For the Record: CF TV

I had a good run of success with the Conservative Future.com Copywriters team, and when I was elected onto the NME I was given the e-Campaigning portfolio.

After a few unsuccessful tries to improve the website - I had drawn up a list of 42 items to be fixed, only 2 eventually were - it became clear that Central Office were not willing or able to offer us any IT support.

I also knew from researching what was likely to happen with broadband internet - we can expect a steady shift towards online activism as more and more people get online.

On this basis, with no support and a looming gap in our ability to engage our members, I launched CF TV - a multimedia site run by our members. The idea was slow to get off the ground as it is disporportionately labour intensive, but the formula for CF TV matched that of CF.com - recruit a large group of volunteers with relevant skills and organise them in a system that allows each to contribute a little to achieve a lot.

Today CF TV is starting to find it's feet. We have recently finished our first batch of filming and the weekly radio show, though only four weeks old, is improving week on week. Eventually, we hope to have a dynamic media team, that helps in our outreach to an increasingly media savvy generation.

Though filming is currently limited to London, it really is a national effort. Our scriptwriters can email in their scripts, editing is done via email in different parts of the country and best of all, anyone in the world can tune in.

Not bad for something we got totally for free.

Importantly, like the Copywriters and CF Net teams, CF TV is designed eventually to be self-sustaining. All these projects are not dependent solely on me once they are set up, this means all the hard work is not for short term goals (like the events this year), but rather for long term aims.

Caroline was kind enough to give CF TV a plug on her campaign blog, (she still appears with me on the weekly CF Radio show). However, if I'm going to persuade people, whom she and Mark have nabbed months ago, to switch their votes, I have to point out that my one year on the exec has yielded quite a few permanent changes, including big successes like CF TV.

Caroline has had two years - including one as Deputy Chairman, and I think I can match up to anything she can claim as her record.

If I stand a chance of winning this election it will be based on my record, I am happy to measure what I have done for CF against any other candidate.