Political Career
I have been studying British and World politics since 1979, when I remember listening to a radio at school to hear about Margaret Thatcher's first General Election victory. There have been three phases of real note.
February 2000 to February 2004
Although I first joined the Conservative Party in 1986, at University, my military career prevented me from any real activity. It was only five years after leaving the Army that I re-engaged with local politics, during a period of unemployment. Although by this time I was livng in the constituency of Tooting, I began to help the organisation of the Fairfield Ward for the Battersea Conservatives. This was made easy and enjoyable by the oversight of Association and Ward Chairman, the late Geoffrey Stephens. Over the course of the next four years, I carried out a number of roles within the Ward and Association. We inaugurated the Fairfield Forum, a Question-Time style fundraiser, at which we were honoured to have Ben Brogan, Alan Duncan, Peter Oborne and others on our panel. We fought the London Mayoral and London Assembly elections, returning Elizabeth Howlett as GLA member. We fought and heavily lost the 2001 General Election with Lucy Shersby as our candidate. Perhaps the best election result was the 2002 Local Council Elections where we actually managed to increase our majority on Wandsworth Borough Council by one seat. By this stage, I had become Deputy Chairman (Politics) and Ward Chairman.
March 2004 to May 2005
This period was the highlight for me. From a long list of six and then a short list of three, I was selected to be the prospective candidate in Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush. It was a safe Labour seat but for various reasons I thought we had a chance. And I was proved right in one respect, in that in the London Assembly elections of May 2004 with the votes cast for the Conservatives on a ward by ward basis, we were the largest share of the vote. I was aided in my excitement by a generous donation to the Association's campaign coffers by a Peer of the Realm, who was a Tory supporter and a client of mine at Citibank. His donation, the strength of feelings on local issues where Labour were on the wrong side of the argument and the superbly run Association all meant we could run a very serious campaign. The outcomes were almost all positive; next-door Hammmersmith & Fulham elected Greg Hands, we achieved the 4th largest swing in London and reduced the majority by 1,000s. A few months later, Ealing Council turned blue in the biggest Council election shock of 2006.
1987-1988
Oxford University Conservative Association