Is Tory the new cool?
Can being Conservative ever be cool? How about being young and Conservative? Surely that is the equivalent of being old and horny: wrong on so many levels. But then what does one make of the new 15,000 member-strong young Conservatives group called Conservative Future (CF), the rebranded youth arm of the party?How has the Tory party - an object of ridicule for nearly a decade - managed the resurrection of its student aged activists? It is worth remembering, young people in their early 20s now are too young to remember anything other than Blair's Britain. They can't recall the sleaze during the dying days of the Major years, and they couldn't care much about it anyway. Forget double-barrelled surnames, trust funds, and clipped voices: could being a young Tory even be a kind of rebellion?
Meet Mark Clarke, the national chairman of Conservative Future and just elected Conservative candidate from Tooting, here:
Or read his blog here.
posted by City Slicker at 11:47 am
34 Comments:
What a tosser. I want to commit some GBH on this bloke.
What a moron. Proctor & Gamble is what you name drop? Just another Tory Boy...if that is not the name of a song it should be!
What do you expect from Tooting tossers?
You can't underestimate the bike riding, Radiohead listening Cameron effect!
Conservative Future now has the biggest political presence on university campuses around the country and that is growing.
There are more than 15,000 members, making it bigger than teh youth arms of Labour and Lim Dem combined.
How scary is that?
Graet post CS
where has the wanker's vid gone? looks like the pussy footed tosser removed it.
great post cs
I know the Tories are upsetting. But language please? The comments don't have to get that directed! :-(
Damn it missed the video
Anyone know why it was pulled?
I have never understood that the working class ae naturally Labour voters. I believe the Tories really DO want to give people a route out of poverty. Who was the party that banned assisted-places scheme after all? Without I would never have been able to go to an exclusive, fee paying college!
Meet the Young New Conservatives. They are drunk. They smoke. They are cool. And they are NORMAL?
Tory boys will always be snotty and spotty.
There is still a stigma attached to voting Tory. But a lot of the issues that really concern young people like climate change and global poverty are both issues that the Tories are pumping out at the moment.
I think this is a new generation of Tory Boys and Girls.
Where's all this Tory chat going, CS? You've been blogging a lot about it. Are you about to come out as a New Conservative ... ? :)
I think it is an intersting topic and very current. London is facing a growing number of young and right citizens. Where does that leave us?
I know I am thinking about voting Tory for the first time. I live in Putney and feel as though it is London's only future. Tooting is a fine example of where Londoners are moving on the political arena.
A rather political week on City Slicker.
Dare I say I feel politically educated? :-)
Hey there CS--Guess what? Rudy announced last night on Larry King Live that he is running for definite?!
Way to give us a heads up. I can't stand him and will be betraying women by turning on Hillary as well. For me it is about John Edwards. He is the best shot the Dems have.
And no Conservatives can never be cool.
Loving your blog!
The young Conservatives sound like a cult. Is there a handshake?
Tory will never ever be cool. FACT!
Sure, but this chap is pretty handsome though
Tosser is a word long associated with Tory and I know I’m little late entering into the Conservative’s Tosser Inside campaign debate, but it’s one of those things I thought I might have dreamt. David Cameron so desperate to appear ‘down with the kids’ he incorporates slang terms for masturbation into Tory slogans and then defends his language by blaming the advertising agency he pays to tell him how to get through to young people. All the while young David Cameron admits he wouldn’t use the word ‘tosser’ in front of his children.
While I won’t pretend to be traumatised by this use of language, it’s inevitable that many of Cameron’s opponents (who must hear much worse) will feign shock and horror. I reckon the young Tory Tosser can’t be so politically naïve as to build a campaign around the use of foul language. That is to say that he is so out of touch with common parlance that only now has he learnt what a tosser is… which is disappointment to all who have hurled insults at him over the years.
Since when has politics got anything to do with being cool? Commiting to a political party is about standing-up for what is right and ethical, It should be compuslory. If there are kids out there comitting to any political party, I really admire them. Anyone who has the gumption to take action on what they believe is to be admired whatever their persuasion. Far better for young people to be channeling their energy into politics than to be shooting each other in their beds.
Anonymous - politics has everything to do with being cool and nothing to do with standing up for priinciples. Get over such inane lines of thinking. Find me one politician who doesn't do what he thinks is popular over what he thinks is right.
Try starting with David Cameron. Oh sorry, he hasn't done anything good or bad. He just looks cool.
dan farming
the politicians who do it for conviction and not for cool don't get 'noticed' and don't particularly want to be - they just work hard for their constituents and retire or go to their graves knowing they have done their best with their time on earth. Its not inane to know that their are some incorruptable, non-egotistical politicians, There aren't many though perhaps because good people are dissuaded from going into politics because they get bullied by the media and arrogant, narcissitic pig-headed, usually-male arseholes
Anonymous - Frankly I like the penis enlargement comments the best.
Politics is the art of pragmatism. At best, politicians should seek to do the greatest good for the greatest number; at worst they should try to do the least harm to the fewest. Much is spoken these days about ‘conviction politics’. However, sincerity is not necessarily a cardinal virtue in a politician – Hitler, Stalin and MaoTse Tung were all sincere conviction politicians.
Democracy, as Churchill said, is the worst way to run a country, except for all the others. It involves mess and inefficiency, but it works - and it has to be defended at all times.
Unles of course that democratic leader is really just a posing Tory.
Dan Farming
That wasn't me wanting to marry you by the way, although your understanding of powerful mens' psyches' really impresses me. Ihave an idea, why don't you become a politician? You're obviously an observant man of conviction, able to fluff over valid objections with convincing rhetoric, up for a good debate for the sake of it (never missing an opportunity to show the world how clever and how right you are about everything!) and despite it all, you are far less irritating that Gordon Brown and I bet you are more pleasing on the eye too (although that wouldn't be difficult)
Anon, Dan Farming --
Can't we all just get along?
Less irritating than Gordon Brown and more pleasing on the eye? Is that before or after my penis enlargment? A necessary extension of any Tory's ego it must be said.
ooh dan, i think i fancy you. If i wasn't getting married to a loaded tory boy this summer I'd beg you to meet up, talk politics AT me and then take me to bed
you two are losing it...
I think Dan and anonymous owuld make a great couple (off-line though!)
This blog is LOL hysterical. How does a very normal debate about youth and party politics flow into a punching match cum love fest between blogger readers? :-)
i want to punch this guy
Another great post. Had to share it on Digg at
http://digg.com/political_opinion/Is_Tory_the_new_cool
I'm still reeling...
Why does the Payday Advance Loan comment seem so appropriate in a thread about Tories?
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