Will Bickford-Smith on supporting our troops, left wing occupations and Nottingham CF’s success

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

What inspired you to become active in politics?

My interest in politics began really when I started to study it for my A-levels. During one of our classes our teacher let us watch Prime Ministers Questions and it just so happened to be David Cameron’s first outing as Party leader. I always knew I was going to be a Conservative, but that PMQs really inspired me to get involved with the Party.

I am still active in politics as I hold the firm belief that Britain should be a far better place for everyone to live than it has been in my lifetime, and I see the only way to change that is to have a change in government to the Conservatives.

Why do you think there has been an increase in the number of young conservative activists?

Young people, despite what some might say, have views on pretty much everything, whether it is the number of contact hours they get at university, the price of a bus journey, or the price of petrol at the pumps. However I would agree that young people have been apathetic for a long time- not many of my friends are even remotely interested in politics, let alone political parties. However there has been an undeniable increase in the number of young people joining the Party and getting involved with Conservative Future and that is irrefutably because of the new direction the Party is taking under Cameron.

Do you think that the young right of centre movement is better organised than its opponents on the left?

I have to confess I have never taken much interest in Labour students so I would not be best placed to make that judgement. However I would say that Conservative Future appears to have taken huge steps forward over the past few months and I have certainly never come across any sort of organisation like the Young Britons Foundation for the left. YBF has been an invaluable source of information and training for the Nottingham University Conservative Association and I am very glad we have such strong ties with them.

You’ve been through plenty of YBF training – what kind of difference does this make to you as an activist?

YBF training is great because it breaks down the points into simple bullet points and is informative without being boring. This helps you when you are looking to advance your CF branch as you can see the clear steps to take to move onwards and upwards.

YBF media training has been especially useful as it teaches you to think quickly and to handle pressure when put on the spot.

Nottingham CF is one of the most successful in the country. What’s your secret?

I think you have to be realistic. We have around 120 members yet only have up to 20 people who get involved with our various activities, despite our best efforts to get everyone involved. So you’ve got to work with what you have got and make your events as diverse and interesting as you can.

My top tip would be to keep it all quite informal and to find those people who are keen to get involved and keep in touch with them every week.

Do you ever find it hard to motivate students into action? Do you find that they respond best to certain issues?

It is difficult. When you take time to organise an event, book the venue, and only have a handful of people turn up, it can be disheartening. But you have to stay positive and enjoy yourself because if you are not, then it’s not worth doing it as if you aren’t having a good time, then your members won’t.

Leafleting is probably the hardest activity to motivate students into doing but I have to say that this weekend we managed to get six people out in the snow and wind to canvass for an upcoming by-election.

You’ve supported the YBF “Support Our Troops” campaign on campus. What effect do you hope to have?

I’m a big supporter of our armed forces and I don’t think enough people acknowledge the work they do to keep us safe. I have been both saddened and angered at the actions taken by some students across other university campuses to remove any military presence and I contacted YBF for advice on how to promote the work of our troops so that this does not happen in Nottingham.

We hope to pass a motion through SU Council which will acknowledge the work of our military and position the University to welcome the military to careers fares and quash the actions of those who would seek to dishonour them.

There have been protests at your university about the Israel/Gaza conflict. Have these disrupted your studies?

These protests have really had me riled, not because my work has been disrupted, but at the nature in which they took place. For those who do not know, a group of students from the University of Nottingham have decided that they should stage an occupation in a lecture theatre, fuelled by their desire to help those who have suffered in Gaza- a reasonable act many would say, but the fact is that the group had stated that this occupation will not end until their “demands” were met from the University. They were effectively holding the room to ransom.

The demands that follow resemble those of a petulant child including the removal of Starbucks from campus, the banning of companies such as BAE Systems, the Smiths Group and Caterpillar from careers fares, and the release of a University statement against Israel. The list of ten demands suggested that these occupants were arguably more focussed on a left-wing agenda to suppress the choice of students at the University than to raise money for the suffering in Gaza which could have been done by holding a stall and carrying what is known as a collection box.

Do you think that they are being properly held to account for their actions? Is there a movement against the occupations?

The University security guards gave the occupants a deadline to leave the property though they failed to meet this and so were removed by force. What ensued were lewd accusations of “assault” and complaints that their “fundamental right” to move in and out of the room had been broken. What utter nonsense. The other movement was not against the occupation as such, but to raise awareness of the attacks on Israeli civilians from Hamas. This consisted of the University Jewish Society standing on a bank opposite the windows of the lecture theatre holding up Jewish flags.  The whole episode struck me as extremely petty without focussing on the one issue that should be of concern- to raise money for aid in Gaza.

 YBF is sending Roger Helmer to your campus. Do you expect students to engage with his Euro-sceptic message?

We thank YBF in their assistance on getting Roger Helmer to our campus. I think it will be a really interesting evening, especially with the European elections on the horizon. I am not sure what the response will be- Europe, perhaps strangely, is not an issue that comes up that often in conversation as it seems to be a general consensus that we are all euro-sceptic to some degree. But it will definitely be interesting to hear what he has to say.