UCLU Conservative Society

Dear Members,

Firstly, thanks to all who came to our Port and Policy event last night, and to CUCA for coming along! I think all will agree it was a rip roaring evening of debate and frivolities.

Secondly, I am forwarding this message on to you, as our help is needed!

‘Jo Johnson, PPC for Orpington will be running a telephone canvassing session next month in Covent Garden. It will run from the week of 15th Feb until 18th Feb, 6:00pm – 9:00pm.

We are currently running low on volunteers which is why we need the help of UCL Conservatives, so I hoping you could help out?

Let’s help Jo win in Orpington.’

So if anyone has some spare time during the reading week coming up, please do contact the following email address einy.shah@yahoo.com .

For more info see
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=290371514765&ref=mf

Best,

Emma

ps. All who have received their hoodies/rugby tops, please pass the money on to Iain or I ASAP!

Rugby tops:women’s-£20, Men’s-£21, Hoodies:£14

Last night saw the UCL Conservatives meet in the Marlborough Arms for the annual Christmas Dinner.

Amassing in a back-room of the pub, we sat down to a banquet of four courses that was in store. The food came thick and fast, with the starters flying everywhere with such speed that some had to make last-minute changes to get what they initially ordered. The culinary highlight of the evening for all was the customary Turkey (with generous stuffing).

With crackers cracked and the kitsch toys and paper hats in hand, we finally moved onto desserts. The plentiful supply of profiteroles delighted many as well as the servings of ice cream, even if some only ordered a Christmas Pudding. The ambience of the evening was constantly festive, and with fine wine flowing generously, a cheery Conservative Christmas feast was had by all.

Have a happy Christmas everyone, see you all in the New Year (with another term of great events)!

Last night UCL Conservatives hosted a festive drinks receiption of mulled wine and mince pies with our guest speaker David Willetts MP. Due to the festivities occuring in the quad there was a slight mix up with meeting him and for a few minutes we were slightly worried as to how we were going to explain to David Cameron that we had lost one of the members of his Shadow Cabinet. Luckily it all turned out alright and the event continued smoothly.

David’s speech was based mainly around University Education, the incompetence of the Student Loans Company and about how Labour wanted 50% of school leavers to go to Uni but then couldn’t cope with the influx when they nearly met their target.

This was then followed by a question and answer session on tutition fees, the changes to the A-level system, how we could create more inter -universities sports events like our American cousins do with their Universities and whether courses should be priced in a way to encourage students to study less popular subjects like Maths and the Sciences rather than more popular courses like Media Studies.

After this is was off to the Union for a few drinks, we were due to go to Potion but due to a stabbing on Grafton Way that led to Tottenham Court Road being taped off we decided it was easier to head to the Union.

Our next event will be our Christmas Party, sadly tickets are no longer on sale so if not going the UCL Conservative Society wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Last night, Shane Greer, the leading Conservative blogger, was the special guest speaker at our wine reception. With our meeting taking place in the stylish confines of the Engineering Building’s Executive Suite, Shane gave an insightful talk on politics, new media and campaigning.

Using his experience as a blogger and activist, he spoke authoritatively on how on-line media was influencing politics (citing examples like the Twitter backlash against Jan Moir and Carter Ruck’s attempted injunction against the Guardian). He told us how on-line media was making mainstream media more accountable, as well as allowing greater interactivity (such as with the website www.myconservatives.com facilitating grassroots movements and campaigns).

However he didn’t just indulge in digital evangelism, as he acknowledged that the mainstream media was not going to be wiped out soon by the rising popularity of on-line bloggers like Guido Fawkes. Shane then went on to speak passionately about the benefits of campaigning “on the doorstep“, explaining how the physical connection matters and makes campaigning (even by telephone) a better way to persuade and reach voters than through the Internet.

As the speech came to a close, the audience were eager to ask questions. Shane deftly handled the questions – like revealing, when asked about his political journey, that he had only got interested in politics a few years ago and offering, on the one hand, advice to fledging bloggers and on the other, a critique of Labour’s centralising approach to online media (with particular criticism reserved for Labour’s “Twitter tsar” and her declaration that “Labour doesn’t need the Sun – we’ve got Twitter!“)
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Overall it was a great event (some audience members could be spotted busy at their notebooks as Shane spoke), with a nice turnout too. Our next event is the Westminster Pub Crawl, on Tuesday November 17th (after Reading Week) at 19.30. (Details on Facebook here)

Conservative Party Chairman and MP for Brentwood and Ongar, Eric Pickles was the speaker at our event last night. He managed to keep up entertained with tales of his experiences in the party, the effects and importance of schemes like the Social Action projects and how it is important that we win the next election rather than just having Labour lose it.

After the speech there was some time left for a wide range of questions from the audience on issues ranging from the EU, When will the next General election be? To, what is your favourite biscuit? This event saw an excellent turn out for members not just from UCL but also from other London Universities too.

