The Party Chairman's Office have decided to stop paying for a dedicated driver as part of a shift in resources to more frontline political activity (two regional press officers could be hired with the money saved).
Francis Maude won't have to walk around Westminster, however, as CCHQ is going to buy several bikes for staff to nip to Parliament in. They will be customised with Conservative logos etc - very cool. Cycling is easily the best way to get around central London.
CCHQ will be announcing a summer membership recruitment drive later today.
Deputy Editor
Excellent, moving targets around Westminster, must get the Mini-Moke out and affix the sabres to the sills.
I trust the bikes will come with panniers for boxes and such.
Posted by: George Hinton | May 24, 2007 at 10:50
Err, I hope you're being ironic when you call the Tory labels on the bikes cool. Sounds a bit lame to me.
Posted by: Tom Welsh | May 24, 2007 at 10:54
COMMENT OVERWRITTEN BY THE EDITOR
Posted by: Unhelpful comment | May 24, 2007 at 11:14
This is excellent news and not before time. I hope that all will now drive themselves around and all the money put into personnel who are in the main job of winning votes.
Dedicated drivers indeed!
Posted by: Derek | May 24, 2007 at 11:18
When you say "dedicated driver", I presume you mean chauffeur+car+all expenses relating to both. What are we talking here - £50,000 pa? And the party has spent much of the last few years in big debt. What is wrong with these people? Budget for the chairman spending £200 a week on taxis and you have cut the bill by 80%. These people are offering themselves as government for the whole country. No wonder they won't commit to tax cuts.
Posted by: Og | May 24, 2007 at 11:37
Francis talks about the recruitment drive in some detail here:-
http://toryradio.podbus.com/challengethechairmannumber8.mp3
Posted by: Jonathan Sheppard | May 24, 2007 at 11:42
This has to be welcomed. CCHQ diverting money from a chauffeur to frontline campaigning. I am not Francis Maude's biggest admirer but I applaud him for this.
Posted by: Jennifer Wells | May 24, 2007 at 11:47
Yes, a chauffeur and car. The key bit of the story that you might have missed is that they are actually ending it!
Posted by: Deputy Editor | May 24, 2007 at 11:49
Sam - you had me laughing out loud with that one. Exactly - a chauffeyr with a car! Not much use without the car. Though they could possibly buy a tandem and let Francis free wheel on the rear seat.
Sends the right message.
Posted by: Jonathan Sheppard | May 24, 2007 at 12:20
Sounds like a sensible idea. But why not ship CCHQ to the north of England? This would help save money and restore our fortunes north of Birmingham.
Whatdoyareckon?
Posted by: justin Hinchcliffe | May 24, 2007 at 12:55
Will the membership have to opportunity to buy these becuase I would love one.
Posted by: ThePrince | May 24, 2007 at 12:58
I spotted the fact that they are ending it, Dep Ed. But I wouldn't have made a show of it. If we are all agreed that this was a slightly embarrassing extravagance, better to cancel it quietly rather than shout "We've been wasting money for years, but finally the penny has dropped!"
Posted by: Og | May 24, 2007 at 13:02
I hope the local associations are going to be primed to cooperate with the membership drive. The lack of welcome of new members by many "closed shop" associations has been described all to often here. Many associations don't even have a proper list of their members - also need to make sure the new IT is ready first.
Posted by: Rachel Joyce | May 24, 2007 at 13:12
The Area and Regional Chairmen are going to liase with the Membership officers of each Association, Rachel.
Posted by: Deputy Editor | May 24, 2007 at 13:16
thanks Sam - that's reassuring
Posted by: Rachel Joyce | May 24, 2007 at 13:37
This is good... Londoners should be encouraged to get on their bikes in general.
Posted by: Trevor | May 24, 2007 at 15:01
Great stuff and Rachel is completely 100% correct.
Is this some new Gordon Brown tax thing? Funnily enough, I got a note from my employer today offering a 'salary sacrifice' thing whereby I can use my pretax salary to buy a bike for commuting, but I have to buy it from a government-ordained list of bicycle suppliers and I have to use it 'mainly' or 'more than 50% of the time' for commuting to work, but this is allowed to include the journey from my home to my commuting station ... you get the idea ... something that started off as a good idea become a bureaucratic, costly mess.
So I won't be joining you behind the pannier. I shall remain on the upper deck of the bus, peering in horror at the life-threatening manoeuvring of the brave yet surely foolhardy cyclists on Shoreditch High Street.
Posted by: The crushed ego of Graeme Archer | May 24, 2007 at 15:20
Realistically, bikes have limited usefulness in this day and age. They're OK under certain circumstances, but a lot of the time they're no use at all - like windmills.
Posted by: Denis Cooper | May 24, 2007 at 15:27
There were any number of "Tory Bicycles" around when I was Chair of the Junior Imperial League.
Several of them became Dames of the British Empire for services to the party
Arf! Arf!
Posted by: Colonel Sphincter | May 25, 2007 at 08:23