Would you like to sponsor four Tory MPs as they cycle 120 miles to Party Conference?

The Tory Culture, Media and Sport team are to cycle the 120 miles from Westminster to the Birmingham Party Conference in a bid to raise funds for this year's social action project, Welsh House Farm.  The project is profiled in this video.

If you would be willing to sponsor Tobias Ellwood, Ed Vaizey, Hugh Robertson and Jeremy Hunt please send a cheque made out to the ‘Lift Community Trust’ to Office of Jeremy Hunt, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.  A ConHome cheque for £20 is in the post.

Comments

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Will send a cheque. Good luck, guys.

[Alan S]

Why has Ed V been drawn so small?

[Alex Agius.]

I will also be sending a cheque in for this. The money is going to a great cause and one I am happy to support.

Well done to Jeremy Hunt and the team for doing this.

[Londoner]

I don't know about the others but I suggest that Ed Vaizey invests in a health check-up first to ensure this is safe for him. I am not one to speak from any better example, but when I saw him recently his waist line was showing the benefit of all the hospitality that I am sure is available at the cultural events that he rightly so assiduously attends. The Leader cannot afford to lose him: he'll need some loyal men who do not have a lean and hungry look.*

Having made rude remarks like that, I will have no alternative but to contribute I guess.

* Has anyone else noticed what Miliband, Milburn and Heseltine have in common? Not a paunch between them: the Bard was onto something.

[support the strivers]

Londoner, very funny, Brutus no?

I agree - Vaizey certainly does not have a lean vibe though possibly always hungry.

Amazing job J Hunt is doing, very impressive.

[Ed Vaizey]

I cannot believe how rude you all are! Training regime going well, just settling down to strawberries and ice cream, will help wash down the pizza

[comstock]

Birmingham?! Had enough of the seaside?

How long do you reckon it will take you?

[Londoner]

I'd love to believe the message at 14:11 is really from Ed. If so, good on you!

[Ed Vaizey]

I think the plan is for me to cycle the first hundred yards (for the photo opportunity, naturally) and then for Tobias (ex Royal Green Jackets) to cycle the rest of the way carrying Jeremy and Hugh on his back.

Yes it really is me!

[Londoner]

Ed, good sport. I'll definitely have to sponsor you now but might require a sworn affidavit of how far you got!

As for Comstock questioning the venue in Birmingham, he should understand that all politically correct politicos will have seen quite enough of the British seaside by October on account of the edict against foreign holidays. After Boris's recent article, it is also felt that we might not be welcome in Skegness or Bognor...

[Pooter]

At the risk of appearing curmudgeonly or po-faced, I should like to raise a couple of points about sponsorship for good causes.

If someone asks me directly for money for what I judge to be a good cause, I usually contribute something. If they ask me to sponsor them to run a marathon, say, for the same worthy cause, although I regularly do so, I often think that the marathon is a personal challenge, the fulfilment of some ambition that logically bears no relationship to the charitable giving. Even stranger are the requests for sponsorship for some ludicrous activity such as sitting in a bath of baked beans or having one’s head shaved.

If someone could devise an activity that was in itself worthy of sponsorship, I should feel much happier about the business. A few suggestions might be

sponsorship for doing an OAP’s shopping;
sponsored cleaning of infirm OAP’s windows;
sponsored tidying-up of a piece of waste ground;
sponsored dog-turd collection from children’s playgrounds;
sponsored collection and return to source of the fast-food containers that litter the streets.

But perhaps these activities are a bit too worthy and inappropriate to this fun-loving age. Heigh-ho!

[Londoner]

Pooter
I have some sympathy with what you say. I was recently asked to sponsor someone driving around India in a London taxi and I declined, not least for the carbon footprint.

However, I think this is a good cause as (a) cycling 120 miles rather than driving is not only a personal challenge but is the reverse of the Indian taxi (although they need to be careful about how their luggage is getting there - even if they are not promoting this as green, it would not be clever if 4 wives/partners each drive there on their own with the luggage - getting it taken by people going up by train would be a sensible precaution); (b) they are responsible for sport and promoting (and associating ourselves with) cycling is a good thing and (c) it will help media coverage of the relevant project.

[christina Speight]

Pooter is right. They're basically doing this because they want to - and good luck to them. Hope they enjoy it. But it's doing nobody any good at all. All the Global Warming rubbish and carbon wotsits is a load of baloney.

Haven't they noticed that world temperatures have been dropping for the last decade and ice cover is increasing? If they haven't - shame on them. Maybe we should sponsor their reading of Nigel Lawson's book (even this only tells the half-story of the lies and twisted facts behind the scam)

[Sally Roberts]

Brilliant Stuff! I will send a cheque - Jeremy please remind me if I forget ;-)

Good luck!!

[Chad Noble]

£100 from me if they ditch the bike for a 4x4 and hand out copies of Nuts en route.

[Freddie Fencepost]

Only if they promise to keep going

[christina Speight]

Chad's right! It's not as though this was a proper charity. It's just a party PR stunt.

[Appalled]

I can think of nothing less edifying that four supposed national opinion leaders sweating their way to a PR stunt in the name of charity. Can anyone remember Margaret Thatcher in a track suit? Dignity and decorum are seemingly a thing of the past in politics, sacrificed at the alter of tomorrow’s headlines. All of a sudden, one has respect for John Prescott’s brazen honesty that he drove down the street rather than leave his wife’s bouffant to the element.

[Sally Roberts]

Strawberry ice cream??? Pizza??? Oh dear, Ed you're going to have to do better than that otherwise you'll conk out halfway - and I have just put a cheque for £20 in the post too....!! ;-)

[Carbon Foot Print]

Can't they sponsor themselves?
Did the bikes come from John Lewis?
How are they going to get back without contributing to climate change?

[Blognor Regis]

Jeremy Hunt should be able to knock out 120 miles in a smidge over 4 hours easy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Hunt_(cyclist)