CANDIDATE SELECTION: A NEW DAWN? (SPOILER ALERT: NO)
Firstly, the ‘high level objectives’ state ‘Our aim is to win the next General Election’. Great. My aim is to win the women’s 100 metres at the next Olympics. I am going to spend time producing a plan based on that outcome and I will commit myself to following it. That’ll do it, right?
Well no, it won’t. Guests to my home will not be finding an Olympic gold medal proudly displayed in my downstairs loo, ever. For any plan to be taken seriously, it has to be realistic. Just as I would do better to set my sights on a bit of jogging and a Parkrun, these proposals need to start from a place of realism to be trusted. How about a stated aim to ‘produce an approved list of excellent prospective Conservative candidates’. After all, this has to happen before we can get anywhere close to winning a general election.
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING: BOLD SWASHBUCKLING REQUIRED.
In the aftermath of the General Election of 2024, the Conservative Party was urged to use its time in opposition wisely. Well, the proof is in the pudding. Predictably, last week’s local elections were a bloodbath. Good and hardworking Conservative councillors across...
THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY: THE QUESTIONS WE NEED TO ANSWER
As we enter the week of the first big political test since the disastrous general election of 2024, it seems clear that both Reform and the Lib Dems are going to profit from the electorate’s frustration with both the Conservative opposition and the Labour government....
Joanna has been Chair of Holborn and St Pancras Conservative Association since 2020, guiding the Association through Covid and out the other side, opposing the Leader of the Opposition and now the Prime Minister.
She ran to become Chair of the National Conservative Convention in 2024, receiving attention and coverage from the press due to her bold and outspoken campaign.
She stood for Parliament in the 2024 General Election, in Hackney South and Shoreditch.
Joanna is Chair of the Macmillan Cancer Support Annual Ball, now raising over £500k each year at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Joanna founded and chairs Conservative Friends of Neurodiversity and is Director of the Fellowship of Conservative Friends of Education.
Joanna is a member of the committee of the United and Cecil Club (a major Conservative fundraising group). She is a member of the Carlton Club.
Having graduated in Modern Languages and History from St Catharine’s College Cambridge Joanna took a PGCE at St Hilda’s College Oxford. She has been Chair of the St Catharine’s College Cambridge Alumni Society.
Joanna is a former teacher of Modern Languages. She has been been married to Martin since 1995 and they have two sons in their early twenties.