By Tim Montgomerie
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From next Tuesday you will only be able to comment on ConservativeHome if you are a registered user. If you are already registered with Facebook or Twitter then you can choose to login to ConHome threads via those accounts. Alternatively you can set up an OpenID, WordPress or IntenseDebate account; via this link for example.
We are making this change because some people are ruining threads by making personal attacks or constantly dragging every thread on to their pet topics. The new system will give us greater ability to ban people who abuse our comments policy and/ or ignore duty editors' warnings.
Some will accuse us of censorship. One visitor without much grasp of history suggested I resembled the "Gestapo" for asking them not to endlessly write about UKIP. This isn't censorship. People who want to talk about other topics, indulge in personal attacks or use foul language can set up their own blogs or populate fora that allow such things. What people will not be able to do from Tuesday is come on to ConservativeHome and persist in shouting down or abusing people with different opinions, or endlessly to try to take the discussion off topic.
My English teacher used to say she'd rather have a polished diamond than a wheelbarrow full of cobbles. We'd rather have ten or twenty glittering comments on a thread than 200 cobbles and from Tuesday we'll be cobble-intolerant.
By Tim Montgomerie
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I'm delighted to welcome Pete Hoskin to ConservativeHome. Pete is joining the team on a part-time basis. He'll be editing the site twice a week and will also be writing a weekly column. He kicks off today by introducing the idea of Robin Hood Conservatism. Pete believes that Ed Balls is wrong to see the scourge of the Sheriff of Nottingham as a left-wing hero. Pete makes the case that Robin Hood could, amongst other things, "be our most famous low-tax campaigner".
Many of you will know Pete from The Spectator's Coffee House. He was there for four-and-a-half years. Before that he was at the Reform think tank. He is now working as a freelance journalist and will be writing for various platforms, including ConHome. He has previously written for The Times (£), Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and has even profiled a certain blogger for Tatler. As well as an enthusiast for films, music, books and Manchester United his political interests include welfare, the economy, conservation, localism and the small platoons of what David Cameron would call the Big Society.
One of the reasons we recruited Bruce Anderson to our pages was to broaden the ConHome offering. It's fair to say that Pete is on some subjects closer to the Orange Book tendency of the Liberal Democrats than to some on the Tory Right. I hope you will enjoy his writing. I'm confident you will.
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By Tim Montgomerie
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For the second time in a year a ConservativeHome blogger has won a prestigious award. Last year Graeme Archer won the Orwell Prize for Blogging.
This year I'm delighted to report that my co-editor Paul Goodman has been recognised in the new PoliticsHome Awards. Facing stiff competition from the three other nominees - Political Scrapbook's Laurence Durnan, The Telegraph's James Kirkup and Channel 4's Gary Gibbon - Paul has just been named as the Political Blogger of the Year.
Regular readers of ConservativeHome will not need much explanation. Paul is a must-read across Westminster because he has a rare combination of gifts. He is an accomplished journalist having served as Comment Editor of The Telegraph until 2001. He then became a Tory MP, serving the people of Wycombe for two terms until 2010. In those years he helped Tory leaders prepare for PMQs, was involved on the inside of leadership campaigns and served as a minister alongside leading Tories including George Osborne and Sayeeda Warsi. When he describes the life of a Tory MP - as he did recently in his imagining of how the fictitious Alfred J Prufrock would vote in the 1922 elections - he does so with skill, wit and not a little knowledge. Wit is one of the great qualities he brings to ConHome. I hope you read his fisking of Rebekah Brook's 'Yes He Cam' txt?
Continue reading "The PoliticsHome Political Blogger of the Year is Paul Goodman" »
By Tim Montgomerie
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IMAGE FROM TATLER MAGAZINE
I spent all of my secondary education at an army school - King's of Guetersloh, Germany. From the age of about 14 or 15 I used to go to the YMCA shop on the barracks to buy a copy of The Times. I read the newspaper on the one hour journey back to my home in Bielefeld. It is a great honour for me to have been invited to become a columnist for the newspaper I grew up with. I'll be writing every other Monday for The Times' comment pages, starting today.
