About

How we came about and who we are

ConservativeIntelligence.com formed in June 2009, with an election looming there was high demand for good quality information and intelligence on the Conservative Party. The team behind the highly regarded ConservativeHome.com felt they were in a position to provide the best possible profiles, insights and policy analysis on the Conservative Party, it grew from there.

The Team

The Director of ConservativeIntelligence is Tim Montgomerie. A former Chief of Staff to Iain Duncan Smith and co-founder of the Centre for social Justice, he launched ConservativeHome in 2005. Tim’s key areas of expertise are the economy, compassionate conservatism, the Big Society, US politics and foreign affairs.

Paul Goodman was MP for Wycombe from 2001 until 2010, when he chose to step down. During his time as an MP he served on the Work and Pensions, Treasury and Local Government frontbench teams. A former Comment Editor of The Telegraph his specialist areas of interest include local government, community cohesion, public service reform, security and Parliament.

ConservativeIntelligence.com through a weekly intelligence letter includes: The Leading Article; which includes commentaries on major policy areas or strategic choices facing the party and government and the Essential Reading List; a selection of stories and articles that are ‘must reads’ for any person wanting to understand the Conservative Party. A subscriber to ConservativeIntelligence.com will not miss anything important. We also have on our members only section of the Conintel website Political Profiles; a detailed profile of key movers and shakers within the Conservative Party, including government advisers, MP’s and outside influencers.

ConservativeIntelligence.com can do this because the team behind it are – not to put too fine a point on it – obsessive about the Conservative Party. The editorial team, headed by Tim Montgomerie (Director of CI), has been running ConservativeHome.com for the last four years. They get up at 6.00am each and every day to ensure, that three hours later, the website is a daily must-read for MPs, journalists and Tory grassroots members. The CI team knows every member of the shadow cabinet, every parliamentary candidate, every leading member of the Conservative machine.

With ConservativeIntelligence.com, the ConservativeHome team supported by account managers and researchers will translate this unrivalled knowledge into products that will be useful for anyone interested in understanding the Conservative Party and the Conservative government.

For more information on the work we do or to sign up to become a member please email contact@conservativeintelligence.com.

From the Conservative Intelligence member's site

The Politics Of Terror – Cameron’s Reaction To Woolwich

The Woolwich atrocity requires a political response which David Cameron is well-fitted to provide. As the Prime Minister observed when he spoke in a wind-swept Downing Street: “The people who did this were trying to divide us.” The murderers of Drummer Lee Rigby announced that they wished to “start a war”. Cameron’s task is to [...]

A Managed Break-Up Of The Coalition?

In September 2014, the party conference season will be a few weeks away, and the general election only six months distant – assuming, of course, that this Parliament is still sitting: the Fixed Terms Parliament Act makes it very likely that this will be the case. Let us also suppose that this Coalition Government is [...]

A Good Week For The Backbenches

Unsurprisingly, the run-up to the Queen’s Speech was dominated by analysis and debate spurred by the local election results. Everyone expected more robust language on the EU issue from senior Conservatives as a form of reputational first aid to staunch the wounds inflicted by Nigel Farage. Few would have predicted Lord Lawson’s decision to announce [...]

The Issue Blighting Cameron’s Prospect Is Nationhood

As I write these words, many of the local election results are not yet in, but already it is obvious that UKIP has triumphed. It has done so because it conveys a sense of British patriotism none of the conventional parties can match. John Bull would far rather drink a pint of beer with Nigel [...]

The View From CCHQ

I was very heavily briefed by senior sources from Downing Street yesterday, and the result can be seen on ConservativeHome this morning. One of the three big claims made by Number 10 is that it senses “a bit of a feel of ’91” – the year before John Major’s surprise election victory against the odds. [...]

Why Merkel Needs Cameron: Their Alliance Of Convenience

Margaret Thatcher is dead, yet the House of Commons is more Thatcherite than it has ever been. She inspired many members of the exceptionally gifted 2010 Tory intake to go into politics. Like her, these new MPs believe in the nation state – the belief which precipitated her downfall in 1990, by which time her [...]

The Reason Why Cameron Steered Clear Of This Week’s Welfare Scrap

Tim Montgomerie suggested earlier this week that David Cameron should lead from the front on welfare reform – that he should, perhaps, visit a family in smaller accommodation than they need, in order to make the point that housing benefit shouldn’t support other people in larger accommodation than they need. Instead, this week’s leading from [...]

Did The Budget Do Enough To See Off The Anti-Cameron Plotters?

In 2011-12, Britain’s deficit was £121 billion. This year, the Office for Budget Responsibility says that it will be £85 billion – the figure that George Osborne uses to support his claim that the deficit has fallen by over a quarter. But that £85 billion figure isn’t the only one that the OBR cites. It [...]

To Date, Cameron Has Been Able To Rely On The Loyalty Of His Cabinet. The Significance Of This Week’s Events Is That It Can Longer Be Taken For Granted.

I have rarely known a stranger week in the Westminster Village. It began with speculation about whether Theresa May had broken ranks with Downing Street that she had briefed the Mail on Sunday that she wants Britain out of the ECHR…and with speculation that Philip Hammond had also cut loose from Downing Street by arguing [...]

No, Eastleigh Isn’t Just Another By-Election. It Shows How The Odds Are Stacked Against Cameron For 2015.

Let’s stand back from the micro-detail of yesterday’s Eastleigh by-election result – such as the role of the candidates or the parties’ campaign machines – look at the macro-picture, and ask ourselves what light it casts, if any, on the likely outcome of the next election. David Cameron has two means of gaining the majority [...]

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