Over the next few days the independent think tank Reform will be sharing our experiences of this year’s Conservative Party conference - keep your eyes on this blog! Full details of all the fringe events we are hosting can be found at

And why not? The Conservative Party has various diverse fora dedicated to Conservative Christians, Conservative Jews, Conservative Muslims, Conservative Hindus (no Sikhs or Jedi). Not to mention the various cults of inter alia Bruges, Animal Welfare, Way Forward and Rural Action. It is the very task of a political party in a liberal democracy to forge links across a very broad spectrum of popular ...

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: With Michael Ashcroft back in the news over his financial support for the Conservative Party, this post provides a quick recap of the past controversies over Michael Ashcroft, the Conservative Party and political funding. Ashcroft’s sequence of senior Conservative posts Under William Hague, Ashcroft was Treasurer of the Conservative Party (1998-2001), beco...

With Michael Ashcroft back in the news over his financial support for the Conservative Party, this post provides a quick recap of the past controversies over Michael Ashcroft, the Conservative Party and political funding. Ashcroft’s sequence of senior Conservative posts Under William Hague, Ashcroft was Treasurer of the Conservative Party (1998-2001), becoming a peer and member of

With the prospect of a formal UUP-Conservative alliance the already strong chances of Lord Trimble, who joined the Conservative Party in April after having taken the Conservative whip in the Lords, getting a senior role in a Conservative Shadow Cabinet/Cabinet...

A few years ago the Canadian Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance merged to form the Conservative Party of Canada. It is now the government of Canada. Then this week we heard the proposals for a Conservative-Ulster Unionist merger which could well become the government of the United Kingdom at the next election. And yesterday in Queensland, Australia the National Party and the ...

Just over a fortnight ago, I wrote that "we will need to have a reckoning over whether the Conservative Party is in favour of letting ordinary Britons enjoy a holiday abroad, or not." Is the Conservative Party only against expansion...

"Scottish Conservative Party set to disband" screams the title of an article... Well why not? Scotland already has two Mega-Statiist major parties (SNP and Labour) so what need is there for a third? Indeed perhaps a new party north of the border might actually be, you know... conservative! If that comes to pass, perhaps someone might decide England needs a conservative party too because gawd knows...

Over on PoliticsHome there is encouraging news for the Conservative Party. A poll of just over 1,000 voters found that there is a difference among the three parties in terms of how passionately they are supported. 47% of prospective Conservative...

Coalition welfare reform plans will face a fresh challenge today from senior Conservative peers.