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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/p>\nGiven Britain\u2019s dire weather over the last month, surely you wouldn\u2019t be right in the head to make the decision to travel all the way to an 18C sunny Bournemouth, only to don a suit and tie and head indoors for a day of sweltering debate on the future of the Conservative party.<\/p>\n
And yet that\u2019s exactly what hundreds of Tory activists decided to do today, brought together by the Conservative Democratic Organisation – the grassroots group dedicated to re-democratising the party, formed in the wake of Boris Johnson\u2019s removal as party leader.<\/p>\n
Lots has been written about the CDO, especially in the weeks leading up to today\u2019s conference; that it\u2019s the \u2018Conservative Party\u2019s Momentum\u2019; that they want to defenestrate Rishi Sunak in a self-harming act of revenge; that this is step one on the road to a Boris Johnson comeback attempt.<\/p>\n
The reality is none of that could have been further from the truth.<\/p>\n
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The first point – that the CDO is merely a Tory Momentum – was addressed by its Chairman, David Campbell Bannerman this morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not the Tory Momentum, we don\u2019t have policies, we are focused on Tory CCHQ reform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course there are some attendees with, shall we say, views best left to a late-night pub lock-in than a discussion on Newsnight – though that\u2019s true of all political gatherings of any size throughout history.<\/p>\n
I spoke to plenty of attendees whose primary focus was democratising the party for future battles, not hoping to re-run fights from last year, and certainly not lunatic fringe members.<\/p>\n
The views articulated by those who did go up on stage to speak were, frankly, no different to what we hear from the mainstream Tory leadership: anti-woke, anti-high taxes, pro-Brexit, and thankful for Boris\u2019s leadership. The only difference is most of those in attendance today had ideological verve to mean those beliefs.<\/p>\n
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The second claim – that this was the start of some great attempt to end Rishi Sunak\u2019s premiership – also proved to be nonsense.<\/p>\n
The star speaker this morning, Jacob Rees-Mogg no less, pronounced: \u201cWe must support Rishi Sunak into the next general election\u201d, adding to remove him after last year\u2019s two leadership battles would make the party look \u201cabsurd\u201d.<\/p>\n
He was even filmed putting a ping pong ball into a ballot box outside the hall asking attendees whether they were Team Boris or Team Rishi.<\/p>\n
While the team Boris box may have ended up with far more votes than team Rishi, it\u2019s worth noting that not a single person on stage called for Rishi Sunak to resign. They may not be happy that Boris is out, but they – unlike many of their Momentum \u2018equivalents\u2019 on the left – understand the realities of needing to look electable.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss… <\/strong> Point three – that this was going to be the beginning of Boris\u2019s third attempt to once again seize power of the Tory Party – also came to nought.<\/p>\n Boris\u2019s fingerprints on the conference were almost non-existent. Yes, many of his closest supporters were here; yes, Lord Cruddas wandered into the venue at lunchtime clutching a magnum of Ros\u00e9 Bollinger bearing Boris\u2019s golden signature; yes he filmed a thank you video for the conference.<\/p>\n But you fail to get any sense he\u2019s really involved with the project – or indeed seriously wants the Tory leadership back this side of an election.<\/p>\n His pre-filmed thank you video even seemed rather generic, merely saying: \u201cThank you for everything that you\u2019ve done and continue to do\u201d.<\/p>\n So if all those pre-expectations turned out to be false, what exactly was the point of today\u2019s big seaside shindig?<\/p>\n The truth is that the CDO make some valid points in their demands for democratic reform of the modern-day Conservative party. They\u2019ve come up with a list of seven changes they want to see – many of them seem eminently reasonable, and others have clear merit and are worth debating:<\/p>\n
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