Campaigning In The Valleys

Whenever I here about a campaign with the Conservatives locally I am always there. The last day I was out on the streets was Thursday helping out in the Radford and Park by-election. Sadly we lost this to Labour but we won in the Park polling district where we campaigned the most, a good base for Rowena Holland in 2015. I urge everyone in the Conservatives to get out and help in the their  local campaigns, especially if it is in a 2015 campaign. To know what's going on sign up to Team 2015 and keep a look out for information from local Tories.

Campaigning with Tory 2015 candidate Rowena Holland.

And this is where the Welsh come in. Wales CF has added a campaigning button to their website to keep everyone up to date of what's going on in 2015. So far three active campaigning seats have been noted in Wales they are Cardiff North, Gower and the Vale of Glamorgan. On the website you can see all the statistics about the seats, where they are and who to contact about campaigns. Also on there will be appearing information about the next campaign going on.

We really need to win/hold these seats in 2015 if there is to be any chance of a Conservative led government. The seat of Gower was just of reach of the Tories in 2015 and has been Labour held for 104 years, lets hope 2015 is the last year of Labour control. Conservatives of the world, unite.

Wales Conservatives out and about in the Valleys.

 To view the Wales CF website click here.

The Not So Weekly Poll Lowdown

Yes it has been a while, about 3 weeks in fact, but finally I'm going to do the 'weekly' poll lowdown. At least the passage of time has meant a lot more people have voted which is always good. It seems that 48% of you do not agree with the Help to Buy scheme and 39% of you do.

Do you agree with the help to buy scheme?

Yes	39%
No	48%
Unsure	13%

Total votes: 110

I agree with the Help to Buy scheme. It is a very Conservative idea that people should own their homes and at the moment there is a big problem in people not owning their own homes. The ability to own your own house is a cornerstone in popular capitalism and people running their own lives. Also, Government with overly strict planning laws has contributed a lot to the rise in house prices and so the natural thing is for them to make amends and solve it.

I would like to question somewhat why we at the moment need the help to buy scheme. At the moment construction is going through a boom with growth of over 8%. Lots of houses are being built of all sorts of values for people to live in. This is all naturally occurring because of the growth in the UK not government intervention. Is it thus really necessary now for Government to step in?

Gideon having tea with some of the first Help to Buy recipients.

The Help to Buy scheme is something people should still monitor as well because it has the potential to cause a bubble. By putting lots of money into a market which is already booming we could end up with everyone, with the government's help, investing in houses and then finding out that they have lost a lot of money. Also the government is lending to people that banks have turned down for mortgages. This is not to say the Help to Buy scheme a huge bastion of irresponsible lending, because the people receiving a loan can pay a mortgage they just don't have enough money to pay all the deposit. However, there must be a reason why the banks have got such a deposit level which some people cannot afford. If there is a housing bubble this would be highly ironic because this is how the 2008 recession was caused.

Atlee's planning laws are causing a bit of problem.

Also the Help to Buy scheme doesn't actually solve the problem. House prices are too high and people still won't be able to buy homes without help from the state. Why are houses to high? Well for the most part it's because of  Town and Country Planning Act of 1949. There are so many regulations in there that houses are a lot harder to build and thus the price of housing spirals out of control.

Of course the reason for the act was the age old battle of urban sprawl and the countryside. There hasn't really been a good solution to this conflict as the falling numbers in property ownership shows this. It would be unfair to just tear up the Town and Country Planning Act and enforce mass building upon green belts. I think therefore there should be local referendum across the whole country on getting rid of certain sections of the Town and Country Planning Act so people have a choice and a vote on the matter. This would mean those who really want to defend local green belts do not get a national imposition of housing being built on green fields.

So Dave start trying to solve the root of the problem as well as using the help to buy scheme.

Make sure you vote in the new poll on the sidebar.

New CF Poll

Lord Mo-croft is back on the scene again with his up to date polling and his millions which Labour marginal seats fear. He is conducting a poll about CF exec members, party conference and how mean CCHQ are in only giving freshers a leaflet, a cheap pen and a 1 in a million chance of winning an ipad at freshers fairs up and down the country.

Mo is on the phones asking for your opinion.

I think the best questions are the rate the exec member, which will hopefully encourage exec members to do a better job, and the question that includes my blog article about Sarah Jane standing to be CF Chairman (you can read the article here). It will be interesting to see how Sarah Jane does after her recent surge in popularity.

You can fill out Mo's poll here. Keep up the work Mo. #ThingsElliottSays is certainly giving you a positive review for your last question. Let's hope one day YouGov and Ipsos Mori do the same when they employ you.

That Guy

These two people are out to destroy the government. Good on them I say; but which one is the Guy?

Chris Martin and Tim Montgomerie's Love Child

My good friend Robert Smith, who is the love child of Chris Martin and Tim Montgomerie, writes for the Tab's rival newspaper Impact. Impact is sadly the state run and rather boring interpretation of student news; its only plus side, other than Rob writing for it, is that there are free hard copy magazines all over campus. As a new idea to try boost people paying attention to it, Impact have now created cartoon characters of several of their writers. This one is Rob's.

