NUCA AGM

Friday saw the event that the whole world has been waiting for. No not the finding of Lord Lucan, but the NUCA AGM and thus the election of new officers to the committee. This year saw a very high quality of candidates in my opinion and some very good speeches.

NUCA went to the ballot box on Friday afternoon.

For Publicity Secretary Amelia was elected. In my opinion Amelia is one of the most friendly people I have met. She seems very keen to do a thorough job in making sure NUCA's online presence is enhanced and kept up to date. Alfie also stood for this position and I think he gave a really good speech, probably the best one of the day. This was the most hotly fought post in NUCA and both candidates should be very proud of the performance they gave.

We also had three unopposed positions. Sam (for Treasurer), Henry (for Vice President), and George (for General Secretary) all stood against only RON. To be fair this is harder than it sounds because, due to his prowess and being the greatest American President of the 20th century, Ronald Reagan is a great adversary. This is even ten years after he died. All three NUCA members however managed to beat RON and were elected to the committee.

But the most important role, if you love having to deal with the SU, is President. This year two candidates stood, Alex and Will. Both stood on a platform of making NUCA a more event focussed association, a position no one can disagree with. Alex believed that this should be done through more socials and more campaigning leading up to the 2015 general election. Will thought the best thing to do was to increase debating within NUCA. Alex's arguments were the best and so he was elected to be President for NUCA. Is there a Bright future in store?

A very well done to everyone who stood and a big congratulations to the new committee. This was re-iterated in Jamie's speech, our out going Vice President. he received a large round of applause for his words on uniting everyone around our new fantastic committee. I think everyone in NUCA is pleased with the results of the election even if they originally voted for someone else.

Of course there was just only one more important thing to do and that was to re-appoint the Campaign Officer. I was very happy to refill this role for NUCA and hopefully we can do a lot leading up to the General Election. We'll of course be focussing on getting Jane Hunt in as the MP for Nottingham South. I am convinced she will win over the hearts and minds of the voters in the constituency. NUCA has to help her get in.

So in celebration of a successful AGM and a new committee NUCA went paintballing. Congratulations goes to our outgoing Publicity Secretary Andy for organising this fabulous event. It was great fun although I am now a broken man unable to get out of bed.

Euro Campaigning in Peterborough

Yesterday Alex, the NUCA Treasurer, and I travelled to Peterborough to help our friend Tom Hunt, the 5th Conservative MEP Candidate in the Eastern Region. We were also joined by Stewart Jackson MP and many of the Peterborough Conservatives for a full days campaigning for the Euro Elections. 

Wisbech is quite near Peterborough, but this is the first time I have met Stewart Jackson MP who I believe to be one of the best campaigners in giving us a referendum on Europe. Stewart was a main player in the 2011 EU referendum debate and one of those who lobbied extensively for the Conservatives to offer the people a say in a vote on Europe. I'm happy to say he was very successful. The people of Peterborough certainly admire him for that and the amount of contact they have with him.

But we were there to specifically deliver leaflets for the European Elections to explain one thing. It's only the Conservatives that can deliver in giving you a say in Europe with an EU Referendum by 2017. This point is very important because I for one think, and have done for ages, that we all need to have a vote to decide our countries future. No other Party can do this. UKIP will be lucky to get one seat in 2015, Labour have ruled out a referendum saying it is 'unlikely' they'd have one if elected in 2015 and the Lib Dems want closer integration. 

Tom delivering a leaflet.

Tom was very clear in his support for the EU referendum in his selection as the 5th MEP candidate saying at the moment he would probably vote to leave. People like Tom and current MEPs like Vicky Ford will really push forward the national interest in Europe, all other parties go to Europe to get closer integration or sponge off the gravy train.  

We spent a lot of our time on the 'Cathedral Estate' in Peterborough.

I had a good day leafleting in Peterborough. Overall we pushed information through 1,000 houses; a lot to do in one day. But this works out to be 0.002% of the 5 million electors in the Eastern region. Tom has told me that the hard working Conservative MEP candidates have been campaigning for many months and have leafleted 100,000s of houses so far. Keep up the good work. We were also treated to lunch by Cllr John Peach from Peterborough council, I thank him a lot for that.

