Ours is a national Party — in rebuilding it we must listen to our activists from the whole country
--
As many of my colleagues know, I am a fan of Ronald Reagan and have one of his mantras in the footer of my emails (also on my Convention election leaflet).
Another of his famous maxims was his so-called Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Conservative”, and that is one that I live by.
The only people we should be knocking chunks out of are Labour, the LibDems and Reform.
One of my priorities in this campaign is that we have to live up to our values as a Party, and I have cited democracy as one of them — so I completely welcome a contest for the role of Chairman of the National Convention. I’d like to see more competition for our internal elected roles, as long as it is kept positive, and make our democratic Party mechanisms at all levels work better — as they used to.
Back in the 2019 leadership hustings I asked Boris how he would strengthen democracy in the Party — his response was to recall that in the past there were “many more elections” and that democracy within the Party needed to be revitalised. Had it not been for COVID, who knows where we could have been now?
As someone of the regions, who has been an Area and Regional Chairman in two different parts of the country, to me CCHQ is the place I venture to for Board meetings to fight the corner for our members — not a place I drop into for a chat with mates. I’m more at home at the Empire Services Club in Preston (where I had a very useful meeting with the Lancashire Association Chairmen earlier this year) than the posh clubs of London.
From the more than 130 visits I’ve made across the country over the past year, as well as many more over my previous 25 years as a volunteer, I have the benefit of having met, campaigned with and listened to hundreds of volunteers, many of whom are now members of the Convention. (For the avoidance of any doubt, Board members don’t get a list of Convention members.)
Is my experience an unfair advantage, or a pre-requisite to doing the best possible job representing our members? Without question it’s the latter.
Another advantage is that I have been on the Board for the 11 months prior to the General Election — a difficult and frustrating period, for sure, given that the seeds of our defeat had been long sown by then.
But to change something you first need to understand it — and having seen how things failed to work over that period, I have concrete ideas to fix them, as well as established relationships with the other senior volunteers who will also be a core part of the rebuilding. I will be ready to act from day one, if I am elected.
As set out in my campaign video, my number one priority is to ensure that the candidate selection process is once again brought back under the control of volunteers, and I have clear ideas to achieve that, including putting one of our own voluntary party colleagues in charge of the process.
I come from the member’s perspective, so I know what members need from the process. Every aspect of the selection process can and must be improved.
Returning to democracy, the National Convention traces its roots back to 1867, and has played its part in the many successes we have had as a Party since then. It represents every part of the country equally, regardless of membership numbers or financial strength, ensuring that we truly are a party of the whole nation.
The Convention will therefore be front and centre of my ambition to revitalise our democracy if I am elected — to channel its members’ views to the Board, CCHQ and our elected representatives. It is also the umbrella under which we can involve our most motivated volunteers more deeply, in areas to which they can best apply their skills — campaigning, Votesource, membership, property and trustee issues — to name just a few.
Finishing with a quote from another American, albeit from the other side of the aisle from Reagan — “When they go low, we go high”. I’m not a player of SW1 media games — let’s leave that to the MPs.
I am a member, volunteer and activist, willing and ready to step up if you, fellow volunteers, wish me to. As always, I’m focussed on the positives and how we turn our current troubles as a Party into opportunities. I hope you will join and support me on that journey.
I have served at all levels of the voluntary party over the past 25 years, and am currently a Vice President of the National Convention, sitting on the Party Board representing party members. I am now standing to become Chairman of the Convention — you can find out more at www.julianellacott.com.