Posts Tagged "Conservative Future"

Bath Tories go out of business!

Any political person with a bit of talent will tell you that you have to keep an eye on your enemy. Whether it’s reading Le Figaro or scanning through pages of pompous euro-sceptic drivel.

Intending to do the latter, I headed over to my old pals, the Tory Society at the University of Bath.

They’ve always had a clumsy redirect from the old, and much neater named, http://bathcf.co.uk to http://bath-conservative-future.co.uk, but imagine by surprise and delight horror to discover this black and white message:

This website has been disabled. Unfortunately the host, Fractix, have now ceased trading. Fractix previously rented webspace through Heart Internet via a Reseller Account. The account has now been disabled.

That’s market forces for you, lads. Lucky I’ve got your backs!

(Three posts in one day? He must be up to something!)

Bath Tories turn to terror tactics for student votes

Students in Bath have received a leaflet from the local Conservative party asking for their opinions and trying to mobilise the “student vote” in their favour.

The leaflet, presumably financed by Lord Ashcroft, has been addressed individually to every student in town. See below for the scans:

It is despicable yet typical that Bath Tories would try to scaremonger students into thinking something is happening and the Tories are the only ones who can do anything about it. Please note that the Tories are running the council, they could have sent out a memo when there was “more time”.

Of all the problems with this leaflet, perhaps the worst part is the patronising and naked bias. The question posed is:

“Should students be forced to live on campus?”

I would like to know what answer they are expecting, having sent this question exclusively to STUDENTS. The responses are equally ludicrous:

[_] I believe students should be forced to live on campus for the whole of their course
[_] I believe students should not be forced to live on campus, but be free to rent a house in Bath.

The only type of student I can imagine who would even consider the first option would already be an active member of Bath Conservative Future.

In all my political experience, in Britain, in France, in Spain, and of all the many leaflets from all the many parties I’ve encountered, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a ham-handed and clumsy way of data mining to gather targeted voting-intention information. Once they’ve got you, they’re not going to let you go unless you text this, email that, then post the other.

Moving on to substance, students may find that this is the first they have heard of such a debate or decision. There have been a few ideas knocking around on the topic of housing, which got Lib Dem MP Don Foster into hot water in the University Newspaper.

Not only is the “decision” broadly fictitious, it’s also completely infeasible to move 10,000 students onto campus. There is no space. Unless the Tories are planning to build a massive tower block, not that the University would want to waste funds on such a project, while throwing away Bath’s World Heritage Status (which the council uses an excuse not to do anything ever). Bath would probably not enjoy the prospect of becoming the country’s only university with such a silly policy and thus losing however many applicants. It would also wreak havoc on the Oldfield Park economy, which has already suffered the collapse of Woolworths.

Students should be alarmed that such an important debate can take place without them knowing or being informed. Let’s thank these Bath Tories for informing us just in time!

So no, Fabian. No, we will not be terrorised, no, we will not be forced to live on campus and NO, we will not be voting Conservative!

Bath Tories Have Been Liberal with the Truth

On Page 10 last issue of Impact, dated 25th of February 2008, we were greatly displeased by some of the comments made by Darien Jay, Vice Chair of Bath CF, in the article headlined “Bath’s Conservative Future Visit Parliament”.

While the content of the article was of no concern, in fact, we congratulate the society for staging the visit; but the article itself raised several red flags. The first is that, leaving understandably biased commentary aside (e.g “Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister’s saviour”), was that while talking of Parliament, Jay wrote, “Such a building, so steeped in tradition and adorned with placards representing British military success serves to stir up national pride in even the most liberal of Britons”.

There are evidently two key grievances with this sentence alone. The first pertains to the phrase “most liberal of Britons” and the second regards the issue of “military success”.

Essentially, it is nothing short of disgraceful on the part of the Conservatives to suggest that citizens who identify themselves as ‘liberal’ are not normally proud of the nation. This is a callous attack directed towards not only us of the Labour Society (and indeed the Liberal Democrat Society), but a huge section of the public yet unaffiliated with a particular party. To imply that Liberalism is somehow deliberately regressive is entirely ridiculous. To us Labourites, it is clear that each political party, despite its differences in philosophy and policy, does not wish to damage Britain. We want what is best for the country, we believe in a long-term strategy rather than opportunism, and we would welcome cross-party agreement and invite the Conservatives to issue an apology.

Furthermore, suggesting “British military success” is the most forceful trigger of ‘national pride’ is redundant and a perfect example of old-fashioned Toryism. It is unspecific which successes were mentioned, but it is likely to be the Napoleonic War, which ended 194 years ago, the Second World War, which ended over 60 years ago, or the Falklands War, which ended 26 years ago. Such nostalgia is superfluous and outdated; we should be going forward, not back. For all the claims of modernisation, it seems old Thatcherite nationalism is still alive and well.

Harking back to the days of the Empire is no example of ‘national pride’; a patriot loves his country, a nationalist hates everyone else’s, and stubborn celebration of crushing other nations is completely and utterly small-minded.