CF goes to Guildford

At the invitation of fellow exec member, Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, I spent yesterday afternoon campaigning for Anne Milton MP in Guildford. Anne is a great MP who won the seat off the Lib Dems in the 2005 General Election. It is a key priority for CF to ensure that Guildford becomes a solid Conservative seat at the next general election. In addition to that campaigning in Guildford is always great fun!

Guildford Agent, Frank Young, also appreciates the hard work of Conservative Future. Frank says:

“Conservative Future is the party’s secret campaigning weapon, in a highly marginal seat like Guildford we couldn’t campaign as effectively without the support of CF members travelling across constituency boundaries to support us.

Over the past six months Conservative Future members have helped to deliver thousands of leaflets and have shown a willingness to provide large amounts of Campaign Support in key parts of the constituency. If Anne Milton MP is returned to Parliament on a bigger majority at the next General Election a large part of that majority will be down to Conservative Future.

I have a very clear and simply message to any candidate looking to win their seat and win it big - get in touch with Conservative Future!”

Pictures from the Event are below:

Another Guildford campaign day will be happening this summer, so watch this space!

Patrick Sullivan
National Campaigns Director

Henley By-Election

Due to Boris Johnson stepping down from his Parliamentary seat to focus on being a full time Mayor of London a by-election has been called in the Henley for Thursday 26th June 2008. The Conservative candidate is John Howell.

Conservative Future will be playing a pivitol role in this by-election. To be kept informed of what we are doing and how you can help please join our facebook group for the by-election:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38540235224

We will be running a CF National Action Day on the 21st June and will be running weekday campaigning teams from 16th June. If you wish to take part please do not hesitate to contact me.

In addition to our campaigning efforts we intend to make this by-election more fun and we will be organising various socials and activities throughout the election - both during the week and during the weekend of the 21st/22nd.

If you need any more information please e-mail me at patricksullivan21@hotmail.com or call me on 07801 233 852.

Patrick Sullivan
National Campaigns Director

p.s. click here to see what CF got up to at the Crewe & Nantwich by-election.

CF Crewe and Nantwich – An Overview

I thought nothing could ever top the effort that CF put into the Boris campaign but in Crewe and Nantwich the CF effort far superseded even the best of our expectations when going in there.

Weekday Campaigners

I would like to thank the following people for moving up to Crewe with me for the two weeks that CF was campaigning in Crewe.

The Honour Roll (in alphabetical order) is:

• Edward Hallam
• Ben Howlett
• Alexandra Swann
• And Peter Smallwood

All of the above showed their dedication to the party and to Conservative Future making personal sacrifices to make the time to help the party. It is difficult living with people for two weeks non-stop and their were times when there tensions flared up but I would not change those days for the world – it was one of the best times I have ever had.

I would also like to thank Al Gunn and Leeds CF, Matt Lewis and Keele CF, Robert Largen and Manchester CF and James Deighton and Leicester University CF for arranging weekday campaign teams from their areas in the final days

CF Weekend

Some of the CF members up for the ‘CF Weekend’:

This was the major success of the campaign over the course of the Weekend before the election we had over 100 CFers in Crewe. I would like to thank Robert Largen for organising a team from Manchester, Hamish Stewart for bringing almost 20 people from Nottingham, Alex Agius for moving into Premier Inn for the weekend and Owen Meredith and Matt Lewis for ensuring a strong Keele presence.

My professional highlight of the Weekend was that CF made it on the Channel 4 News and my personal highlights have to include the trip up to Manchester on the Saturday Night, thanks to Adele Douglas for putting us up, and the ad-hoc Student Life team building session in Nottingham that former Exec member for Students Councillor Michael Champion, put on for Alexandra, Hamish and I.

Polling Day

Out on polling day getting the vote out:

Dawn Raids are one of the most exhausting, yet most fun parts of any election. This Thursday was no exception. We all woke up at 3 am and were out pounding the streets from 4 am onwards. We did not stop until 9pm and I have to thank the makers of pro-plus for keeping me awake for the duration of the day.

