Day Thirty: The end of the campaign

Spent a pleasant but tired evening propping up the bar next to CCHQ. The other exec guys were there and we made a good start on working as a team, but of course there is a lot of work to do.

Chatting to some of the other CF guys there it was clear that lots of people aren't happy. Some have given up on CF as an organisation, others were peeved that they couldn't even vote (I know I was one of them).

For this year the key must be to begin setting out a strategy that will take us into 2009 and winning a general election. If this year's exec can put in place measures that will leave a legacy then we will have succeeded in our main role.

Well done to all of them. The exec race wasn't a nasty affair, and in fact I quite liked my fellow candidates. I will be in touch with those who weren't successful to find out more about their ideas and to make sure no good initiatives are left behind.

Hope to have another blog for the year to keep me accountable and to let people see what is going on. Watch this space!!!

Election Day +1: National Chairman Results

Results from the National Chairman race.

Nick Vaughan 170

Annesley Abercorn 107
Daryl Williams 82
Chris D Kelly 80
Jonathan Cordell 55

(The lesson is, if you want to be chairman get a campaign video)

Other Elections: Greg Stafford beat Tim Crockford 12-8 to become London Western Chairman.
Owen Meredith beat Robert Pritchard 4-3 to take Stafford

Day Twenty Nine: The results are in

CF National Management Executive 2005 -

Caroline Hunt - 267
Claire Palmer - 239
Sam Beaver - 218
Andrew Young - 186
Jonathan Ash-Edwards - 176
Dan Large - 151

Other Candidates;
Ranil Jayawardena - 146
Graeme Brown - 135
Jay Singh-Sohal - 133
Dominic Llewellyn - 129
Christian Walker - 129
Matthew Dalton - 125
Adam Cunard - 120
Mike Wallbank - 109
Ali Berridge - 94

Sleep, I really need some sleep. I promise to work hard all year, but give me 24 hours to recover first.

Day Twenty Eight: Thank you

The count is tomorrow at CCHQ and its too late to go scrounging for more votes. Just time to say thanks to all the wonderful people who have really helped and supported me.

To the copywriters on ConservativeFuture.com who contacted me with kind messages of support and who forwarded on the campaign email. Thanks guys you really made the difference.

To Richard Willis and Lizzie Fison, thanks for your kind endorsements, they really lifted the site.

To Tom Stoddart and Zoe Aldwych, thanks for nominating me, wouldn't even have got this far without your help.

Claire Palmer, you have been a star, a real source of support throughout, good luck for Thursday.

To my fellow candidates, you all seem to have managed to behave yourself. Not much cut throat back-stabbing which must be a first for a Conservative election. (All except that one pleb who is working on a Chairman candidates campaign and who decided to spam the site, yes I DO know who you are - grow up. It's no surprise you find it so difficult to get a girlfriend.)

The election has been great excuse to get in touch with old friends and for shamelessly making some new ones. Thanks to everyone who has pledged their support and for the (sometimes very) nice things you have said. We'll see what tomorrow holds, but I have enjoyed the campaign immensely whatever happens.

Finally, thanks to Sarah Southern our embattled National Organiser. Goodness knows why you are still sticking with the job, but I know all the members appreciate your (solidly non-partisan) efforts on our behalfs.

Day Twenty Seven: A final message:

Tuesday before the count, if you were lucky enough to receive a ballot, now is the time to send it in.

I was lucky to be able to talk to a lot of you over the past month about what I wanted to do for CF. I met up with some old friends and made some new ones along the way.

I am convinced that this generation of young Conservatives is as good as any that has gone before it, and if we can harness that raw talent and enthusiasm then the Conservatives will have a bright future.

I have strong ideas of what I want to do as a member of the Exec. Work needs to start now to have in place a solid e-campaigning strategy by the next General Election in 2009. We also need to turn the part of CF that targets non-students, 'Working Life', into a quality organisation that attracts the older generation of CF activists and prepares them to fight and win elections.

I would not ask for your votes if I was not sure that I knew what I wanted to do, and was prepared to work hard for the next twelve months.

The detailed proposals are set out in my manifesto and are discussed a bit more on this blog, take some time to have a look at them, and if you share my passion for trying to turn this organisation around then I would be honoured to have your support.

Day Twenty Six: Final Week

The race is coming down to the wire. Every day reveals new people who can't vote in the election and usually this involves whole branches being ineligible.

This has a bad effect on people who were pounding the pavements last election, delivering leaflets or canvassing. To find out that, despite all the work you did, you are not even a member, usually because the guy in charge of your branch or area 'forgot' to send in the right information is at best annoying, at worst, a kick in the teeth.

Also, emailing the area chairmen, to try and reach the members outside of London, it is quickly becoming clear that some contact details are out of date and completely useless as as result.

CF needs a shot in the arm. We are a poor shadow of the organisation that we should be, and the problems are not complex. Simple things, like knowing who our members are, or asking who should be responsible for certain jobs seem beyond our capabilities. Reform is a vague notion for the party as a whole, but for CF it is much simpler. We need to take a professional outloook on how we conduct our business.

The Exec don't need to run another branch, they need to concentrate on work that will support the branches and have us working as an effective team by the time of the 2009 General Election. I want to focus on our e-campaigning strategy and improving the services for our non-student members, it will take some hard work and a bit of forward planning, but I know what can be done within the year if the exec wants it.

Roll on Thursday!

Day Twenty Four: The morning after the night before

Sleep! For the first time in a week I get a full night's sleep with no work to go to. Thinking back to last night (and I filmed much of it so there is proof) the evening was a bit of a dissapointment. The huge slate of candidates meant that no-one could have made a decision with the fairly pointless 90-second speeches.

However, there were a few general pointers. Candidates who came across as fairly normal and relaxed in what they were saying did well.

My good friend Claire Palmer went for something totally different and just chatted from the front of the room, whereas some others believed that they were shadow cabinet ministers and needed to convince the world of their own self-importance!!

Among the Chairmen candidates there seems to be a tough decision to make. Do we go for someone who is fairly cool and charismatic, or a hard worker, or someone who is well connected, or someone with good ideas? Sadly there was no one candidate with all these qualities.

I am tempted to go for the hard worker - CF can't afford another slow year. There are four years to get everything in place for a general election contribution involving lots of young people, this will take some hard work. Whoever you vote for be convinced that they'll give you twelve months of hard work and that they at least know what they are doing.

Day Twenty Three: Hustings

The biggest night of the election and only one and a half minutes to speak (actually three because Paul Bristow was a bit pissed and didn't bother timing anyone).

What to say? Well, no point going for detail, anyone who can tell you all they want to do in one and a half minutes must have parents who were cousins. The actual speech went something like this;

"Hi, everyone, my name is Andrew Young, I am a CF activist involved in the CF.com website and many of you know me from campaigning at the election.

The details are on my manifesto and website but basically, if elected, there are three things that I will work on for the year and try to get right for you. Our E-campaigning strategy, improving Working Life and reforming the way CF works.

If you give me one of your six exec votes I will work very hard for you for the next twelve months. (smile nervously) Thank you." (THEN sit down before people start throwing things)

The night then descended into a rather boring drunken shouting match with the chairmen candidates before we all piled down to a pub round the corner where a TV crew was filming for some nefarious purpose (probably making one of those naff 'young people in the Conservative Party' videos for conference)

It was fun, and as always good to talk with some old friends, including my fellow candidates for the exec.