Breakaway Groups and Re-mergers
Julian Critchley described OUCA on his arrival at Pembroke in 1951 – despite its 2,000 members, "It was dominated by a patrician clique who preserved their power by preventing the membership at large from electing officers of the Association. These were chosen by the Committee which, although directly elected, was easily open to manipulation." – Critchley and Michael Heseltine, defeated in their bids for OUCA office, set up a rival Conservative society, the Blue Ribbon Club.
In 1965 a group of OUCA members formed the Oxford University Tory Reform Group, pre-dating the national Tory Reform Group organisation. The OUTRG acted as a One Nation Conservative pressure group in Oxford, although had a substantially smaller membership than OUCA. However due to decline in interest, the national Party's shift towards a more moderate conservatism, and the decline of faction in OUCA the OUTRG voted to disband and merge with OUCA during Michaelmas term 2007.
In an email to OUTRG members, its President Luke Connoly reported that an extraordinary general meeting held at the Lamb and Flag public house at 3pm on 18 November 2008 unanimously voted to dissolve the OUTRG as of midday Saturday 8th week (1 December 2007) and to merge with OCA. He cited falling attendance and a belief that OUCA had "genuinely become more liberal". He added that "Being a broad political society as it is, and containing all wings of conservative political thought as it does, there will always be OUCA members to the ‘right’ of the political spectrum, but there will also always be OCA members on the TRG side of the political spectrum. Being as they will be now within one organisation, it will make debate between wings of the party much easier and more productive."
Later in the year, Douglas Hurd, a patron of the national TRG move lamented the disbanding of the Oxford Branch, saying that "Is very important that the One Nation view is powerfully represented."
Read more about this topic: Oxford Conservative Association
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