Theme of Spring Forum will be 'Routemap to Recovery'

Jonathan Isaby and I will both be at the party's Spring Forum in Cheltenham next weekend, 25th to 26th April.  We hope to see lots of ConHome readers there.

The theme of the weekend will be 'Routemap to Recovery'.  David Cameron and key colleagues will set out the Conservative plan to "tackle Labour's Debt Crisis", "rebalance our economy" and "reform welfare".

Over the weekend we'll learn who will succeed Don Porter as Chairman of the National Conservative Convention.

It's probably the thinnest programme I've ever seen at a Tory Conference.  There are only two half hour sessions on the Saturday for all registered attendees.  A thirty minute session at 1pm from Andrew Lansley on the NHS and straight afterwards a thirty minute session on education from Michael Gove.

On the Sunday there are three hours of proceedings with speeches from Eric Pickles (10 minutes), George Osborne, Dan Hannan (10 minutes), Ken Clarke and David Cameron (25 minutes).  Oliver Letwin and Theresa May will also chair panel sessions.

One very welcome development is the running of five practical workshops on the Sunday morning.  There'll be five workshops and attendees will be able to attend up to two:

• Producing Better Campaigning Literature
• Building A Successful Delivery Network
• The Role of the Association Chairman
• Managing Association Membership 
• Setting Up Job Clubs

On the fringe there are two receptions on the Saturday: one hosted by the Freedom Association and Roger Helmer, another by CWF.  Boris Johnson (who is giving an exclusive one-on-one interview with ConHome next weekend) is the speaker at the Saturday evening dinner.  Clashing with the Party Workshops on the Sunday is a TRG champagne brunch with Ken Clarke.  Should I keep that a secret from Jonathan and go to that and insist he covers the workshop on 'The Role of the Association Chairman'?

Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[ToryBlog.com - Telegraph.co.uk = anti-Guido State stooges]

Good positive, focussed theme.

Unelected PM, uncontested because of fear of smears.
McBride.
Draper.
Dodgy postal votes.
Lost Glenrothes results.
Erith and Thamesmead ballot box tampering.
Police raiding Opposition MP's to find info on irksome campaigners (Shami Chakrabarti).

Britain needs to be freed from this dark period under Brown, but it needs to be more than not being Brown, and this theme seems to addressing this. Good.

[Tony Makara]

"rebalance our economy"

It will be interesting to see how this theme is to be developed into policy. There can be no doubt that Britain has suffered from a staggering imbalance in public finances and a severe imbalance between the number of productive and service sectors.

We need to become a nation that pays its own way again, through fully costed public spending and better wages paid for out of productivity.

I have made the call in a number of posts for a Conservative government to support a culture of mergers and conglomerates. Currently our economy is too dependent on SMEs, who in turn are too small to fight off foreign competition. Ways must be found by government to bring SMEs together in a way that makes British business bigger and stronger.

There should be a stated aim to build up our manufacturing base with significant tax exemptions for those that aim to supply the domestic market with British made goods. Once we can begin to produce and supply our own market, and develop a healthy export capacity, it will make the question of welfare and social reform much easier, as unemployment falls and living standards increase through better wages.

[HF]

There are elections to fight, what a silly use of time.

[joshuwahwah]

It would be nice to hear some Tory policy at last.

[Ross Warren]

"Setting Up Job Clubs" Oh Dear not the dreaded Job Clubs. Welfare reform is a serious business. Job Clubs were not successful first time around because they are only at best a sticking plaster response to an amputation. We need a really big change in the way we run our own market.How can jobs clubs and welfare reform overcome the reality of 5 Million unemployed. Only enterprise can bring back the jobs (lost in many cases overseas) Job clubs just encourage a dependence on somebody else to employ the unemployed. If we really must rehash old tired ideas, lets see a return of the enterprise allowance., Lets use some of the welfare money to get the right people running their own business's. I am afraid we may have to get tough and insist that those who can, set up their own EBAY business's.Lets at least have the guts to think outside of the box. Is it any wonder we have 2 million unemployed when we encourage dependency from 3yrs of age in the school system.We should be teaching our best and brightest how to set up in business and encourage them to do that, above getting qualifications to appease some employer. Its high time we ditched a school system that is designed only to produce loyal well behaved robots for industry. Enterprise should be a key school subject. This is hardly rocket science but we are going to have to grow many more business's before Welfare reform will be anything more than a stick to beat the unemployed with. Lets get real and come up with real Market centered answers to our problem.

[Joe James B]

I have to agree with Ross Warren again.

[Truest Blue]

George Osborne = 10 minutes and Ken Clarke = 25 minutes.

Is somebody trying to undermine George?

Alternatively is this a less than subliminal mesaage re the EU?

[Tim Montgomerie]

@TruestBlue,

Apologies if I wasn't clear but the programme does not say how many minutes Clarke or Osborne have been allocated.

[Freddy]

I see our party organisation is on the list - Good, At last!

[The Bishop Swine]

"George Osborne = ? minutes and Ken Clarke = ? minutes."

George isn't going anywhere he will be our first Chancellor.I am almost 100% certain of this. However, Expect a climb down over Europe, I think the Leadership will let us down, that's my gut feeling on this. Euro Skeptic yes In Europe yes. It is going to be a massive disappointment, for those bright eyed souls we can see an alternate future.
Expect a token victory only. I hate to bring bad news in this case gutted.

[Sally Roberts]

See you there, Tim and Jonathan!

[Steve Tierney]

Im going too, along with a whole crowd of local activists including the CF group.

I wasn't massively impressed by the agenda though, which seemed very thin on the ground. I hope there's more than meets the eye.

Looking forward to the Freedom Drinks on Saturday. See anybody there?

[Paul Swaddle, Regional Chairman SE]

I am glad the new Workshops are of interest, it is one of my priorities to extend our initial set of workshops at the Autumn conference. I would welcome feedback on the type of workshops that members think would useful, to allow us to build on this initial program.

Paul
Candidate for Vice President

PS I will be running the session for new and aspiring Chairmen, look forward to seeing some of you there.

[David T Breaker]

It is a rather thin programme I agree. ConHome should have its own reception!

[Sally Roberts]

I second that, David T Breaker - How about it Tim and Jonathan?

[Tim Montgomerie]

A good idea David. Next year perhaps... although perhaps we should get together for an informal drink together...

[Sally Roberts]

Would be nice to get together informally. I'll be around from Saturday lunchtime.

[http://www.900MPH.com NarlyTime FTP Indexer]

Sweet! NarlyTime FTP Indexer
http://www.900MPH.com

[Cheap Jordans]

He is unfortunate who cannot bear misfortune