I still haven't stopped laughing yet.

CF Halloween Party Attended by a Handfull

Last Night's CF Halloween Party seemed to scare away all the guests. CFers have contacted #ThingsEliottSays to say that there were only a handful of CF members who stayed longer than 5 mins at the Halloween Party that took place at Zoo Bar in Leicester Square. One CFer told #ThingsElliottSays 'The turnout was abysmal and I only saw four people in one booth, that was it'. The Halloween party has built upon the roaring success of last years speaker Chris Kelly MP whose speech in a night club was heard by nobody due to the loud noise.

However one Halloween party was busy and that is of #TeamJasmine who held a tricks and treats party less than two minutes away at the Foundation Bar. #ThingsElliottSays was invited but sadly could not attend. Another prominent CFer said to #ThingsEllliottSays 'People were there who you just don't expect to be at an event like this. Andre Walker and Olly Neville were there. It was a really great night.' Also at the club was Tom Felton, or Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter, which CFers found interesting.

#TeamJasmine

Here are a collection from the photos of the night.

Full party room.

Shadow and Cooper

Missing ex-UoN student Guy Bentley.

John Cope with Vampire Shadow

unusual sighting of Olly Neville.

Thumbs up from CFers to #TeamJasmine

Canvassing in Radford and Park

A few days ago now I was out in Radford and Park calling for the good people who live in the ward to support the Conservative candidate for the Radford and Park by-election, Nick Packham. Nick is a great guy who is the only local standing in the by-election. He thus knows the problems of the ward quite well and will make this his focus if he is elected on November 7th.

Out campaigning with Nick.

I went out and helped with Nick and the Conservative collect returns for a questionnaire asking local people what problems they're facing. It is good to know what the local problems are in the area. We got a very good reply from these questionnaires and all the information is being collected so Nick can help the people of Radford and Park even greater.

Now that we know who all the candidates are it is a good time to examine some of Nick's opposition. There is David Bishop who is the Elvis candidate. David stood in the Wollaton West by-election in June as the anti-HS2 Elvis Candidate; this time he is standing as the Elvis Loves Pets Party.

There is UKIP too. The candidate is a man from Italy who has done a lot around the world. However, until I got my postal vote ballot paper, I didn't know his name. He forgot to include it on his literature. Oh dear.

Who is the UKIP candidate?

The Lib Dems are strangely not standing either. This is because the Lib Dems got 2 people to sign their candidacy form on the wrong side of the street and thus the wrong ward. So no Lib Dem candidate was allowed and Seb has a problem of who he is going to vote for.

Of course there is no doubt that the main opposition is the Labour Party. The Labour Candidate is Anne Peach, chosen unmeritocraticly in an all women's selection. However, Anne doesn't even live in the ward, she lives in Lenton. However Labour are trying to change facts and are calling 'Radford and Park' ward 'Radford, Lenton and the Park' ward. Not the first time Labour has told half truths to the electorate.

Lilian Greenwood changing facts in trying to get Labour elected.

Furthermore, I am worried that Anne, with the rest of Nottingham Labour is out to use students as a scapegoat for all of Radford and Parks problems. Indeed Anne has signed up to Labour's policy of no students in the Lenton triangle and is 'Opposing Houses in Multiple Occupation that are changing the nature our community'. This is dangerously similar to the ideas of Cllr Aslam who said it's a 'shame' students are allowed to live in Lenton as was reported on the Tab. Indeed there is a very nice photo of Anne with Cllr Aslam, a bit awkward. 

Anne is opposing student houses in the Lenton triangle.

Anne with student hating Cllr Aslam. Bit awkward.

But there is also downright lies being employed by Labour in trying to get people to vote for them. Have a look at this.

I have never seen a piece of paper with so many twists and so many untruths, very negative and shameful politics. Firstly Nottingham is receiving record investment because of the Coalition Government, look at the train station to name one thing. Nottingham Council is one of the biggest and best funded councils in the country, places like Cambridgeshire (a Tory heartland) are crying out for funding on the scale of Nottingham. Also scaremongering young people with phoney cuts to benefits and welfare is not the way to go around things (reminds me of the leaflets Gordon Brown put out telling cancer patients they'd have drugs cut with the Tories). And on the general undertones of the Tories making the economy worse this is not true, as we have seen things are getting better. Family incomes are up, Employment is at a record high and growth has returned. Under Labour all these things went in the wrong direction.

Nottingham Labour king of dishonest politics.

This is an example of negative politics at it's worst and Labour has devoted 1/4 of it's literature to it. Personally I think they should withdraw such false and twisted claims and also Nottingham Labour's slogan 'Positive Politics from Nottingham Labour'. 

It's only the Conservatives that can truly deliver a better Radford and Park and Labour are either proposing policies to deliberately scapegoat and harm students or trying to falsely vilify the Conservatives. 

On Thursday 7th November get out there and vote for Nick Packham and the Conservatives.

Vote Nick Packham, Vote Conservative.