Passing of a Very Good Friend…

Politics in the UK lost one of its most beloved warriors today, my friend Alan Cleverly. My last conversation with him was just a couple of weeks ago, when I offered to take him to mass that Sunday, but he said he just didn’t have the strength. He lived every day to the max of an amazing life. He’s the only person I’ve ever know who could walk into the Prime Minster’s office without an appointment, and am sure I probably won’t meet another like him…  He never asked “why” on anything, it was only ever “why not”… Why not try this new thing? Why not go and knock on those doors? Why not propose the things that matter? Always, why not??? He stood behind all of us, and his spirit lives on…

Early on my nickname for him was the “dinosaur”, because he was such a dinosaur on technology. It was our on-going joke for all of the last 7 years. Fortunately he had Christine and the Jackie to sort him out. But that aside, he allowed me all the freedom I ever wanted in building the association’s web site and social media presence. The results? We were just rated as having the best web and social media presence of any association in Surrey. He backed the requirements for all candidates to have Facebook pages and participate in social media. He saw the future and embraced it for the association.

It has been amazing to have been brought into the Conservative Party by someone who actually knew Margaret Thatcher, and shared all of her ideas and ideology. The Conservative ideal is actually now stronger than ever, Alan made a lot of that happen. The whole country now knows the shocking devastation that 12 years of Labour caused, hopefully that will never happen again… 

Whenever you went into Curzon House, you had a drink pressed into your hand, his hospitality was legendary. He came to mass on Sunday evenings because he knew I was often the coordinator, and there was always the bear hug whenever he arrived. His generosity to the church was unbounded, last year,he brokered a huge donation to the Phillipino Community at Our Lady Queen of Heaven.  Here’s Alan standing behind (as usual) everyone:  

Rest in peace my friend, you are always with us…

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