The co-Party Chairman says next year’s local elections will definitely go ahead, and won’t give a figure for Party membership.
Three meetings with the ’22 each year, with no questions allowed, are simply not sufficient. Even Corbyn engages more than this.
The task of choosing the final two runners must remain with MPs, who know them better than the members do.
The campaign has exposed weaknesses in the CCHQ machine. A new broom is required. But May has sent for the old one.
Yet even if their concerns don’t ultimately lead to them backing someone else, these shouldn’t simply be dismissed as having no consequences.
Well, it’s been quite a week, hasn’t it?
The loss of Feldman, the hopelessness of Corbyn and Eurosceptic donor fatigue all play their part. CCHQ says it has a plan to get the money rolling in again.
It is possible that the Party may end this new year in a weaker position than before the 2015 election if CCHQ doesn’t act quickly.
Lord Woolton (pictured right) was the greatest-ever, rebuilding the Conservatives after the war. But here are my favourite five.
Either we widen the membership of political parties and change the way they are funded, or the next stop will be a UK-style Donald Trump.
The alternative is that somebody else will do it – and this has already started.
The former pit worker is the man to make the Conservatives a true One Nation party.
The Party needs to treat its members with respect and be a far more democratic in its structure.
There is a strong case for appointing a new Party Chairman who is neutral between the contenders.
Roughly a quarter have confidence, and much the same proportion don’t know.