You could almost hear the gnashing of teeth as Tim Montgomerie wrote THIS article on Conservative Home this morning. Having called for Francis to be sacked several months ago, Tim's readers have voted for him to stay in his job. They are right.Francis Maude has made mistakes as chairman - which chairman hasn't? But he has implemented party reforms which are so important and vital for the future, and he must be allowed to see them through. He has surrounded himself with pragmatic right wingers like Eric Pickles and Angela Browning who are helping rebuild CCHQ and the party into a lean dynamic campaigning organisation. They are not some freaky modernising clique but serious Tories who want to win and are hungry for power. A lot of the plans are about shifting resources to the front line. Only last month Maude quietly abolished the chairman's car/driver to fund two regional press officers. He has created the Northern board - (his idea) which is driving through groupings and fundraising in a way they never have before(I'm told the Yorkshire region is at 200 per cent of its budget target already) and, more importantly campaigning. A lot of the benefits won't be seen for a while as this is all about the Party essentially starting from scratch and running a 5 year plan to actually win a seat in places like Liverpool and Newcastle.
Maude had reinvigorated Conservatives Abroad, instituted proper financial systems at CCHQ m(much needed and overdue), created a proper personnel management system (unbelievably there hadn't been one before) and trained and employed 75 new agents. He's acted as a lightning rod for David Cameron and taken a lot of falk from the party's grassroots.
But more important than all of that he presided over one of the party's biggest electoral triumphs on May when the party not only made 900 gains in English local councils, it made a lot of headway in Wales. Maude must get at least part of the credit for this.
And my final point is this. Would Chris Grayling, Caroline Spelman or Andrew Mitchell do a better job? I think not. Maude needs another year to get the partry ready to fight an election. He must be given it. After that year a new chairman should be appointed who will have a higher media profile and take the Tory case to the country.
44 comments:
I never thought I'd read "Eric Pickles" and "lean and dynamic" in the same sentence!
I think that the whole DC team should be given a chance - they haven't been in position for long and they should be allowed to get on with what they are doing without constant fear of revolt.
It's hold-your-nerve time!
At last someone who is prepared to stand up and defend Francis Maude- When you start from the bottom of Mount Everest, you have to get your equipment and support right even to get to first base.
My hope is that when Coulson arrives, the Party will at long last know how to communicate with the electorate in the same devasting way Brown/Blair did 1994-7.
To be fair, 75% of respondents, by voting for someone other than Maude, want him to be replaced...hardly a ringing endorsement.
The problem you have in Liverpool and Newcastle (and in Manchester) is that we don't do Harmony Hairspray politics up here.
Agree with all of this.
It's hold-your-nerve time!
Absolutely , I can`t say Maude has impressed me greatly when I have heard him speak but it is my impression that the Party machinery has improved.The only problem is , how much time is there ? There must be a concerted attack on Brown nailing him to the Blair record but no change of tactics for the Party. David Cameron deserves far more support amd loyalty than he has been getting .Unity or the lack of it has condemned us to ten years of stealth socialism and with the possibility of an election soon I hope for a more serious attitude from everyone
( including me ...ahem)
Great post iain
Oh dear. Having a "candidate without a seat" moment, Iain?
He has created the Northern board - (his idea) which is driving through groupings and fundraising in a way they never have before(I'm told the Yorkshire region is at 200 per cent of its budget target already
Must be North Yorkshire elsewhere in Yorkshire-West and South the Tories are invisible
well done Iain.
That said Maude needs to appoint a full time CEO to tackle the day-to=day running of the party.
The CH endorsement of Maude to continue as Chairman was just slightly more ringing than that of Harriet Harman as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
I actually voted for Maude in the poll, but would have preferred to vote for a candidate other than those named. However, due to a technical problem, I was unable to do so. (I believe this problem - which is mentioned in the CH analysis - was experienced by a significant number of participants.) I therefore voted to Maude because none of the other named candidates particularly appealed and (unlike DC) I'm not into change for its own sake.
I guess all I'm saying is that the result of the poll needs to be treated with more than the usual caution.
I welcome your change of heart.
Sir Bentley. 1. I am not applying for seats. 2. If I were seeking to curry favour with the leadership I doubt I would be praising the man they are about to sack!
Geoff Brooking - what change of heart?
Good try Iain but I do not think 25% voting for FM to stay as Chairman - only 3% more than Alan Duncan is a ringing endorsement of him as Chairman.
I wish Francis no ill and don't think he should necessarily be moved out of the shadow cabinet - just CCHQ.
Yes, he has done some good things at CCHQ but the grassroots have little enthusiasm for him.
Is Tim Montgomerie mad? He certainly fits the facts to his own narrative when it suits him (by which I mean, he makes up stories)...
A few weeks ago you, and other Conservatives bloggers, had a chant going "Where is Gordon"? That was quite funny.
May we now enquire "Where is Dave"?
Suddenly the leader of the Party has nothing to say on any topic whatsoever. Is he planning another onslaught on Brown's pensions policy? Is he going to trumpet loud and clear his determination to stop imports of some timber and timber products?
Or, does he have anything at all to say about terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan and the 30 Years War, the cuts in hospital funding, gang warfare on the streets of our major cities, post office closures, immigration policy failures, the effect of Brown's additional taxation on North Sea oil and gas, Scottish devolution....anything at all?
