The DIY Conservative Party

I know that writing about the Boy-King’s Manchester speech (will this be his equivalent of the Sheffield rally?) is akin to shooting fish in the barrel but there is one more thing to be added.

Thanks to the Conservative Home blog we know that as delegates were leaving the hall, they were handed a Wave Network leaflet (motto: Because politics is too important to be left to politicians), entitled “Be the change”. Despite rather lame efforts to defend the leaflet by its author on the blog, there is no pdf available.

However, we cannot do any worse or better than copy the ten commandments to the party faithful and, no doubt, conservatives everywhere:

Take the bus when you can

Get to know your neighbours better

Pick up one piece of litter from the street everyday

Re-use your plastic bags when you go to the shops

Switch to energy efficiency light bulbs at home

Reduce your thermostat by 2 degrees

Support your local shopkeepers

Don't overfill your kettle

Fill out a donor card

Give blood

I cannot even be bothered to analyze or discuss any of that nonsense, particularly as the forum on Conservative Home has done the job for me. (Though none of them mention the case of the chap who collected all the rubbish in his village into a plastic bag, put it by the side of the road to be collected and was done for fly-tipping. Was it the neighbours?)

One comment explains the origins of Wave Network:

“Wave Network, is the successor to CChange and is the sister organisation of Policy Exchange - both founded by Francis Maude. Similarly the party website advertises Women2Win - another pressure group.”

Make of it what you will. I suspect this is Francis Maude's attempt to reproduce the right-wing network built up over the years by the Republicans in the United States. There is just one problem: most of those organizations had something to say beyond "don't overfill up your kettle".

I am off to read about Edmund Burke.

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