It's Not Who You Are But Who You Know (Part 735)
The decision by the Conservative party to make Boris Johnson's slightly cleverer brother the PPC for Orpington has been noted in some quarters as a classic case of Tory cronyism. The fact that he beat the daughter of a former Conservative MP doesn't prove or disprove this theory. What I find annoying and slightly worrying is that the Beckenham Conservative Executive had previously stated that it would be ideal if the candidate were local and then decided that none of the local candidates were good enough. If you look at the list I would have said that they were all qualified both in terms of their residence and their political experience.
There is disquiet in the area about the choice of candidate having no local knowledge. I have taken an interest in the story for two reasons, firstly it's where my sister in-law lives but secondly it's because I have long been a passionate believer in local politicians for local people. By outsourcing the candidature it shows a complete disregard for the wishes of the local people and also shows that politics is finally cutting the last bit of the umbilical cord that connected MP's to their constituencies and showing that it's now a profession where the title of MP matters more than the name of the constituency that it precedes when your name appears on Question Time. This is not just a dig at the Conservative Party but at all parties where 'jobs for the boys' is part of the culture.
I'm not quite sure where this sits with David Cameron's vision of local government but he clearly should have gone to Specsavers and it seems to me to be another reason why the gap in the polls between Conservative and Labour for next years GE is closing by the day.
4 comments:
We know about this sort of thing round here. In the run up to the 2001 General Election the South Shields Labour Party had, as I understand it, chosen their candidate when HQ decided that a certain Mr D Milliband should be the candidate instead. The rest is...
If you're under the impression that South Shields is one of those places where any Labour candidate would be elected then you're right.
I know Shy, as I said it happens with all parties and is wrong.
I posted this about two hours before the news came through that the Conservatives have increased their lead PBR but I didn't want to change the last paragraph.
I couldn't agree more! I was about to say i couldn't agree more EXCEPT about the polls but you've beaten me to it!
There is something about a candidate that has been brought up on local stories, knows who and what the local press are like, knows the park that shouldn't be built on, the hospital problems (or not), the bad areas, the best streets, what the local chippies are like (well not if they're like you ;-)...) etc.
Many, many years ago and friend and I had this idea for a book on fish and chip shops based on our experiences. Then, watching Parkinson one night, Eric Morecambe said he was going to write one and the idea died.
My local chippie is great, run by an Iranian family from Stockholm!
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