William Hall is the Regional Chairman for South East England.
Five months ago, we had the General Election and in just over five months from now we have a crucial set of local elections across the UK.
Over 2000 council seats are up for election with key contests across England.
The polls have narrowed but we cannot let complacency reduce our drive. To be match fit for the local elections next year and the general election to come, we need to continue to change as a party.
I am, occasionally, asked by my friends who aren’t politically active, why I am a Conservative? It’s not because I believe in any particular one thing or that I read a book at school and now I know where truth is.
Instead, being a Conservative is about an approach that values good government, value for money and individual decency without state interference. The last is why people pick up the shopping for their elderly neighbour, volunteer at a local charity and pick up a piece of litter on the street. The state can never force decency between humans – only stifle and suffocate it.
There is no better place, is there, for us to show what these values mean in practice to our residents and constituents than in local government. While we grapple with how we can regain the trust of the electorate, achievement for communities through effective, Conservative-run local government is the silver bullet that will help us.
Countless examples exist across the country of how good quality local services can be delivered, at a low council tax, by sensible Conservative administration. Residents know if their streets are clean, how much they are paying for their local services and when bin day is. The vast majority of day-to-day interaction that people have with the state is at a local level. Well over £100 billion a year is spent by local authorities.
So if we are going to rebuild from the grassroots up then how do we actually win?
The Conservative Party is essentially a centralised federation of local associations and federations. This has pros and cons. The duplication of back-office processes, staff recruitment, accounts management are all inefficiencies that use up time that could otherwise be spent on raising money and campaigning. But there are significant positives – localism is baked into our party, root and branch.
To successfully contest these local elections, we need a local-first approach; harnessing our inherent localism as a party to support, not dictate to, local candidates. It means giving associations the freedom to select good quality local candidates, and then to run local messages based on issues that actually matter on the ground.
My first ever campaign, and the issue that led me to stand for Council was about HGVs going through tight roads in my home town. The situation is dangerous and creates unacceptable air pollution. Support for the campaign to get it sorted, cut across traditional political divides and united a community. This issue directly impacts the residents of two Council wards but for those who it does impact, it is crucial.
To win we must identify key local issues and run single issue grassroots campaigns to fix them. Not because it’s good politics and will win us votes, but because Conservatives believe in solutions over ideology. It is inherent to our philosophical underpinning as a party to believe in delivery over posturing.
In a general election campaign, like that which we just fought, inevitably a centralised strategy and message becomes the focus. But for now, we have just enough space to actually shake things up.
The voluntary party has taken the leadership election as an opportunity to restate its role in decision making. Now is the moment for us to exercise this influence, to ensure that local campaigns are truly local. No one sitting in London can, or should, dictate the key issues that our candidates for Cornwall Council will fight and win on.
So for this next set of local elections, I suggest we run a back-to-basics experiment.
Let’s ask our local council candidates, branch and association officers what they need and then focus on delivering that support to them. MPs who owe their careers to the tireless work of hundreds of volunteers and Councillors, now is your time to show that it goes both ways.
The Conservative Party wins when people trust us to be competent. The price of any party to be in government for over a decade is to have to rebuild after. We have a job of work to do to get back.
For me the starting point of this crucial project to rebuild our party must come from unleashing the potential of its many thousands of members all across the country who share similar values.
To rebuild trust, the starting point should be to empower and support those Conservatives who look around their community, roll their sleeves up and get to work.
William Hall is the Regional Chairman for South East England.
Five months ago, we had the General Election and in just over five months from now we have a crucial set of local elections across the UK.
Over 2000 council seats are up for election with key contests across England.
The polls have narrowed but we cannot let complacency reduce our drive. To be match fit for the local elections next year and the general election to come, we need to continue to change as a party.
I am, occasionally, asked by my friends who aren’t politically active, why I am a Conservative? It’s not because I believe in any particular one thing or that I read a book at school and now I know where truth is.
Instead, being a Conservative is about an approach that values good government, value for money and individual decency without state interference. The last is why people pick up the shopping for their elderly neighbour, volunteer at a local charity and pick up a piece of litter on the street. The state can never force decency between humans – only stifle and suffocate it.
There is no better place, is there, for us to show what these values mean in practice to our residents and constituents than in local government. While we grapple with how we can regain the trust of the electorate, achievement for communities through effective, Conservative-run local government is the silver bullet that will help us.
Countless examples exist across the country of how good quality local services can be delivered, at a low council tax, by sensible Conservative administration. Residents know if their streets are clean, how much they are paying for their local services and when bin day is. The vast majority of day-to-day interaction that people have with the state is at a local level. Well over £100 billion a year is spent by local authorities.
So if we are going to rebuild from the grassroots up then how do we actually win?
The Conservative Party is essentially a centralised federation of local associations and federations. This has pros and cons. The duplication of back-office processes, staff recruitment, accounts management are all inefficiencies that use up time that could otherwise be spent on raising money and campaigning. But there are significant positives – localism is baked into our party, root and branch.
To successfully contest these local elections, we need a local-first approach; harnessing our inherent localism as a party to support, not dictate to, local candidates. It means giving associations the freedom to select good quality local candidates, and then to run local messages based on issues that actually matter on the ground.
My first ever campaign, and the issue that led me to stand for Council was about HGVs going through tight roads in my home town. The situation is dangerous and creates unacceptable air pollution. Support for the campaign to get it sorted, cut across traditional political divides and united a community. This issue directly impacts the residents of two Council wards but for those who it does impact, it is crucial.
To win we must identify key local issues and run single issue grassroots campaigns to fix them. Not because it’s good politics and will win us votes, but because Conservatives believe in solutions over ideology. It is inherent to our philosophical underpinning as a party to believe in delivery over posturing.
In a general election campaign, like that which we just fought, inevitably a centralised strategy and message becomes the focus. But for now, we have just enough space to actually shake things up.
The voluntary party has taken the leadership election as an opportunity to restate its role in decision making. Now is the moment for us to exercise this influence, to ensure that local campaigns are truly local. No one sitting in London can, or should, dictate the key issues that our candidates for Cornwall Council will fight and win on.
So for this next set of local elections, I suggest we run a back-to-basics experiment.
Let’s ask our local council candidates, branch and association officers what they need and then focus on delivering that support to them. MPs who owe their careers to the tireless work of hundreds of volunteers and Councillors, now is your time to show that it goes both ways.
The Conservative Party wins when people trust us to be competent. The price of any party to be in government for over a decade is to have to rebuild after. We have a job of work to do to get back.
For me the starting point of this crucial project to rebuild our party must come from unleashing the potential of its many thousands of members all across the country who share similar values.
To rebuild trust, the starting point should be to empower and support those Conservatives who look around their community, roll their sleeves up and get to work.