I would like to ask, anyone who is a position to tell me, why the Conservative party in Birkenhead is so inept. I joined the Conservative party last year because I had finally decided that it was I party I could support. However, upon looking at the local conservative website http://www.birkenheadconservatives.co.uk/ I was horrified. It is a site that a monkey could have put together. As it is the conservatives have to work hard in this area to pull in the voters in this mainly labour area. As a freelance web-desginer I could not believe that anyone would want this as their website! Furthermore no real campaigning has been done. I strongly believe that votes could be won up here if the Party would be more proactive.

Sounds like you just landed yourself a job, martin.

Well Martin as Yorkie said you seem to be the expert, volunteer your time and obvious expertise and get beavering my man!!

We will all check back in 2 weeks and see if its' changed for the better if not.....

Unfortunately there's as much chance of the Conservatives winning Birkenhead as there is of Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister tomorrow. I suspect they're putting their efforts into more winnable seats.
I'm about to donate to the party as a member, so this sort of thing can be improved - maybe you could do the same Martin?

Unfortunatly I do not have any disposable income to donate to the Party otherwise I would. Whilst people may see Birkenhead as an unwinnable seat I would disagree when one looks at the local election results then yes it seems that labour have a large majority of votes. However, when you see that the turnout was only 36% of the electorate then the conservative party would need to win over maybe 20% of the electorate who don't currently vote. In three of the local wards the conservative candidates lost by less than 300 votes. It is winnable and attitudes such as 'it is unwinnable' do not help the party in any way what-so-ever.

As for volenteering my services I did a while ago, but got no reply which only frustrated me further. The reason for this is that I'm sure that there are many unused assests within the party that are not being used. Yes on the whole campaigns cost money but there are methods that can be implemented to cut costs I'm sure.

Why doesn't Esther McVey help out? Isn't that her part of the world?

Before you had mentioned her I'd never heard of her...Kinda proves my point about the Conservatives not being seen on the Wirral. After some googling I do remember a news story about an incident but had no idea she was from these parts.

Just looked at my local Conservative website.
Pembrokeshire - Stephen Crabb MP Majority 607

Here

Last updated March 2005

Link Fixed - Thanks Canvas!:))

Wow, again what is the leadership doing? Maybe David Cameron can answer this question for us? But you must admit that it is a lot better than the birkenhead site.

Hi Martin, I've just been looking at UKPolling Report and ElectoralCalculus. The Conservatives need a 23.4% swing from Labour to win Birkenhead - that would give the Conservatives an overall majority of 454 in the House of Commons and wipe out every single Labour MP.
Prime Minister David Cameron would be boasting the biggest ever landslide in British political history with over 550 Tory MPs, and Sir Menzies would become Leader of Opposition with a just over 50 LibDem MPs.
If the Tories ever win Birkenhead, this would be the scenario. That's why I'm saying it's unwinnable.

Here is the link to my local 'Tory' website.
Not that I would EVER look at it! LoL :)

http://www.saffronwaldenconservatives.com/

This is even sadder. In the local Con Club there are rarely any women in there, and there is rarely anyone in the place who is under 75 years old, AND there are dodgy framed photographs of John Major (!) on the faded and grubby walls...sad!

http://www.saffronwaldenconservativeclub.com/

PS> Glynne, you need to fix your link

Votedave, this is something I've never quite understood. What is swing really all about? From my perspective I would have thought that if the Conservatives could get 22% of the Wirral electorate who don't currently vote then they would win that seat. How does the loss of one seat lose Labour all of their seats?

Hi
Canvas link fixed thanks:))
Question - How do you know what goes on in you local Con Club? ;)

Votedave -

That is sheer defeatism!

You have a turnout of 36% - all you need to do is convert 10% of those, up the turnout to 50% - with Tory voters and your home.

What you have to have, is a vision the voters will buy into!

And you need to take up offers of help from people who want to achieve that!

Edit - Just found out that its Frank Fields seat, that makes it a little more difficult!!

Old party trick - it always had late licensing hours...nightcap anyone? LoL

I don't want to be defeatist, Glynne.
I'd love to see Birkenhead go Tory, but we'd need the BIGGEST LANDSLIDE EVER bar none - that's all I'm saying. Wirral South and Wirral West would be more likely targets in Merseyside.

Martin, a swing is one parties' increase in share of the vote plus another parties fall in the share of the vote. If Labour's share of the vote falls by 5% and the Tories' goes up by 7%, you add the figures up, divide them by 2, and hey presto, you have a 6% swing from Labour to Conservative.

No party since the Second World War has ever won a swing of more than 10% - which is what Labour won in their 1997 landslide. A swing of 23.4% would be enough to wipe out most, if not all the Labour MPs, which is so improbable you're more likely to see a dodo. Birkenhead has always elected Labour MPs in living memory.

My advice would be to concentrate your hopes on marginal seats like Wirral South and Southport, which are much more realistic targets.

Martin, that was a feeble excuse. They don't want your cash, they need you technical and artistic expertise. As the new webmaster you could practically run the show and change the political scene in Birkenhead!

Yorker, The problem is I'm not and really don't think that's my place. However, after reading Votedave's explaination I'm even more worried. Could it really be that the leadership of all parties and political observers are the ones who are helping perpetuate the cycle of low voter turnout?

Votedave
Ive just been checking my math on the 2005 results, it was a 48% turnout which makes a big difference.
Approx figs.
Labour - 18000
Tories - 5000 3rd -0.1% since last election

Frank Field as MP will have a large personal following

But there are people up there who want to help the Conservative cause, and have the skills, time and are prepared to put the effort in to start making a difference.

