Friday 26 July 2013
Row deepens as Tories step down in North Northumberland
Journal Letters 26 July 2013
Views
Two years is one short of maximum
Letters
THROUGH your columns, may I correct Mrs Trevelyan (“Row deepens as Tories step down”, The Journal, July 22)? The Berwick Conservative Association Constitution & Rules (paragraph 5.5) allows individuals to hold office for three consecutive years.
I was elected as association chairman at the association's annual general meeting in March 2011 to serve for 12 months, and re-elected to the same position at its AGM in March 2012 to serve for another 12 months.
I find it hard to reconcile these facts with Mrs Trevelyan's remark that I had almost served my maximum term of three years and that it was not my “divine right” to receive another term.
I would therefore commend a better understanding of the rules to her. As for “not thinking on the same wavelength” as Mrs Trevelyan, or her nominee for chairman, while she knows that I had the privilege of leading a united and hard-working management team during my two years as chairman (and before we all declined to stand again at the March 2013 AGM), perhaps she forgets that it was at her personal request that I became involved in the association when she asked me to become her campaign fund director in the run-up to the 2010 general election.
JOHN W RAE, Chairman,
Berwick Upon Tweed Conservative
Association, March 2011 - March 2013,
via email
Thursday 25 July 2013
He also draws attention to comments attributed to Haltwhistle business chief, Gary Lydiate, who has given more than £200,000 who was on the same trip who said: "When you're travelling with a high-level delegation led by the prime minister, you get to see the right decision-makers."
Labour MP slams Northern Tory donor ‘cash for access claims’
‘MP backs Labour leader quest to clean up politics’
From Ronnie Campbell MP
Labour MP Ronnie Campbell has attacked what he called ‘Tory smears’ over labour’s links with trade unions and focussed attention on Tory ‘cash for access’ donations.
Mr Campbell said
‘The sheer cheek of the Tories knows no bounds. Cameron and his cronies have tried to make political capital over trade union funding of Labour – while dipping their own snouts into a slush bucket topped up by millionaires, vested interests, dodgy entrepreneurs and big business.’
The MP claims that the Tory party links to outside interests are there for the public to see as David Cameron met several key donors on his recent visit of Kazakhstan including the chief executive of UK oil and gas firm Petrofac, who has given the Tories nearly £300,000 in the past three years.
He also draws attention to comments attributed to Haltwhistle business chief, Gary Lydiate, who has given more than £200,000 who was on the same trip who said: "When you're travelling with a high-level delegation led by the prime minister, you get to see the right decision-makers."
Mr Campbell went on to say
‘Maybe Tory links to big business might explains the government’s latest U-turns on tobacco packaging and alcohol pricing. Both industries have strong Tory connections and have a voice at Cameron’s top table.’
Labour claim that this amounts to influence which can be seen in government policy. In 2006 Cameron opened a factory in India for JCB. Company chairman, Sir Anthony Bamford also joined Cameron on a subsequent trade mission to India along with representatives of textiles firm J&H Sales, which has given the Tories almost £200,000 since 2010.
Mr Campbell said
‘The Tory claim that the unions “own” the Labour party – which after all grew from the trade union movement – is pretty rich from a party owned by millionaires.
I’m proud that Labour retains its links with ordinary working people. The Tories are bankrolled by the rich and infamous whose top priority is to keep the workers at the bottom of the pile’.
1. Since 2010 they have poured £45 million into Conservative coffers – and that’s just the ones we know about.
2. Company and individual business donations make up just 3 per cent of donations to Labour and the vast majority of those to the Conservatives.
3. Individual donations to the Tory Party account for £27.9m. It has been given 1,398 since the election (Labour has clocked up 230).
4. Donors who drop more than £50,000 are invited into The Leader’s Group – and get to meet David Cameron and other senior Tories at dinners, lunches and drinks parties.
5. 61 people have made a one-off donation– but the party has received a further 141 donations of more than £50,000 – with people donating two, three, four or more times.
6. The biggest individual donor is Michael Farmer – who has made eight donations totalling £2,191,392.42. He founded the hedge fund RK Capital Management and made his fortune in the international metal markets.
7. Then comes property multi-millionaire David Rowland who made a one-off donation of £1,277,936.32.
8. Then there’s May Makhzoumi – the wife of the billionaire Fouad Makhzoumi who was at the centre of the Jonathan Aitken arms scandal – who has donated £908,000.
