6pm, Tuesday 29th April
The Dining Room, The Cambridge Union Society
“The road to victory under Cameron”
George Freeman is the Conservative candidate for the new constituency of Mid Norfolk. He ran his own business in Cambridge, where he was a trustee of the Cambridge Union Society. He will be talking to us about renewing the Conservative Party and present a short film.
CUCA have offered Nick Clegg discounted life-time membership if he rejoins.
Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, was a member of CUCA when he attended Robinson College. Greg Hands MP recently published a copy of the relevant membership list.
Mike Morley, Chairman, wrote to Mr Clegg, saying “I was very interested to read that you were a member of CUCA during your time at Cambridge.
“As the incoming chairman, I thought I would write to you and formally invite you to re-join the association. As a member you would benefit from reduced-price tickets to our social events and would once again be part of the most active political society in Cambridge.
“CUCA as an association - like the Conservative party nationally - has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and we now have many more members than the Labour club or Lib Dem group. Membership of CUCA normally costs £4 for a year, or £8 for life - but given your previous membership of the association, we would be happy to let you ‘upgrade’ to life membership for just £4. Let me know if you are interested in becoming part of CUCA once again.
“I enclose a membership renewal form for your convenience.”
My Committee and I would like to welcome you back to CUCA. We have organised a variety of events for Easter Term 2008, with a range of speaker and social events designed to keep you informed and entertained as term goes on.
Importantly, elections for local government - city and county council positions - are taking place on the 1st May, as is the Mayoral Election in London. CUCA is an active campaigning society and regular sessions with the local association to canvas support will be organised. Keep an eye out for announcements via email. Now is our chance to bring new Conservative councillors back to Cambridge City Council and to lay the groundwork for a victory in the next general election.
The social events are always very well attended, so it’s important to book in advance. We’re also very keen to sustain high attendance at our speaker meetings this term. Please invite your friends: all our speaker meetings are free to everyone, and just like the various College politics societies you do not have to be a Conservative! Who knows, you might one day go on to be leader of the Liberal Democrats…
Mike Morley, B.A. (Hons) MSci Cantab.
Chairman, Easter 2008
Speakers usually stay for dinner with the Committee. If you would like to attend, please ask the Chairman (
).
The Chairman’s Welcome Drinks Reception
Sidgwick Hall, Newnham College
Sunday 20th April, 8:00pm
Join us for a free gin and tonic extravanganza to kick Easter Term off in style. We shall be joined by Alex Singleton, a political commentator who has been published in the Telegraph, the Guardian and The Express, who will talk on Cameron and Globalisation. £2 for non-members.
George Freeman
Dining Room, The Cambridge Union
Tuesday 29th January, 6pm
George Freeman is the Conservative candidate for the new constituency of Mid Norfolk. He ran his own business in Cambridge, where he was a trustee of the Cambridge Union Society. He will be talking to us about renewing the Conservative Party.
Stanley Johnson
“Britain, Europe, and the environment under Cameron’s Conservatives”
The Junior Parlour, Trinity College
Monday 5th May, 6pm
Stanley Johnson is former Conservative MEP an environmentalist and author of books on the environment. He has worked at the World Bank and was the Head of Prevention of Pollution Division at the European Commission from 1973 - 1979. He is a trustee of the Gorilla Organisation and a board member of Plantlife International.
He is also father of Boris Johnson, who is currently Conservative candidate for London Mayor. Stanley Johnson was Conservative candidate for Teignbridge in the 2005 general election.
Port and Cheese Evening
Sunday 11th May, 8pm
Our legendary Port and Cheese evening returns, providing a welcome break from revision! A selection of fine cheeses and free-flowing port, accompanied by stimulating conversation, will help you unwind.
Dress code: black tie
(Cost: £6 for members; £8 for non-members.)
The Lord Blackwell
Dining Room, The Cambridge Union
Friday 16th May, 6pm
We are joined by Norman Blackwell, a former Downing Street policy unit director who worked for both Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Lord Blackwell is currently Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies. Lord Blackwell was formerly a Partner at McKinsey & Company, and a director of Dixons Group. He currently has a range of business interests including non-executive director of Standard Life, Slough Estates plc, Interserve plc and Corporate Services Group plc. He is also a senior adviser to KPMG and a Board Member of the OFT. He was created a Life Peer in 1997.
The Chairman’s Dinner
Wordsworth Room, St John’s College
Friday 13th June, 7pm for 7:30pm
Our gala white tie-preferred dinner is the highlight of the term’s social calendar. This term, our hosts will be St John’s College, and the oak-panelled Wordsworth Room our venue.
Our guest speaker, is the MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, Greg Hands who will talk on “My memories of CUCA’s Nick Clegg.”
Places will be strictly limited, so look out for the announcement later in term.
May Week Garden Party
Sunday 15th June, 3pm-6pm
The gardens of Newnham College provide a fitting venue to close a fantastic year for CUCA. We will be serving Hiedseick Monopole Gold Top Vintage 2002 Champagne, Pimms’, strawberries, and cucumber sandwiches. Places will be strictly limited, so look out for the announcement later in term.
