused to sign up to the developing Blairite consensus there (since, I should say, now completely gone). She moved on to the Centre for Policy Studies where, as Director, on Europe and climate change, she again stood against establishment opinion. It's a CV that should have put her in the Lords.

The remoteness she feels from the Conservative Party today may partly be ideological but it's also more basic, more relational. I asked her yesterday if she had much contact from the Tory leadership. She hesitated but admitted no. She's not alone. Amazing numbers of people who have been influential in conservative circles over recent years hardly hear from Cameron and his team. Even when they might intellectually agree with what the Coalition is doing, they don't feel part of it. Slowly but surely, one by one, the party is losing some of its best friends. Some ideological issues are so big that no amount of sustained contact and courtesy will keep people together but it can make a difference. If it's not going to happen naturally the sooner Downing Street builds the kind of capacity that the White House has to manage its most important relationships, the better.

In the meantime I just want to thank Ruth for everything she has done for big and small c conservatism. Including for this site and articles such as "Gordon Brown was never fit for Number 10".

Ruth, please come back soon.

Nine MPs and ex-PPCs appointed as spokesmen for the Tory campaign against AV

By Jonathan Isaby

ConHome can exclusively reveal this morning that the Conservative Party is announcing seven MPs and two unsuccessful candidates at last year's general election as spokesmen for the party's campaign against the Alternative Vote.

They can be expected to play a leading role during the forthconing referendum in highlighting the message of why people should vote against changing our electoral system both in the media and in debates taking place up and down the country.

They are:

• Conor Burns MP (Bournemouth West)
• George Eustice MP (Camborne and Redruth)
• Sam Gyimah MP (Surrey East)
• Kwasi Kwarteng MP (Spelthorne)
• Charlotte Leslie MP (Bristol North West)
• Priti Patel MP (Witham)
• Chris Philp (PPC for Hampstead and Kilburn, 2010)
• Chris Skidmore MP (Kingswood)
• Maggie Throup (PPC for Solihull, 2010)

Here's what some of them have to say about the proposal to change the voting system:

Conor Burns: "The current system we have in place has served the United Kingdom well.  It works.  It provides transparent accountability of MPs to their constituents.  More importantly, it allows the electorate to decisively reward or punish Governments and provides for clear outcomes leading to stable Government.  Under First Past the Post, a winning party can implement the manifesto on which they were returned without recourse to backroom deals, leading to programmes never endorsed at the ballot box. The Alternative Vote is the compromise that no one genuinely wants.  Britain is better by sticking to a system that we know, we trust and that works."

George Eustice: “Our current one person one vote system delivers clear outcomes, strong government and is used by over 70 countries around the world.  Under the Alternative Vote system some people get more votes than others and that’s not fair.  Someone who votes for the BNP would get a second and maybe third bite of the cherry.  That’s not right.   No wonder this system is only used by three countries in the whole world.”

Sam Gyimah: “We need to change the way we do politics. But the Alternative Vote isn’t the answer, because it doesn’t put people in charge - it puts politicians in charge. With AV you lose what everyone knows they’re doing when they enter the polling booth – voting for the MP they want and, by extension, the government they want. And you lose the ability to decisively kick out a government you don’t like. To begin to reinvigorate our politics we’ve got to make our politicians more accountable, approachable and relevant – not create an environment where they can hide away in Westminster making deals behind closed doors about who gets a turn in government this time round.”

Chris Philp: “AV will mean more Hung Parliaments. This means that Governments will get chosen in backroom deals with smaller parties after the election, not by the public. AV transfers the power to choose the Prime Minister from the people to the Lib Dems. No wonder they're so keen on it. Another weakness of AV is that fringe party voters have their voted counted many times - and their fifth or sixth preference could trump a Labour or Conservative first preference. I lost Hampstead & Kilburn by 42 votes at the last election. The BNP polled 300. Why should their sixth preference votes have decided the outcome?"

Chris Skidmore: “I am supporting the No2AV campaign as I firmly believe that First Past the Post gives the most important power of all to the electorate; the ability to eject a failed government. In my view AV is deeply undemocratic. It offers supporters of fringe parties several opportunities to influence the outcome as their second, third or fourth preferences are counted. AV will increase the public scepticism of politics as parties decide the fate of the country in backroom deals. I urge everyone to vote ‘No’ on May the 5th.”

Maggie Throup: “I’m campaigning for a ‘no vote’ because the Alternative Vote just won’t deliver what the ‘yes campaigners’ are promising. Changing the voting system isn’t the way to clean up politics, it’s not the way to make votes fairer and it certainly isn’t the way to make MPs more accountable. Add to this, our country just cannot afford the millions it would cost to implement any new system.”

Here are the latest ways in which CCHQ is distilling those messages (click to enlarge):

Ballot papers for National Conservative Convention election to be re-issued

By Jonathan Isaby

A couple of days ago I heard from several members of the National Conservative Convention that their ballot papers for the elections now underway - details of the candidates are here - had arrived at their homes but been addressed to another member of the NCC, suggesting that a spreadsheet of addresses had mismatched the names and the addresses.

It would seem that this error affected large swathes of ballot papers, since the following email has now been sent to all members of the NCC from Returning Officer, Stephen Phillips:

BALLOT FOR VICE PRESIDENTS OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

The company we contracted to distribute the ballot papers and accompanying papers have mis-matched a number of names and addresses. This has resulted in a significant number of members of the National Convention receiving ballot papers incorrectly addressed to fellow members of the National Convention.

If you have received an A4 white envelope at your address bearing the name of a fellow National Convention member, it is important that you understand that this envelope contains the cvs of candidates for Vice President, which will not be re-issued.