Ignoring offers of help certainly won't start to turn things around.

It all seems too casual, comfortable and off hand - there needs to be a serious attempt to get things moving.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Someone who sees what I've been getting at. Whilst Frank Field, in my opinion the biggest glory hunter and stater of the obvious in history, has a big following there is a larger portion of the electorate who simply don't vote. Those that do vote can't be pursuaded to vote conservative whilst we are putting on such a poor show! Further it could be up to 3 years before another election. That's a lot of time to work the electorate and alter their perception of the Conservative party!

Just a thought

Perhaps the big change we need isn't shifting the political position to the left.

But to get to grips with the independent local party constituencies groups and turn them into an effective vote winning organisations.

Labour has a smart smooth local organisation and networking system.

Edit
Just had a look for the local labour party website - there isn't one!!

True, true but which is worse no website or the Birkenhead Conservative's website? Also Frank 'Useless Man' Field does have his own site which has a large audience because people around here don't see what he Hasn't done for the area. Whilst he's off getting recognition for ineffectual ideas his constiuency is worse off. I could highlight several key areas where he has failed to do anything useful in his constituency.

I've thought for some time that there is a real local culture issue that we are not addressing - Its the in thing to belong to a particular set.
If that set happens to be labour biased then they get the votes.

We should be out there setting the stage -
The website is part of it - but its a general approach.
Get the in group to be on our turf not theirs.
We should be where the exciting things are happening!

It has to be at grass roots -local - no use in London, or on the BBC.

Martin, I still don't understand your reluctance to get stuck in and use your (scarce) skills. It's no use bleating unless you're prepared to roll up your sleeves.

I would but I can't exactly go and ask the Birkenhead Conservatives why they didn't accept my first offer. Especially after I insulted the previous designer here. However, if was asked to or had been given a response I would have revamped the site for free. I'm not reluctant to get stuck in, I just need to find out why the local leaders aren't utilising all their options.

Hi Yorky
Think you missed Martins point
He said above


He's just being ignored.

I don't think thats good enough.
Votedave and others think the seat is unwinnable, but that isn't the issue.

We should be taking all the help we can get even for unwinnable seats.
Because we can turn things round - national swings depend on local effort!

Once again thank you for the optimistic perspective. I really don't think I could have stated anything as succinctly as you did.

Martin, I hoped I wouldn't have to but I've just visited the Birkenhead ConParty website and... it's worse than useless. It would infuriate anyone who landed on it hoping to find out about the local Conservatives.

You have surely been to meetings and know who to speak with face to face, if not the chairman.

In fact I have not been to any meetings. Firstly, I haven't been told when any are. Secondly, I would have no idea how to find out. Thirdly, I haven't been able to find any contact details.

Go to the top, mate - Tory Party HQ London - tell them the problem, demand to know contact details and suggest they kick some ass up there. Say the advice came from that fount of wisdom the webcameron forum...

P.S. Martin: Yell.com tells me the phone number of the Birkenhead Conservative Association is 0151 653 8767. Does nobody answer?

There's talk that MP Frank Field could be about to defect to the Conservatives - perhaps Birkenhead could have a Tory MP after all!
The thing here is that Birkenhead is one of the safest Labour seats in the country, and has been for decades - that's no exaggeration. Even in Thatcher's landslide in 1983 the Tories came nowhere near winning the seat. More viable targets on the Wirral would be the constituencies of Wirral South, Wirral West and perhaps even Wallasey.
Please don't construe my comments as saying that we shouldn't bother campaigning in Birkenhead though - it's still very important to get our vote up and overtake the LibDems who came second in Birkenhead at the 2005 election.

Firstly I could not support the conservatives if Frank Field became our candidate in Birkenhead. He fails spectacularly to deliver what his constituents need. Instead of actually work for his constituents he goes for things that will get him noticed and gain him glory. I have actually sent him a few letters detailing areas (not only geographical) that need attention. He failed to respond. In my opinion this makes Frank Field an extremely bad MP. Ignoring his constituents and glory hunting are terrible acts. I can only hope that he does not defect as he is the opposite of what the conservative party needs!

Let me address the second point. Imagine that in the next general election the conservatives actually manage to take the Birkenhead constituency. Can you imagine the psychological blow that would deal the Labour party?

Let me get back to my first point. How can we (the conservative party) expect to win any extra votes with poor quality promotion? And yes maybe Birkenhead is 'unwinnable' but surely if we can convice Labour supporters in strongholds like Birkenhead we would have no trouble convincing those who are on the fence or are more 'moderate'.

Martin, I'm sure you're just the sort of person David Cameron needs to improve local Conservative websites.
Have you seen the Conservative websites for the neighbouring constituencies of Wirral South, Wirral West and Wallasey? All are Labour-held at the moment but have been Conservative in the past - your services would be invaluable I'm sure. Perhaps we could even take second place in Birkenhead and cut Labour's majority :)

OK VoteDave
We've got a volunteer
Don't know how good Martin is - not the point!

What structure is in place to give IT support using volunteers to help local party groups!

This sort of expert support particularly for small bottom of the poll groups is vital.
Does it exist - if not, why not!

Glynne - my entry under "cunning stunts" in the politics section is appropiate here too.

To be honest I would relish the chance to get involved with the party at any level. Which is why I do intend to contact the local conservatives by phone tomorrow. As for my IT skills, I am very capable at designing sites. It is merely a question of having the correct software for the job. My only real weakness is flash and java applications. Unfortunatly I have only learnt C+, html, CSS and Basic languages to program/create in.

I doubt if Frank Field is going to defect to a local party that doesn't even answer the damned phone!!!!