By Simon Iles (BUCA Chairman)

In a city dominated by the Liberal Democrats and Labour for years, the Bristol University Conservative Association is in a difficult position. However, in effectively relaunching the association this year, we achieved decent results at the recent Freshers’ Fair. Signing up over 30 paid members, recruiting a number of existing national members and assembling a 100-strong mailing list, we hopefully will have a solid group of members to create an active social and political calendar over the coming months.

With the General Election coming up, BUCA members will have every reason to get help our local candidates in their campaigns– especially Charlotte Leslie and Nick Yarker in the Bristol North West and Bristol West wards, both of whom joined us at our stall during the two-day fair.

With these two neighbouring constituencies housing the vast majority of Bristol University students, we hope to campaign regularly and help to encourage students to vote more generally.

Related posts:

1. Nottingham University Students Fight for Change
2. Debating youth issues on LBC
3. Does your branch have a website?

By Alex Clarke (Chairman EECF)

Thursday the 1st of October was the culmination of a week of Fresher focused activity by the EECF…all of which was done on a budget of £0 and a box of goodies provided by the Conservative Future National Executive.

Instead of running a stall at the Epsom Campus of the University of the Creative Arts; we ‘canvassed’ it for two days running with teams of CF committee members armed with national leaflets provided in the centrally dispatched pack. When we ran out of those we used the freely available Join Now leaflets. All of these handouts contained a ‘localising’ insert, with the following message:

Welcome

Who are we?

· We are the Epsom & Ewell Conservative Future.

When do we meet?

· Fresher’s Event Thursday 1st October 7pm the Rising Sun Pub, Heathcote Road, Epsom

· October Event Thursday 29th October 7:30pm the Rising Sun Pub, Heathcote Road, Epsom

The Rt Hon James Arbuthnot, the Chairman of the Defence Select Committee is coming to talk to us

We also do canvassing and have socials

If you’re interested or just curious we would love to meet you.

……

After all this work the freshers’ event at the Rising Sun was well attended and very enjoyable, with lots of free discussion, chip devouring and consideration of recent political events. Longer term who knows? We will wait and see what impact this might have on the Arbuthnot event, but short term we managed a developed return on our investment.

I would like to finish by pointing to another free event we, the Epsom and Ewell Conservative Future, are running this month; our semi-monthly speaker social, will be the Rt Hon James Arbuthnot, chairman of the defence select committee. The event details are all at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139878377073

Related posts:

1. Epsom & Ewell CF hosts Allan Sykes from the UKNDA
2. Epsom & Ewell CF host the TPA
3. Epsom & Ewell CF hosts James Arbuthnot MP

Clare currently has three main roles in the Conservative Party; working as a Councillor in Croydon, as Chair of London Conservative Future and serving as Vice Chair of Student Life:

2009 has been a year of numerous campaign days, meetings and social action projects and 2010 is going to be busier!

London CF is campaigning every week across London, providing strong support in crucial target seats in the run up to the general election. We also plan and coordinate weekly telephone canvassing sessions at CCHQ’s state of the art GenEVA canvassing studio, securing hundreds of new pledges for Conservative candidates. The demand for these sessions has been huge, and the activist turnout is always very high which shows how committed our hardworking activists are. For the last three sessions we have had too many people attending and there was a queue to get onto a phone!

The GenEVA sessions demonstrate London CF’s commitment to good quality professional campaigning. At each session we begin by a short briefing given by the candidate discussing their constituency and local issues and then hit the phones after pizza and drinks, which provide an attractive incentive for activists to get involved.

With freshers’ week just around the corner for many young people, it’s essential that our activists dedicate their efforts to making the on-campus recruitment drive a huge success.

This year’s freshers’ packs have been excellent and a lot of new members really like the new retro ‘Party for Change’ logo. So far we’ve attended dozens of freshers’ fairs across the UK but two in London really stand out to me.

Firstly we had a presence at the fair, for first time ever in Birbeck, which is a major London University offering older people a part time degree course. We had lots of teachers, lawyers and engineers that were over the age of 30 telling us that they were going to vote Conservative for the first time due to the state of the country. We managed to weed out the under 30s and had about a dozen new members sign up which we were very pleased with.

The second freshers’ fair that stands out is one that happened this week at the London Art College – an institution that we have not recruited at before. Our stand was next to the Socialist Workers and Communist ones and at first we thought that we might not attract any new members. The first flood of students headed straight to the communist stands but after the first burst the second and third wave of students came over to us and signed up to Conservative Future.

My first experience of managing a freshers’ recruitment drive was over eight years ago and since then I have helped out year after year as a National Executive member and Area Chairman in different regions. This year has been the most positive ever as young students want to get involved like never before.

