One of those who attended was the Telegraph Journalist, James Delingpole. Please  have a read of James’ blog article from 8th March about his experiences whilst at the YBF Parliamentary Rally last week and the reason YBF is such a valuable resource for conservative activists across the country.

You can read the blog article here.

Or by adding this Twibbon to your Facebook Profile and Twitter logo:

In your first  week in the USA you will recieve the latest in activist skills and training whilst at the Leadership Institute.

In your second week you will attend the Young America’s Foundation, National Conservative Student Conference, hearing from speakers such as Newt Gingrinch, Ann Coulter and Michael Reagan. You will also get the opportunity to meet with like-minded American activists from around the USA.

The third week is spent in Santa Barbara, California. Students will have the opportunity to have a private tour of the Reagan Ranch, undergo training at the Reagan Ranch Centre, recieve a private tour of the Reagan Library & Museum (which includes a tour of Reagan’s Air Force One) and a tour of the Nixon Library.

Thanks to the generosity of the supporters of the Young Britons’ Foundation, substantial subsidies are provided to cover the conference fees, accomodation, meals and course materials.

This is an opportunity not to be missed!

Week 1: 24th – 31st July – A week at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia learning the latest in activist skills and training. Week includes tours of the Washington Monuments, White House and Congress.

Week 2: 1st – 8th August – A week spent with the Young America’s Foundation at their National Conservative Student Conference hearing from the biggest conservative speakers. Also includes a place at the British Embassy drinks reception in DC.

Week 3: 9th – 14th August – A week learning about Reagan in his own back yard. Includes tours of the Reagan Ranch, training in the Reagan Ranch Centre as well as tours of the Reagan Library and Museum, and the Nixon Museum.

In order to register your interest to attend 1,2 or 3 weeks with YBF in the USA please contact donal@ybf.org.uk.

]]> http://www.ybf.org.uk/2010/03/05/ybf-in-the-usa-this-summer/feed/ 0 http://www.ybf.org.uk/2010/03/04/ybf-parliamentary-rally-in-pictures/ http://www.ybf.org.uk/2010/03/04/ybf-parliamentary-rally-in-pictures/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:06:19 +0000 exec http://www.ybf.org.uk/?p=2642 After a great day at the YBF Parliamentary Rally here are a few pictures from the Rally for any of you who were not lucky enough to be able to attend.

A brilliant day was had by not only the whole YBF team but the audience and all of the outstanding speakers throughout the day. You can see all of the comments from the day by members of the audience, the YBF team, and many of the speakers here. YBF thanks the speakers once again for giving up their precious time to come and address the YBF audience and give them such great words of advice and knowledge.

Executive Director Matthew Richardson spoke on a panel warning of the dangers of socialism and received a standing ovation from an audience of over 2500.  The video was also broadcast on CSPAN around the world and is viewable below.

YBF is proud to announce the date of its Parliamentary Rally!

Date: Wedneday, 3rd March 2010

Time: 14:00 – 18:00

Location: Commitee Room 10 – House of Commons

Join dozens of fellow young conservative activists from around the country to meet and hear from prominent politicians and leaders of the conservative movement who hope to make up and drive the agenda of the next  government.

Speakers that have been confirmed so far include:

* Eric Pickles
* Liam Fox
* Douglas Carswell
* Andrew Rosindell
* Iain Dale
* As well many other prominent MPs and conservative movement leaders to be announced over the coming weeks…

For those of you who use Twitter the hashtag for the event is – #YBFPR10

For more information about the Parliamentary Rally please click the image below.

• When did you first become an ‘active conservative’?

I have been an active Conservative for about three years and I have known I am a Conservative for about five or six years.   It wasn’t until I went to University that I found opportunities to become involved in local campaigns and Conservative Future.

• Describe yourself in 5 words

Outgoing, friendly, hardworking, caring and ambitious

• What’s your favourite political moment in history?

That’s a really difficult question.  I think I would have to say the Berlin Wall coming down which happened the year I was born.  I think people of my generation owe a lot to the politicians of that time, in particular Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, for providing us with freedom that we may not have had otherwise.  It’s something that I don’t think my generation are educated enough about.

• If you had to name the single biggest problem that Labour government has caused, what would it be?

For me it would be people becoming even more reliant upon the government.  Its something I’ve seen happen all around me in the North East and I think it has been incredibly detrimental to society.  This has occurred through people becoming reliant upon the welfare state and relying on the government to tell them what to do and when to do it.  There just isn’t any emphasis on individual responsibility anymore.

• If you could meet any political figure from past or present, who would it be?

I would love to meet Margaret Thatcher.  She is a massive inspiration to me in terms of being a woman in politics.  She taught people that you have to be yourself and not try to be what others think you should be- something that politicians today could learn from.  She also made some incredibly difficult decisions in difficult times while facing criticism but she also stood by what she thought was right.

• What are your favourite blogs?

Tory Bear, Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale, Blaneys Blarney and ConsHome.

• What do you hope to achieve in life?

I would really like to have a happy and healthy family.  I would also love to further my career in politics by either working behind the scenes or even running as a Parliamentary Candidate.  I am also working on setting up a think tank at the moment with a couple of friends who are also based in Newcastle and would love to see that become as established as some other well known think tanks.  Hopefully I will be able to achieve all this at the same time as remaining true to my Northern roots.

