Something for the weekend...

TB is taking it easy this weekend. He must be getting old as the amount he drunk last night no where near warrents the horrendous hangover...

'ello 'ello 'ello what's all this then?

Another day and another revelation...

TB has spent the afternoon chatting to an extremely well connected source who was more than willing to spread some light on the true intentions of the CF Steering Committee. Seems they have discussed in depth the prospect of removing the entire elections process from CF. Elections are apparently a) messy and dirty, b) cost too much - the ERS charge a hell of a lot and of the thousands of ballot papers sent out, only a fraction of them are returned and c) at the end of the day the big people's Party don't get the candidate they want.

TB has now heard this from two trusted and well wired sources.

With this in mind any reforms that the current Chair and NME want to put forward must be done with extreme caution because the last thing any one wants to do is present the Steering Committee with the opportunity and opening to push the changes they want through the Party Board- changes that would turn the UK's largest democratic political youth organisation into... well an organisation as democratic as Labour Students.

It would make CF a laughing stock and go against any concept of democracy. A principle the Party supposedly holds dear.

Let us not forget this is Conservative - not Zanu P-Future

Change?

TB is hearing things - rumours of something big cooking up. Though nothing has been confirmed there are whispers. We are not talking Obama and shallow promises of "Change We Can Believe In" (What does that even mean?) No, there are rumblings of a pretty significant overhaul of the CF structure...

Think NME and Area Chairman...

You'll hear it here first.

The Boy did good.

Up against Labour PPC Chuka Umuna (Streatham) Michael David Rock held his own and did CF proud.

That YBF TV training clearly paid off!

Well done to whichever idiot BBC hack decided that Britain's largest youth political movement was called "Conservative Futures" as the the News24 banner referred to us as until halfway through the program.

TB phoned News24 to inform them of their error but was transferred to OffCom, sorry where exactly does the licence fee go?

Somebody kill me please?

TB is about to put a bullet in his head.. Sixth Form Question Time is the most painful and awful carnival of idiots. I've spotted three beret/goatee combos so far. IDS is leading it and getting the claps but hell so is Wee Dougy Alexander..

It is an eternal mystery to why the entire audience clap at two contradictory points.

As for the student on the panel?

He's pretty fucking hard right.. Doesn't surprise me he is a member of UKIP... Not helping his cause! He wants to lock everyone up and he keeps getting lairy. TB is getting increasingly frustrated by the fact the kid can barely speak.. what was the criteria for the competition winner... best impression of Gordon Brown's stutter?

I'm not sure I can watch this all...

PLEASE STOP CLAPPING IDIOTIC POINTS... TB is close to tears...

The blue-scholar vote...

This

graph

from The Economist shows that all of the hard work CF campus branches and University Associations (if you go to a proper university,) have been doing is starting to pay off:

Tories really are a force once again on campus.

While TB does not want to seem to be taking credit for the national swing, he can remember the days when to be a Conservative at a student union event sparked a similar reaction to walking in with wearing a mac and holding a sign saying "I touch children!".

University Cons have played a vital role in decontaminating the brand...

Things a defiantly shifting and student CFers have a lot of political capital to play with in the coming academic year.. let's not waste it...

NUS take over anyone?

Rock on TV...

CF Chairman Michael Rock will be bashing some lefty on BBC News24's Question Time Extra program tonight at 11.30 (directly after the main program finishes.) Be sure to tune in...

Fingers crossed for his sake that it will go slightly better than this:



The former campaign manager isn't to confident though:

Charming...

It's DD for me

Lets all wish David Davis the best of luck today.
TB reckons the majority will stay around the same - about 5000. Despite the reduction in turn out that is widely expected, DD is sure to pick up some cross-party support and a few votes for being a sound bloke.

Has the by-election had the desired effect?

Sadly TB has to conclude it has not.

Another hatchet buried...

After what could be described as an acrimonious election battle in 2006 it seems as if Tooting PPC and former Chairman Mark Clark has buried the hatchet with his former opponent Andrew Young...

Who said he held a grudge?

Bear with me...

torybear.blogspot.com is going under a substantial redesign tonight.

Sorry if things are a bit messed up for 24 hours or so while teething problems are sorted...

More target seat frustration:

This email from a co-conspirator says it all:

"That list of seats for CF to help in is bizarre -- it doesn't include two former National Chairmen (Hannah Foster in Exeter & Cllr Justin Tomlinson in Swindon North), a former Deputy National Chairman (Cllr Andy Stephenson in Pendle) & a former elected CF NME member (Chris D. Kelly in Dudley South)! Swindon North, Pendle & Dudley South are all in the top 75 target seats against Labour whilst Exeter is target 176 according to the

ukpollingreport

"

Maybe if the Steering Committee had consulted the Chairman and NME they would have been told this...

Watch her squirm!