It shouldn't affect ConHome very much as I've been writing for various newspapers on a regular basis for some time. Although I haven't signed up exclusively to The Times I will be writing less for other platforms as I want to seize this opportunity and make it work. I'll be writing a lot about Tory politics but one of the things I'm most looking forward to is being able to address other topics including my interest in foreign affairs, US politics and the Church. In my first column I've written about the Iranian nuclear threat following my visit to Israel last week (courtesy of Conservative Friends of Israel). There is no paywall this extended bank holiday weekend because of the Jubilee so please do go and read the piece.
By Tim Montgomerie
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Well, nearly.
Tim Montgomerie with AFC Bluebirds Captain, Hudson Roe
ConHome is delighted to be the new multi-pound sponsors of AFC Bluebirds - a five-a-side football team of Tory parliamentary researchers. In my dreams I see this as a first step towards becoming a sponsor of Man Utd and having a very nice box at Old Trafford.
Meanwhile good luck to the Bluebirds...
By Tim Montgomerie
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The FT's Jim Pickard is speculating that "Downing Street approached Tim Montgomerie... to join the ship". Here's the truth in a nutshell... Over the last eighteen months three members of the Prime Minister's team have asked if I'd consider joining the operation. I said "no". The conversations were very casual and didn't come close to anything that could be called a job offer. And, for the record, I'm still very happy doing what I'm doing.
By Tim Montgomerie
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Over the last few weeks you may have noticed that ConservativeHome has gone through a bit of an evolution? Positions I have taken on the NHS Bill, the taxation of wealth, devolution for England and working class candidates haven't appealed to every reader. Some think this site only exists to represent the grassroots. Some think it should only ever be the authentic voice of true Conservatism (whatever that is). My focus has shifted somewhat. ConHome will continue to be the things I set out below but I see plotting a road to a majority at the next election as a central mission. On the Majority section of this website, from now until polling day, we'll be looking at the kind of manifesto, machine and message that will help deliver a Conservative majority. Some of that may, at times, make uncomfortable reading but something has to change if our party is going to address the fact that at the last four general elections we've received just 31%, 32%, 32% and 36% of the vote. My own belief is that the essential change we need to make is to convince 'the striving class' that we are on their side. I write a little more about this in today's Guardian, arguing that our party's attitude to unearned wealth is much more of a Clause IV moment than embracing gay marriage. I don't expect to get everything right on the Majority section (Bernard Jenkin has already critiqued my idea for a polling day referendum on the EU) but it's vital we have a debate about why we've lost four successive elections and whether the Tory leadership's plan to win the next one is up to the job.
Continue reading "A fresh statement of ConservativeHome's purpose" »
By Tim Montgomerie
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I hope with sections like the Majority page ConHome already lifts its head above the here and now but we do tend to be very news-driven. In a new section of the site - The Deep End - we will be inviting you - every Friday - to look away from some of the day's headline grabbing events and towards some more permanent things and trends.
In this week's first edition The Deep End's anonymous editor invites you to think about China's hereditary underclass, American's hidden red tape and welfare, making bankers personally liable for any losses their banks incur, Jane Austen as a moral philosopher and the Greek bookstore/café that could neither sell books nor make coffee.
I also draw your attention to the "fathoms" in the right hand column of the deep end including facts such as...
Go on, dive in.
By Tim Montgomerie
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This was the moment on last night's BBC Question Time when Ken Clarke attacked ConservativeHome, after falsely attacking the "Murdoch press":
I am, of course, grateful to Ken for the publicity and also grateful to Arthur Stevens for posting the video on YouTube.
As I Tweeted last night, ConHome doesn't pretend we represent all activists (although media outlets often do) but I would argue we are much closer to most activists on issues like the EU, ECHR, tax, climate change and crime than the Justice Secretary ever has been or ever will be. I should add that we're also closer to most members of the public on those issues.
What we do do is give more Tory members more of a voice than they had in the pre-internet age. As I told Sunday's Observer when Toby Helm profiled ConHome, this site is like the Tory Conference that never stops. Every day we are discussing the issues that would characterise a good conference fringe programme. I understand why politicians like Ken Clarke would rather the Eurosceptic masses left the running of the country to 'grown-ups' like him... but those days are over.
By Tim Montgomerie
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Is this your first day back at your computer after the Christmas break? Here are 12 top ConHome stories you may have missed...
And as the US election cycle starts, can I encourage you to follow ConHomeUSA on Twitter?