Conservative Future - what is it good for?

Time for controversy, methinks.

Quite a few people around the blogosphere (what a naff phrase, but in the absence of anything better to describe it ...) have commented upon the youth wing of the Conservative Party: Conservative Future.

Like most political organisations, CF exists to promote the values of the party and ultimately ensure that the Party is elected. So goes the theory, anyway. Whilst I freely admit I'm stuck in a deadend backwater of this wondrous city, I hadn't even heard of CF until I began reading Tory Bear. Admittedly, I hadn't taken that much interest in the Tory party itself, rather its policy announcements as seen in the press.

It seems that my natural antipathy to organised politics actually served me well for once; This Observer's experience of CF in Jockistan frankly beggared belief:

while the Edinburgh South Conservatives have made sure that I know I'm a member and are continually asking me along to campaign days; the Edinburgh CF branch, which as I understand it actually does exist, might as well not.

Since I joined the party in February, I have had precisely nil contact from Conservative Future. Indeed, had I not been an avid reader of political blogs I would not even have known that the organisation exists.

Strangely similar to my own impression of CF, except confirmed by personal experience in this case. I would, at this stage, add how their London branch election was attended by 10 people, of whom 8 attended purely because they were due for re-election into post, but the Tory Bear article about that has vanished into his invisible (and unsearchable) archive.

Further, CF's leading lights don't seem to take much interest in anything except writing personal puff-pieces; have a look at this, which to me reads more like a personal statement of "look how great I am and all the things I make happen" than a genuine enquiry into creating enthusiasm for politics amongst students.

While we're on the CF site, take a look at this article on youth dropout from education, trg or employment. Damn lies and statistics, Labour wrecking the nation, harrumpf harrumpf, yes? Good. Now read it again, but swap the word "Labour" for "Conservative". Doesn't that read uncannily like a press release from Labour HQ?

The article does not attack Labour policy and offer a credible alternative, it attacks Labour purely because they're Labour. This is ad hominem politics of the sort that all Tory bloggers rip to shreds when it originates from the left; why have "we", the Conservative movement, knowingly descended to the level of schoolboy mud-slinging? Are we really that unoriginal that we can't think of a workable alternative by ourselves? Should we really be carrying dead wood that seeks to glorify itself rather than work for the good of the country?