19/10/2006

Thanks to Matt & Warwick University CF. It's a particular privilege for me to be coming here to speak today as a newly selected candidate as it is almost ten years to the day to a different kind of selection that resulted in a slightly different result. Ten years ago I was receiving my letter from Warwick to say that unfortunately the university could not offer me a place and wished me good luck for the future. I had to make do with another place a few miles down the M40 which can't quite compete with the nightlife, nor by the looks of things, the Conservative politics, but Oxford was just about OK.

I am delighted to see so many people here this evening and I am pleased to see in this branch of Conservative Future, a living, breathing example of the progress that our party is making among young people.

Tonight I would like to talk to you about three things - Why I have decided to take the plunge and go into politics, why young people have a huge role to play in politics and why it matters so much that we all take up that role and get involved. I might even take the opportunity to make a shameless plug for why you might want to get involved by coming over to Worcester.

I qualify for membership of CF for another two years so, by the standards of the Conservative Party I am not just young I am practically pre-pubescent! Hopefully unlike many of our friends on the other side of politics I don't have to pretend to like the Arctic Monkeys to prove my yoof credentials. As many of my friends have asked me "what the hell am I doing going into politics?"

I am not, believe it or not, a political nerd. In  general I am somebody who would rather watch Hoggard than Hansard and who'd rather follow Dallaglio than Dod's. I did grow up surrounded by politics but I was always more interested in the people involved than what they were saying. As a child, with a father who was in politics, I would go along to Conservative fetes and bazaars across Worcestershire but I was always more interested in trying to win a prize at the tombola or steal a sip of the awful warm white wine, than I was in listening to the speeches.

My father had a very successful career in politics but that was over by the time I was 14 and it wasn't until long after it was over that I became sufficiently aware to realise why it mattered.

I helped out with the party from time to time and in 1997 volunteered to work as a driver for Stephen Dorrell, then Secretary of State for Health. Incidentally I can heartily recommend to anyone planning to get involved in politics to avoid being  a driver, especially if you have to deal with the excruciating embarrassment on your first day in the job of driving the Secetary of State for Health's car slowly but surely into the back of an ambulance in front of the entire reception committee at a new hospital.

Over the years my driving has improved, but by the time I got to University I was still more interested in seeing how many pints I could sink at lunchtime or how few hours work a week I could get away with than in trying to make a political point. This was probably just as well as my college JCR was so left wing that all the elected positions were called "comrade" and even the college tortoise was called Rosa Luxembourg.

What made me decide to go in for politics was not some moment of Damascene conversion, but the gradual realisation in the years since I left university of how real politics affects people in real life. First I set out to run my own business and swiftly realised the horrors of the red tape and the over-complicated tax system that does so much to stifle enterprise. Then my sister joined the police and what she saw of the drug problems on our council estates, the terrible failings of our social services and the awful bureaucracy that stops the police from doing their job made me realise that something was going seriously wrong. More recently some of the friends who I partied and drank with at University, but the ones who worked a bit harder than I did, have begun to pursue careers in medicine. What they have reported back of the mess that a bad government has made of the NHS, made me realise that something needed to be done.

All these things added up but the deciding factor was my experience on the doorstep, working as a helper at the last election for Oliver Letwin. Working closely with such a thoughtful politician in a hard fought local campaign made me realise how a good, hard working local politican can make a real difference. Knocking on doors day after day I realised that the people who really matter in politics are the people behind those doors with their different views, their diverse problems and their unifying basic belief that things could be made better. This was the heart of politics.

In the light of this realisation I had to reassess what I had glimpsed of my father's career. I realised that it was not the trappings of high office, the red boxes and the chauffeur driven cars, that were important. What really mattered was that in 30 years as a local MP he has never failed to answer  a constituent's letter, never left a problem un-adressed.

As I wrote in my application to become a candidate, an MP can often do more good by following up on the complaint of a single constituent and getting something sorted out than they can by legislating on behalf of the whole country.