By the time his policy commissioms come up with the goods - to be ignored - the next election will have been held and lost.
Victor
This is a very good post, but if there is no change to the chairman (and those who advocate it have failed to find a willing alternative to Maude) then DC should find somebody to act as a lightening rod for members opinions. Somebody grey-haired, non-exec type.
It's obvious that it is Montgomerie who should go and no one else.
Maude is a steady hand and seems a future leader.
Threatened coups by Hague and Davis only have a 'yes, please!' waiting for them from the Labour ranks.(Can I reiterate that?).
Dave asked the Tory faithless to stand and clap Tony out. In one go he took 50% of the headline.
It is time to rally round DC and his team, this government is there for the taking. Let sface it the Tory Party is a lot more United than the NuLabour Party who basically ditched every last one of their values, lost 100,000's of members etc in order to gain power.
The 'Brown Bounce' is a myth and we will be back ahead in the polls in 3 months time.
What does the party need most? A charismatic chap who makes the grassroots feel happy and does not come across as mediocre on Question Time, or someone behind the scenes making improvements to the party machine and its ability to campaign?
Maybe it would be better to reduce FM's public profile and let him carry on with the essential tangible work he is carrying out.
Can we hear the case for the prosecution next please?
Maude has certainly not improved the CCHQ machine. Morale is low and organisation is poor.
I would be amazed if he remains in position.
The line being reported last week was that the party needed a wartime consigliere now that it was moving into election mode and that Maude didn't fit the bill.
For my part, I really can't understand why anyone thinks Andrew Mitchell, Chris Grayling or Caroline Spelman would be a more effective chairman than Maude in this respect.
The Grass roots being happy matters not a jot . How do you think the Collectivist religious Socialists that dominate the Labour Party feel about Brown pretending to be a Free market Nationalist .
They keep quiet because they know it wins elections. A lesson we should all learn
Tony - spot on
Iain,
If, as you say, you're not applying for seats, don't you run the risk of being removed from the A-list - or have the rules changed?
Just shows how long you have been away from Westminster Paul!
Maude was only brought in for two reasons:
1) To fix the leadership contest so that Davis did not win and offer as much CCHQ assistance to DC as possible.
2) To be a lightening conductor for the unpopular Party reforms to take place in the first stage of Cameron leadership.
Both those tasks have now been accomplished.
Cameron should be bold and invite Hazel Blears.
She has a more right wing agennda than George Osborne so would go down well in the shires as long as she wears a twinset when she arrives on her Harley Davidson.
As an old die-hard Thatcherite, I accept it would be utter insanity to derail the Cameron programme now! Francis Maude is part of that programme.
Simply in terms of the practical aspects of party organisation he has proven himself to be really useful, and he has done a good job. he should stay imho!
If we keep chasing headlines, we vascilate! People say we don't stand for anything - well now is time to show we do.
Time to keep faith with the programme and see it through.
Interesting spin on 75% wanting a different chairman.
as somebody said on another blog if maude has to go give it to lord ashcroft to get the job done and give him a "talker" to deal with the media. they are two a penny but there are few with the necessary skills and motivational drive that lord ashcroft would bring. sadly he would probably tell them to sod off!!!!
Well said Iain Dale!
I completely agree with and really like the progress he has created for the party.
Maude has done pretty well in reorganising the Conservatives. He's obviously pretty pragmatic - no bad thing, I think.
I'm less impressed by his political face. That said, he ought to be allowed to get on with things. There's a very long haul yet.
I'm getting really p****d off with these comments about MPs standing to see Blair off.
If the Tories had stayed in their seats, vast swathes of posters would have been yelling their heads off about 'nasty Conservatives' etc.
I loathe Blair, but the guy had been PM for 10 years, so standing up for his farewell was the decent thing to do (and no doubt many of our side had their fingers crossed out of sight). This petty sniping is ridiculous.
For Francis Maude to claim credit for the increased Tory vote at the local elections would be as questionable as the Saatchis claiming credit for the election of Margaret Thatcher.
In both cases they just happened to be in the right place to ride the wave of hatred/comtempt for the Party in power.
And if he's responsible for promoting the media career of Alan Duncan he should go immediately.
He has two bye-elections.Lets see what happens.Oop north there is William,down south we have dave.What can go wrong?
judith.You may well be right but it looked bl...y awful on television.
As already said: the CH software was buggy as you were only able to vote for the people listed. I too voted for Maude, but would have preferred a non-listed candidate.
It's a bit like the ABC Group (Anyone But Cameron) growing in number but very quiet for some reason.
Very brave stance, Iain: "Wannabe MP backs status quo". Clear the front page. But it's already full with: "New Cabinet praises Brown", "Wonderful sense of humour say Brown's friends", "Pope unlikely to join the Labour Party" and "I never wanted a peerage says Digby".
The real problem might be that no-one else wants the job (Party Chairman that is, not MP for a leafy southern seat).
Maude is effectively in charge of deck chairs on SS Titanic.It's unfair to blame him or other shadows.The policies (such as they are)belong to Dave.Go after the ORGAN GRINDER not the etc etc.
ed not sure whether it's "hold your nerve" or "got a nerve"
Madness. Maude is lazy.
The problem is Maude is not media savvy. He couldn't express himself in an engaging way.
That counts for alot - example - Gordon Brown in PMQs. LoL
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