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Priorities of the "New" Party

Posted by AlanWCollins on Monday, 01 January 2007 14:46:19

As my profile says I am a 16 (2 days off 17 at time of writing) year-old member of the Party.

Recently I attended a Party hosted by one of your supposed A-listers (not that we would know for obvious reasons), Rehman Chishti, one of the members of my local Council.

In the lead-up to the party, and after he first visited me, I decided to find out a little more about his history. It is great that he is ambitious, it is great that he saw the light and came over from the Labour Party, and it is great that we have another under-30 member from an ethnic minority.

So Reh was a perfect candidate to prove that the party has changed and become more diverse. Which is why, presumably, so much was made about his defection, and he has quickly become Francis Maude's Advisor on Diversity and Ethnic Minorities.

More controversially, a party rule was waived to allow Reh to re-apply to the Candidates' Assessment Panel within a few months of his first failed attempts.

Don't get me wrong, I feel that, in many ways, Reh would be a great candidate for contesting one of the many marginal seats in the South-East, but it does raise a serious question.

How far are you prepared to push your life-long, "veteran", members and supporters to the back-burner in order to prove that the image of the party has changed sufficiently to be able to form a viable Government, Mr Cameron? Where would they fit in in your new priorities?

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Posted by ThatcherLoyalist on Tuesday, 02 January 2007 01:21:20

IN what way is his being from an ethnic minority an asset? If he has the personal qualities and the political views necessary to make a candidate I could support then I will agree it is great to have him on board, but I cant see how either are likely to be influenced by his ethnic origin

Posted by ThatcherLoyalist on Tuesday, 02 January 2007 20:41:34

I understood your original post - perhaps I dindt make it clear enough that my response was a rhetorical question rather than being direcxted at you. You see I dont understand why modernisation involves brinign in large numbers of ethnic minority candidates. There is nothing wrong with having candidates who happen to be from ethnic minorities ofcourse - at the last election I voted for a Conservative candidate who happened to be a muslim of Pakistani origin. But that is my point - he happend to be that - his ethnic and religious background was of no consequence to me, i voted for him because he was the Conservative candidate.
I find it hard to believe that the failure to win so many of the marginals in your part of Kent at the last election had anything to do with an absence of ethnic minority candidates there. IN north Kent, as in the country as a whole somewhat ovber 90% of the population and el;ectorate are white. To hear some of these 'modernisers' talk you might think we were living in some kind of Apartheid South Africa in which a a black majority is unhappily ruled over by an unrepresentative white elite


Posted by coiaorguk on Tuesday, 02 January 2007 21:15:41

The expression 'shoulder to shoulder' is banned on this blog Alan ;-)

Posted by kozmicstu on Wednesday, 03 January 2007 00:38:08

along with 'at the end of the day'...

:-D

Posted by ThatcherLoyalist on Wednesday, 03 January 2007 10:06:30

can I bring your attention (or that of canvas) to the following monstrosity, courtesy of Andrew Farnden

"if we want to make any progress in Iraq or with Iran we better taking them on board and thinking outside the box."
https://www.webcameron.org.uk/blogs/1877#comments

Posted by AndrewFarnden on Wednesday, 03 January 2007 22:56:33

Thatcherloyalist

What is your concern with this point exactly?

Posted by ThatcherLoyalist on Thursday, 04 January 2007 10:08:06

It wasnt the point - it was the use of cliches which I was pointing out, in the same vein as the previouis posters. I think this has arisen because of some comments canvas made about not saying 'at the end of the day' and other such cliches. I was just having a bit of fun - dont take it to heart ;-)

Posted by AndrewFarnden on Thursday, 04 January 2007 11:04:09

I'll try and think of some more :-)

Posted by canvas on Friday, 05 January 2007 11:21:53

LoL ! 'when all is said and done'....AArrrggghhhhhhhhhh :) :)

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