Nominations for Lifetime Achievement

The first category in the Conservative Movement Awards 2007/08.

Your nominations and citations are sought for this award recognising the exceptional, and perhaps unsung, achievements of someone who has contributed significantly to the conservative movement over many years.

Comments

[strapworld]

Ralph Wilkinson for his massive contribution to Conservatism in the SOUTH WEST. He is also a great supporter of Launceston Rugby which is yet another reason.

[strapworld]

Iain Dale for changing the way people get their information on the Party.His innovative ways and For his loyalty.

[strapworld]

Lance Kennedy who proved that a Conservative local politician can be highly popular and outspoken in Cornwall. A superb Bodmin Town Mayor(twice) a great speaker and a fighter for the Cornish.

What a pity they chose a blow-in as prospective candidate!..

[Umbrella man]

Nomination: Lord Kalms.

Citation: For investing in great conservative causes over many years including the Centre for Policy Studies, Business for Sterling, Renewing One Nation and, today, the Centre for Social Cohesion. He can be forgiven for investing in the David Davis campaign.

[Alan S]

Margaret Thatcher.

Does she need a citation?

[Sally Roberts]

Alan S I agree with you - I nominate Baroness Thatcher as well as she has got to be the obvious choice for this award!

[John Ionides]

Mrs T has my vote too. There has been a tendency to underplay the huge role she has played in making the country, and indeed the entire world, a much, much better place for billions of people.

[David Cooper]

Christopher Booker, for his tireless dedication to making his readership aware of the relentless tide of EU inspired regulation and the disasters it inflicts, along with the tendency of the political class to feign ignorance of it.

(Of course Margaret Thatcher would deserve any such lifetime achievement award, but in context she is hardly unsung.)

[Mr Angry]

Cllr Peter Golds OBE (currently London North East Area Chairman & Leader of our Council Group on Tower Hamlets Council) for a lifetime of service to the Party in London.

[Adam in London]

Lord Bruce-Lockhart
Sir Teddy Taylor
Bobbie Middleton

[tn1487]

For this award or for that of a Local Hero I would suggest Eric Storey who by next April will have served 50 years as a Councillor on Merseyside, in the Sefton Council area as it now is.

He is 90 years of age and yet attends all of the meetings and makes more of a contribution than some colleagues half his age.

[Erasmus]

Yes, Stanley Kalms -- an unsung hero

[Malcolm Dunn]

A couple from .Firstly Lord Ashcroft for devoting time and money to the party through good times and bad and putting up with a lot of abuse which would have driven lesser men away.
Secondly, Phillip Hollobone for being a humble,principled and exceptionally hardworking servant of both the party and the people.

[Atlanticist]

Who else but Mrs. T? She saved not only the uk but the english speakibg world as a whole.

[TaxCutter]

Nomination: John Howard

Citation: For winning 4 elections, cutting taxes time and time again,
and making Australia a better place.

[Geoff]

Nomination: The Right Hon Alan Clark

Citation: In the tradition of Winston Churchill - serving his country selflessly over many years especially in the Defence arena and (importantly) leaving us vivid and gripping diaries to show the motivations of a driven politician.

Under the right circumstances he could have gone much further.

Regrettably "Taxcutter" the nominations must be domestic - which also rules out me nominating Peter Caruana - although I agree John Howard would have been an excellent nominee. Neither Tim or Sam ruled out politicians who have passed on though!

I'd also like to nominate IDS. He might not have been destined to lead us back to No10 but his ideas (presented without any grandstanding) on social justice have shaped and will continue to shape that debate for a long while.

"Strapworld" Despite my admiration for Iain Dale I'd like to think that he still has a great deal to offer in the future so I will offer him the promise of my online vote when this poll is repeated 10 years from now.

[Madsen fan]

Dr Madsen Pirie of the Adam Smith Institute. If you don't know his achievements, you are not part of the movement.

[Geoff]

I have had the pleasure of reading a lot of Dr Madsen Pirie's work - and also of having a few drinks with him in the Duck pub on the Hagley Road in Birmingham a good number of years ago.

He is a most erudite and learned individual and he would also be an excellent nominee.