I'll be voting for the Conservatives and Tom Hunt in May 2014 and I hope you will do as well.

Introducing Jane Hunt

Last night Sam and I met Jane Hunt, the new Conservative Candidate for Nottingham South. My first impressions of Jane is that she is an amazingly lovely lady, really down to earth and very competent.

Jane was selected last Saturday by the members of Nottingham South who are stepping up their efforts to get out on the campaign trail to get her elected. She has really given the Conservatives in Nottingham a massive kick start so don't be surprised to see us out and about using every able hour to speak to residents of the city. Today for example Jane got a large amount of activists out in Wollaton and worked with the great Conservative councillors Georgina and Eileen to gather and listen to the opinions of residents. Jane and the Wollaton councillors hopes to take action on a number of issues raised to today.

Out and about in Wollaton West today.

At our meeting with Jane we discussed her background. Jane has worked as a civil servant, a charity, a senior manager in a commercial business and as case worker for Nicky Morgan MP. Jane is currently a Charnwood Borough councillor with a cabinet for position housing and has some other responsibilities. she has also stood as a parliamentary candidate twice in Leicester. In 2010 she contested the seat of Keith Vaz and got such a big swing to the Conservatives that he demanded a recount, which turned out to give Jane a few more votes. Furthermore, Jane has been married to her Husband Tim and has two teenage children. Jane has certainly got the life experience, the political skill and a loving family to give her the abilities to fight hard for the interests of the residents of Nottingham South.

Jane with the Nottingham Conservative community leaders.

In our meeting also Jane, Sam and I discussed in brief what the people of Nottingham South need. Education is of course very high on the list because the Labour run Nottingham City Council have consistently failed at providing a decent education for children. It is only now with Michael Gove's free schools and academies that some of the Nottingham state schools are improving in GCSE and Ofsted results. If elected Jane hopes to bring change to the Nottingham school system with her experience as a school governor but also by working with the great education reforms under the Conservative led Government.

Important to Jane is also the student population. Good integration with the community and listening to their needs are high on her agenda. Students have rights too and Jane sounds like she knows how to make sure the council recognises that. In Charnwood Jane actually represents the ward which contains Loughborough University. She thus has lots of experience with the issues that students face with crime, bins and housing.

Sam and I talking about student issues with Jane.

Jane also is very thankful of the support she has so far received in congratulations from NUCA members. Jane really appreciates how key NUCA will be in the 2015 General Election. She is very keen to meet all the members as soon as possible to inspire them to come out and help her bring about a Conservative government and better representation for Nottingham. Jane is going to be helping NUCA a lot over the next year and a bit. It's great to see that already lots of NUCA members have already signed up to a mass campaigning session very soon.

Jane with Dave.

Jane is an amazing candidate. I'd stick my neck out and say she is the best parliamentary candidate that I have met. I hope she is pleased with that recommendation because I am confident that in just over a years time she'll be told the same thing by the thousands of people in Nottingham when she is elected as the next MP here.

In the words of Winston Churchill, "Let us go forward together!"

Fletcher, By-election and Budget: #ThingsElliottSays is Back

Yes, after a fairly long break with not much going on, #ThingsElliottSays is back. We shall continue to show up the socialist oppressors, Europhiles and CF wannabes.

You are probably wondering what has been going on for me to take a long period of time off? Well I was working very hard on the Clifton North by-election, which we sadly lost, and on my essays. I could tell you some wonderful things about the Carolingian Renaissance, Peter the Great of Russia and Stalin but we must move on.

I'm all clued up on Charlemagne.

So in celebration of #ThingsElliottSays' return let's do a quick summary of three things that have been going on. Firstly, do you remember Cllr Sam Fletcher, the woman and gay hating UKIP councillor from Keighley? Well he has decided again that Facebook is exactly the right place to publicly air his strange views. Cllr Fletcher has called Trans-Gender people "part-time homosexuals" and admitted he was "a bit confused by them". You can see all his delightful comments below and read about them further on the Pink News, The Backbencher and International Business Times. I think the people of Keighley will be demanding a right of recall soon.

