CFCC Annual Garden Party - 09/09/24
The annual CFCC Garden Party took place on an usually sunny September evening. Though delayed by the unexpected calling of the UK General Election, CFCC members and friends were delighted to get together to see off the summer and discuss the political year ahead.
Our gracious hosts, Mr and Mrs G Toland, welcomed our many distinguished guests, including the Ambassadors of Turkey, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan; The High Commissioners of Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Lesotho, and Ghana; the Deputy Ambassadors of Germany and Poland; Felicity Buchan; and Lord Ranger of Northwood.
CFCC President Baroness Chalker opened proceedings with a warm welcome to the diplomatic core and thanked Melissa Crawshay-Williams for organising the event.
Baroness Chalker observed that the CFCC was an important part of a rather difficult time for the Conservative Party, but that the CFCC carried on without any great battles and under the leadership of a great Chairman in Baroness Neville-Jones.
Baroness Neville-Jones thanked Baroness Chalker and the evening’s hosts, Gordon and Elizabeth Toland. She confessed that she was also grateful for the weather and acknowledged that though it was not the best moment to be a Conservative, we would build again.
Baroness Neville-Jones introduced Baroness Emma Nicholson, who declared that she was about to commit a cardinal sin for a politician, by disagreeing with highly eminent cabinet minister ladies to either side of her (Baroness Chalker and Baroness Neville-Jones). By contrast, she insisted that it was the easiest time to be a Conservative, with a new government and a new set of people who we knew well and had been opposing for quite some time, who were interesting and intelligent, and now facing exactly the same problems we faced a week before.
Baroness Nicholson observed that the new Prime Minister had given himself quite a problem by blaming everything on the Conservative Party and affirmed that it didn’t wash. She acknowledged that our system was very solid because it resists all change - which is why it is sometimes frustrating to be in politics.
Baroness Nicholson declared this a major moment for the Conservative Party, giving us space to think, time to plan, and an opportunity to utilise our huge amount of knowledge in how to get things through.
Her biggest worry was that a huge amount of people hadn’t come out to vote and that if a lot of people hadn’t come out to engage in politics, we simply hadn’t got it right. The lesson, she affirmed, was that we had to find a way of communicating in the modern world, and this was no longer just a case of knocking on doors.
Observing that social media was a mixed blessing, she was delighted by a tweet of support from Mr Musk, but confessed that she fed her 31,000 X/Twitter followers with a lot of information on gardening to calm their passions.
Baroness Nicholson maintained that it was possible to get extraordinary discussions going on the web but we hadn’t yet worked out how to get democracy and social media in line with each other; because if we lost democracy, lost the fundamental freedoms, and lost the rule of law, what else was there left?
The Baroness shared that she was still a member of the select committee on European Affairs and had persuaded the committee to do a report on Ukraine - which was fundamental for our freedom in Europe.
In regards to the Conservative Party, she mused that she had always found it to be the home of fun, friendships and happiness, and we needed to get back to that; noting that all of us in politics get most things wrong, but nearly always there’s goodwill.
Baroness Nicholson thanked Melissa for another wonderful party and the privilege to be part of this beautiful event on the historic Royal Avenue.
Jamila Robertson