[Scotty]

Lady Thatcher
Lord Ashcroft
Ken Clark

[Editor]

Madsen fan: If you really want to nominate Madsen you'll have to do better than that! ...although I sympathise with your nomination.

[Sholto Douglas]

Taxcutter, Geoff, I am amazed at the number of conservatives overseas who hold up John Howard as their poster boy. Believe me, he is not worthy of your adulation.
For many years he kept tax brackets unchanged, and as more and more people moved up in the world, they found themselves on the highest tax rate (48.5%) at a point at which many had merely met their mortgage payments. Australia for a long time had the lowest point at which one reached the top tax rate (1.2 times the average salary, vs. the OECD average of 3.5). Of course he was able to balance the books – just by relying on bracket creep he choked on an ever swelling tsunami of cash. OK, he has reduced he top rates recently, but it is still too little too late.
In 2000 he introduced a ‘simplified’ tax system that many now consider the most complex in the world. Quite an achievement for a young country with a small economy. Out of frustration at the many hours spent on reporting requirements, and the extortionate accountants’ invoices I received, I handed over the administration of my software company to one of the many specialised management firms that sprung up in the wake of the new system.
The personal tax pack, used at the end of the financial year to straighten out one’s affairs, was last year 278 pages. As a result, 85% of Australians now use tax consultants for their personal tax.
On top of all this, he has made many ill conceived forays into the market. He brought out a first time home buyers bonus of $14,000, which merely spruiked the market by at least double that amount. To help the demographics along, he announced a standard bonus for each baby born. Unsurprisingly this is far more attractive to the poor than to the middle class, with inevitable results. Soon after the first payments were made, hoteliers boasted a boom in poker machine usage – just the sort of people we need to breed!
To cap it all, before every election he has gone on a spending spree like a dictator’s wife in Harrods. This time round he has even outspent Labor.
There is plenty more where that came from, but you get the message. This guy is no Thatcher. To vote Liberal (i.e. ‘Tory’) is in my DNA, but I am seriously tempted to break my genetic destiny this time.

Madsen Pirie – is he still around? I knew him vaguely in Mensa when I lived in UK. Very smart cookie. Gets my vote, if I qualify.

[Geoff]

Sholto Douglas - yes it was through Mensa that I knew Dr Pirie too. I had the fun of walking up the Hagley Road in a trio with Sir Clive Sinclair on my right and Carol Vorderman on my left heading towards a Mensa committee meeting. For the record: she was amusing and he was irritating.

It's my only ever claim to fame but I treasure the memory because I do have a thing about Carol Vorderman.

I agree with you that John Howard is far from ideal but I would cite him as much-better-than-most. No one is perfect but I'd prefer him in power to his opposition.

[Derek L. Piper]

If we can include those from beyond the free-market grave, Keith Joseph.

And from the other end of the Tory spectrum (for it is a big tent, is it not?)...

Peregrine Worsthorne. A writer, and still very much alive!

I now brace myself for the consequences of that second suggestion.

[pauline buffham]

Margaret Thatcher

no citation needed

[Carolyn]

Beryl Alexandra Duckworth OBE.
Unfortunately she died on 8th November.
There was no Conservative Party representation at her funeral yesterday!!!
Several kind e mails from individuals that was all!!

[David Harris]

Nick Bourne AM, Leader of the Conservatives and Official Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly for Wales.

A longtime party activist and Welsh Assembly Member, Nick Bourne has done more than anyone else in Wales to re-position the Welsh Conservatives as decent, compassionate, competent and mainstream.

His pragmatic approach to ask what works, instead of adopting a deliberately partisan position just for the sake of it, has gained the Welsh Conservatives many plaudits from some unexpected quarters.

If more Conservatives adopted his common sense approach, we would be a lot closer to national government once again. I hope he gets nomintated for the life-time achievement award, even if just to show there are Conservatives of high calibre beyond the Westminster Village.

[Kalei]

Margaret Thatcher, I heard a lot of favorable things about her.

I discovered a nice site I want to share with you, the Young Entrepreneur Society from the www.YoungEntrepreneurSociety.com. A great documentary about successful entrepreneurs.