by Adam Coe and Angus Hill
The York Tories have come under fire from the Conservative Association, bloggers nationwide, and rival political organisations on campus over a series of offensive posters distributed around campus, and a Fox Hunting themed social held last Wednesday.
The most controversial poster shows a picture of David Cameron smiling and pointing his finger with the caption ‘Pay For Your Own Damn Education!’ Many students have seen this as offensive after the recent government decision to increase tuition fees to £9,000.
The national party told Vision that they were “not thrilled” by the actions of their on-campus representatives. The various posters, which treat public spending cuts and university tuition fee rises as a joke, are thought to be part of a satirical advertising campaign for the society.
York Tories Chair Phil Downs released a statement to Vision, saying that they “would like to fully reassure Vision readers that our plan is to continue in our campaign in the spirit of promoting political activism and debate on campus. We hope you are as excited as we are to see our posters on campus.”
The York Tories also attracted raised eyebrows for their fox hunting-themed social last Wednesday, which was advertised alongside such harmless plans as ‘The York Tories go Bowling’ and a ‘Hague-athon’ on a calendar of events distributed at the ReFreshers Fair.
YUSU Academic Affairs Officer Ben Humphrys was reported to emit a shocked and appalled “Oh my God” when he saw the pamphlet. The nature of the ‘Hague-athon’ remains unclear to Vision.
Issues concerning the gender distinction between “girls to dress as foxes… and the boys as hounds or huntsmen” have also been raised. A girl who proposed a gender-role reversal on the Facebook event page was told by a male member to “get back in the kitchen” – a comment which at least two other members ‘liked’.
The event was held in the week that saw the sixth annual anniversary of the fox-hunting ban which two-thirds of Conservative voters and over 75% of the population support. However, resistance to the theme by the wider student body was dismissed by the York Tories as “just the PC crowd,” and “pathetic”.
Vision contacted a Conservative Association chairman-run pressure group, Conservatives Against Fox Hunting, who gave the following statement:
“Hunting wild mammals needs to remain in the past along with other illegal outmoded traditions such as bear- and bull-baiting, and dog- and cock-fighting. The banning of these ‘traditions’ were heavily opposed in their time but nobody would contest them now.”
They continued: “let’s not see a return of hunting with dogs and leave it consigned to history where it belongs.” They did not wish to comment more specifically on Tory representation at the University of York.
Imitation posters parodying the York Tories promotional efforts have already sprung up. An example of one likely to frustrate the party uses a picture of the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne with the caption “They see me cuttin’, they hatin’” – splicing the significant public expenditure cuts initiated by the Chancellor with an allusion to Chamillionare’s 2006 hit, ‘Ridin’.
The national Conservative Party told Vision that “we are obviously not thrilled by these posters, however everybody has a right to a sense of humour.”
Former Labour Club Chair and Labour candidate for Heslington in the upcoming local elections David Levene told Vision:
“Clearly the York Tories think that people getting priced out of higher education and the destruction of our public services is quite funny. So much for “we’re all in it together”.
The posters were published on the “York Tories” Facebook group where most of them still remain.
York Outer is a Conservative constituency.
The chair of York Tories is Jon Ward not Phil Downs
First of all, the York chair is in fact Jon Ward and not Phil Downs.
Secondly, as the York Tories events officer the theme of fox and hound has been done by other societies on campus and in no way said that we condone fox hunting, polo to name just one who did it at the beginning of the first semester, and in actual fact one of the boys came as a fox.
Thirdly, in regard to the get back in the kitchen comment which was in actual fact liked by 2 of the girls on the committee.
The kitchen comment has been taken out of context, it was meant as jest, the original comment was
“, what are you doing on facebook, shouldnt you be in the kitchen :p”
A hilariously bad article. It doesn’t know who the chairman of York Tories even is, makes no reference to any actual posters other than one which appeared briefly on the facebook group before being taken down, refers to attacks from “bloggers nationwide” without naming any of them, quotes some polling statistic on fox-hunting as a fact, without so much as referencing where it came from (a case of ‘90% of statistics are made up’ syndrome?)…its authors evidently made no effort (say – looking at the facebook group?) to find out what a Hagueathon is, ignores the fact that it was the York Tories girls who wanted the social, did most of the dressing up, and liked the kitchen comment; and, it re-uses the same Central Office quote twice, giving it its context the second time (not enough to say?), which clearly makes a nonsense of the initial claim that York Tories has come “under fire” from CCHQ. I’m sure Phil’s pleased with his promotion though!
A bunch of wining comments from sore Torys who don’t like to admit they’ve embarrased themselves.
Just becasue a woman likes something which degrades women doesn’t make it right. Classic “some of my friends are working women” ignorant line. The context commenter 2 refers to doesn’t make the comment any better.
Bloggers: Political Scrapbook and Labour Uncut both covered it, as well as a few others I forget the names of.
Using the same quote twice… so? That is really clutching at straws to find something to complain about.
Also the “parody” poster ““They see me cuttin’, they hatin’”” you mention was actually created by a member of the York Tories
To Mr Blackburn: I don’t see what’s so embarassing about any of this. I personally wasn’t overkeen on some of the posters, but ’embarassed’?…I’m quite happy to give my name as Iain Milne, 3rd year History, holding the unimportant position of Hon. Vice Chair, and I am certainly happy to be associated with the fox hunting social, though I didn’t dress up for it.
