Conservative Future
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Conservative Future is the youth movement of the British Conservative Party.
It was formed in 1998 with a merger of the Young Conservatives, Conservative Students and Conservative Graduates into one organisation. It includes all members of the Conservative Party under 30.
Conservative Future claim 3000+ members and maintain that they are the largest Youth Group of any political party. However, this is belied by the fact that they merely include every Conservative Party member under-30 in their membership figures, regardless whether or not they are active in the CF organisation. It has been claimed by critics of CF that the actual membership figures are around 25 core activists in London, and various large University groups such as York and Aberystwyth, and that the turn-out in CF national elections is regularly below 300. Though this is perhaps somewhat disingenuous given that according to the Times the Conservative Future groups of Edinburgh University and St. Andrews University have over 150 members each (although strictly speaking, Scottish branches have there own organisation), extrapolated across the country this would make official figures add up. In late 2004, King's College London Students' Union de-ratified their Labour and Liberal Democrat societies because they had less than the minimum number of members (25), leaving their Conservative Society as the only mainstream political society within the College.
Conservative Future also has a number of branches affiliated with city associations. The city branches aim to attract members from the non-student population, but faces difficulties in recruitment and retention owing to the working hours of members and limitations on their time. There has often been little attention paid to city branches as they suffer from even lower active members than university branches. Members of city branches often go on to contest local and national elections. City associations are having to increasingly turn to the internet to attract new active members. One such city branch that is using the internet heavily in attempts to attract new members and increase participation is Coventry Conservative Future (http://www.covcf.org.uk) where the city council has the youngest Conservative cabinet in the country as at the June 2004 all-out local elections.
CF is run by a National Team, elected annually, to represent the membership and to implement its aims and objectives. The chairman is supported by seven other members of the National Management Executive. In addition, there is a full-time member of staff at Conservative Central Office known as the National Organiser.
Chairmen of Conservative Future
- Donal Blaney (1998-1999)
- Gavin Megaw (1999-2000)
- Tom Bursnall (2000)
- Hannah Parker (2001-2002)
- Justin Tomlinson (2002-2003)
- Paul Bristow (2003- )
Area Coordinators
- Berkshire - (Andy Bookless)
- Birmingham, Solihull & Coventry - (Naweed Khan)
- The Black Country - (Chris Kelly)
- Bristol & Gloucestershire - (Ross Smith)
- Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire - (Torion Bowles)
- Cambridgeshire & Bedfordshire -(Matthew Dalton)
- Cheshire & The Wirral - (Bob Bailey)
- Cleveland & Durham - (Adam Bell)
- Cumbria - (Vacant)
- Derbyshire - (Christian Walker)
- Devon & Cornwall - (Martin Smith)
- Essex - (Sam Rozati)
- Greater Manchester East - (Joel Tennuchi)
- Greater Manchester West - (Sean Ell)
- Hampshire & Isle of Wight - (Ranil Jayawardena)
- Herefordshire & Shropshire - (Nick Vaughan)
- Kent - (James Dickie)
- Lancashire - (Clare Hilley)
- Leicestershire, Northamptonshire & Rutland - (Vacant)
- Lincolnshire - (Stuart Baldock)
- London Eastern - (Daryl Williams)
- London Southern - (Rebecca Stevens)
- London Western - (Annesley Abercorn)
- Merseyside - (Mark Cotterell)
- Norfolk & Suffolk - (Gavin Maclure)
- Northern Ireland - (Vacant)
- Nottinghamshire - (Vacant)
- Somerset - (Brook Whelan)
- Staffordshire - (Jarrett Kinson)
- Surrey - (Tom Stoddart)
- Sussex - (Jonathan Ash-Edwards)
- Tyne and Wear & Northumberland - (Chris Martin)
- Wales Mid & West - (Alun Craig Williams)
- Wales North - Vacant
- Wales South Central - (Rose Smith)
- Wales South East - Vacant
- Wales South West - (Richard John)
- Wiltshire and Dorset - (Debbie Baylies)
- Worcestershire & Warwickshire - Vacant
- Yorkshire North & East - (Andrew Burtenshaw)
- Yorkshire South - (Luke Graham)
- Yorkshire West - (William Wearmouth)
External links
- Official Conservative Future site (http://www.conservativefuture.com/)
- Official Conservative Party site (http://www.conservatives.com/)
- The Next Generation group (http://www.adamsmith.org/tng/) of the Adam Smith Institute (http://www.adamsmith.org/)