Caption Contest...

Answers below, standard rules apply...

Cheers to

Anorak News

for the pic.

CF and the NUS

Edward Keene - a seasoned CF hack and member of the Student Life committee has written a rather insightful piece on last week's NUS conference. Although TB tries to keep his posts slightly shorter, this is well worth a read. The National Union of Student should be in CF's sights and this is why...

NUS Extraordinary Conference November 2008 & 'Voluntary Student Unionism'

Quite unexpectedly, I found myself travelling to another NUS conference earlier this week, my fourth in less than two years. Now representing the College of Law of England and Wales, I attended mainly to see where the new constitution, arising from the earlier constitutional review, was now going after its defeat at National Conference last Easter.

For those unfamiliar with my previous writings on NUS matters or the constitutional review, the sum of it is this. Like most dysfunctional, pointless, irrelevant organisations, the NUS has become increasingly introverted recently, arguing more and more about petty personal politics (yes, I’m looking at you, access breaks…). As part of this, the main dividing line in the organisation (I use the term advisedly) is between those who want to keep the old constitution and those who want a new one. Rather pathetic really. The former group, the ‘radicals’, consist of the sort of people who only crawl out of the woodwork at NUS conferences – the most unpalatable, absurd, and ridiculously left-wing dogmatists in the country. Actually, many of them are not even of this country, but uber-lefties shipped in from Columbia, and other fashionable South American backpacker destinations. The bulk of the latter group are only marginally better, many being overtly careerist Labour Party hacks (vis NEC). A bare few of us would identify ourselves anywhere on the right side of political centrism.Extraordinary Conference this time round (less than 12 months since the last one) was convened in lovely Wolverhampton, one of the treasures of Staffordshire.

Fortunately, registration was much faster than in Leicester, but events did not start until two and a half hours after the hall opened. I spent the half hour I was waiting around reading up on the changes made to the proposals from last time. I was thoroughly disappointed to find substantial concessions – several pages of them in fact, from the retention of National Conference, to lesser professional oversight of finances. The new ‘new constitution’ is a watered down, half hearted, remake. A bit like a film sequel – except in this case, the original was never on general release! There is none of the edge and boldness found in the earlier, discarded version. The chance to do something a bit adventurous has gone, it seems. New NUS President Wes Streeting in fact openly stated “We’ve compromised”, but in doing so, he has *been* compromised. Aside from the massive concessions, I was also struck by the substantive increase in the managerialism of the register of language in conference documents. References to ‘stakeholders’, ‘priority objectives’, and so on was everywhere. This is the language of puff, not of reality. It emphasises the organisational pointlessness of the NUS. A third observation is the rather less refined political stage management of the new administration. I have commented in previous notes on the level of perfection to which President Tumelty brought this fine art at conference time. Her successor, it seems, needs practise. The parade of nodding heads on the NEC platform was more embarrassing than it was supportive. Also to note, Dave Lewis’ (National Treasurer) sense of style has gone out of the window, inveterate radical and ‘Res-pec’ faction leader, Rob Owen is getting plumper, and all the other conference delegates are getting younger. Very depressing!

I was too put off by the sweeping compromises made to the radicals and the unusually slow pace of debate (up to amendment 3 of 15 by 2:30pm) to stay to the bitter end, so left before the traffic around the West Midlands metropolis of Greater Birmingham got bad. I am informed by a comrade-in-arms from UEA that the motion passed, as expected. But it really was a Pyrrhic Victory. The will to make a real break with the past and start anew with NUS has gone, felled by that crucial 1% margin at National Conference last year. In all honesty, I have ceased to really care. I probably did get a little swept up with the heady momentum of promised, long awaited change last year, but I am now resolutely returned to my prior opinion that NUS is an utterly defunct, nasty, and unhealthy organism long past its sell-by date and ripe for everything short of execution and burial.