On Thursday I was also at a by-election in Gamston, in Rushcliffe. I was out there with Ken Clarke and co. campaigning to get the Conservative candidate Jonathan Wheeler elected to serve on Rushcliffe Borough council. This was a seat we needed to hold and I am glad to say we did so. Jonathan got 444 votes with Labour coming second with 218. UKIP also ran and received 173 with the Lib Dems 4th with 170 votes (this was a much better result for the Lib Dems than the Clifton North by-election where they were beaten by Elvis). I hope Jonathan does well on the Borough council, in the time that I got to know him he seemed to know exactly what needed to be done in the area.

Jonathan, Sam and I just about to go out into Gamston to campaign.

And lastly I want to talk about the budget. The word BINGO could be heard across the whole of England (most notably in Harlow) due to the great work of Robert Halfon MP in getting George to cut Bingo tax by half. Rob is very good at making sure the Conservatives attract that 'white van man worker'. But after Petrol and Bingo being slashed, what will Rob and his team, led by the wonderful ex-University of Nottingham student Emily Burditt, be planning for next year?

Eyes down Rob.

Good work was also done by Michael Ellis MP for his pot hole fund. £200 million has been put aside by the government to help with all those potholes that have been caused a record breaking wet winter. Praise all around to Daisy and Ben, the campaign manager and TCO for Northampton North, who helped massively on that campaign. People back in Wisbech will be very pleased as well as the people of Northampton North.

Michael Ellis MP has got a £200 million government grant for pot holes.

But most importantly, George has made my pint cheaper. Beer duty has been cut twice in a row under this government, something to definitely raise a glass to. Cheers George, students across the country thank you.

Cheers George!

So to end up my summary of the past few days here is one of the best parts of the whole political show around budget day. A song commissioned by Sky News about their coverage of the events.

Lib Dems Helping Those In [Insert Area Name Here]

The Lib Dems are really struggling at the moment especially in the East Midlands. Last week Elvis beat the Lib Dems so they were last in the Clifton North by-election, not a great place to be. But it has got a lot worse with another camapigning mess up by Michael Mullaney, the parliamentary candidate for Bosworth. On the Lib Dem website it says that Micahel is an 'experienced local campaigner in Hinckley and Bosworth.' However he cannot be that experienced because he forgot to insert the name of his local area into the Lib Dem stock campaign literature. Nick Clegg is having a great few weeks.

NUCA Does Rag

NUCA recently went on a rag raid to do campaigning training with Jake Berry MP, the great Conservative from Rosendale and Darwen. We all got on a bus early to meet Jake. He bought us beer and lunch in the afternoon before we did some more campaign training. Over the day we learnt how to use the new CCHQ questionnaires to great effect (I even got 4 new potential party members). Then on the bus back we all had another hearty drink. It was a real great day and something I think will catch on.

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Royal Holloway SU Try To Boycott The Queen

In news from Royal Holloway SU, which for once doesn't concern Sarah Jane Sewell, comes the bizarre story that the loony left and republicans tried to make Royal Holloway SU boycott a visit from the Queen and organise a protest against her.

Does anyone actually respect the actions of SURHUL anymore?

Her Majesty the Queen is set to visit Royal Holloway music department on 14th March as they have won a Regius Professorship. A motion was put forward by LGBT and Academic Officer to the General Council at SURHUL* (Students Union Royal Holloway, University of London) to oppose the Queens visit so that "SURHUL should not take part in the ceremony involving the Queen in March, 2014" and to "To facilitate any protests that students want to organise around the issues of the democratisation and secularisation of the state."

Royal Holloway will soon look forward to a visit from the Queen.

#ThingsElliottSays sources have said that it is "disgusting that this is allowed, and should be put into the public eye." According to this same source when debating this motion  the Union Flag was said to be "for “white middleclass English People”, this was objected by Antonia Jade King RHULCS President". Another believer in the motion rhetorically asked the SU General Meeting "Why are we supporting imperial struggles".

Long May she reign.