This was also a fun day – I got to meet former National Deputy Chairman and PPC for Pendle Andy Stephenson who was able to fill me in on tales of CF past. I also got to meet Miss Great Britain who was also running in the election. She might not have got many votes but she put in a good showing. Also good fun were the Monster Raving Loonys

Patrick Sullivan
National Campaigns Director

Photos with some of the other candidates:

Monster Raving Loony Party:

Miss Great Britain:

UK Independence Party candidate:

Tories Take Crewe and Nantwich!

A guest post by Alexandra Swann

Perhaps this isn’t something I should shout about but I genuinely woke up Friday morning having had a nightmare that we lost Crewe and Nantwich. Luckily, and partly due to the hard work of CF and the incredible campaigning that has gone on over the past 2 weeks this was not the case and the people of Crewe and Nantwich sent a message to Gordon Brown by choosing the Conservative candidate Edward Timpson over the Labour Tamsin Dunwoody with a massive 7,860 majority!!

Having spent over a week in Crewe myself all I can say is thank you to those that have been campaigning for months to secure this victory, thank you in particular to Patrick Sullivan, National Campaigns Director, for the quite staggering national campaign day which saw buses from Manchester, London, Birmingham and Nottingham descend on Crewe, and most of all thank you to the hordes of wonderful people I met up there for one of the most fun and inspiring weeks I’ve spent in a long time.

Now we can look forward to the Henley by-election when it is called safe in the knowledge that even Labour safe seats are sending out the message that Gordon Brown and a Labour government is to be something of the past to a Conservative Future.

Alexandra Swann
Surrey Area Chairman

CF in Crewe, Day 10

A guest post by Edward Hallam

The last full day of campaigning ahead of polling day saw us making final rounds of canvassing. Whilst people are somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of literature, visits and calls they have received from all the major parties in this election, they remain upbeat and determined to secure the change they desire. Perhaps fittingly I bumped into a team of lost Labour canvassers this afternoon. Dithering and confused in their own backyard, turning to the Tory for guidance - how terribly apt!

This evening, after we’d finished canvassing for the day we set about constructing ‘Vote Today’ arrangements to be mounted on car rooftops tomorrow. Polling day will begin very early indeed for we activists tomorrow, and so an early night is in store. A great deal rides on tomorrow - not simply the competing fortunes of the Conservative and Labour parties, but the aspirations of the people of Crewe and Nantwich, who are poised to send Gordon Brown a message: enough taxes, enough statism, we want a change for the better: we want Edward Timpson.

Edward Hallam
Deputy National Campaign Director

(picture: CF members with IDS)

CF in Crewe, Day 9

A guest post by Edward Hallam

As the campaign enters its closing days there is a visceral buzz on the streets of Crewe and Nantwich. It is rare to be cheered on the streets simply for being a Tory at the best of times, and yet time and again this is what is happening - people are stopping us in the street and telling us how much they hope Edward Timpson wins, and telling us on the doorstep how disgusted they are with Labour’s campaign. That Edward is the local candidate is ingrained in peoples’ minds. So what, they say, if he’s well off - he’s local, from a local family, who run a local business, bring money and jobs to the area. What’s so bad about that?

It seems that Labour are attacking a local success story, and aspiration in general. This campaign is proving to be a vindication of the Conservative approach - positive, upbeat messages, not outdated cynicism and envy from an increasingly lame duck Prime Minister.

Edward Hallam
Deputy National Campaign Director

(picture: CF members with Edward Timpson)

CF in Crewe, Day 4

A guest post by Edward Hallam

Today saw many members of the Shadow Cabinet - including George Osborne and Sayeeda Warsi - arriving to do their part on the streets of Crewe. Darling’s fumbling tax con has not blunted the desire of the people of Crewe for change one iota. As we knock on doors we continue to be greeted with the same message - it’s time for a change, it’s time for the Conservatives. Many older residents are telling us they have already cast their postal ballots for our candidate, Edward Timpson, and are relishing the prospect of a change for the better under the Conservatives. We have even had instances of people seeing us on the streets and pulling up their cars alongside to ask for a leaflet!

