Activists are willing to go along with the Party as long as it’s prepared to go along with them. Which has meant it doing so on the great issues of the day. Which in recent years have boiled down to one – Brexit.
I just can’t see how parliamentary sovereignty is compatible with a potential Prime Minister being nominated by an extra-parliamentary body.
There has been radio silence from CCHQ since 2014. Any organisation that won’t declare a figure has the smell of decay about it.
John Strafford is the author of Our Fight for Democracy – A History of Democracy in the United Kingdom. One of the key features of democracy is that it is a system of government of the people in which the people exercise power. This is done directly or indirectly through their representatives and by a […]
John Strafford is the author of Our Fight for Democracy – A History of Democracy in the United Kingdom and has held office at virtually every level in the voluntary party, including nine years on the former National Union Executive Committee. He is the Chairman of the Conservative Yes to AV Campaign. Here he calls […]
John Strafford runs the Conservative Campaign for Democracy and has held office at virtually every level in the voluntary party, including nine years on the former National Union Executive Committee. He is also the author of Our Fight for Democracy – A History of Democracy in the United Kingdom. Here he responds to Paul Goodman's […]
John Strafford runs the Conservative Campaign for Democracy and has held office at virtually every level in the voluntary party, including nine years on the former National Union Executive Committee. In his newly-published book, Our Fight for Democracy – A History of Democracy in the United Kingdom, he analyses the weaknesses of British democracy today […]
John Strafford runs the Conservative Campaign for Democracy and was chairman of the Beaconsfield Conservative Assoication between 1985 and 1990. He explains here how to deselect a sitting Conservative MP, drawing on the experience of deselecting Tim Smith in Beaconsfield in 1997. Just before the 1997 General Election, Tim Smith MP was readopted as the […]
John Strafford of the Conservative Campaign for Democracy makes the case for stricter reselection procedures for sitting MPs. At present there are 196 Tory MPs of which 20 are women and 2 ethnic minorities. To achieve 50% men/women of which 12% are ethnic minorities requires a huge change. If we only rely on new candidates […]
I can’t recall a more important election – we simply can’t to lose sight of our vulnerabilities at this crucial moment.