A vision of this very process was helpfully provided by Angus MacFarland, the President of NUS Australia who provided ‘fraternal greetings’. He looked like a reasonable person, but after a few sentences of his address at the start of conference, it became apparent he was merely another left-wing basket case. In some ways it is heartening to know some things never change – like NUS spending students’ money on flying other loony-lefties around the world and giving them free tours of the so-called ‘student movement’ in the UK (N.B. *THERE ISN’T ONE*). MacFarland spoke initially of the “outrage” that Australian students had been made to pay a little of their own tuition fees at university. Lord forbid that Australian students should pay for goods and services like everyone else! In MacFarland’s words “You had Margaret Thatcher, the US had Ronald Reagan, we had John Howard…[who led] a rampantly conservative and neo-liberal government.” He described these three like a triad of pure evil, nefariously pulling the strings of the ‘global system’ (which Marxists so love to theorise over) to the ruin and destruction of all civilisation. I personally take great pleasure from the knowledge that in a hundred years time Thatcher and Reagan will be remembered as two cold war warriors who defended the freedom of the west, threw out the rot of socialism at home, and defeated abroad the communist machine which had taken over 100 million human lives in the twentieth century. Soppy neo-leftists like Blair and Australian PM Kevin Rudd meanwhile will have as their only legacies meddling items of constitutional change and bloated, inefficient bureaucracies.

Most intriguingly, MacFarland spoke passionately about issue of ‘voluntary student unionism’. Legislation of this description was passed in Australia in the twilight years of the last Liberal Party government, changing Student Unions from ‘opt-out’ organisations which students much actively seek to leave if they so wish, to ‘opt-in’ ones which students must actively seek to join. This brought Australian student unionism into the 21st century, and in line with other forms of unionism, primarily in trade. Comparable legislation is desperately needed in the UK, where the vast majority of students are unwittingly members and tacit supporters of political bodies which often hold positions very much at odds with the majority. This, more than any constitutional change in the NUS itself, would herald a new era in student life.

MacFarland criticised the policy principally on the basis that it contravened the ‘collegiate’ atmosphere of university – that it negated the ‘collectivism’ and shared spirit of university life. This is a clear fallacy. Student unionism is perhaps the main barrier to collegiality, which flows not from divisive, politicised, disconnected, and amorphous student unions, but from relational bonds of scholarship, academic endeavour, and learning between all members of a college, whether student or lecturer, professor, or chancellor. Student unions are incarnations of opposition to, and headstrong rebellion against, natural order and constitute a distracting alternative focus of loyalty and belonging in university communities. I have long held this to be the case and was very pleased to hear from the incensed MacFarland that a third of Oz SUs went under in the first year of this legislation.

I have thought a little on how this legislation would be introduced in the UK and this seems a fitting place to expand on the matter. Clearly, we can learn from what seems to have been a bit of a bungled process in Australia. Firstly, universities could easily take over the administration and funding of student activities (clubs, societies, and so on), retaining, with the assent of both parties, most of the existing staff who currently work for SUs. In competitive arenas, students would play in teams and individually wholly for the honour of their university once again, not for the dubious prestige of their student union. Moreover, participation in college activities would be more freely available to other members of the community, further fostering the ideal of true collegiality. Second, colleges and universities could easily fulfil more commercial functions on campus, with bars and shops – perhaps retaining student boards or forums to oversee and advise on management issues. Third, for the sake of tradition and continuity, a directly elected student president could be retained by institutions, with a set index-linked pay from the university, whilst systems of course and faculty representation could seamlessly be taken entirely in-house. The abolition of de facto opt-out student unions would be complete. Students would be free, like all free people, to join unions should they so choose. Such optional unions would be the continuing members of the NUS, but would be much reduced in scale and purpose from their present overblown proportions, especially at the larger universities and would at last be truly representational, containing as members only those who have made a conscious decision to be party to them. Consequently, NUS’ income would be all but discontinued, forcing it to become a very different animal. It is possible that it would also gain competitors in a truly free market for effective national student representation.

Despite my…er…constructive criticism, I would still recommend NUS conference to those who want, for whatever reason, to observe rampant leftism at its very best. Truly, it is good for little else than as such a menagerie.

Can we launch a coup please?

Naming and shaming...

Shane Greer

, of TV fame, has an interesting post tonight about a Tory PPC who refuses to publicise his cracking down on criminals, for fear of... upsetting criminals:

"Imagine if you were a PPC in a tough seat (Labour majority of just under 14,000) and local residents came to you to ask you to help them shut down a pub in the area which was frequented by criminal elements and used as a forum from which to sell drugs. You’d say absolutely, wouldn’t you?