Last night also was the first chance to see a real life mock up of our Society Hoodie (pictured below on Vice President Emma Double)

and a close up of the logo:

After much discussion there are a few changes that people would like to be made to the final version of the hoodie. For example looking into whether the hoodie could be available in blue with white logo/writing (for those concerned about the practicality of white) and if the logo could be made slightly smaller with the green of the Tory Tree to be made lighter and bolder to closer match the party logo. This idea is still a work in progress so if you have any further views, comments and/or suggestions leave them in the comments box or talk to Emma at our next event where Shane Greer will be speaking to us on Tuesday November 3rd 7:30.

This week’s event was one of our most popular- Port and Policy, the idea was simply we all listen to two serious debates and a balloon debate while enjoying some Port and cheese.

The first debate saw Adam Sawyer and Arthur Verdin debating ‘This House Believes that Students should contribute more to their University Education’. This choice of topic was clearly one that everybody in the room felt passionately about and had their own views on. After a heated debate and some excellent floor speeches it was voted that Students should not contribute more to their University Education.

In the second debate Denis Roberts and Asa Bennet took on Iain Martin and I in the debate ‘This House believes that MPs should be paid more’. While this was not something that directly affected those of us in the room it was once again something that created a fiery debate. After some excellent points made by both sides it was decided that MPs should be paid more.

After we had all had a chance to recover from the seriousness of the first two debates it was time for the Balloon debate, in which members of the society pretened to be ‘Chris Martin’, ‘David Cameron’, ‘Barrack Obama’, ‘Prince Harry’, ‘Morgan Tsvangirai’ and ‘Simon Cowell’. Each pleaded their case well for staying in the Balloon but in the end it was ‘Morgan Tsvangirai’ who was saved.

Having debated ourselves out it was time to head of the Union for a few post event drinks. We hope that those of you who attended our event enjoyed it as much as us and we hope to see you at our event next week.

Last night UCL Conservative Society started the new academic year off with a bang with our annual Welcome Receiption. As always it was an excellent chance for new members to find out a little more about the Society and our events while sipping on the classier of drinks the Gin and Tonic.

The evening was a mix of getting to know members new and old, listening to Kieran’s introductory welcome speak and singing a quick  ‘Happy birthday’ to former Prime Minister Margret Thatcher and former Committee Member Oliver Cooper who both celebrated their birthdays yesterday, before we all headed off to Potion for a few more drinks.

It was lovely to see so many new faces at our event and we hope that you will join our society and come along to our Port and Policy event next Tuesday  7:30 in the Haldane Room.

On Tuesday  10th March 2009 the UCL Conservatives met for the AGM, the constitution was ratified and elections for the committee took place.

The outgoing committee is pleased to announce the following results:

President:  Kieran James Weisberg

Treasurer: Iain  Martin

Vice President: Emma Double

General Secretary: Asa Bennett

Social Secretary: Emily Cheah

Website and Publicity Officer: Laura-Rose Saunders

Caerulean Editor: Tom Parkinson

The outgoing committee members feel the new committee is a useful mix of successful old and devoted new faces, seeing the promotion of Kieran Weisberg to President and the return of Iain Martin to Treasurer. The society will welcome Laura-Rose Saunders back to UCL from her year abroad in Russia as Website and Publicity Officer and sees the devoted  Tom Parkinson, Emily Cheah, Emma Double and Asa Bennett rise through the society ranks.  The new committee will set to work in the summer to prepare for the coming academic and (hopefully) election year. Lets wish the committee and the party every success and pledge to offer them every support.

Last Tuesday saw the term’s port and policy event take place in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre. The first debate was ‘This house believes that political parties should be solely state funded.’ The winners, somewhat unsurprisingly, were the opposition; Oliver Cooper and Serene Richards. All credit due to Jamal Saleh and Arthur Verdin though as they did put up a good fight and Arthur managed to use the term ‘business hob-nobs’ in his speech – surely a noteworthy achievement!

The second debate of the evening, ‘This house believes that Barack Obama will have a positive effect on both the USA and the wider world’ , also proved to be equally interesting. The winners were in fact the proposers; Ed Johnson and Kieran Weisberg! Though again many thanks to Tom Parkinson and Jonathan Algar for opposing the motion.

The balloon debate, a rather drunken affair, raised some unusual defences for the characters in the balloon. George Osborne was defended with the phrase, “I am the sex,” whilst Kriss Akabusi ended each defence with a cry of, “Awoooooooooga!” Many thanks to all those who participated. Here is a list of the characters, participants and the order in which they went out:

1. Russell Brand – Ben Weiss

2. Rowan Williams – William Hall

2. George Osborne – Olivia Cummins

3. Kriss Akabusi – Adam Sawyer

3. Prince Charles – James Clarke

Winner:  David Dimbleby – Alex Webb

Thanks to all of you who made it to our G&T reception last night! You should take real pride in the fact that we got through 10 litres of Gin in under an hour!

If you have any questions about the Society don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of the Committee members.

Also to let you know that next Wednesday is our annual pub crawl around Westminster – Do try and get down to see us. It kicks off at 7pm from Westminster tube station.