CF Splits on Porter
A pretty pathetic statement from CF concerning yesterday's riot at CCHQ. Ben Howlett who has boasted before of his closeness to Aaron Porter refused to call from him to go despite the pleas of his executive. The official wet line is:
"As representatives of the Conservative Party's student organisation weHowever
welcome the NUS' comdenation of those individuals who hijacked yesterdays
protest and committed serious acts of violence and mindless vandalism
during yesterday's protests. We now look forward to them taking swift
action against those NUS officers who played their part.
"And we call on the leaders of the NUS to recognise the fact that the vast
majority of students, who did not attend yesterdays’ protest, do believe
that those looking to enter university should share in paying for the cost
of their tuition."
Vice Chairman Clare Hilley
has stuck the boot in:"Hollow sound bites and pathetic excuses from the organisation’s President Aaron Porter speak volumes about just how out of touch the NUS is with it’s members. The only way to draw a line under this tragic state of events is for its current President to do the right thing and step down."Those officials look set to be named and shamed....
Update: Ben says he want Porter to go, he just didn't seem to have put that bit in the statement.
Posts
10 comments:
Hilley still hasn't clocked onto the fact that the position is DEPUTY CHAIRMAN not DEPUTY CHAIR. She should resign along with Porter.
I totally agree. Weak leadership from the exec
Since when has CF been a "Student organisation"? it's the place for all under 30's, not a Student organisation. In addition to that Howlett is goading students, what a massive idiot. What does he want more students to attend next time?
Howlett wants to be friends with Aaron Porter and the NUS, something which will never work, The conservatives and the National UNION of Students are ideologically opposed to each other, only an idiot would not realise that. The NUS and Ben Howlett never stop looking for new ways to destroy the Conservative Party.
Good to see Clare Hilley, quite rightly putting the boot into Porter and Howlett, good to see somebody on the Exec has some balls and is not prepared to use them.
We need a statement from Howlett as to whether he agrees with Hilley. If he does then he needs to have the guts to say so and call on Porter to resign.
If doesn't then he needs to say what his opinion is on Hilley's comments.
Very wet political statement from Howlett. It's also poorly worded:
"We now look forward to them taking swift action against those NUS officers who played their part."
Those officers who condemned the rioting? Oh, he means those who took part ...
As the self-appointed leader of the Ablish CF Campaign I condemn the NUS-organised riots, call for resignations all round at every level, plus the booting out of any members who didn't walk away from the scene. I also continue to call for CF to be abolished and replaced by a fresh start for the Conservative youth movement, which wouldn't be afraid to voice its disgust in situations such as this.
How about a return of the Conservatives Students & Young Conservatives instead of one silly group for 16 to 30 year olds? As if 30 year olds want to hang out with teenagers.
So he DOES want Porter to go.
This fiasco seems to have been a botched job for the CF exec. First they issue that wet statement, then the deputy chair breaks rank and calls for Porter's resignation and finally Howlett (who's obviously only just made up his mind on the issue) suddenly agrees.
It seems a very crucial thing to have left out of the original statement.
If they'd called for Porter's resignation in their original statement it would have carried a lot more weight. Instead they look indecisive and well have just let him off the hook.
The NUS exec must be rejoicing that the CF exec are as incompetent as they are. What a mess.
What is interesting here is that on Armistice day, Howlett failed to issue any form of statement on behalf of CF, which is hugely disrespectful to our veterans. I am appalled that he failed to do so and he owes an apology to Veterans groups everywhere.
On the day we remember Heros, Howlett was to busy defending scum. Outrageous.
I wonder if Jerry Adams checked over that statement for Ben Howlett?