The occasion of Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister has been used by numerous commentators, either at home or abroad in order for some to praise Tony Blair’s legacy and for others in order to minimise it.

The former were unfortunately I may add more vocal than the later. Abroad things are even worse. Some continental medias are openly using the opportunity to brags about ‘Britain’s longest period of economic growth’, by at the same time highlighting ‘the corrections made to the damages caused by Thatcherism’.

Yet the real picture has numerous differences, with the one pictured by these commentators. If Britain was able to record its longest period of economic growth, it is mainly thanks to the reforms made by Margaret Thatcher and, by the often forgotten John Major. While it is fair to say that some mistakes were made during Thatcher’s years, Britain’s industries were already in decline by 1979 courtesy of Labour support to Arthur Scargill and, after ten years in power, the legacy of the Labour Party on social matters is nonexistent to say the least. True ‘billions were invested in order to catch up with other nations’ as people like Anthony Giddens like to say in the French newspaper Le Figaro. Yet the education system is falling apart, the NHS is even more bureaucratic than before and, Britain’s transport system is unable to meet the need of the future decades.

More than the failure of Blair’s legacy this also highlights another failure, the utter failure of the ‘Third Way model’ in Britain.

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Yesterday, on May 4th 2007 I met one of the few living people whom warrant my veneration, for today Boris Johnson attended a Conservative meeting in Bath.

Several of my peers and aquaintences were sceptical about whether his speech would be of any relevance whatsoever, and even after his appearance some were left with the presiding belief that he was a ‘bumbling idiot’, but to those of us who take Mr Johnson as seriously as his intellect deserves, we were not disappointed.

Whilst talking about more national issues than many expected, baring in mind the council elections were held only a day previously, Mr Johnson produced such fine statements (albeit paraphrased) as “Tony Blair is doing his farewell tour on an open top submarine” and when mentioning Bath Conservative PPC Fabian Ritcher, pronouncing himself as the “president of the Fabian Society”. When talking about the stupidity of regulation on booster seats, Boris claimed that people of his age did not come to any harm without such pointless regulation, accentuating his point that such trivial matters should be at the discretion of parents.

Although clearly in a hurry, Johnson was doubtlessly in fine form; talking to his loyal supporters seemed to flow from his heart as effortlessly as the Latin prose that he spouted to the audience. When shaking his hand I was able to splurt out in the utmost sycophancy: “It’s an honour to meet you sir”, only to hear the response “yes yes, an honour to meet you”.

And so Bath CF left, myself personally feeling slightly bemused but altogether overjoyed after an afternoon that we won’t forget in a long while.

Yesterday, David Cameron visited the University of Bath and gave a speech to the local party faithful at the Saltford Hall in Wansdyke. Only the previous night, members of the public assisted the local Conservative association in selecting Fabian Richter as the new Conservative candidate for Bath in an Open Primary; a decision which Mr Cameron took the chance to endorse.

David Cameron visited the University of Bath to discuss environmental and sustainability issues with local researchers and view some of the modern research and development facilities that had been constructed on site. He later gave a speech in the Wansdyke Room of the Saltford Hall in which he spoke out to previous Liberal Democrat voters to stand up to an authoritarian Gordon Brown and vote for a modern compassionate liberal Conservative party. A recording of his speech and the questions taken afterwards can be downloaded here (35mins – 8.2MB.)

Notably David Cameron is the only current leader of a major political party to visit Bath recently, taking the time to prove the Conservative party’s commitment to the people of Bath and the students at the University. Photographs from the day can be found here.

Tonight, local Conservatives approved the Open Primary selection of Fabian Richter to fight for Bath at the next General Election.

Fabian made a strong speech that probably went a long way to winning the support of the hall. What’s more, many probably found it incredibly rare, as Fabian put it in his own speech (to great amusement,) to find ‘a German with a sense of humour!’ Congratulations therefore must go to Fabian. We are sure that he will make an excellent candidate and we look forward to working with him to win Bath and prise the seat from the Liberal Democrats grip.

Also, our commiserations to Flick Drummond, Jessica Lee and Harry Morley who missed out on the seat. We wish them the best of luck in the future and we’re sure they will make excellent candidates for another constituency.

Current opinion polling would suggest that, at number 128 on the Conservatives’ projected target seat list, Fabian is in with a very good chance of becoming Bath’s next MP.

Yesterday evening, a few members of Bath Conservative Future attended the societies’ Annual General Meeting which was held in the Ale House in Bath. Gavin Bishop was voted in as Chairman again, with Florian Bay remaining as Secretary and Darien Jay being promoted to Treasurer and group Vice Chairman.

