The Rock Blog

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

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

Today is the day - ballot papers will be going out across the country for 10,000 CF members to vote who they want to be Conservative Future National Chairman. Let’s make this the year when CF members vote for themselves: vote Rock4CF to give CF back to the membership! 

Why vote for Michael Rock? 

I want to restore the Conservatism in Conservative Future.  I will do so through core conservative principles, taking a professional business-like approach to making our organisation bigger, better & bolder!

My main proposal is to invigorate and expand CF, by building up support and influence from the base upwards. This process involves giving more influence and power to the Area Chairs and encouraging a culture of open dialogue and idea-sharing.

My Business Plan for CF covers six areas, which I have gone over in detail on this blog:

• Strong & supported CF branches
• Increasing financial resources for Conservative Future
• The CF website & general communication
• Accountable NME & Area Chairman
• Distguishing CF members
• Conservative Future events & campaigning

Don’t settle from the same old CF, let’s return the bottom-up system to CF and make us the organisation that leads the Conservatives back into power - vote Rock4CF!

What if you do not get a ballot paper?

From the CF website: “If the member can verify their details then they will get a ballot paper. In this regard, ERS will establish a CF election helpdesk – please call 020 8889 9203. This number will be open from 11th February and can be used by Members, who for whatever reason do not get a ballot paper.”

Those of you have been able to make it to the hustings will have heard me use this word a lot - regionalisation- and this concept is the backbone of my plans for Conservative Future.

I don’t believe the current system of NME control best serves the members of CF. We need to return power and influence to the people who ‘actually’ run CF - the active members around the country. My proposals encourage a cultural shift towards a Conservative Future that shares information and knowledge internally and communicates better with all of our members.

I want to change the structure of CF by adopting a base-upwards approach; branch Chairman and Area Chairman playing the key roles with the NME acting to support and advise. My business plan is focused on this and I have specific policies that would restore the Conservatism to Conservative Future:

• I propose to devolve influence across the country into 6 regions, each with around 7 Area Chairman, with an NME member assigned an area each. The role of each NME member will be to advise and support the Area Chairman and provide feedback back for communication across CF. This places the running of CF on local branches and not the NME
• Area Chairman will run regional meetings with feedback, comments and ideas to be shared nationally
• 6 regional events on the National Days across the whole of the UK - a truly national day!
• Increase CF’s number of seats on the National Convention to 50 – allowing all Area Chairman and NME members to attend
• Local branches to have the power to set their membership rates
• Local members, helped by the NME, to gain local sponsorship for events
• Free websites for all branches (e.g. rock.cfbranch.com) - giving local branches an online presence

Many of these measures are simple to implement and will encourage greater participation and engagement with all of our members.

I propose to split the country into 6 sections, each with around 7 Area Chairman. An NME member will represent each area. There role will be to advise and support the Area Chairman & provide feedback back to CCHQ. This places the running of CF on local branches and not the NME. The Area Chairman will then take the lead in running the National Days and the regional meetings.

I include below the proposed areas:

Area 1
Cumbria
Lancashire
Merseyside
Cheshire & the Wirral
Greater Manchester East
Greater Manchester West
Northern Ireland

Area 2
Cleveland & Durham
Tyne, Wear & Northumberland
Yorkshire North & East
Yorkshire South
Yorkshire West
Nottinghamshire

Area 3
Birmingham, Solihull & Coventry
Black Country
Staffordshire
Worcester & Warwickshire
Hereford & Shropshire
Wales North
Wales Mid & West
Wales South Central
Wales South East
Wales South West

Area 4
Derbyshire
Lincolnshire
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire & Rutland
Norfolk & Suffolk
Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire
Cambridgeshire & Bedfordshire

Area 5
Devon & Cornwall
Somerset
Wiltshire & Dorset
Hampshire & Isle of Wight
Berkshire
Bristol & Gloucestershire

Area 6
London North West
London North East
London South East
Surrey
Kent
Sussex
Essex
Hertfordshire