9. And then there are former Tory treasurer Peter Cruddas, South African born mining magnate Michael Davis and former Man Group hedge fund boss Stanley Fink – who have donated £723,000, £712,000 and £692,841 respectively.
10. The biggest company donor by far is JCB Research – which has donated a total £1.4m since the election. Others include mobile phone group Lycamobile with £343,442 and city investment group Flowidea with £315,950.
11. Others who have enjoyed access to the PM the staffs of a Bestways Cash and Carry, who were treated to a Q&A with the Tory leader in 2010. Their employer has given more than £200,000 to the Tories in the past three years.
12. Midland Chilled Foods gave the Tories £10,000 in February this year. The company is owned by Peter Shirley, a member of the Midlands Industrial Council which has funnelled hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Tories and whose backers include Chris Kelly, whose company, Keltruck, is a global distributor for Scania lorries.
13. A recent poll showed more people (56%) are concerned about Tory links to donors than they are with Labour's to the unions (48%). YouGov
Wednesday 24 July 2013
Infighting has hit the Conservative party in Northumberland leading to a series of resignations
Row deepens as Tories step down in Northumberland
22 Jul 2013 Journal
Infighting has hit the Conservative party in Northumberland leading to a series of resignations
The Conservatives in Northumberland have been rocked by a series of resignations amid in-fighting over its leadership.
The Journal has reported how Tory councillor and local branch chairman Bruce Hewison is severing links with the party – and may run for parliament as an independent, in protest at its management at local level. Now, it has emerged that his resignation was part of a wider walkout in the county.
Coun Hewison, a Tory party member, member of Alnwick Town Council, chairman of the Alnwick and Alnmouth branch of the Berwick Conservative Association, and a member of the association’s executive council and management team, said he had quit the association at the executive council’s annual general meeting in March.
His resignation as an Alnwick representative was in protest at a move by the party’s Berwick parliamentary candidate Anne-Marie Trevelyan to nominate Aidan Ruff as association chairman, despite the incumbent John Rae having only served two years in a post most people hold for three. Mr Ruff was appointed.
Now, it has emerged that his departure was part of a mass walkout which saw all other management team members standing down, with six resigning and one retiring.
Mr Rae; Coun Hewison’s wife Jeanette, deputy chair of fundraising and membership; Karen Thorburn, deputy chair political from Berwick; and Steven Purvis, Northern representative from Berwick have all confirmed to The Journal they resigned in protest at the same issue.
Mrs Thorburn said her husband Keith, member for Conservative Future, had also resigned.
Mr Rae, a Tory party member for 45 years, told The Journal: “One of the unwritten rules is the prospective parliamentary candidate does not interfere with the running of the association. It must be allowed to run itself.”
He said the nomination of Mr Ruff came “very regrettably” amid what had become a “fairly fraught relationship” between Mrs Trevelyan and the management team. “The management team took that as an attack on their integrity and decided it was not going to be possible to work with her.”
Mrs Trevelyan said she had been approached by Mr Ruff about his becoming chairman and had been happy to nominate him, as she was democratically entitled to.
She claimed Mr Rae had almost served his maximum of three years and that it was not his “divine right” to receive another.
Mrs Trevelyan said it seemed a “logical” time for a change as Mr Ruff’s maximum three years would see him as chair up to and beyond the general election.
Of Mr Rae’s claim that she was interfering in the running of the association, Mrs Trevelyan responded: “I do not run the association but I am a member and I am entitled to nominate anyone who might ask me to.”
Asked about his suggestion of a fraught relationship with the management team, she conceded only that Mr Rae “probably would not think on the same wavelength as Aidan and I do.”
From around the web
Monday 8 July 2013
Has Ann given the game away ?
Tory PPC for Berwick, Anne Marie Trevelyan has given the game away. So scared of the looming UKIP challenge to their chances in Berwick in 2015, they now turn a blind eye to their top donors such as Lord and Lady Vimson bunging UKIP £10,000 donation.
As the Tories fragment and fall victim to the siren voices of UKIP, it seems all Anne Marie Trevelyan can do is to sit on the sidelines and watch her support and their donations disappear to fund a UKIP challenger against her in 2015. Desperate times for Northumberland Tories
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)