I am very excited about the future for Student Life as we’ve got some student life tours coming up, training weekends and we’ve also got some general election briefings with the main party! We’re currently setting up some branches in schools from the outcome of the mock elections where a Conservative Candidate in a school in Croydon came first with 70% of the vote!

It is vital that we offer young students the chance to join us and make a difference, as history shows that these people go on to be some of our brightest stars. I am pleased with the progress that Conservative Future is doing nationally but we need to do more. We all need to work together as one in order to win as many seats as we can in the local and general elections.

A big thank you to the Student Life and the London CF Committees, who have helped, worked and campaigned tirelessly for change. Let’s keep continuing to work hard and together that will make this year the most positive and successful recruitment drive in the history of Conservative Future.

Related posts:

1. Student Life update from Paul Wells
2. The Student Life Tours are back

By Will Stobart

Last week Universities of Manchester Conservative Future once again embarked upon the rough seas that is political campaigning at the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. Over the three days of freshers’ fairs at both universities, around 20 different activists from the University and all over Manchester came down to help out at our three stalls, outgunning the Labour and the LibDems, who struggled to keep even one stall afloat.

This time, despite the usual trend of student extremism, and the trend of students to join the Hard Left, the Conservative Future branch was the only political movement to measure a significant improvement. Labour struggled to recruit, hampered by a lack of interesting freshers items, while students flocked to relieve us of bottle openers and wall planners, seemingly oblivious that they were accepting gifts from the ‘”evil Tories”.

Manchester, perhaps like many northern cities, has always been a difficult place for Conservative Future to make progress, yet this year the doubling of memberships at Manchester Metropolitan, as well as the doubling of interest in the party at both Universities, shows that the CF brand is alive and well in the North West.

Highlights of the week included the Liberals being forced to make John Leech MP to stand at their stall, and the ‘occupation’ of the Labour stall at Manchester Metropolitan when their members decided they had more important things to deal with. In many a university, freshers might have been surprised to see a blue rosette behind a stall decked out in red, but in Manchester, it’s unforgivable.

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1. GMCF lead the way at Freshers’ fairs across Manchester
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3. The 2009 CF Freshers’ campaign has begun

By David Bean

On Wednesday 30 September the Conservatives became the only political party to be represented at the freshers’ fairs for all four universities in Greater Manchester. We capped off the season, which began the previous week with Manchester and then proceeded through Manchester Metropolitan and Salford, with a visit to Bolton University, a campus traditionally only the Conservatives have shown interest in engaging with. But with many of its students part-time, mature or from linguistic backgrounds other than English, it has proven a tough nut to crack.

Planning our visit, the strategy was clear: our primary aim would be to show a presence, talk to as many people as possible to try and spread the Conservative message, and get the collateral – the Conservative Party-branded items helpfully provided for us from CCHQ – out there and into circulation.

So the first task was to create a decent display. Searching for a blue tablecloth the previous evening the best I could come up with was a fitted sheet, but its cheerily light shade of blue provided a pleasing counterpoint to the black-dominated materials, which I tried to arrange enticingly (though I concede I really should have thought to bring a couple of blue bowls for the giveaways). Our other gift of that evening was the news that The Sun was officially endorsing the Conservative Party – so I picked up three copies at the train station on the way there to make a display, and that started a whole separate line of positive conversations. I even managed to bring one of the copies home!

We didn’t push people on the membership point, only asking those who appeared genuinely interested to leave their details – a couple were Party members already, and the others will join if they turn out to be as committed as we’d like them to. Encouragingly, almost all of the (admittedly small number of) signees were young women. Those who were not so enthusiastic, we simply tried to ensure left the stall with a positive impression of us, giving them, as the marketeers would say, a good customer experience. There were few significant disagreements; even those who were not supporters were polite about it. There was also an encouraging willingness among the students to take and use Conservative Party-branded items, including the carrier bags, which became quite a common sight.

In summary then we were quite pleased with how our day went at Bolton. We felt we had made a positive impact for our Party, showed up our opponents for their lack of interest in the students and gained several potential new members. Whether we’ll be able to pick up enough momentum to allow us to a branch at the university, the next few weeks will tell, but this has been an encouraging first step.

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1. GMCF lead the way at Freshers’ fairs across Manchester 2
2. GMCF Conference curry night
3. Nottingham University Students Fight for Change

Having previously been the Chairman of the University of East Anglia (UEA) Conservative Future branch for two years it was a pleasure to be invited back to help out at their stall at this years Fresher’s Faire.

CF has long been the dominate political force amongst the mainstream groups at UEA. This year proved to be no different and the Party for Change message went down exceptionally well with the new freshers. Once again we were able to succeed in recruiting more paid members than any of the other political parties, getting more members than our Labour and Liberal counterparts combined.

