European Selections

All Conservative party members in the South West (not forgetting Gibraltar) should be getting their European candidates postal ballot through the door any day now.
This is the first time every member has been given the chance to vote on the rankings of the candidates
Giles Chichester has been reselected as the sitting MEP therefore automatically goes top of the list.
You have 5 to select from and you have to put them in order of preference. As many of you will be aware the highest ranking female will automatically be top of the list after Giles. I could go on for hours about positive discrimination and how unfair it is but I won't as I haven't ever met anyone who thinks it is a good idea, not even women.
I haven't been able to meet the candidates as I was unable to make the 'speed dating' event in Bristol a couple of weeks ago. However I have spoken to a number of people who have met the candidates and they all agree that we have an excellent group of candidates to choose from. In particular Zehra Zaidi and Mike Dolley seem to stand out from the others.
As with any election I would encourage you to use your vote. Regardless of your views on Europe we are part of it and we will be part of it for the foreseeable future. We need to make sure we are represented by the right people and that process starts with selecting the right candidates.

CF Election, the end at last

The CF election results are finally in after an extraordinarily long campaign. The elections don't appear to have run 100% smoothly, with CF getting itself some bad press in the process.


It is all over now and hopefully CF has a fresh start and can move onwards and upwards.


The results are as follows:


Chairman

Michael Rock - 291

Daryl Williams - 249
Matt Richardson - 228


National Management Executive

Christian May - 413
Adele Douglas - 400
Owen Meredith - 380
Steve Ricketts - 378
Anastasia Beaumont-Bott - 358
Patrick Sullivan - 347
Matt Lewis - 339
Karen Allen - 323
Charlie Groome - 320
Craig Cox - 299
Anne-Marie Bray - 273


I have deliberately refrained from commenting on the elections until now, partly because I didn't feel I knew enough about any of the candidates and partly because any mention of the election appeared to attract negative comments which I don't think was constructive for CF or the party or fair on the candidates who, on the whole, were working hard for CF and its members.


All but one of the elected candidates was present at the Bristol hustings and I was impressed with all of them. I am sure they will work well together in assisting CF to reach its full potential. I can assure anyone who wasn't able to meet the candidates at the hustings that Michael Rock showed great leadership qualities and I am in no doubt that he will do an excellent job as Chairman.

I would like to congratulate all the candidates who have been elected and I look forward to working with you and drawing on your skills and experience to help develop Somerset CF over the coming year

I'm a typical Tory

That's something you very rarely read or hear! Why is it that Conservative's like to point out that they are not 'typical Tory's'?
At the CF election hustings in Bristol I think I heard at least 3 of the candidates claim that they were not typical Tory's and that they have chosen to vote conservative.

Congratulations, you have managed to make up your own mind about who to vote for.

I find it amusing that Conservatives will understate the upbringing they had, if they come from a conservative constituancy that is next to a labour constituancy they will say they come form the labour area, regardless of the fact that they lived in a detached 5 bedroom house with an acre of land.

We can no longer say which socioeconomic groups vote for which parties, it isn't that straight forward any more, no longer do factory workers vote Conservative because their boss tells them to, if only typical tories voted conservative they would never have been in power in the 80's.

There are so many 'not typical tories' in the Conservative party today that they have become the typical tory. Therefore the fact I started my life in a council house, was raised by socialists, am related to people who helped set up the Labour party in Bristol and spent much of my school holidays with a Labour councillor and president of a Union in a Union owned house now appears to make me a typical tory.

My First Blog Post

Welcome to my blog. I have been pondering over what to write as my first post. I'll start by telling you a little about myself.

I originate from Glastonbury and moved to Keynsham, home of Cadbury's Chocolate factory(well for the next couple of years anyway) when I was still at School.

I work for the Association of Learning Providers and I am currently studying for a level 5 diploma in Business Management. At weekends I work for Comet, convincing people that they do want to cover their kettle against accidental damage.

I am a Town Councillor in Keynsham, sitting on the Grants working party and the Young People's Liason Group.

I was recently elected unopposed as the Area Chair for Somerset Conservative Future and will formerly take on this role on 14th March.
I am active within the Conservative Party, delivering leaflets, canvassing and I am in the process of setting up a Keynsham Branch within North East Somerset Conservatives.

One of my pet hates is long, drawn out blog posts, so I'll leave it there for now