Strengthening Conservative Future

Conservative Future Scotland did a fantastic job of mobilising its members to help in constituencies across Scotland at the General Election. Now we need to do everything we can to support and grow this organisation.

They move faster, get through more and have a different view on life than our more mature members, and while they bring with them certain challenges they are an essential part of a vibrant political party.

In East Renfrewshire I was blessed to have the support of a large and very dedicated bunch of young people, largely students, who dedicated Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings - right through the bitter cold of last winter - to the canvass activity that helped grow our vote. Richard Anderson, Ross McFarlane and Colin Taylor, to name just three, did everything they could to coordinate a group of 20+ young activists from Conservative Future branches at Glasgow University, Strathclyde University, Caledonian University and beyond - and what a job they did.

Not that their activities were restricted to canvassing. There were the numerous thousands of leaflets they dropped through doors and the myriad of new ideas they brought forward to the benefit of our campaign.

These guys are from a generation of people who are among the first to have grown up with Labour as the political establishment. They look at the state of our economy and blame lack of job opportunities on our opposition, not the Tories. For them the word "Tory" does not throw up bad memories of Conservative government and in seeking to end perceptions of a toxic brand we should be asking CFS members to be active participants in brand modernisation.

How do we help them? First of all we need to ask them what they need in order to be able to continue to grow and prosper. We are talking about a generation of people who have grown up in an online world and for whom modern campaign techniques are second nature. As a result they have a very different outlook on life and will want to take us in exciting new directions - both in our structure and our campaign activities.

Then we need to help them deliver exciting organisations on the ground. This is particularly the case on University campuses where political celebrity is often used to attract new members. People like Boris Johnson are extremely popular (hence the range of Boris material produced for CF use at Freshers' Fairs) and with a young and dynamic new Prime Minister we need to use the positive images we have to there best advantage.

So, we need to help CF branches organise good local events, with a good profile of speaker, and to support these events in person, where appropriate.

Finally we must recognise than in return for their support of campaigns in our constituencies we need to support them. I hope to organise a CFS summer get together (come conference) in Glasgow to thank them for their support of my campaign in East Renfrewshire. More importantly, I hope this will show Conservative Future Scotland we value their involvement and want to hear from them what direction they believe our Party should now take.