It is important that we maintain the integrity of this ballot. In view of the large number of inaccuracies, I am declaring the ballot null and void.

The ballot will be re-run using different coloured ballot papers and a fresh Declaration of Identity. Please destroy the light blue ballot paper you have received and the light pink Declaration of Identity. If you have already posted these to me, these will be set aside and you will need to recast your ballot. Candidates' cvs will not be re-issued. An explanatory note will accompany the re-issued ballot.

The mailing house has apologised for the error and is seeking to make amends as quickly as possible.

Downing Street confirms Andrew Cooper as Director of Political Strategy

By Jonathan Isaby

Downing Street has just formally announced the appointment which Tim wrote about about here at the beginning of the week:

The Prime Minister has today appointed Andrew Cooper as Director of Political Strategy. He will be employed as a special adviser.

The Prime Minister said:
“I am delighted that Andrew Cooper has accepted the role. Andrew brings tremendous skill, experience and commitment. I look forward to him joining the team at Downing Street.”

Andrew Cooper said:
“‘I am very pleased to accept this role. I look forward to joining the great team in Downing Street and helping with the important work of the Government.”

At the same time Downing Street announced the appointment of Paul Kirby as Head of Policy Development in the new Policy and Implementation Unit, providing "civil service leadership for the Unit alongside Kris Murrin (who leads on implementation)".

> ToryDiary: Cameron likely to appoint über-moderniser as his head of strategy

Candidates confirmed for the National Conservative Convention elections

By Jonathan Isaby

Nominations closed yesterday for the five elected National Conservative Convention  officer positions which also afford thm a place on the Party Board.

• Jeremy Middleton was unopposed as NCC Chairman
• Fiona Hodgson was unopposed as NCC President

And fIve candidates have been nominated for the three posts of NCC Vice President:

• Parvez Akhtar
• Steve Bell - Currently South East Regional Chairman
• Charles Heslop - A serving NCC Vice President seeking re-election
• Rob Semple - Currently Yorkshire Regional Chairman
• Paul Swaddle - A serving NCC Vice President seeking re-election

The two hyperlinks are for the candidates who I am aware have set up a website. Should the other candidates be doing so, let me know and I will link to those sites too.

Votes will be cast at the meeting of the National Conservative Convention in Cardiff (or in advance by post).

All members of the NCC are entitled to vote.

Samuel Coates set to begin TA tour in Afghanistan

Tim Montgomerie

This is Samuel Coates' last week in CCHQ before he heads off towards Afghanistan as part of a Territorial Army tour.

Sam was Deputy Editor of ConHome before, first, joining David Cameron's office as a speechwriter and then becoming the party's Head of Digital.

He made an enormous contribution to this website's early development and I'm sure he will do great things in the years ahead.

I want to publicly wish him a successful and safe tour and thank him for his service of our country. We are all indebted to our brave servicemen and women. Sam will very much be in many of our thoughts over the next ten or so months.

Tracey Crouch elected to the Executive of the 1922 Committee

By Jonathan Isaby

There has just been an election for a vacancy on the Executive of the 1922 Committee, caused by the resignation of Angie Bray on her appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Francis Maude.

There was a five-way contest for the place which saw Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch elected (beating John Baron, Bob Blackman, Michael Ellis and David Mowat).

Many congratulations to her.

The full '22 line up now stands as:

• Chairman - Graham Brady
• Vice Chairmen - Charles Walker and John Whittingdale
• Secretaries - Mark Pritchard and Christopher Chope
• Treasurer - Brian Binley

And the twelve elected members of the Executive Committee:

• David Amess
• Gavin Barwell
• Peter Bone
• Julian Brazier
• Tracey Crouch
• Philip Davies
• Charlie Elphicke
• Robert Halfon
• Bernard Jenkin
• Priti Patel
• Nicholas Soames
• Andrew Turner

David Cameron meets David Hasselhoff

By Jonathan Isaby

You never know who you're going to bump into around the Houses of Parliament and as the photo above shows, this morning saw one of Westminster's more extraordinary encounters: the Prime Minister meeting TV star and some-time singer, David Hasselhof.

The Hoff was in Westminster as a guest of his old friend David Morris, the Tory MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, who himself used to work in the music industry.

Explains Morris:

"He came for a tour of Parliament and I also asked him to support my campaign for the re-opening of the Winter Gardens in Morecambe. It was originally built in 1897 but has been closed to the general public since 1977. The Winter Gardens is an amazing place that still retains its original character and I'm delighted that the Hoff is supporting its re-opening.

"Since I was going to a meeting in Downing Street this afternoon, I asked him if he'd sign a picture of himself for the Prime Minister - so we were stunned that by chance the Prime Ministerial car turned up just as he was about to leave, meaing that he was able to give it to him personally. Seeing the two of them together was surreal!"

Big Brother Watch attracts a bumper crowd for its book launch

By Jonathan Isaby

There was a bumper turnout in Westminster last night for the launch of Big Brother Watch: The state of civil liberties in modern Britain - published by Biteback and available at the discount price of £6.54 via Amazon.

The book, edited by Alex Deane, contains 27 chapters by numerous authors - including Damian Green MP (pictured below with Alex), David Davis MP, Dominic Raab MP, Simon Richards, Martin Howe QC and Mark Littlewood - all of whom consider different ways in which the state now encroaches upon our lives and freedoms.

The event also marked Alex's departure as Director of Big Brother Watch for pastures anew at Bell Pottinger, and after a few of his own thank-yous, Matthew Elliott, under whose auspices at the TaxPayers' Alliance BBW was founded, invited all assembled to toast Alex and the successful publication of the book. Champagne aplenty was enjoyed by all, as were culinary delicacies prepared by the fair hand of Daniel Hamilton, Campaign Director at BBW.