UEA CF has had a long history of active involvement in local and student politics. During last year’s local elections UEA CF not only provided alot of activists on the ground but a number of candidates too. This year, it will campaigning hard to unseat Charles Clarke, and replace him with our PPC (and former UEA CFer himself) Antony Little.

I was highly impressed with the organization of the stall and the keenness demonstrated by several of the new members. I wish them all good luck and look forward to seeing them at events and on the campaign trail!

Cllr. Paul Wells
Student Life Schools and Election Officer

Related posts:

1. The 2009 CF Freshers’ campaign has begun
2. Student Life update from Paul Wells

By Sophie King (Fylde CF Chair)

Last Saturday, the Fylde Branch of Conservative Future and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Mark Menzies launched the Save the Great British Pub campaign in the Fylde.

Conservative Future spent the morning in St Annes Town Centre petitioning for more Government support to the British Pub industry. Mark Menzies and members of Conservative Future then visited the Lytham Beer Festival during the afternoon.

Save the Great British Pub is a national Conservative campaign. The Conservative Party are calling on the Government to help save pubs and safeguard jobs by:

1. Cutting taxes on lower alcohol drinks such as low alcohol beers and raising taxes on problem drinks like high strength ciders and alcopops in order to use the tax system to target binge drinking whilst ensuring that responsible drinkers and the traditional British pub are not unfairly penalised
2. Enforcing existing laws to deal firmly with irresponsible drinkers & premises
3. Trusting adults to make informed choices, not punish them for the actions of an irresponsible minority
4. Supporting the British pub as a vital part of local communities

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2. Spring Forum – has put a real spring back into the campaign
3. North East CF campaign in Harrogate & Knaresborough

The Fresher Fair drive across Yorkshire has been going extremely well this year. So far we’ve had CF man stalls in York St John, Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Barnsley. This week it will be the turn of Hull University which will finish off our recruitment drive for another year! Never before has Yorkshire CF been able to base itself in this many locations across our Region.

We’ve been able to recruit hundreds of new members which has been fantastic. I’d like to thank every young Tory who has supported the campaign this year and given up time to support your Branch in manning one of our many stalls.

Your efforts have made a really big difference and shown how far CF has come in our Region. We will be able to prepare for the General Election fight on a strong footing because of your hard work! Thank you!! Below are some photos from the Fresher Fair stalls last week. Please send me more pictures to chairman@yorkshirecf.com

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1. Monthly Bulletin from CF in Yorkshire and Humber 8

Showing that politics has never been more relevant to young people, The Nottingham University Conservative Association (NUCA) have recorded a massive uptake in membership at this year’s Freshers’ Fayre, exceeding the numbers for the same time last year despite a £2 increase in membership fee.

The President of the Conservative Association at Nottingham, Nick Allsopp said “Response has been overwhelmingly positive; a lot of people who have never been involved with the Conservatives before are coming up and joining; seeking to find out more about the party, to get involved and keen to help elect more Nottingham Candidates than ever before and to return a Conservative Government.”

Wednesday saw visit of Dr Rowena Holland, Nottingham South parliamentary candidate and a team from the East Midlands Conservatives. Dr Holland said “It’s really exciting to see so many students engaged with modern politics. University is a place where ideas and principles are formed and it’s vitally important that we involve young people at every stage.”

Nick added, “With a general election inevitable during the next academic year, we are finding students are excited to be taking part in the upcoming campaigns and this year will potentially be the most important for the society in 30 years.”

The students are also ambitious for their own political campaigns now and in the future and James Spencer, 20, Deputy President of NUCA was recently elected as a Parish Councillor in his home town.

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1. Drive boosted by army of young volunteers who feel it is cool to be Conservative again

The Freshers’ fair season is the most important time of the year for Conservative Future; providing the main recruiting opportunity for our branches. The first packs went out two weeks ago and we’re now starting to hear feedback from branches.

The picture shows a selection of the materials we’ve sent out.

By the end of September we will have sent out 244 boxes to CF branches in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; a 70% increase on the number of packs sent last year.

The feedback we’ve received so far has been very positive: recruitment figures are up, the freshers’ materials themselves are very popular, and there is a very good feeling towards the Conservative Party. Several CF members who took part in running the CF stands will be posting on ConservativeFuture.com in the coming weeks – reviewing how it went.

I also want to say a personal thank you to Kate Fuller at CCHQ who was the principle organiser for the Freshers’ campaign this year – her support made the whole thing possible. Thank you Kate.

So well done to everyone who has been involved & let’s keep the momentum going for the next few weeks!

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