Well that’s exactly what a London PPC did when local residents in the constituency approached him about a notorious bar/drug den, to ask if he would represent them in the bar’s upcoming licence review. And, thanks to the overwhelming evidence against the bar, it was shut down.

Quite the victory for the local PPC and certainly something you’d expect him to shout about, right? Surprisingly though, no leaflet to voters announcing the victory was sent. Why? Oh, because the local association demanded that nothing be sent out in case… wait for it… it upset the criminals! No really.

Nothing like a candidate who sticks by his convictions."

Well unfortunately for the Croydon North Association and PPC

Jason Hadden

Tory Bear thinks you should be named and shamed for this ridiculous stance.

Honey Honey...

TB rarely likes to admit that he is wrong but sometimes you just have to be the bigger bear. Last night started out as a typical Friday night - but as the local kicked out TB and the crowd were wondering what to do. Having fought going to see Mamma Mia at the cinema, the DVD that

Mummy Bear hid at the bottom of his suitcase suddenly seemed like the best idea ever...

So with chocolates and a fair amount of vodka, seven of us huddled around the TV getting about two and half minutes into the film before spontaneously bursting into song for the next hour. What a great film. TB takes back anything he said and sorry

Mr Dale, TB now agrees

.

Then tragedy struck, the dodgy Russian DVD conked out half an hour before the end so TB and his equally cynical

flatmate

are still desperate to know what happens...

Fantastic film though and TB hasn't really been watching clips on YouTube today. Honest.

Commitment to the cause...

TB thought it would be an appropriate time to put this one up:

Exclusive: Andy Peterkin for Chairman

TB can reveal today that Conservative Future's Mr Marmite Andy Peterkin will be running for chairman at the next elections...

His site

letandybeandy.com

launched overnight. Trying to get in touch with Andy now and will have more on this later.

+++developing+++

A flurry of anonymous briefings and spinning...

In preparation for tomorrow's meeting of the Conservative Future executive at the Carlton Club (apparently CCHQ refused CF a room!?) there has been a flurry of speculation about bids for the Chairmanship coming together.

TB has spoken to a lot of people close to Owen Meredith this afternoon and can confirm that he has approached some big CF players in his search for a campaign manager. Rumours have circulated in the last week that Mr Meredith recently failed his Parliamentary Assessment Board test and now seems to be looking to fill some gaps in an already

loaded CV

by going for the top-job and preparing for a very different election all together, it's either that or getting some real life experience. However things haven't exactly got off to the best of starts. A source close to the budding campaign expressed his doubts tonight about the campaign's chances of success; " Owen's new photos on his website are very special, in a Velcro shoes and safety pencil kind of way."

Ouch!

One of the names thrown around tonight in relation to becoming Meredith's campaign manager is Cllr Ben Howlett who denied he had been approached and indeed confirmed speculation that he is considering running himself - "Yeah I'm thinking about running, but not yet."

Tory Bear got in touch with Owen to give him the chance to go on record to confirm the speculation but instead he chose to deny the fact he has been building a team "No I’m not actively doing anything at the moment. I've just started a new job and not sure what my work commitments are going to be like or when the election even is."

Only time will tell but the sources TB got this story from have not been wrong before and another senior member of CF was adamant that Owen "had his heart set on running."

The dates for the election remain a mystery and this time last year the campaigns were well underway. Things seem to be shifting up a gear though tonight and the flurry of anonymous briefings is well underway. This election could get pretty tense given the previous hiccups in the relationship between Meredith and Steve Ricketts, another NME member apparently planning to run. A few months back a botched attempt at an anonymous briefing by Owen against Steve caused some red faces. Tonight it seems Mr Meredith has not been too cautious in selecting who he reveals his plans to and will have to sharpen up his operation a considerable amount if this bid is going to gain any ground.


You know where you will read your election news first.

UPDATE 20:00 Seems there is no proof in the PAB rumour. He didn't fail it, this week.

Wanted:

Tory Bear is looking to set up a weekly cartoon. If you think you have the skills and humour to make thousands of readers laugh every week providing them then please email editor@torybear.com.

- Think

Matt

with a Conservative Future/Party twist...

Rudy 2012?

Thanks to a tip-off from the CF party liaison officer TB had a peak at

www.joinrudy2012.com

- it's the same as his 2008 site but clearly Giuliani is not going to stop fundraising and by the looks of things will be having another crack at the Republican nomination next time round...