As tantalising as these dispatches from the front are the fight is not won - far from it - and the only barometer of opinion that counts is the one the electors of Crewe will deliver on May 22nd. We’ll keep spreading our positive message until the final hour, and we need your help to do that. This weekend we are being joined Conservative Future members from across the country. Coaches are arriving from various parts of the country. If you need any help making arrangements please contact myself, or CF National Campaign Director Patrick Sullivan; you can even comment on this post and we’ll get back to you.

Edward Hallam
Deputy National Campaign Director

(picture: Patrick Sullivan and Edward Hallam with CFers, Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell MP, and the International Development Team)

CF in Crewe, Day 2

A guest post by Edward Hallam

Under true blue skies the campaigning got underway in earnest today. We began with deliveries in central Crewe. Speaking to householders it became increasingly clear that Labour have alienated their heartland through rising prices and taxes that target the poorest in our society. We might have expected, in this traditionally Labour area, to receive a cool reception, but in fact the reverse has been the case. One voter, seeing the red leaflet in my hand, commented “Oh, Labour eh?”, in a disapproving tone; but when I explained I was with the Conservatives he took it in an instant.

It is noticeable how many MPs are arriving daily from around the country to do their bit. This afternoon I was out canvassing with, amongst others, Gerald Howarth, Simon Burns and John Redwood. All were eager to get out and talk to the voters. Time and again the same refrain greeted us on the doorstep: “I’ve been a Labour voter all my life, but I’m not voting for them this time”. The majority of these voters said they were looking to the Conservatives on polling day. For many this is the first time in their lives they’ll have considered voting for us. It’s a great shift for them, and we’ve got a part to play in helping them with the transition. In contradistinction to Labour, who are running a desperate, negative campaign, and the Liberals, whose comical literature we mistook for a tittle-tattle gossip magazine, our positive approach is winning support.

Crewe could turn blue - there’s a real buzz here, and the momentum is with us nationally. But we’re only going to make it if we maintain the fantastic level of support our activists are giving us. We can make history, and you can be part of it.

Edward Hallam
Deputy National Campaigns Director

(picture l-r: Gerald Howarth MP, Edward Hallam, Simon Burns MP)

CF in Crewe, Day 1

Arriving in Crewe late last night, we were happy to find that our taxi driver was voting Conservative. For as long as he could remember he had voted Labour. No more. We have found from talking to many other local residents that these sentiments are common amongst the people of Crewe and Nantwich.

We had a meeting with the Area Chairman for the adjacent county of Staffordshire, Matt Lewis, and he has been a great help in ensuring support from members in the surrounding area in the early days of this campaign. We have spoken today to those in charge of the Conservative By-Election efforts about our plans for CF involvement in the by-election. I am happy to say that we are having more people joining us on weekdays, coming from as far a field as Exeter, Cambridge and London, to name but a few.

The campaign team want to thank all the CFers who have volunteered to come up, either on weekdays, or across the weekend. We have a real chance of winning this by-election and CF will be at the forefront of this campaign.

Patrick Sullivan
CF National Campaign Director

Caption the photo “(left to right) Patrick Sullivan and Edward Hallam at Conservative Campaign Headquarters“

Exeter CF Ball

Last Friday at the kind invitation of Alex Swann a number of London and Surrey CFers went down to the Exeter Ball. It was a very enjoyable and high-spirited evening, so much so that many of us decided to spend another day or two seeing the sights and sounds of Exeter. Guests of Honour Michael Rock and PPC Hannah Foster gave amusing speeches. I was in hysterics for much of Michael’s speech.

Much praise must be given to Tarasyn Whitehead-Patey, Exeter’s brilliant social secretary, for organising this event; and many thanks must also be given to Dan Ericsson, the Exeter CF Chairman, for being an excellent host. The event also marked the end of Sean Maher’s successful tenure on the Devon and Cornwall Area Executive. From meeting Sean on Friday I am sure, and I hope, that we have not seen the last of his involvement in Conservative Future.