Something for those 'Yes to AV'ers'

Note the image. One of the great claims by those in favour of AV is that the winner gets above 50% of the vote. Well, as the BBC's FiveLive radio program showed the other day, this is NOT always the case.
Because everyone is not obliged to have a 4th, 5th or 6th preference vote, situations like the above arise where no party gets above 50% in AV, and s party who gets just 16.9% of first preference votes (the Greens) have miraculously ended up a close second!

...so much for democracy

North East Campaign Day

North East Campaign Day, Good Friday 22nd April.

11:30pm at Newcastle Train Station, hope to see you there!

Upcoming Campaign Dates in NE

 We will be campaigning with local associations, councillors, mp's and volunteers right across the North-East in April, on the following dates:

Sunderland: 20th April - Meet at North Shield Metro Station at 11.30am
North Tyneside: 21st April - Meet at Sunderland Station at 11.30am
Newcastle: 22nd April - Meet at Newcastle Central Station at ...11.30am
Darlington: 23rd April - Meet at Darlington Station at 11.30 am

If you want to get involved, just get in touch!

Spinmeister Drops Into Hexham

For anyone interested, Alistair Campbell is speaking at Hexham Queens Hall on

-MAY 7th
-@ 8pm

...Should be interesting, discussing 'candidly about what life is like at the eye of the political storm'.

Tickets are about a tenner and can be bought from the queens hall website or calling the box office on 01434652477.

Hope to see you there!

Big Society Summit 2011

This friday, The CF and Guy's group of young volunteer interns will host Hexham's first Big Society Summit. With weeks of preparation in the making, the summit hopes to provide a platform where organisations (both private and public) can showcase their big society project(s) and inspire others in the process.

Its sure to be a great day and there'll be plenty of pics to follow.

Wish us luck!

Why AV is wrong

A classic clip from 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet' presenting possibly the most concise argument against AV I have seen yet, here.

As dennis says...'Everybody gets what nobody wants'

EMA Debate

A former receiver of EMA outlines why she thinks it should be reformed here

Student Politics

Great new blog by Guy regarding our visit to Ponteland High this morning here.

Upcoming campaign daye in NE

These are the prospective campaign days all accross the North East, if you want to get involved or have any queries, just get in touch.

29th January
11th February
5th March
11th March
7th April
8th April
9th April
11th April
12th April

Hexham Campaign in Oldham and Saddleworth

First of all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.
It's going to be an exciting one and one of the first priorities of 2011 is to campaign for the upcoming by-election.

That is why tomorrow Guy Opperman MP, Hexham CF and Guy's volunteers will be heading 'south' to help Kashif Ali in his campaign to turn the three-way marginal into a Conservative victory. It will be very tight so every bit of help is needed and Hexham is doing its bit for the national interest.

I'm sure it'll be a great day and we'll all be doing a sun dance tonight.

Pictures to follow...

Guest post from Guys blog

Great guest post from Will Hamilton, a former intern in the office, outlining what he thinks the Big Society means to him.

A Christmas message from Guy and all involved with the Conservatives in Hexham

GUEST POST: Voice of a Student

I’m a student at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham and I will be part of the first generation of students that will have to pay the new tuition fees.

I don’t think tuition fees are perfect, I’m not even sure they are ideal – but they do seem fair.

Some one has to pay, and what is fairer; that student’s pay or the tax payer does? As a prospective University student I recognise the benefits it will hopefully bring me in my career – on average around £100,000.

With the proposed plan graduates will not have to pay one penny back until they are earning over £21,000 a year, and then they will be paying back £45 less a month than they do at the present – is that so unfair?

Any university which is charging more than £6,000 a year will have to prove that they are taking in increasing numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. That sounds fair to me.

£150 million being invested into a National Scholarships Programme to get disadvantaged students into top universities. That sounds fair to me.

Would I rather not pay? Sure. But with 45% of us going to university it is not sustainable for the tax payer to cover all students’ fees - and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask me to make a contribution.

Ed Miliband and Labour have been quick to jump on the band wagon. As a young person interested in politics nothing puts me off more than seeing politicians chasing headlines. This is our future and difficult decisions have to be made.

Labour set up the Browne report, yet have no credible alternative of their own. It may be getting Labour good headlines but playing politics with our future is not winning them support with students like me.

Dan

Shoeboxes delivered!

After a week of cancelled events and misery in the snow, we finally had something to celebrate last night as the last of the shoeboxes were delivered to Mark from SOS.

All in all, over 50 boxes were collected (plus a very generous £45 from one collection) by the wonderful people of Northumberland, and I mean the whole of Northumberland! We in the office, Guy, the Women's Committee and our volunteer interns had great fun packing and wrapping the boxes and everyones hard work has paid off. So this is a MASSIVE thank you to each and everyone who participated in our SOS shoebox appeal 2010, from collecting to wrapping.

Hexham CF will be meeting this Sat to thrash out our plans for the New Year and think about our next couple of social action projects, having marked this one as an absolute success!