You have managed to come up with a grand total of 2 very definitely left-wing blogs who picked up on this. I would still suggest that the “bloggers nationwide” is a tad hyperbolic.
The point about “same quote twice” was not so much its overuse (that was a cheap shot for my own amusement) but that the context given in the second case made a mockery of the use of the phrase “under fire”. It reminded me of a criticism of the same practice by the Daily Mail, made in Private Eye a couple of years back.
The fact that it was a group of girls who wanted to do a social on those lines does not prove one way or another that it was a good or bad thing – correct. But it seems to me to put things in a somewhat different light; I am thinking in particular of the loony feminists who evidently couldn’t believe that the social was being organised and advertised by mysoginistic males (there was a bit of arguing on twitter about this on the night). And I don’t see that the parallel with the “I know some of x people” is particularly relevant…
*rather, couldn’t believe that it ‘wasn’t’. Typo.
Incidentally, evidence of attendees and relative enthusiasm of male and female parties for the social is available in the form of facebook pictures.
Also bemusing that people have given a heavy ‘minus’ rating to a post merely asserting that the chairman of York Tories is Jon Ward, not Phil Downs (who is, in fact, an Ordinary Officer). Do you not believe us, or what?
As the longest serving current York Tory, I would like to thank Vision for publishing this article. Apart from a few errors, it’s highly amusing and provides the York Tories with free publicity.
The left can spin the posters whatever they want; it merely shows that some of them have no sense of humour.
More of this please!
Let’s see if my comment can break a record for minus votes; shouldn’t you lefties be reading your Communist Manifestos? :P
@Chris Etheridge
Shouldn’t you be running a satirical campaign for YUSU? With jokes like that, it would have been hilarious.
A hilarious series of posters; which, thanks to this article and Vision, many more people can enjoy!
In all seriousness, if you don’t find this lighthearted political expression funny then I worry. This was an example of the society pastiching itself, someone members and non-members can appreciate alike.
Top ‘Marx’ for your response; but I think YatterBox has been keeping me sufficiently busy!
Believe it or not Chris, you are not the longest serving YorkTory.
I think when David Cameron talked about ‘Cameron Direct’ I don’t think he meant for activists to be this DIRECT with voters about their intent and opinion. Especially given the nature of those opinions.
The heavy minus ratings on these comments are not coming from lefty trots who subscribe to Marx they are coming from ordinary people who show disapproval of a seemingly uncaring and bizarre attitude of York Tory Club members in incredibly difficult times. Moreover I am sure a lot of these minuses are your own party members who disapprove of the damage these posters have caused to the conservative party.
Oh please, apart from a few miserable lefties like Levene and Angus I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t find the posters piss-funny. They reflect how we Tories think everyone else views us and are intended with good humour.
Anyone who isn’t a sad-sack can view the rest of them here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150135037675733&set=o.2204154909&theater
Same applies to the Fox Hunting social, it’s all jokes guys! Politics shouldn’t have be be deathly serious all the time. Would it kill Levene to crack a smile once in a while?
Oh my God. Who cares? Students had fun. Alert the media… oh wait… David Levene already did… amazing just how low he will go to get a cheap shot at people harmlessly enjoying themselves. Also, why can’t women be in the kitchen? That, my friend, is discrimination… women shouldn’t be banned from anywhere… shame on you.
Fox Hunting Social = standard. If Labour had done it, you’d all gleefully join in.
I’d like to concur with the above poster about what constitutes the real issue here. Those who disagree with these posters aren’t Marxists from the loony left communist socialist party, and other such clichés the Tory party start spouting when anyone dares to disagree. There are people out there whose family and friends are losing their jobs, and are genuinely concerned about the cuts that are taking place. These posters mocked that concern and confirmed the usual stereotypes about the Tory party itself, mainly that there uncaring and out of touch with ordinary people. You could argue that people need to get a sense of humour, but these posters were clearly designed to annoy people and give the York Conservative party some publicity for whatever reason. Basically it’s the old mentality of “we are better than you”, which unfortunately is the Tory party image that has never disappeared.
However, pointing out the fox hunting social seems a bit pointless, as there are many societies who have done this social and frankly a lot worse. The sexist jokes on face book are part of everyday banter, and we’re kidding ourselves is we think its only the Conservative society who have ever done this. This part of the article could have been written about any society and dismissed as political correctness, but as it’s the Tory party everyone considers it be far worse.
-50 on one of my comments? Come on guys, you can do better than that!:P
It’s interesting how of the five posters that were actually displayed around campus, only 1 has actually gained a mention. Who that actually saw all 5 was offended by them? Or have some of you just read the article and immediately reacted?
Am I the only one that finds the posters funny? (as I assume they were intended to be). Why to silly people blow things so far out of proportion?
Just to say, I did find the posters funny, but because they were either very cringey or were totally counterproductive. The York Tories seem to have a record of shooting themselves in the foot – this does make me smile.
I think the “Pay for your own damn education” one is actually rather revealing in terms of how the Tories think – which was why I thought it might be of interest to the media. I wasn’t offended.
Also, Angus is a leftie?! Angus is a friend and I respect his opinions, but have you actually read any of his blog articles?!