We may very well think that, but he couldn't possibly comment...
Michael Lunn - the only member of staff for Conservative Future in CCHQ has an approval rating of just 19.2% amongst CF members. 35.9% of those surveyed had no idea who he was or that they could contact him and 44.9% say they are unhappy with the way the job he is doing for the members.
There were serious concerns raised in the survey about the "Youth Development Manager" - (£35,000pa) . Obviously there was the expected; "The stuff about Hilley was a disgrace and he should have had the good grace to fall on his sword." and the standard; "no contact, never seen/heard from him."
However more alarming was the outrage felt about the decisions of the CF "Steering Group". This consists of Justine Greening MP- the Party's Vice Chairman for Youth, Mr Lunn and George Eustice- the former head of Press at CCHQ and now, well something in DC's office. Obviously the role of CF is to be the foot soldiers to the party machine come election time, but with a complete disregard for their views Mr Lunn has forced a list of 16 target seats through the Steering Group and imposed it on the membership, without consultation with the Chairman or the NME. Requests for funds for any activity in other seats are turned down and this included a complete refusal to provide accommodation for the countless CF members who decamped to Crewe and to Henley for weeks on end. Tory Bear understands that members of the NME who do not wish to be named spent a significant amount of their own money in providing support for by-elections and other activities. It seems as if the NME are trying to down-play this fact and "campaign funds" has been a euphemism for some time for personal spending. A number of people have raised this fact with TB. This is frankly a disgrace.
Tory Bear got in touch with Mr Lunn to ask him to spread some light on not only the fact he is terrible at responding to members but also about the target seats issue;In a charming manner he replied "Thanks for your email. We have discussed it and in answer to your question we do not accept your online survey and do not comment on media speculation about target seats."
Well you may dismiss it as speculation Michael, but you know these documents are real:
(click to enlarge.)
There is enough
speculation
going on about how these seats were chosen (not only in the comments on this site but elsewhere,) so TB is not going to add his own two cents. Granted CCHQ have every right to tell the media, in whatever form to piss off, so TB urges any member who wants to know what exactly it is about these 16 seats that makes them so special to email michael.lunn@conservatives.com and ask him yourself.Surly he will answer to the members?
In his capacity as a member of the Conservative Party TB's alter ego has written to the Party Chairman before to complain about the appalling disregard CF is held in and would have no qualms in doing so again.
What right does this unelected official have to dictate where CF can and cannot campaign or how the CF budget is spent. These are decisions for the elected Chairman and NME.
A totally unacceptable abuse of power
once again
from Mr Lunn.NB: TB has been trying to get hold of the National Campaigns Director for the last 24 hours to discuss issues relating to this list and whether he approved it. Has he disappeared on one of legendary jaunts to foreign lands otherwise known as Nottingham...?
Posts
10 comments:
I imagine that Lunn will shoot the messenger rather than dealing with the substance of the complaint, Tory Bear. That he's still anywhere near CF is simply criminal.
Maybe, just maybe, the central professional party is in a better position to determine where it is best to concentrate our CF strength, than the bunch of jumped up attention seekers that make up much of the NME.
maybe just maybe that would be plausable if the one of the various chairmen, agents and candidates weren't friends with one of the three on the steering committee.
Even if they did want to three line whip where cf resources go they should have consulted and made this public.
Even if they did want to three line whip where cf resources go they should provide support at by elections which are a completly different matter rather than expecting one of the NME to cough up for hotel bills and coaches for transporting CFers. Imagine how pissed off they would have been if no one had turned up?
CFers are just pissed and shat on by central office. They would miss us if we were gone and better start coughing up.
Seems Greening's relationship with the Chairman isn't as strong as they were in Clarke's day... wonder why.
As far as I am aware, the seats were chosen due to
a) their marginality
and
b) their proximity to universities, and thus their proximity to an active CF branch.
However, as I have explained to Michael Lunn, if consulted, the seats that have been allocated to my area were not nessecaraly (I know its spelt wrong!) the ones I would have chosen.
In a few cases I'm aware of, the local CF chairmen knew about this before the NME. I can't decide if that's a good thing or not...
ADx
area chairman (all but two were unelected!) should not know things before the nme..
this is a fucking joke.
Agreed.
The man is a total shit and is basically responsible for the current pretend Chairman's election over other candidates (I don't mean Darryl). He was after a pliable CF Chairman, and got what he wanted.
The sooner this malefactor is gone the better.
cough.. bullshit.
admit it mate.. rock smashed the slate.
Yes, Rock did smash the slate, and isn't that I good job too, because he is really making great progress with his business plan.
I am sure that Tory Bear will soon get a copy of the Rock's business plan and see how many of it's goals have been accomplished and show us all.
I for one can honestly say that I didn't vote for Richardson for personal reasons but as far as I can see it's currently his manifesto which is being implimented.
Just a thought, but surely when it comes to deciding targets for a 2-3 year period the party should be making the decisions?
The problem with CF has been its stop start nature and having CCHQ invested in where they are targetting is a prerequisite for good management.
On another note, don't be too upset if ML doesn't reply to your emails. One staff member for x thousand members is inadequate and is the reason whyCF always does so badly no matter how hard the NME work.
Pity.
Andrew, yes I agree that the central party should be responsible for the long-term strategy, but the problem with this list of seats is that no consideration was given to whether these PPC's actually wanted the CF help, or if the associations were in need of extra money etc. One of the seats on the list didn't turn up to the initial meeting and has refused to engage in a dialogue with either Lunn or CF at large. If we're going to throw time, effort and money into a seat, could it not at least be one who wants and needs the help?
ADx