Get involved.

The run-up to Christmas is looking to be a busy time for us here at Hexham CF!

With the SOS care packages coming in thick and fast, we are trying to find room in Guy's already cluttered office. Here's a taster of things we're doing in the coming weeks;

• 27th November, SOS collection in Hexham, near the market square
• 28th November, CF travelling down to Oldham to help them in their upcoming by-election
• 4th November, Guy launches his 'Shop Local This Christmas' appeal in Prudhoe

Feel free to pop along to any of these and keep the shoeboxes coming!

A message from Guy.

Hard-work paid off!

Hexham CF were out in force on Thursday as the Ponteland East by-election reached its final stages. We were up at the crack of dawn getting the vote out and were present at the final count, with volunteers coming and going throughout the day. With over 40 volunteers helping the campaign, we are delighted to say that it was all well worth it and that Eileen got elected with an incredible 63% of the vote (Con 843, LD 403, Labour 100).

It is clear that on the day, good and honest politics won, with the Lib Dem's malicious and untruth campaign putting voters off. It it heartwarming to know that the only local candidate, who has lived in the area all her life, has brought up her children and runs her family business in the ward, has defeated the anti-politics of the (my solicitor has instructed me not to say) serial political loser. This is a clear message to the LD and Andrew Duffield that they cannot play nasty politics and get away with it!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved. It was a rain-sodden day but everyone gave so much commitment and enthusiasm that it would have been a travesty had we not won.

So thank you, because it is local volunteers and activists, not malicious sniping and dirty tactics, that keep politics and democracy alive.

Ponteland by-election

This Thursday's by-election is setting out to be a great day of canvassing.

We already have over half of Guy's interns coming down for the day, trying to rally support for Eileen and making sure good, clean politics wins on the day. It has been a frustrating campaign for all of us and it is a shame to see it being dominated by Lib-Dem untruths.

If you still want to get involved and haven't contacted us yet just get in touch!

Support Our Soldiers (SOS) Xmas Box requests

Right, after speaking to a few soldier friends (or friends of friends), I have drawn up a list of wants and 'want nots' for the xmas boxes, here goes;

INCLUDE
instant noodles
mechanical pencils
nuts
dental floss
chewing gum
biscuits/bread sticks
nuts and dried fruit
cordial (because the waters 'rank')
heavy duty lip balm/moisturiser


DO NOT INCLUDE
apart from the obvious on the website;
chocolate
gummy bears

So plenty of things with a long-life, non-perishables and nothing that will melt or will be easily broken on the trip.

Get packing!

Give our troops a better xmas!

Since 2003, 'Support our Soldiers' have sent Christmas parcels to members of the British Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and other overseas operations. Last year they sent nearly 12,000 parcels and Hexham CF want to help them out with this wonderful cause. However, we cannot do it without the generosity and good will of the public and we are calling on you to kindly donate.

Each parcel costs roughly £5 and if you wish to make a donation, either with items to include in the parcels or monetary terms, please send to :

1 Meal Market

Hexham

Northumberlan

NE46 1NF

For a list of items you can and cannot include in the parcels, please visit;

http://www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk/carepackages.html

Any questions please get in touch!

University Volunteer Fair

Great to see Guy come to the fair and tell his prospective volunteer interns directly what they will be doing in the following months.

Remember, it's not too late to apply so if you fancy this fantastic opportunity to intern for an MP (something that doesn't come round very often) then just get in touch at hexham@tory.org.

http://www.youtube.com/user/GuyOppermanMP#p/a/u/0/y9eiJ18Bhi4

Shadow cabinet announced

In the end, mini Mili didn't have the 'cajones' to put either Yvette Cooper OR Ed Balls at shadow chancellor and opted for the safe choice, the popular Alan Johnson. If he can't take the tough decisions in his own party, then the Labour leader will find it very hard to formulate credible opposition to the coalition government.

Old blairites Peter Hain and Shaun Woodward have been snubbed to take up the Wales and N.Ireland briefs respectively. However, one man who is surely out of his depth is Sadiq Khan. Red Ed loyalist, and his campaign manager during the leadership contest, Mr.Khan rose to the lofty 'heights' of Minister of State for Transport during Brown's reign, for 11 months. How this makes him qualified to take on one of the truly big beasts of politics, Ken Clarke, as shadow Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, is bewildering. A cynic would say the sniping, briefing and 'boys club' days of the Blair-Brown era were far from over, and that the protagonists have just got younger.

Busy day!

Hexham CF managed to wrangle itself into the Northumbria and Newcastle Uni' Jobs and Volunteers fair this morning and what a brilliant day!

We managed to collect over 200 email addresses and ran out of all the goodie bags, flyers and information we were handing out. There was a great response from students regarding Guy's internship program and we're glad we're not the ones having to make the final decisions as to who gets the job(s)! If anyone is interested in applying, just get in touch.

Rousing speech from David Cameron

Today, David Cameron made his first Conservative conference speech as Prime Minister.

