The Rock Blog

During the CF elections I wrote in support of Boris Johnson 4 London Mayor and a pledge to have a national day to aid Boris in his campaign to get rid of Ken ‘Leaving-soon’. To that end, before we fully regionalise the national days, we will be holding 2 full days for CF members all over the country to come down and help Boris - both days will be a chance for you to campaign alongside the man himself!

It is vital that we get Boris elected on May 1st - part of the flow towards returning our Party to power. Full details on those two days to come soon - in the meantime watch Boris officially launching his campaign.

Apparently, not only the Rock can break the state!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, voted for me and encouraged me during my election campaign, it is a genuine honour and pleasure to be your National Chairman Elect!

Conservative Future is about to change, for the better. The new executive is already working behind the scenes to make sure the next year involves more members, attracts a broader base of supporters and becomes more influential in mainstream politics. These are entirely achievable but will take a huge amount of work.

I am fortunate to have been elected with a strong NME, full of highly capable individuals who I think will work exceptionally well together. I also think we offer a real variety in terms of political interests, personalities and background. I have been very fortunate that we have a good national coverage too, this will be a great year of re-uniting CF and building a truly national organisation.

Thank you again, for all your support, I hope it continues throughout my term as National Chairman of Conservative Future.

Onwards and upwards!

I would like to thank everyone who has supported and helped me during my campaign for National Chairman of Conservative Future. It’s been an honour and a privilege to be welcomed to so many events and have such a great response, mostly(!), to my plans. I sincerely hope I can keep in touch with everyone I’ve met and hopefully help you all to improve CF!

Whilst it has been hard work, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the entire campaign. We seem to forget during elections that CF should be fun! CF is a social organisation - you join to learn about politics, but also to socialise and how fun with your peers. Although I want to make serious changes to improve CF I have had great fun during the campaign - “Come up with a slogan that Rocks” being a good example. I include a link which many members may enjoy!

And, of course, I hope I win so we can start to build CF into a bigger, better and bolder organisation. I think my campaign has offered the best analysis of CF’s present state, the best solutions and the best approach to running an election campaign: honest, open and clean.

If any other candidate wins, I have always said I will offer them my support and my manifesto is theirs to implement. Best of luck to all the candidates for Tuesday and I hope whoever is elected, delivers success and improvement to CF.

This is essentially a ‘wrapping-up’ post for the campaign. No matter what the outcome is, I owe an enormous amount to the following people who have been involved in my team for what has been nearly eight months:

Richard Jackson
Martin Hewitt
Sophia Rock
Without a doubt, three of the finest, most patient, most supportive and talented individuals I have ever known and ever will know. None of you will ever know how grateful I am, thank you.

Ed Hallam
Laura-Rose Saunders
Considering I didn’t know either Ed or Laura before my campaign started, I am still overawed at the effort they have put in to help me. Once again, I am indebted to you both.

Starbuck Coleman
Patrick Sullivan
Owen Meredith
Paul Rogers
Tim Aker
Nick Vaughan
Amanda O’Brien
Chris Ford
Mehreen Malik
Sam Billett
Bethany Lightley
As friends, you have all helped me through some of the trickier moments!

Everyone who changed their Facebook profiles to my badge, joined my groups and have sent messages of support!

The list I posted of supporters really is a roll call of individuals who are an immense credit to CF, the Party and themselves. I, once again, offer my thanks to all the Branch and Area Chairs, the University Presidents and members who have made the last six months a blast. I will offer you all any support I can, whenever it is needed. You are all brilliant!

Finally, anyone who has voted for me, listened to me, hosted an event I’ve attended or randomly asked me questions then I offer you my thanks! It’s been a tremendous experience and I hope the result doesn’t undermine your efforts and support. I am thankful for every moment of time you have given over to my campaign.

As fitting, we are celebrating on Tuesday, regardless of the result! I invite you all to celebrate the end of the elections at Potion on Malet Street (from 6pm), then to a UCL Question Time event then back to Potion. If I just went to one event, it would be an entirely inappropriate end to the Rock4CF campaign!

