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Heads up to www.theyoungconservative.co.uk for this great piece!

“The next time you encounter someone on your campus who believes confiscatory tax levels are okay, try this on them, courtesy on the Young America’s Foundation.

They visited a campus and asked students to sign a petition ‘redistributing grade point averages’. The British equivalent would be to ask your fellow students to donate a part of their latest essay mark or exam grade to students who hadn’t worked hard or otherwise were failing. Oddly, none of the usually leftist students found redistribution so attractive when it was something they’d worked hard for…”

Thanks to ConservativeHome.com for this one. Fascinating.

On Tuesday 28^th April, around 550 students and members of the Nottingham Labour Party piled into a University of Nottingham lecture theatre to hear from comedian Eddie Izzard, as well as former No.10 spin doctor Alastair Campbell, and Lillian Greenwood (Trade Unionist and Labour parliamentary candidate for Nottingham South). Forecasted to contain “fun and jokes”, and tickets only costing £3, I bought my ticket and attended the event expecting some relatively light hearted conversation about politics. After all, Eddie Izzard is supposed to be a “world famous comedian”.

What followed was the most blatant attempt at hollow self-promotion I have ever come across. This really was just a chance for Labour to raise some money and publicity prior to the June 4^th elections, and nothing like the “massive event” it was billed to be. Eddie Izzard, was distinctively not funny, and his lack of any sort of script meant he kept rambling on about peculiar things such as his views on religion. Alastair Campbell displayed more hubris than Gordon Brown himself, and Lillian Greenwood (Trade Unionist and Labour parliamentary candidate for Nottingham South) was perhaps the most uninspiring candidate for public office I have ever encountered. This was summed up best when, asked by a student about standing up for local constituents or towing the Party line, she stated that she would follow the Party line because that was the manifesto on which she was elected on.  What a typical Labour career-politician!

Prior to the event, written questions were taken and I submitted one asking Eddie Izzard why he was so “proud” to be a Labour supporter when we have endured a decade of cataclysmic under-equipping of our armed forces. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this question never got asked and instead we were treated to some tedious Alastair Campbell rambling about Tony Blair in his underpants and some bizarre voice impressions of Cabinet ministers.

What a joke and what a waste of time and money. This is the first and last Labour event I shall ever attend in my life.

(if you want a taste of the dire performance Eddie Izzard et al. gave then look no further than Labour’s website: http://www.labour.org.uk/proud_of_labour)

 

Sorry for the lack of blogging- I have been really busy since Easter and work has really got the better of me! Also, I think coverage of Labour’s downfall is being pretty well documented by the media so perhaps it’s not essential that I offer a view point.

 

The Tories have launched their new campaign for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty- an issue I completely agree with- however I am a little disappointed by the poster they have come up with. I don’t think it’s very effective to be honest.

 

 

Last night NUCA held its AGM. With a good turnout of 30 people, the AGM covered the outgoing President’s speech, the Treasurer’s review of our finances, a vote on constitutional amendments and the election of next year’s committee.

The 2009/2010 committee was elected as:

 

Nick Allsopp- President

James Spencer- Vice-President

Amy Hennessy- Treasurer

Chris Loftus- General Secretary

Ed Cain- Campaigns and Publicity Officer

Hannah Dobra- Social Secretary

Well done to those elected- I know they will do a very good job.

 

I was very sad to wake up today to the news that David and Samantha Cameron’s 6 year old son Ivan has died. Ivan suffered from a rare form of cerebral palsy and died at a hospital in West London this morning after being taken ill overnight.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Cameron family.

On Friday 20^th February NUCA welcomed Ken Clarke MP. The evening signalled the launch of the University of Nottingham branch of ‘The Bow Group’ and Ken spoke animatedly about his long membership of the Bow Group. We have chosen to forge links with the Bow Group as a way to allow NUCA members to take a more active role within the formulation of ideas which could eventually lead to Party policy, and also to raise awareness about functions held by the Bow Group in London. Thanks to Patrick Sullivan for assisting us in setting this up. Ken then treated us to a speech on how he sees Britain at the moment and how he thinks the Conservatives would better it. This was followed by a few questions from the floor and a couple of glasses of wine.

It was another successful evening with a cracking turnout of over 40 people who came to hear from Ken.

 

 

On Friday 13^th February, NUCA hosted Roger Helmer MEP. Roger, introduced with a talk from Tim Aker (TaxPayers’ Alliance) about a recent stunt regarding the EU’s fishing policy, articulated his personal views on Britain’s membership of the European Union. The speech was very interesting, as one comes to expect from Roger, and a particularly interesting statistic was that the benefits to the UK regarding trade account for just 1.8% of our GDP whereas we pay out 5.5% of our GDP on regulation.

 

Roger and Tim also joined us for dinner afterwards which was good fun (albeit with a slight delay for the burgers!). All in all it was a very successful event and NUCA thanks the Young Britons’ Foundation once again for the assistance provided in getting a speaker.

On Tuesday 10^th February NUCA held a social with Jonathan Isaby, Co-editor of ConservativeHome and former columnist for The Telegraph. The evening began in the Sir John Borlase pub with a few pints and later moved on to Brassmonkey and Saint Bar for cocktails and general revelry.  It was a very enjoyable evening and we were very grateful to have Jonathan up, who was good company throughout the evening.

 

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