News

MP SPEAKS AT THE UNIVERSITY

Wednesday 11th February 2004

English Literature with Multimedia Studies student Matthew Sanderson reports on John Bercow's visit to the University:

The Conservative Party is playing a “200-year-old game of catch-up”, according to John Bercow MP in a lecture to the public at the University of Buckingham last month.

Despite the snow, the lecture hall was packed to hear ‘A Message to and for Conservatives: Change is (Still) Our Ally’ in which he called for “change to conserve the best and preserve the rest”.

Bercow, described as a leading moderniser, covered three main issues in his lecture: Conservative policy towards change and the myths which surround it; the importance of change for the party; and suggestions for changes which may return the Conservatives to power.

Bercow suggested that if the “political pendulum” was to swing back in favour of the party, they would have to “aspire to govern the country as it is, and not as it was”. Highlighting the public consensus that the party is “ambivalent to change”, he argued that by not adopting change, the pendulum would never swing back.

Bercow called for; a “convincing message” on international affairs and relations; to “champion trans-Atlantic relations”; promotion of peace in the Israel and Palestine states – issues the party needs to embrace to win back the core of the electorate.

Given the rousing applause he received at the end of his hour-long declaration, it seems his views are acceptable with this strong Conservative seat at least. How closely the rest of the Tory electorate will take them to heart, however, remains to be seen.

Following the lecture, John Bercow kindly gave a short interview to two of the University’s Multimedia Journalism students. Their write-up of the interview is available in PDF format .

jb-interview.pdf (43KB)

Learn more about:

• Concerts and lectures at Buckingham
• Studying journalism at Buckingham

Report by Matthew Sanderson and the Web Team