Recommended reading...

TV's Shane Greer has a great post on The Telegraph's Brassneck blog today defending George Osborne:

"You can argue all you like about Osborne's suitability for the job, but consider that recent events represent the first time he has faced a significant political firestorm in his time as a politician; and in that light he has perform admirably, if not as well as a more seasoned politician might have."

Read the rest

here

.

Gordon's aliiiive

Caption contest...

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Poor Adrian...

Rumours were flying around yesterday that Adrian McMenamin had been fired from the CBI after he was exposed for running the tory hate sites toryparty.net and hatemytory.com, both of which were removed after he was exposed by TB and Dizzy and humiliated in The Times. TB got on the phone to the CBI and although the spokesperson would only say “There is no truth in the rumour that Adrian McMenamin has been sacked. He continues to be an employee of the CBI”, TB understands he got a pretty epic bollocking from the Director General.

Poor Adrian, this story just won't go away...

Diary of a conference virgin...

With due trepidation Tory Bear printed his e-ticket, packed his pillow and boarded the NUS bus hand in hand with the Labour Student posse. Leaving at midnight and driving the length of the country through the night on a booze free bus was quite the experience. The National Union of Students "safe place" rules were read as we boarded - everyone's opinion had to be respected and no one was allowed to be mean to each other, this apparently meant that a token Tory didn't quite pick up the abuse he might have expected on such an occasion.

Apparently last year's bus ended rather messily so TB's hipflask plan went out the window and it was a very long and sober journey of broken sleep down to Wolverhampton. Arriving on the outskirts of the city as the sun was coming up the very lost bus driver decided to take us on a detour past a 24 hour McDonalds and quite possibly the biggest Dreams bed warehouse ever, neither of which we were allowed to stop at despite the whimpering.

The NUS Scotland crew were the first to arrive and TB had the pleasure of watching as an assorted range of socialists, militants and apparently "right-wing" Labour Students poured into the hall. With all the organisational skills of a party planning company in a brewery things finally got going at around 11.30. Grrrrh. There was a smattering of Tories in attendance, TB counted five, hardly a powerful voting block we could be if CF organised themselves to a greater extent. The morning was spent in a Nuremberg style round of speeches praising the glory of "our union" and poor John Howard was attacked for a good ten minutes by the visiting President of NUS Australia. The fun and games didn't kick off until after lunch...

The vicious debate that has surrounded the Governance Review of the NUS over the last eighteen months was the only item on the agenda. Labour Students and the far left have been arguing over the proposed changes to the constitution for years and literally millions of pounds have been wasted on consultancy fees and special conferences that have seen the new document hammered out. TB couldn't help but feel it was inevitable that this time it would go through as the unions across the country seemed to have done a very good job and stamping out people against the changes from attending this conference. If TB had broken mandate he would have lost his expenses, been made to pay all for all his travel - a pretty good way to make sure the delegation voted in line with union policy. An free trip to Wolverhampton is one thing, being made to pay to go there is quite another...

The usual parade of dyed hair and piercings were on display on the opposing side and the ever smooth Labour students argued this case rather well. The line that really swung it for TB was the fact that the President Wes Streeting told the conference that if the review didn't pass he would go home and shoot himself in the face. The governance review has pretty much been designed to stamp out the ridiculously left wing elements of the NUS that are apparently hampering its progress as a fighting organisation. Although in the short term it seems that power will remain in the hands of Labour, to be honest this is better than some of the nutjob, militant left-wing elements of NUS being anywhere near what could be considered a level of authority.

Though don't get the wrong end of the stick, TB hasn't been swept up in the euphoria and become a fan of the NUS. It wasn't all fun and games. Toward the end of the afternoon an amendment was put forward by UEA - the brainchild of CF member Paul Wells that called for the NUS policy of No-Platform to be removed from the new constitution. No-Platform basically stops the BNP and other extremist organisations from attending conferences or standing in elections. While TB despises extremism on the left and the right it seems ridiculous to force it underground when openly humiliating it in debate would be a far more sensible option. As a Tory TB's feelings toward the NUS and what it stands for went against 98% of the people there but looking around that room there is no point denying that TB saw people who, right or wrong, passionately cared about what they believed in and were willing to fight for those beliefs at every opportunity. Why then are they so scared of debate? They know extremism is wrong, why not defend that view? Running away from extremism and pretending it does not exist will not make it go away. The only way to stamp out the BNP and the Communists (who incidentally are allowed at NUS, funny that,) is to openly fight it and confront it. NUS No-Platform makes a mockery of the entire organisation and undermines any good work that they do.

