An interesting article appeared in today’s News Letter (not a paper I read, I hasten to add, but I stumbled across this via Google).
The last paragraph is somewhat interesting:
“Sir Reg [Empey] also revealed that his party was asked several weeks ago to draft the Tory General Election manifesto for Northern Ireland, something he said was an unprecedented input to Government policy from an Ulster party.”
Jeez. CCHQ asking the UUP to draw up the general election manifesto for Northern Ireland. Now I’ll never…
This is a tad strange. Because the Conservative Party is organised in Northern Ireland, has an Area Chairman, has an area executive, has, apparently, the ear of the Shadow Secretary of State. Despite this the Conservative Party asks another Party to draw up the Conservative Party’s manifesto. That’d be a first.
There are many in the UUP, of course, (naming no names but Mark Cosgrove is Chief among them) who close their eyes and pretend that the Conservative Party is not actually organised here and doesn’t have any members. This, of course is not the case.
Therefore I have written to Tim Lewis, Northern Ireland Area Chairman of the Conservatives in Northern Ireland, for clarification. It would, of course, be odd if the UUP were to be chief architect of the Conservative Party’s manifesto when its members are not members of the Conservative Party. Very odd indeed, I’m sure you will agree.
We’ll await Tim’s response.
This is very unfair
I imagine that it was agreed as a sweetner for the UUP before the link up was agreed.
I hope Sir Reg has the grace to consult Tim Lewis on the wording before sending his draft to CCHQ
I would have thought that any manifesto draft emanates from the local executive before being submitted to CCHQ. I drafted our Assembly manifesto (with James Leslie) and liaised directly with Owen and CCHQ before it was published. Therefore the general election draft also needs to emanate from our local Exec first. It is certainly not the UUP’s prerogative. Bizarre.
I think you are gilding the lily a little here.
The CU’s will be fighting the election on a joint ticket and on a manifesto that will be agreed by both parties in NI and then by CCHQ.
Why does that seem strange, unless you want to completely exclude the UUP as you do? You can rest comfortable that the policies for NI will all be fully acceptable to the Conservative Party in general and Cameron in particular.
You totally miss my point. The Conservative Party is organised here and has been for 20 years. Had members of the UUP wanted to influence the policy of the Conservative Party vis a vis Northern Ireland they could have joined the Conservative Party at any point during that period – instead they chose to continue their involvement with an orange-steeped sectararian political Party.
I drafted the Conservative Party’s Assembly manifesto (with the late James Leslie). We worked in full consultation with the team at CCHQ. There was no need for any 3rd party involvement.
Yes I am saying that if this project is to work the UUP needs to go away and the UUP’s party structure needs to be absorbed into the Conservative Party’s. At no point has Sir Reg made clear that he is a Conservative. Ditto most of his senior team. Why, therefore, should they be permitted to have a disproportionate input into policy definition when they compete with the Conservative Party for members and are, first and foremost, Ulster Unionists and not Conservatives (there IS a difference you know).
The UUP council and the Conservative Area council need to start working together to agree to a merger. That merger should create a local Party organisation that is clearly NOT the UUP. Rather, if this project is to succeed, the voters must be in no doubt that they are voting for the Conservative Party – and not some local sectarian variant.
There you have it, you are completely out of step with the local and national parties and the leader.
Although I understand that you did previously vote in favour of the pact that you had negotiated before you had a disagreement with the aforementioned Cosgrove.
Toys and cot come to mind, I would have thought working internally to improve the situation would have been a better and more honourable course to follow than the failed sabotage you chose.
I only voted in favour because I genuinely felt there was a real possibility that we could remove the UUP from local politics – replacing the right of centre void with the Conservative Party. The clear intention when we started this process was acquisition – replacing a Crazy Prices brand with Tesco.
As to me being out of step, frankly I couldn’t give a damn. I have zero political ambitions and have no interest in becoming a stipended serf of the “joint committee” (unlike some). I’m a member of the Conservative Party and want to have nothing to do with new-variant UUP.
It may well have been failed sabotage, but at least my political principles are intact. I also get the impression that many, many members of the Party are of a similar view – given the volume of emails I have received.
I don’t understand your reference to a stipended serf unless of course you are referring to Neil Johnston the excellent campaign manager for the joint committee. If you think I am he, think again, in your language I am neither a serf nor stipended nor will I ever be.
How many emails have you had from people who agree with what you did 10, 20, 50, 100, more, do tell us how many and what they said?
If your principles are so important why don’t you resign from the party that obviously does not agree with you at all levels and fight from the outside or alternatively fight internally in private. You have a lot in common with Allister he also refuses to move on as well, however he did have the principles and morals to resign from the DUP first before he attacked them. The difference of course is 67,000 people voted for him and his retro policies, you got some emails.
You want everything, to be a member of a party and then publically criticise the party and try to sabotage its policies, not very principled or moral in my opinion, nor I suspect in the opinion of many.
I thought you were a lot better than that and still hope you are.
Why should I resign from my Party? I am a committed Conservative and very much want to see David Cameron elected. I merely disagree with the Party’s decision to bend over backwards to accommodate a Party that has very little to offer us – not even a Conservative MP. There are many Conservatives who remain within the Party but are highly critical of it – check out John Redwood’s blog or even ConservativeHome.
As to the emails of support – they have nothing to do with you. But many have come from people that I have known for many years, including Dr Laurence Kennedy – who almost won the North Down seat for the Conservatives in 1992(unlike the sitting MP who won the seat for New Labour) – and John Strafford, a long time supporter of the Conservatives in NI and Chairman of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy.
I will no longer be debating with you because you hide behind anonymity. It’s easy to be judgemental when you haven’t even the guts to declare who you are.
There was I discussing policies, principles and morals and now you want to reduce it to personalities.
If you do not want to consider what I say without knowing who I am that is your right. I however fail to understand the importance of who I am, does it make a difference to you if I am Cameron or Paterson or a lowly rank and file member.
Cameron is fully committed to the NI policy, yet you still want to see him elected even though you want to sabotage his policy, strange principles.
Your ‘importance’ is of no issue. Rather I take issue with the fact that you do not disclose who you are while I do. It’s very easy to be critical while hiding behind an electronic nom de plume.
If you were David Cameron I’d be very worried about the amount of time you are spending on my web site. If you are Owen Paterson ditto. Especially as Owen has my mobile number and could call me any time he wishes (although his volume of calls has dropped markedly of late).
I disagree with Cameron on several policy issues. I’m sure he doesn’t care that much. The joy of being an ordinary rank and file member is that I have the right to be critical of the Party leadership’s position on certain issues – especially Northern Ireland. After all I was one of the architects of the campaign to have the Party organise here decades ago. It’s my prerogative.
Unfortunately, personal ambition, and money, have dulled the judgement of certain members of my Party in this whole debacle. Therefore principle must have some part to play.
Now I have work to do…and suspect you do too. Toodle pip.