Antonia Jade King, leader of Royal Holloway CF, said "the Student unions is Ridiculous and some people just like to get angry. She also said, along with all CF members, "I'm very excited for the queens visit". Three cheers for Antonia Jade.

Antonia Jade excited for the Queens visit.

It is of no surprise that someone when debating the motion stood up to speak and said of the GM and its pointless loony left motions "we sit here and we whine over self righteous indignation. well f*#k that. This is my last GM, I am done. F*#k student politics."

However a wrecking amendment was proposed by the sane students of Royal Holloway which got rid of any republicanism in the motion. New clauses were also added such as a demand "for a flag pole to be erected on the Student Union on which to fly the Union Jack" and "for the National Anthem, Fire of Scotland, Land of My Fathers to be played at the beginning of the general meeting". The amendment also noted "The Queen was once photographed firing a machine gun" and the SU should believed "That the Queen shooting a machine gun is cool".

Neither the motion nor the wrecking amendment was passed. To all those stupid lefties and republicans I say this. To the Tower with you.

To the Tower with the Royal Holloway SU officers.

*This name is far too long as acronym and sounds like a groan of some sort.

Massive Campaign Day in Clifton North

Last Saturday saw a big campaign day launched by the Nottingham Conservatives in order to get the votes of the people of Clifton North. Over 50 activists were busy trying to get Andrew Rule, the local Conservative candidate, elected to Nottingham City Council. We canvassed all of Wilford, Silverdale, the Grove and a fair portion of the Clifton Estate. We also leafleted virtually the whole ward.

Nadim and Alex out in the ward.

We had people from NUCA, Trent, Derbyshire and people even as far away as Dorset come and help make Clifton North a well represented ward with a local Conservative Councillor. There was of course the usual Conservative team out there led by Andrew as well.

Luke Stevens, Chair of Dorset CF, travelled hundreds of miles to help us.

I didn't see the vast majority of the helpers that day as we broke off into smaller teams. But one of the teams did catch sight of Pat Ferguson, the Labour candidate, and her lovely dog. One of our activists asked Pat if she would be voting in the up coming by-election but she said no. This is not surprising as Pat lives in Aspley which is on the other side of Nottingham. I wonder why she has been parachuted into Clifton North then? Pat then said to the group of activists that she is "far better looking than Andrew". I'm not one to judge beauty but that's quite a weird and ego-centric claim to make in a by-election.

Other teams were out in Clifton.

Pat however does seem to be going a bit barmy at the moment. She wrote on the Clifton Facebook Group recently, insulting the people of Wilford, 'It seems to me that geography, never mind grammar, is perhaps not the strongest in that part of the ward with some members of the WCG'. Not a very wise thing to do. Its no wonder that someone on the same Facebook group has said about Pats comments "Oh my goodness! Iv just saw this post and I must say, I'm actually disgusted in how Pat Ferguson has responded! ... you've made yourself look like a silly and rude woman!!!!" It seems the people of Clifton are not very happy with Pat's actions.

Wisdom meets youth with great Clifton North Cllr Roger Steel and NUCA Alex and George.

But despite Pat's rude words about Clifton North we had a great day campaigning. The sun was shining and I got loads of responses on the doors when canvassing. Virtually all the people were favourable to Andrew and I hope that lots of people will turn out to vote for this great local champion. Andrew is chairman of the Wilford Community Group and Secretary to the social club so he knows what needs to be sorted out in the ward.

Andrew speaking with a resident.

People of Clifton North please vote Conservative and for Andrew Rule, a great local choice, on Thursday.

Tabism

#ThingsElliottSays has written another article for the Tab on Nottingham Unis Left Soc wanting Putin to invade Ukraine. These people are jolly nice arn't they. Reaction was overheard in Hallward to the article from other members of Left Soc. They said "Who the F*&k is Elliott Johnson". Looks like I'm on some socialist black list now.

As a little added bonus here is what Left Soc had to say about Venezuela and the terrible dictatorial regime of that socialist state.

But they do tell funny jokes.

ha ha ha ha ha.

The Tab article can be viewed here.