Many thanks and best wishes for the future,
Michael David Rock

The video footage from the Tooting hustings is now online.

You can watch my performance here.

The Party have today launched recruitment campaign across the whole country - “You can get it if you really want” (with a video being launched exclusively on Facebook). I think this is a brilliant idea and not before time. With the news that Michael Vaughn was putting the video together I was hoping for a kind of cross between David Cameron and Big Chris taking on Gordon Brown…alas this did not happen! But it did deliver a message of aspiration, which Labour seem to have completely forgotten about and is at the heart of conservatism.

I am not egotistical enough to think the Party have copied my plans, but this is exactly what I have been talking about for the last 6 months, we need to break down boundaries to membership and expand Conservative Future drastically. A ‘friends of the Conservatives’ is a very good way of doing this.

I have a similar plan for national membership - open up CF membership nationally (whilst local branches can set their own fee price) so that people can join for free. I know a lot of members that had apprehensions about getting involved with the Tories - once they were in though they have all loved it and never looked back. We can do this all over the country and drastically increase the size of Conservative Future within a few years.

CF should also be the organisation that is leading and helping the Party through the internet revolution. A proper ’supporters’ page, similar to the one setup for this campaign, for CF would be one of the first moves I would implement.

Let’s lead, not follow, the Party into power - vote Rock4CF!

Obviously all higher education branches are located within a constituency and most will have ‘links’ to a close association. The type of help the local association gives differs from money and rooms to nothing at all!

To improve membership retention, it is vital that we create a link between the branch and the association so that members have somewhere to go when they leave higher education and ‘Student Life’. This will involve the Area Chairman needing to make contact the local associations and finding out what help can be given.

At UCL, we send CF members an email when they leave with information about the local association and how to get involved. To often, graduates fall into a vacuum once they leave university and that is both a weakness of CF and the Party. We need to improve communication and engagement with the wider Conservative body.

Alumni clubs and events are often a good way to form bonds local associations with the student body, particularly if the alumni stay in the local area! Often at university level, the step up to association level is not appealing as more often than not association members tend to be on the ‘maturer’ side! Familiar faces are always helpful when approaching a different organisation.

Finally, it is also important that we build a stronger sense of purpose and identity for CF so we don’t suffer from a drain of talent and experience. We need to offer more appealing events to members, address their social needs and choose more relevant locations and functions for the local membership. We should be building a network of friends and contacts within CF and enjoy our time as the present Future!

Throughout my travels around the country I have met many great CF members - working hard every day for our organisation. This is especially true with the Chairmen running branches and Areas. I am very proud to have many of them supporting my bid to become Conservative Future National Chairman (more to come):

Sam Billett - Cities of London & Westminster
Paul Hughes - Dorset
Amanda O’Brien - Deputy Chairman Essex
Mohammed Ali Azeem - City Future Steering Committee
Chris Birks - North East Derbyshire
Serene John-Richards - Tooting
Nathan Cavin - Bristol
Victoria Chamberlain - Deputy Chair and Treasurer for Islington CF
David James Sadler - Saffron Walden
Tim Crockford - Birmingham City

Starbuck Coleman - University College London
Harry Rowe - Loughborough
David Bonner - Lancaster
Marc Stokings - Kent
Rob Goldie - Imperial College London
Amanda O’Brien - Deputy Chairman Essex
Colin Moore - King’s College London
James Deighton - Leicester
Paul Church - London School of Economics
David Bonner - Lancaster
Paul Wells - UEA
Steven Bainbridge - Newcastle
Eleanor Downey - Bristol

Matt Lewis - Staffordshire
Oliver Cooper - London North West
Edward Keene - Nottinghamshire
Hamish Stewart -Deputy Chairman, Nottinghamshire
Laura-Rose Saunders - Deputy Chairman, Bristol & Gloucestershire

Christopher ‘Japers’ Mullan - President-Elect of KCL Student Union
Tobias Lehman - CF Scotland, National Chairman

We are fortunate that many ‘like minded’ organisations have worked with CF members in the past: running training in all areas of political activity, providing opportunities to travel abroad to see other political groups and having a Speakers Panel so that high class speakers can be obtained.

