A vision for the conservative movement

Before 18 Doughty Street became a non-partisan internet-based political television channel, the vision was that that building would house the smaller organisations that comprise the conservative movement. For while the likes of the Adam Smith Institute, Policy Exchange, TaxPayers' Alliance and the Institute of Economic Affairs are sufficiently well-resourced to own or lease buildings of their own, a host of smaller organisations struggle to make ends meet. The likes of the Bruges Group, the Henry Jackson Society, the Young Britons' Foundation, the New Culture Forum, Conservative Way Forward and so on operate on far tighter budgets, precluding them from having office space in London which, in turn, limits their effectiveness at promoting the agendas that they may have.

18 Doughty Street was to have seen many of these organisations sharing office space, thereby freeing up those organisations to spend more of their resources undertaking their valuable work from a Central London base. Also in the building, of course, was a television studio and editing suite that would have allowed those organisations, and the larger ones, to conceive, record, edit and upload video materials to the internet so as to better promote the conservative message to a wider audience.

Alas that vision of 18 Doughty Street perished even before it began, only to be replaced by a live-broadcast and on-demand non-partisan internet-based political television channel which, as we know, unfortunately folded in November 2007.

The need for the conservative movement to have a base, however, has not gone away. In a paper that I am publishing next month, I argue that the dozens of organisations that together comprise the conservative movement should actively consider pooling their resources - while retaining their operational independence and distinctive agenda.

Those organisations would look at persuading, say, a total of 20 supporters to donate £100,000 each - but in an innovative and attractive way. Instead of those donors simply writing a cheque for £100,000 to an organisation of their choice, they would subscribe for shares in a property management company (structured tax-efficiently so as to mitigate any subsequent liability to capital gains tax). 20 donations of £100,000 each would yield £2m, comfortably enough to buy outright a building similar to 18 Doughty Street and to redecorate it and to fit it out with office equipment, a television studio and editing equipment. Indeed the donors would not necessarily need to part with £100,000 in cash: they could donate £25,000 in cash and borrow the rest from a mortgage lender. Their investment could be clawed back at any time on, say, three to six months' notice (so that that investor's share could then be offered to another investor). Each donor would be invited to forgo the 5% rental yield that their £100,000 investment would ordinarily generate such that they would be donating £5,000 or so each year to the conservative movement - a far more attractive proposition to a donor than simply asking for, say, £50,000 or £100,000 as an outright gift.

Imagine what the conservative movement could do with a building of its own. Imagine a base with bedroom accommodation for up to 10 fresh-faced, eager and inexpensive interns, desperate to work for one of the think-tanks or campaign groups based in the building. Imagine the buzz generated by a dozen or so organisations, collaborating in close proximity, sharing ideas and brainstorming together to advance freedom. Imagine the creative output that could be generated on the internet by using a Doughty Street-style studio and editing suite to produce campaign videos or short clips for YouTube. This is a bold vision but an achievable one. I already have three individuals who have pledged to come on board and I know that some comrades-in-arms are keen to explore this concept further too.

With a general election less than two years away and with property prices falling, now is surely the time to consider a visionary idea such as this. As I have said time and time again, the Conservative Party alone cannot win the next election: a broad-based, vibrant conservative movement needs to play its part too. And based in one building, the organisations that comprise that movement can help propel the Party to power and our ideas into being enacted.