By Alex Clarke (Chairman EECF)
This month’s event looked so difficult, following on the heels of such a good speaker, Allan Sykes who had receive such applause – but the person who came was more than up to the challenge; delivering a speech light in tone but never failing to land to full force and import of its content, James Arbuthnot more than lived up to his status as one of the best speakers of his generation.
The 20 minute talk he gave managed to cover all areas, ranging from procurement to tragedy, from strategy to success; but it was in the Question and Answers after this that his abilities and the real measure of him was found. Answering questions on such a complicated issues as defence, international relations and security; to an audience some of whom were 15, and some of whom were a lot older, whilst managing to keep all interested and interacting is a feat which many speakers never achieve, but which James pulled off with great aplomb.
As Chairman of the Epsom and Ewell Conservative Future I was very proud of my members who kept up with such a speaker and provided a very thought provoking and encompassing range of questions. They were veritable proof of my own belief that the derisive portrayal of the younger generation as an uninformed uninterested mass is not only wrong and misleading, but is something which actually puts up barriers to those same people getting involved.
The discussions which took place after James left with warm thanks and appreciation, further confirmed this as all ages not only took part equally in discussion but were the equals in the discussion. On a personal note I would say that it is evenings like this which make the efforts of myself and the committee worthwhile.
All who attended voted a huge amount thanks to James for coming and speaking so brilliantly– and all confirmed their wish to attend the next event at which Chris Grayling (Shadow Home Secretary) speaking and taking questions on all aspects of Conservative party policy; this event will be returning to its usual day, Friday, but will be Friday the 4th of December, at the usual venue, the Epsom Conservative Club.
However, the next events chronologically for the EECF are canvasses – we have training canvasses on the 31st of October and 21st of November 2009, we are in Epsom High Street and Kiln Lane Sainsbury’s on the 7th and 28th of November 2009, and we are in Ashtead High street on the 14th November 2009. All of these events are featured in greater detail on our Facebook page; so please come and have a look or e-mail office@epsomconservatives.com for a full list of events and literature.
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