Dress code: blazers, no jeans.
CUCA Policy Pub Meets
We hold policy discussion meetings over a few drinks in the pub several times a term. If you would like to suggest a topic to discuss, please email the Vice-Chairman (
). Information about these events will be published on the website in due course.
It is a modern assumption that Religion and Politics don’t mix. The American Christian Right are synonymous in secular Europe with a regressive social agenda and intolerance of minorities. Closer to home, reactions to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent incursions into politics with his comments on accommodating Sharia law come firmly from the Henry II school.
This is an assumption I share. I may go to church, and I may go to CUCA events, but never the twain shall meet. However I was rather taken aback last Sunday having hauled my caucus to church early in the morning that the day’s sermon was overtly political. More manifesto than Mark.
The speaker was one Dr. Michael Schluter, founder and chairman of the Jubilee Centre, a Christian research group based in Cambridge. In his paper ‘How to create a relational society: Foundations for a new social order’ (published in the Cambridge Papers), he advocates a complete rethinking of our economy and society along biblical lines. This rethinking takes as its inspiration the Jubilee legislation (from which the organization takes its name) as laid down in the book of Leviticus. As he laid out this vision in his sermon, I sat incredulous that our 21st century, post-industrialised, multicultural land should seek to model itself on that of a 5000 year old agrarian society. But as the sermon went on I realized that what Dr. Schulter was talking about was of great relevance today, particularly for Conservatives.
The legislation is designed to maintain the division of land between the tribes of Israel as decreed when they first came out of the desert and settled in the land of Canaan. It requires that every 50th year, the Jubilee year, all Israelis return to their place of birth, and the compulsory selling of property back to the original owner or their heirs. The point of this is twofold. Firstly it ensures that all property is shared equitably and universally. Secondly it discourages geographic mobility, encouraging families to stay together where they have deep roots. This is the relational society, placing the strength of relationships with family and community alongside economic growth and greater equality as the main political aims.
The universal ownership of property is a very old Tory idea. Margaret Thatcher may have re-popularised the phrase “a property-owning democracy” with her council house sales in the 1980s, but it has been a key plank of Conservative thinking since the Second World War, when in 1950 Anthony Eden pledging to build 300,000 new homes a year, and the concept can be found in Conservative thinking at earlier dates. An Englishman’s home is, after all, his castle. The idea is that when a citizen owns an asset in their society, they have a stake in the success of that society and see it as part of their responsibility to further that success. Property is also a wealth-generator- many families have more wealth stored in their pile of bricks than they do in their bank accounts, and more wealth can be created with rising house prices than through the 9 to 5 slog. Homes also are a necessity in creating stable families.
As for the second point: encouraging strong ties to family and place, I believe there is a tension in Conservative thinking. The tension comes from the two largest strands in modern Conservatism, that between economic liberalization and social conservatism. For example, conservative politicians all over the globe preach the benefits of two parent families bringing up their kids with love and devotion but those same politicians want both parents out working every available hour in the pursuit of profit and economic growth. Every hour at the grindstone is one less with the sprogs nurturing them into responsible adults.
Norman Tebbit famously exhorted the jobless to ‘get on yer bike’ and look for work. But for many finding work may mean uprooting and leaving town for distant places where their line of work is more available. This geographical mobility of labour (free movement of labour being one of the key planks of economic liberalism) surely disrupts stable family and community life. I myself remember my childhood where my Dad worked in such disparate locations as Plymouth, Manchester and Dublin to get the work he was qualified to do. The poor man not only got on his bike, but cycled it within an inch of its life. While it was necessary to put money on the table, it obviously made bringing up a young family much harder; and not all families would survive under this strain.
Conservatives are only just beginning to think through this tension. The work of Ian Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice and David Cameron’s leadership has finally begun to think how to redress the balance in conservatism away from Margaret Thatcher’s ‘There is no such a thing as society’ economic liberalism without undoing the great and necessary gains that her premiership had. As the sermon came to an end, I realized that take out the references to God, and Schulter’s manifesto differs little from Cameron’s crusade to mend our broken society, or George W. Bush’s ‘compassionate conservatism’.
What does this mean in policy terms. David Cameron has already talked of restoring tax breaks for married couples and those with children. Dr. Schulter goes further and points to some policies from Singapore. Tax breaks for homes shared with elderly parents, and lesser breaks for those who live within 5km of their elderly parents. With an ageing population set to put greater pressure on elderly care and the health service, encouraging families to act as a welfare unit for the old as well as young is surely sensible. He also points to the John Lewis partnership which will relocate its employees to any store in the country if they wish to be near their families.
No doubt there are many other policy implications which could have great benefits to our society. In future I hope to look past turbulent priests and anti-abortion, anti-gay bible-bashers to see that religion and its adherents have much to give in ideas, time and compassion to build stronger families, safer and more stable communities and a more humane society.