We were also joined by Fabian Richter; one of the four remaining prospective candidates hoping to become Conservative PPC for Bath. He spoke with us for a good few hours, outlining his views on various different issues ranging from local train services and traffic congestion through to improving methods of canvassing and gaining support for the party.

We would like to very much thank Fabian for kindly taking the time to come and speak to us. We wish him well tomorrow at the final selections.

Yesterday, some members of Bath Conservative Future attended the Bristol North West event ‘How To Be An MP’ organised by Nick Webb. The meeting included short but insightful speeches by Member of Parliament for the Forest of Dean, Mark Harper, and Conservative South West campaign director Carys Parry.

After both speakers had said their bit, the meeting was then opened up to questions from the floor. Topics covered included the slightly contentious issue of the sacking of Conservative MP Patrick Mercer from the frontbench by David Cameron, the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons and the upcoming local council elections.

Around ten or so members of Conservative Future from across the South West made it to the event – so the turnout was reasonable considering that unfortunately a few people apparently dropped out at the last moment. A few pictures of us at the event can be found in our Photographs area. There is also an interesting document compiled by the Conservative party on becoming an MP.

Yesterday evening, the Rt. Hon Lord Rees-Mogg of Hinton Blewitt gave a public lecture at the University of Bath entitled “Issues in Foreign Policy.” The speech was organised by the Royal Society of Arts’ South West regional branch and very well attended by both students and Bath area residents.

The University of Bath which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1977. He was Editor of The Times from 1967 to 1981 and now sits as an independent peer in the House of Lords. His son Jacob Rees-Mogg is currently the Conservative candidate for the neighbouring Wansdyke constituency, and his daughter Annunziata is the Conservative candidate for Somerton and Frome.

Lord Rees-Mogg spoke at length about how history provided an indicator with regard to the current foreign political circumstances the world now faced, and the challenges facing countries such as Iraq, Britain and the United States. He drew skilfully upon the past experiences of Otto von Bismarck and Abraham Lincoln and their realist approach to foreign relations, compared with the more idealistic approach (as he saw it) taken by Tony Blair and George Bush.

For those who didn’t attend, you can download a copy of Lord Rees-Mogg’s speech which we recorded by clicking here (1hour 8mins – 15.6MB.)

Last night, Bath University Conservative Future hosted Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Chippenham, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones as a society speaker. Around fifteen students and a local councillor attended the event – which was a welcome improvement on the last event!

Wilfred spoke at length about his background as the son of Jamaican immigrants and his experiences of growing up in inner-city Birmingham from which he eventually found his way into television and later became a successful farmer. The talk drew upon many various aspects of his life experiences and how he believed that conviction politics could reinvigorate Britain.

After this well-received speech, Mr Emmanuel-Jones took questions from the floor on various subjects, ranging from breeds of his Devon cattle to the creation of a black middle-class and the candidate’s A-list. However, the final and most contentious subject of the night unleashing over fifteen minutes of furious debate was the future direction of the National Health Service (provoked by my question, sadly.) Wilfred set about arguing that those who are directly responsible for their ill-heath such as contracting cancer through excessive smoking, should be personally accountable for their own actions and pay for treatment of those consequences rather than hoping that society should automatically foot the bill. Most people in the room did seem to agree – although two particular individuals didn’t quite seem capable of grasping that simple notion…

We at Bath Conservative Future wish Wilfred the best of luck at the next election and we hope to see Chippenham elect him as their Member of Parliament.

Last night I and four other members of Conservative Future in Bath travelled up to London in the car to attend the Tory Reform Group’s annual parliamentary social event. Conservative MP and former Chancellor Ken Clarke hosted the event and gave a very good speech on the failings of this Labour government and how a Conservative government would go about being different.

Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan-Smith also made a brief appearance and was immediately swamped by most students in attendance. Other dignitaries and self-proclaimed important persons gracing us with their presence included John Bercow MP, Lord Hunt, and Shadow immigration minister Damien Green MP.

Around ninety Conservative Future members from all over the country attended the event. Looking around the Jubilee Room in the House of Commons (which I had expected to be larger seeing as we had to squeeze in ninety plus people,) I did recognised a few faces included Richard Jackson from University College London, Fiona Montgomerie and Christian May from Exeter University, and Arleen Ouzounian from Kings College London and 18 Doughty Street. We also spoke to the Chairman of the Tory Reform Group, Tim Barnes who kindly said that he will help in getting CF events going in the South West and Bath area. We did also manage to take a few photographs which can be found here.

After the main event and speaking had finished, most people headed to the Red Lion just off Parliament Square for a drink (those of us not driving anyway,) and then later we went for a very good curry in Brick Lane. I think that Fiona and Christian chose the smart, if slightly more expensive option by staying overnight in London, while we left very early in the morning in the car and didn’t get back home until 4am!