• Tell us about Conservative Future in your area

Conservative Future in the North East has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years, as has the main political party.  I work with some incredibly talented and hardworking people who occupy various roles in CF who have helped to almost triple the number of branches that we have in the North East.  We have been working on making sure that every Parliamentary Candidate has a CF branch who are dedicated to helping them run their campaign.

• How best would you describe what it is to be a conservative?

Belief in the individual, freedom and free and open markets.

• Why do you think we have seen such a large increase in Conservative Future members these days?

Because being a Conservative has become a little bit cooler than it once was.  Young people also have a lot to say and CF gives them the stage and the ability to go out there and voice their opinions.

• Tell us about your experiences of the Young Briton’s Foundation

I have attended two YBF conferences which were both very important to me in terms of growing as a Conservative.  The first inspired me to come back to the North East and try and create as many opportunities as possible for others to become involved with Conservative Future.  These have ranged from visits from people like Roger Helmer MEP to social events to organising action days and social action projects.  The second was in October 2009 and I won the Eric Forth memorial award for activism- this was a huge moment for me and I feel it reflects the progress we have made in the North East thanks to the fantastic team of people that I work with.  YBF have also visited us in Newcastle so we could partake in some of their media and campaign training which was invaluable when it came to the local and European elections.  I also joined YBF in Washington DC for two weeks over the summer.  These two weeks have had a huge influence over the way I know view myself as a Conservative and provided me with new skills that I have been able to pass onto other Conservative activists back in England.

One of the main campaigns YBF has in place is our Support Our Troops campaign.

This week we have been reminded once again why we should support the troops that defend our country’s freedom.

The 180,000 members of a Facebook group shows how proud we are as a nation of our troops and the risks they take in order to ensure our freedom.

Join YBF’s campaign by emailing steven@ybf.org.uk

Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley

Beginning on the night she met her husband-to-be Denis, the film tells of the young Margaret Thatcher’s steely determination to get selected to a ‘winnable’ Tory seat in the Fifties and imagines what might have gone on behind the scenes during her ten-year struggle as she was rejected by a succession of five home counties Tory selection committees and finally – against considerable local opposition – selected for the seat she was to be identified with for the rest of her political career – Finchley!

The Complete Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister – Collector’s Boxset

Meet the bewildered Rt Hon James Hacker, his scheming and equivocating Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby and of course, Bernard, the piggy-in-the middle, on their fraught journey through the corridors of power. Easily the sharpest political comedy every written, with clandestine help from real civil servants, and satire that bites so close to home it sometimes seems more like a documentary. This does the impossible: it makes politics not just fun but hilariously funny.

Frost/Nixon

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan’s (The Queen, Last King of Scotland) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both: Frost/Nixon. Reprising their roles from Morgan’s stageplay are Frank Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and Michael Sheen, who originally played the part of Frost onstage in London and New York.

What is interesting for all activists is the relevance of the internet only campaign which resulted in a win for Rage Against the Machine. The campaign not only spread across Facebook but into the national media aswell. There are many lessons we can take and use from this campaign.

The campaign was firstly created on Facebook. As a social networking site we all often use Facebook to create groups and events, however, in order to make a campaign successful you need to make your campaign associate with a large number of people. This can be at a local level with a campaign that a lot of people in your local area feel strongly about or a national campaign. Either way people have to feel strongly about your campaign or they will not join and more importantly get involved!

Secondly the campaign also had a very simple but recognisable URL for people use across the internet. The URL – http://bit.ly/inthename is simple and memorable making it easier for people to spread the message across the internet.

There was also a brilliant use of other forms of social media and popular internet sites. The list for the Rage Against the Machine campaign is below:

DIGG us! – http://digg.com/d31BqlJ
TWITTER short URL – http://bit.ly/inthename
TWITTER hashtag – #ratm4xmas
YOUTUBE – http://bit.ly/rageforno1, http://bit.ly/xfactormyarse
WIDGET FOR YOUR MYSPACE/WEBSITE ETC – http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/4ADU3a7EHBhBlKpO
THE WRIGHT STUFF – http://bit.ly/thewrightstuff

The use of all these different internet mediums made it easy for people to follow and contribute to a campaign that gained 971,024 members on the Facebook group. In your campaign think how you can use some of these other mediums rather than just Facebook for a campaign.

Furthermore, there was a clever use of the media in order to further gather momentum in the campaign. Listed on the Facebook page are all the celebrities that endorsed the campaign. From the more obvious people like Kerrang! all the way through to people like Stephen Fry. This large following by celebrities plus the huge following by Facebook users caused the mainstream media in the UK to pay attention. On from that the band themselves then got involved. First through Twitter and then through radio and TV interviews further spreading the message. Think of people in your area that support your views and are willing to support your campaign. Whether it is your local MP, councillor or Mayor, their backing of your campaign adds credibility and can further spread the word about your campaign to other members of the community who will then also support your cause.

That alone, however, was not the reason that the campaign came to eventual success. More than anything else it was word of mouth that caused the shock result of Killing in the Name as Christmas Number One 2009.

So look at your political campaign as it stands and see where you maybe missing out. The ideas used by this campaign are ones that can be transferred into a campaign of your own at a local or national level.

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