It was a real honour when, on Saturday, constituency chairmen with Area and Regional officers of the Conservative Party from up and down the country, elected me to serve as President of the National Conservative Convention for the next year.
President of the Convention is more than just a title. It’s a major commitment for the year, and a huge responsibility to represent more than 200,000 members of the Conservative Party on the Party’s ultimate decision making body; the Party Board. And it’s a massive commitment to be tasked to chair the Party conference in my home city, Birmingham, this coming October.
If we can inspire the nation to place their trust in us once more, that conference will be not only the biggest and best political event ever held in Britain. But it will reach out beyond our shores and showcase to the whole world that Britain is proud and confident in herself again, and is open for business with renewed purpose.
In my job working in financial services in Birmingham, many of my work mates think that politics is the full time career of people they find remote and often disinteresting. Few recognise that most of us in politics do so voluntarily and often at considerable personal cost.
Yet many of my colleagues are frustrated by the poor state of the economy that is so holding back their aspirations. They are irritated by the regulatory burden that has such an impact on everything we do from health and safety nonsense at their children’s schools, to the difficulty of opening a simple bank account. They are saddened by our broken society, and they long to regain a nation that is at ease with itself. But few appreciate that they can do something about it themselves.
Getting involved in politics is hard work, and is often unrecognised. But it’s hugely rewarding, is great fun, and can be really effective personal development. From supporting social action projects in your local community, to talking to neighbours about the issues that concern them, joining a political Party is a fantastic way to play a constructive part in our civil society.
I’m greatly looking forward to welcoming more than 10,000 people to the Party Conference in October, and I hope those will include a wealth of people from every part of our diverse nation who are newly inspired by David Cameron’s Conservatives, and eager to play their part in this Year for Change.
Comment by Praguetory on March 10, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Congratulations on this appointment, Charles. I hope I/we can be of assistance to you over the coming months.