When I realised this I realised why people had often said to me that they wouldn't vote conservative, always supported Labour but had always voted for my father as well. I realised why, even in this media-manipulated worlds of spin, despite the whipping system and the power of political parties, one individual politician can make a difference. I took the decision that this was the best way that I could make a difference in life and took the plunge of entering politics.

Politics is easily dominated by two forces - hope and fear. It is all too easy for politicians to resort to the latter and indeed, there is much for our generation to be afraid of. We have terrifying demographic change that implies that by the time we reach the age of 75 there could be a fifth of the population up there with us and an unbearable strain on those left behind to do the work. We have unpredictable and uncontrollable climate change. And as technology advances, we can be sure that we will have an endless chain of new developments in man's ability to destroy his fellow man. However we should not resort to pessimism.

The history of really successful politicians is the history of those who have faced times of change and pursued the politics of hope.

Just as Disraeli, in the turmoil of the industrial revolution, offered votes to the millions and as Macmillan, in the aftermath of war, offered them homes, so Margaret Thatcher, beset by industrial decline and union unrest, helped people to own their own homes and freed up the economy. The greatest polticians faced times of frightening change and offered a positive message of hope and renewal.

I believe it is vital that we as a party continue to offer such as message and that is one of the reasons why I am delighted that we have David Cameron as our leader. In 2005 we fought an election campaign that had many worthy policies but was too easily charicatured as playing to the nation's fears. The media were able to run away with the negative aspects of "dog whistle politics" and present our party as angry and negative. We must not make the same mistake again.

Fortunately we now have a party and a leader who are talking the language of hope. We must fight the next election on the grounds of hope and the aspirations of a new generation. What better message for a new generation in politics?

But why should young people get involved? Why should you and I go tramping the streets when we have so many more years ahead of us to hope and to worry about the issues of politics?

Quite simply because we are desperately needed and because young people can make a disproportionate difference. When people hear young voices talking about the politics of aspiration they pay attention. When they see young faces on their doorstep they react positively. When young supporters are able to get out and deliver leaflets, canvass and put up posters at twice the rate of their older comrades you can see why we have a disproportionate impact. Today, with our university branches flourishing and our party attracting more young people than any other political force, we younger conservatives have an historic opportunity to tip the balance in British politics.

One way that you can help to do that is to get involved at the next election and here comes the shameless plug.

Worcester is quite simply one of the key seats that the Conservatives need to win in order to win the next election. There are 90,000 people in Worcester and it has been described as the city that most accurately represents the demographic breakdown of the whole country. Worcester is a great city, immortalised on the £20 note so that unwittingly all of you will have been carrying an image of this City around with you for years. We have our rich leafy neighbourhoods and we also have areas of significant social deprivation - Worcester really is a microcosm of Britain as a whole. Politically it has been Labour since 1997 but the Conservatives have been making good ground. We won the council in 2001 and last year we came just 3144 votes away from winning the seat in parliament. Next time we should win. However it is going to be a long hard campaign. I am canvassing or carrying out some sort of activity in the City every weekend between now and whenever the election is called. Any help that Warwick University CF can provide would be hugely appreciated and may make a real difference.

I have been extremely lucky, at a young age to find myself fighting a winnable seat at a time when our party is riding a rising tide. I am aware of the awesome responsibility that this entails but, without responsibility, politics would be just a game. You too could be in this kind of position before too long. If you don't believe me on the influence that young people can have in politics let me remind you of an election we lost in 2001. In 2001 aged 23, I took part in the election campaign in Worcester as a volunteer. There were a handful of us in our 20s who were optimistic enough to believe that we had a chance to win in Worcester that time. Of course we were wrong, but the hard work turned out to be worth it. It gave me the experience, the knowledge and the belief to go forward and get selected. Of that handful of people in their 20s who took part in 2001, one is now the head of Worcester's City Council and another, me is fighting the seat for parliament.

So therefore, not entirely for selfish reasons I would urge you to get involved, try your hand at campaining and come out on the doorsteps of Worcester. Help me to win Worcester and help the Conservative party to win the next election.