You can see it here http://www.conservatives.com/Get_involved/Webcasts.aspx.

Volunteer Internship Available in MP's Office

Looking to bulk up your CV?

Looking for that first start in politics?

 

Guy Opperman, the Member of Parliament for Hexham, is looking for students who are looking to gain first hand experience and knowledge of constituency politics.

The position offers the opportunity of working closely with Guy and is a good first step on any career path, political or otherwise.

You will be expected to work around one day per week based in Guy's Constituency Office in Hexham.

Places are strictly limited.

call

01434 603777

or email

hexham@tory.org

Fancy getting involved?

Mel's wife Eileen Armstrong is the Conservative candidate for County Counciller in Ponteland East and the Hexham CF will be joining the team in getting her elected.

The by-election will take place on Thursday 4th November.

There are four days in which we will take to the streets (hopefully in sunshine) for a fantastic day of campaigning.

If you, your family or friends are interested and you want to know the dates then please get in touch by email at hexhamcf@gmail.com, or call/text Pete on 07739223807.

There'll be plenty of cars going on the days so feel free to ask for a lift.

Many Congratulations!

We have a new national CF Chairman!

That man is Ben Howlett, and we should take this opportunity to congratulate him and wish him every success in the future. After all, success for Ben will undoubtedly lead to success for the national CF and the Conservative Party as a whole, our ultimate mission.

Congratulations also go out to the rest of the newly elected team, as listed below. However, one of Ben's first tasks as national chairman must be to address the issues that arose during the campaign, especially the stark reality that less than 200 votes were cast, from a membership in excess of 18,000. This is simply not good enough and we urge Ben to review why this is the case.

However, this is a moment for Ben to sit back and enjoy his success after a well fought campaign, because Hexham CF are sure to hold him and his team to account for the good of its members!

More info can be found about Ben here http://www.benhowlett.com/.

Chairman: Ben Howlett (Howlett 113, Cox 60)
Deputy (membership): Clare Hilley (Hilley 73, Cooper 47)
Deputy (political): Alexandra Swann (Swann 139, Khan 33)
Appointed Officer - James Deighton (Deighton 72, Sullivan 70)

Portillo event finalised!

Right, that's it. Decisions have been made, times have been set and all you now have to do is turn up to what we expect to be a great night.

If you hadn't heard already, the fantastically charismatic former Tory minister Michael Portillo is coming to town. On 8th October, hes hosting 'an audience with Michael Portillo' at the Queen's Hall, Hexham.

Event starts at 7:30pm but we're planning on meeting for a drink first in the exchange (in queens hall) from 7:00pm.

So book your ticket (details are at top right of blog) and make sure you get in touch via hexhamcf@gmail.com just so we know numbers.

So we'll see you then! First rounds on me*

*may or may not be true

First constituency diary from Guy.

Ponteland By-Election

After the recent and sad death of respected local Conservative councillor Mel Armstrong, the Ponteland East by-election will be taking shape in the coming weeks.

Although candidates have not yet been selected, Hexham CF is gearing up to help keep Mel's old ward a blue one. Mel was well known for his sense of humour and his love of local politics and so the Hexham CF will be spending a few days campaigning in Ponteland with similar enthusiasm and hard work.

 

If you would like to be involved in the campaign please get in touch

Cheese and Port

On Friday 8th October, the charismatic and fantastically cheesy former minister Michael Portillo will be coming to Hexham.

He is hosting 'An audience with' at the Queen's Hall Arts Centre in Hexham in what is sure to be a fascinating night, politics buff or not. To mark the great man coming to Hexham, CF is planning to make this a social event. Event starts at 7:30pm but the CF will be meeting from 7:00pm in the exchange (in the Queens Hall) so pop along for a drink before hand!


If you fancy coming along with CF then drop us an email at hexhamcf@gmail.com or get in touch another way, we dont bite! Tickets are £14.

Book now to avoid dissapointment, Queen's Hall box office is 01434 652477.
The more the merrier!

A massive thankyou to the people of Stamfordham and the Bay Horse.

Welcome to our blog!

Last friday night, Hexham's first Conservative Future was launched in the beautiful surroundings of the Bay Horse pub in Stamfordham. Not only did we manage to raise over £250 for our two nominated charities; TASC (Tynedale Activities for Special Children) and Help for Heroes, but the pub quiz itself was a massive success and the local population of Stamfordham must be applauded for their enthusiasm. The CF hopes to raise the awareness of these two fantastic charities and bring in some much needed cash in the process.

TASC and Help for Heroes will be our two nominated charities for the next 6months, and we will shortly be giving you, our dedicated readers, the chance to vote for our two nominated charities for a 6-month period thereafter.

We hope to use this blog to tell you about future events the CF will be hosting and things you can all get involved with but in the meantime, if there are any questions you want to ask, or you fancy getting involved yourself please drop me an email at hexhamcf@gmail.com.

Keep in touch!

Pete,

Hexham CF Chairman

L-R: Pete, Sarah, Guy, Charlie, Amy