Hammersmith Hospital In 1983 the Conservative Party keen to destroy public services decided to force through privatisation of hospital cleaning. This led to cuts of 50% in cleaning staff, poor pay and more importantly a massive increase in infection rates. One of the first contracts to be awarded...

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

From Liberal England comes the frankly bizarre story of a Conservative councillor (yes, a Conservative councillor - you know, the unionist party) who has resigned over links with the IRA. Read on. Related posts:Watford update: Ian Oakley resigns as Conservative councillor Latest news I hear is that following his resignation as...Conservative councillor cautioned for theft As pointed out in the com...

Following the news this morning of ongoing talks in relation to links with the Conservative Party Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson commented:

The Conservative Party is facing pressure from the Obama administration over its European policy and links with farright parties from Latvia and Poland.

I've added three more links to my blogroll. First, Tory Bear, the sage of Conservative Future. Second, Iain Dale (everyone else links to him, and it eventually struck me that it was sheer contrariness not to). Third, Mark Reckless, the libertarian and patriotic Conservative candidate in Medway. Regular readers will remember that, during the Medway selectio...

In an attempt to clean up up the political mess that has engulfed all parties, David Cameron is to open up the Conservative Party's list of candidates to anyone who wants to join. This is a long overdue move that will help to modernise the Conservative Party, get rid of the so-called 'party grandees' who expected a seat for life, and I hope other parties will follow suit. Politics s...

In the 80s and early 90s London was a very Conservative city. Whereas cities like Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool were becoming devoid of Conservative MPs, the Tory power base in Greater London and especially in the suburbs remained secure. Indeed, I would argue the 1992 Conservative election victory was built on the strong performance in London. In 1997, of course, all that changed. In common...