Hague was at his best at PMQs... nailed Harman to the wall... watch her squirm for a good forty seconds while she tries to think of something to funny to say at the end:



It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

On my command, unleash hell...

It seems TB has unleashed a wave of CF aged blogs and has some "Blue" competition...

theBlueguerilla

seems to have launched today...

Pretty sure it's spelt Guerrilla but c'est la vie.


Excellent to see another blog that seems to be pitched at a similar crowd emerge..

It's all about the accountability and the more the merrier..

In a right of reply to tBg's first post, TB reckons that you should consider the fact that the LGBT advisory board had met just once before the change over at City Hall in May... seems like a worth cost cutting measure if they weren't doing anything.

TB doesn't like the recent rise of Boris dissing that has emerged in the last few weeks. Having slaved our guts out for him lets not throw our toys out of the pram at the first opportunity.


UPDATE 15.24: TB stands corrected:
guer·ril·la or gue·ril·la
A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy, as by surprise raids.

Chris D. Kelly

Sorry Mr. Lunn, know he isn't fighting one of your choice seats, but CF owes Chris Kelly a few hours worth of support in his very winnable Dudley South (3,126 requiring a swing of 4.4%). Though he has now reached thirty Chris has been a loyal CFer since long before the days of TB.

He got in touch to please ask lots of CFers to head to his campaign days that are near and close to the time of conference in Birmingham at the end of September:

Saturday 27th Sept.
Sunday 28th Sept.

Wednesday 1st Oct

Be sure to join his Facebook

group

too.

Best of luck to him...

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...?

YBF summer party...

Don't forget to get your tickets for the YBF summer party that is being held at Mahiki next Wednesday. Have a feeling this is going to be a good one... TB will be there... So you better all behave. Somehow I don't think that is going to happen.

All the details can be found

here

Night out in Mahiki for a tenner?

Bonus.

A t-shirt you might actually wear....

It seems that the offer of a CF bottle opener isn't too appealing and there are many out there like TB who has a drawer full of them. Same goes for Rock badges and Boris ones...

While on a quest to create a decent prize TB stumbled upon a gem of a site that allows you to buy a fantastic range of I ♥ Tory Bear apparel and badges...

The prices are in dollars but given the brilliant exchange rate at the moment this is works to your advantage...

T-Shirts from just seven quid!*

Fifteen pounds isn't too bad for a hoody either...

And my personal favourite.. thongs - just six quid!

Why not buy a badge for a pound...

Tory Bear promises to buy a ridiculously overpriced cocktail from Mahiki at the YBF summer party (which btw is set to be epic!) for anyone seen sporting an I ♥ Tory Bear t-shirt...
or thong ; )

Happy shopping

*TB would like to assure everyone that Owen Meredith had absolutly no creative input in the design of these t-shirts.

She's no Tory Bear but...

A flurry of activity tonight as TB gets tipped off by no fewer than six CF keenbeans in the space of ten minutes that CF Top Totty Alexandra Swann has launched her very own blog at

www.alexandraswann.co.uk

TB is rather glad Miss Swann has taken his advice and started a blog about Surrey - hopefully now she will write it down and stop boring people to tears with her tales from the Patio of England.

TB is yet to get over Miss Swann's audacity at even threatening to reveal who she thinks is his alter ego, but to be fair her first two posts have made an entertaining read.

Favourite quotes thus far - "Whoever you are, TB, i salute you. And think you’re rather sexy." and;

"it’s awful; living for nearly 2 weeks where everyone else is male means I’ve put on around a stone and further wrecked my liver"

Come on now Alexandra from what Tory Bear hears it was you who was leading the eating in Henley. What was it that waiter said? Something about pies?

On a slightly more serious note her post about

Henley

, and more specifically the internal workings of CF should be read by all members and taken on board.

After the little coup d'etat in Surrey Miss Swann has burst onto the CF scene with quite some force in recent months and seems to be climbing trees the ladder at a rapid rate.

Best of luck to her...

Pop Quiz #2

Brentford & Isleworth
Ealing Central and Acton
Kingston and Surbiton
Berwick Upon Tweed
Stourbridge
Brighton Pavilion
Dagenham & Rainham
Lewes
Guildford
Hammersmith
Loughborough
Reading West
Tynemouth
Bolton North East
Bolton West
Leeds North East

Q. What do all these seats have in common?

Standard TB rules apply.. CF bottle opener for the first correct answer.

Murder on the dancefloor...

Grumpy today aren't you!?

For the record I have no personal vendetta against either Patrick Sullivan or Anastasia Beaumont-Bott. So please stop emailing TB asking what my problem is.

And as for those of you who got in touch to suggest that there was some sort of rift between those said members of the NME, well hate to break it to you but TB has from good sources that this is bullshit.

Further evidence of these two getting on was emailed to me last week, think now would be an appropriate time to put it up:



If that doesn't cheer you up I don't know what will... hot moves.