So the Governance Review passed this time, it still has to be ratified and the organisation is in exactly the same place it was a year ago. It has to go through another one of these glorious Extraordinary Conferences or through the Annual Conference, where it fell last year. The saying goes that any organisation that spends it's time talking about reform, or navel gazing (cough,) is in serious trouble and no truer is this spoken than about NUS. TB can see the logic of Tories opposing the Governance Review as without it the NUS would continue to be the chaotic and weak organisation that it currently is, held to ransom by the far left but at the end of the day it's wasting your money as students and this new constitution will go some way to stop the organisation literally pissing millions of pounds every year up the wall. That is why TB voted for it...

And so back on the bus, 24 hours later to the minute TB arrived back up north. After McDonalds for breakfast and Burger King for supper, along with broken sleep and unhealthy blast of type 1 socialist exposure, TB felt decidedly ill. Not sure whether this will be an experience he is ready to repeat any time soon but worth it to see how the organisation works and where it's problems really lie.

Since the formation of the Student Life committee there has been an internal debate going on within CF about what it's views on NUS should be. If we wanted to, it would not be hard to get forty odd delegates elected around the country to these conferences and actually be a pretty powerful little block... Not all will agree, but for the time being, or at least until the new constitution is ratified TB reckons we should give it the benefit of the doubt and create some mischief. Not long ago a conservative candidate was just one vote off being elected as treasurer and with a little organisation a Tory in one of the top spots is not out of the question. It's a debate that CF needs to have properly, so why not start it here...

What do you all think?

Home sweet home...

After 24 hours on a coach and in lefty paradise Tory Bear has come back from NUS alive... just. Do you like the sticker he was given for his bag?

TB will tell you all about it tomorrow but for now he is going to get some much needed sleep.

The NUS governance review passed by 80%... lots of angry trots! Apologies for the lack of blogging but TB's Blackberry was playing up.

Normal service resumes tomorrow...

Off to Wolverhampton..

Blogging will be light for the next 48 hours as TB spends most of it in a minibus and the rest at NUS conference...

Will try post some updates..

If any Tories attending haven't already got in touch please email your mobile numbers to editor@torybear.com asap!

From today's Times...

Further to TB and Dizzy's digging this weekend this popped up in the

City Diary

of The Times:

"Oh dear. What with it being Monday morning, and the rain, I think that one wonk at the CBI had a rotten time yesterday. Relations between the employers' organisation and the Tories have not been brilliant - David Cameron stood them up at their conference a couple of years ago, and new Labour has been good at co-opting top executives - so I doubt that the Conservatives would be pleased to learn that Adrian McMenamin, who heads the CBI's group on public services and skills, runs the website hatemytory, on which you can express, on a range of one to ten, just how much you despise any Tory politician.

“The CBI was not aware of these website activities until today,” a spokeswoman says, somewhat purse-lipped, when I inform her. “Mr McMenamin has acted in a personal capacity, which has had no connection to his activities at the CBI. We now understand that Mr McMenamin has removed these sites from the web.” As, indeed, he has."

Poor Adrian, this story just won't go away...

Ooooh

Forward Together?

Lads on Tour...

Could any Tories going to the NUS extraordinary conference in Wolverhampton on Wednesday please email editor@torybear.com asap.

Cheers

Bye bye

It seems Adrian and his friends at the Labour blog attack unit have decided to take down the toryparty.net blog before any legal action kicked off.

toryparty.net

now just redirects you to the transpero Labour holding page. Finally the first sensible thing Tory Bear has read on the site-

"Labour's organisational crisis is deep. We have no money. We have too few experienced organisational staff. The real level of our membership is barely more than half that of the Tories.

But the crisis of the left is deeper still. The organising idea of the mainstream left - socialism defined as the abolition of, or the severe curtailment of, private ownership has proved both to be a failure and, worse still, a route to repression."

Right Wing Blogosphere 1 : Labour blog team 0