We should utilise their expertise: outsource it to these groups. This will provided professional training to our members and avoid incidents such as the failed Working Life conference last year.

The needs of each member will always vary. Therefore we should offer as much support and opportunities as possible. From my knowledge of the breadth and depth of talent within CF, I imagine courses ranging from media training to canvassing skills to campaign management will all be popular.

Once we improve the information network, we can advertise all events to all of our members. It should be possible to offer regional training, once we establish interest levels. Area Chairs should give feedback to the NME so we develop a history and recommendations list for future CF members.

We have only 1 week to go in the CF elections - given I started my campaign back in July it has been a long race! The most important thing every CF member needs to do is vote to restore power to the members - vote Rock4CF!

Conservative Future can be so much bigger, better & bolder - we need to regionalise and return the running of our organisation back to you, the members. Under my Chairmanship the Area Chairman will be the key people running a ‘local’ Conservative Future.

I was asked at the Nottingham hustings what I would like to see most at the end of my Chairmanship: I would like to see every Area Chairman role contested. This would mean my regionalisation will have worked and we had restored the Conservatism in Conservative Future!

So please have a look at my Business Plan & the policies (CF Conference, CF membership plans, Regionalisation, National Days, CF website, CF Protests, Social action, Democracy in Action tours, CF Consultants, Working Life, National Convention & Back Boris).

You can also view my campaign video, send my message to your friends & change your Facebook profile picture to the Rock logo!

Let’s make Conservative Future bigger, better & bolder!

I don’t live in London so don’t have a vote in the upcoming Mayor of London elections. However, as I studied and work in London, I have seen first hand some of the problems that ‘Red’ Ken has created, exacerbated and not solved. Don’t even get me started on TFL!

The first time I went out canvassing for Boris was at Oxford Circus during the morning rush hour, where I dished out leaflets and the tremendously popular Oyster card holders (if you travel frequently in London, you basically don’t have a choice except to have an Oyster card…don’t get me started…!) It’s a great way to get the message across that the Conservatives are engaged in London issues.

I think Boris is the only Conservative who can outdo Ken in terms of personality and character. Whatever you think of Ken, I’m really not a fan in the slightest, he does connect with Londoners and has a high media profile. Boris can match that and is a great choice for the Conservatives, having the ability to engage people not usually involved in politics through sheer force of personality. I have been fortunate enough to hear Boris’ plans at some of his hustings and events. The substance is there to match the style. I am confident Boris can win and I know a huge amount of supporters and CF activists are helping with the campaign, particularly from the CLWCF branch and across the capital.

If elected, we will co-ordinate a campaign day to help Boris in his campaign. Depending on resources, we could make it a regional day or a national day. My instinct is to keep it as a regional event (for Area 6) but knowing the popularity of Boris amongst students, it might well be advertised across the country, depending on the feedback we get from the AC’s!

Rock4CF and Boris4London!

I am posting my main video again to show CF members why they should vote Rock4CF!

“The National Convention is some 900 strong with every association chairman (625) plus approx 150 representatives of the 10 regions and 44 areas. There are 100 places for members of recognised organisations. Members of the Board and immediate previous Nat Convention office holders are also members.

The National Convention holds its AGM each Spring and elects its officers who sit on the Board of the Party. It also meets in the autumn for its half yearly meeting. 66% majority of its members are needed for rule changes and in some cases this percentage has to be matched by 66% of MPs.

It provides a focus for views of Party members and acts as a link between the Party Leader and its members.”

Currently CF only gets 42 seats on the 900 strong National Convention. It is important that we have a voice in the convention and that our elected representatives all get to attend. With only 42 seats this is not possible and so if elected I will push to have the number raised to 50 seats for CF.

This may not sound like much, but this will allow every Area Chairman and all members of the NME to attend and take part. A small and simple measure that will greatly increase the accountability of our organisation.

