In the Bush White House, there is a director of coalition relations called Tim Goeglein. His job is to keep the Republican Party and the wider conservative
movement sweet. Cameron could do worse than appoint his own version of Goeglein, whose job would be to liaise directly with the party and hoover up good ideas and suggestions.
To be fair, I shamelessly nicked the idea from Donal Blaney's column on ConservativeHome...
I'm pleased to learn therefore from ConservativeHome that David Cameron is about to appoint George Eustice to this role. George has been Cameron's loyal and very hard working press secretary for the last thirty months. He has now decided he wants to stand for Parliament and cannot do so from the vantage point of press secretary. George has a fine record in campaigning, having been the driver of the 'No' Campaign and Business for Sterling.As the conservative movement in Britain grows at an impressive rate, Team Cameron likewise need to ensure that the members of the conservative movement, and in particular its leaders, are kept in the loop and feel they have a channel of communication to the Party leadership. The appointment of someone with a role similar to Tim Goeglein at the White House (who is in charge of White House relations with the conservative coalition) will help ensure the broader conservative movement remains if not wholly on side then at least broadly on side, thereby avoiding future misunderstandings and rows.
George was a pleasure to deal with during the leadership campaign and has been unfailingly polite and helpful ever since. I really wish him well in this new and much needed role.
Iain Dale "shamelessly" nicks ideas shock!
ReplyDeleteOh dear, please leave out the sucking up in the future Iain!!
ReplyDeleteCameron: It's good that Labour and Conservatives agree
ReplyDeleteDear God. And I thought that at last, after two years of deliberately throwing away grassroots support, he'd recently come to his senses and started to sound like the leader of the Conservative Party again.
Poor old Eustice is going to have an uphill slog.
Cheney Administration liasion with Congressional Republicans is a bad joke, as incompetent as the rest of the mess, a disaster for the nation, the Republican Party AND GOP wackos.
ReplyDeleteTom Delay and rest of Congressional GOP establishment drank the Kool-Aid (and are still sucking it down) on the Iraq War. In return, W & Co gave The Hammer and his coterie a mile-high pile of blank US Treasury checks: IOUs payable by our children & grandchildren. Strangely enough, most US conservatives seem to NOW regard this as a great betrayal.
A sort of political butler. What a fine idea.
ReplyDeletePity his name isn't Jeeves.
Mind you I can envisage hissy fits amongst the Spivs and Spin Merchants he's surrounded himself with to date.
Oh come on!
ReplyDeleteCoulson has cleared got rid of the deadwood. the rest of the spiel is to save Eustice's blushes.
Ask DD what he thinks of Useless!
I don't like the sound of this "Conservative movement".
ReplyDeleteTough decision for Coulson to make. But he has made the right one.
ReplyDeleteWe have to have the right personnel in our press team.
I can recall George being tipped for the Camborne and Redruth Seat, in the heart of Cornwall. He would have been alright. It helps to be a local in these seats. He is a one time strawberry farmer with his own roots, in the constituency.
ReplyDeleteIt is down his street that he calls a cauli a broccoli and that they boil daffodils instead of potatoes, for supper. Aberdeen caught fish is smoked in Cornwall and called Smokies.
Julia Goldsworthy is also closely local to George and both would have had a good fight.
Things changed two years ago when local conservatives were kicked out of the conservative party for supposedly being in league with UKIP. George a former UKIPPER and UKIP PPC would now find it difficult to get a place as a tory PPC in cornwall. Former tories would cry foul and cause a lot of trouble, as would the Press, who would have a field day. The source of trouble in this constituency can be traced back to a guy called Bradley, whose behaviour sparked of a sequence of events which has caused nothing but grief for the few remaining conservatives.
I think it is safe to say that when the Liberal Democrats chose a new leader, the County of Cornwall will stay solidly Liberal. It would be a bonus for the libs if Goldsworthy became Deputy.
On the other hand a large group of real conservatives and right wingers are planning their own campaign. Cornwall has always been solidly Independent and Local, and has historically been a force to reckon with.
Whatever happened to the days when future MPs were expected to fight hopeless seats or difficult by-elections before getting their shot at their job for life?
ReplyDelete