If we are to re-establish CF as a political force then we need to start acting like a serious organisation, showing we can input sound opinions and adding value to our Party. The Party will listen to us if we prove our worth.

Compulsory attendance by all Area Chairmen and NME is a simple measure of accountability; if one member can’t attend then they must organise for a representative.

As the best placed and most experienced business candidate in the CF elections, I will personally adopt the ‘Working Life’ brand as my project. Much of the disillusionment with CF comes from young professionals: CF plays no role in the lives of those who work hard and play hard.

We need to address this by seeking the external knowledge of the business professionals already involved with their immediate circle within CF, people such a Mohammed Ali Azeem who runs City Circle. I have a wealth of experience in business and look forward to promoting these events, where like-minded business people can network and interact.

Working Life needs to have a timetable of regular ‘official’ events (as well as the City branch events). My plans:

• 4 Working Life socials a year in the 6 areas
• 4 Working Life Policy Discussion breakfasts in London
• Trial Working Life Policy Discussion breakfasts in Manchester & Birmingham. If successful we will hold regular breakfasts in the 6 Areas
• Run by Area Chairman with NME member making sure they happen
• Specific ‘Working Life’ events at my CF Conference
• Continue working with ‘City branch’ groups for advice and support

Our current Branch Chairmen constitute an incredible resource that we should utilise far more effectively. We need to leverage the knowledge within CF to further advance and improve our organisation.

Established, experienced branch Chairman and Area Chairman will be paired with new branches. They will act as a contact for help, advice and general support. New branch Chairman will be encouraged to communicate with their ‘CF Consultant’ for advice, localising the support network and avoiding the ‘orders from London’ syndrome.

An example I can use is someone on my campaign team: Richard Jackson who ran the UCL Conservative branch last year is helping the Tooting CF branch - experienced members passing on knowledge thus stopping it from being lost when they leave the organisation. A simple and easy way to improve CF! 

Share it with your friends: http://tinyurl.com/2d3ob6

Ballot papers should be arriving through your letterbox today - if you don’t get one call the ERS on 020 8889 9203.

I want to restore the Conservatism in Conservative Future. I will do so through core conservative principles: taking a professional, business-like approach to running our organisation, decentralising power and promoting a broader coalition of conservative-minded people.

My main proposals focus on invigorating and expanding CF, by building up support and influence from the base upwards. I will break the stranglehold of the NME: too much power rests in too few hands. Ordinary CF members, like you and I - outsiders who do the real work, on the ground - should decide how CF is run EVERY day, not just once a year.

I have recorded a short video message to share my views & plans for CF.

I have travelled all over the country, speaking to and meeting members, discussing their concerns, plans and ideas. This dialogue will continue for the rest of the campaign and beyond: you can email at michael@rock4cf.com, phone me on 07903 016809 or leave comments on this website.

The most valuable resource we have in CF is the members and I am determined that CF changes to reflect that. You can view my Business Plan here or view specific policy areas on: CF Conference, CF membership plans, Regionalisation, National Days, CF website, CF Protests, Social action & Democracy in Action tours.

Don’t settle for the same old Conservative Future, let’s return CF to its members, influence and power to a local level and make us the organisation that leads the Conservatives back into power - vote Rock4CF!

As a political organisation it seems only right that we should help to educate our members about the forms of Government in the UK.

It would also give us the opportunity to engage a wider audience: there is no need to exclude non-CF members, it may even be a way to better engage a broader range of potential members.

The NME will therefore organise, with our Conservative elected politicians and staff, for tours of:

• Houses of Parliament
• Welsh Assembly
• Scottish Parliament
• Conservative Party Campaign Headquarters
• Other regional Party headquarters

These events will be separate to National Days and will be advertised on the CF website. It would only seem sensible to tie up these events with training or significant events that members may wish to attend.

I believe we should far better utilise and engage outside organisations with CF and these days, once planned properly and in advance, will provide us with the opportunity to offer a more diverse range of events.

I have recorded a short video to share my views, and main plans, for Conservative Future.