Simon Jenkins backs up Lord Tebbit's call to allow constituency associations much greater power to reject Cameron's impositions...and that includes footballers, rowers, cricketers and girls who write his speeches and drive ice cream vans.....
In other words a local candidate who knows every inch of the constituency....well, that can only be one person!
You can read Jenkins's wise words HERE
Yes, Victoria Borwick!
ReplyDeleteExcellent article. To read it, click on the headline above the photo.
ReplyDeleteSimon Jenkins very clearly gets it. We all get it. The scandal is that voters are powerless in this situation. All any of us can do is hope Tory high command also gets it. In this Rotten Borough, they not we, choose our MP.
Democracy! What democracy?
No, as The Dame says click on HERE to read
DeleteTwo major voices from the world of affairs, in two days, telling Cameron to sod off. Even he must be taking notice. Tebbit and Jenkins are not people to be trifled with. They come back and bite.
ReplyDeleteThe signs are that Central Office is getting the jitters with the selection of a short list to be the next MP for Kensington. Last week at the Conservative Association AGM a packed hall was told that Central Office had ordered all applications for the vacant seat to submitted by Tuesday 3rd March to the Central Office. No diversions and nuisance to be tolerated from the constituency. No doubt the short list had already been decided and like so many recent selections HQ was "going through the motions to tranquilize the muppets".
But strangely we learn that the deadline has been extended by two days to 5th March. Could it be that recruits are being drafted in to actually read the applications? Perish the thought
Thank goodness for the media. It is the only thing that politicians listen to. They are afraid to look foolish. What a pity that the Kensington Conservative Association does not have the courage to stand up for itself and its members
ReplyDeleteThe tectonic plates of local politics are shifting. Central Office is nervous. After decades of democratic deficit, voiceless local residents have a champion in the Dame, as well as a means of communicating with each other. Cracks are visible in the previously solid edifice of local political power. Pooter's departure at this precise moment is no coincidence. We watch, wait and keep up the debate.
ReplyDeleteWonder if we are to get another grovelling letter lamenting Pooter's parting from the Ruling Party's great supporter, Labour's Councillor Blakeman:
ReplyDeletehttp://fromthehornetsnest.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/cllr-blakeman-fawns.html
Central Office has good reason to be nervous. Local people have made it abundantly clear that they want the experienced and local Victoria Borwick as their Conservative candidate and inevitably,their next MP.
ReplyDeleteSome voters have serious doubts about her, but unlike the proposed carpetbaggers, she's locally well known and popular. For better or worse, In a democracy voters choose their representative via the ballot box. It's outrageous that, behind closed doors, a clique of Old Etonians believes it can ride roughshod over residents' rights, to select Kensington's next MP.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind is now the Independent MP for Kensington. He should consider standing at the General Election as UKIP candidate for Kensington. In the current mood, he could win the seat.
ReplyDeletePreferable to a footballer, an Olympic rower, the PM's speech writer, or the Chancellor's researcher
What about the Duke's son in law?
ReplyDeleteDan Snow is also a million miles away from a public service person. He is building a broadcasting career. Frequently needs to work abroad. Could not manage voting in the Commons. But his wife? A Duke's daughter! Now that would go down well. Very well indeed. Kensington garden parties have not seen one of those for a while
DeleteMaybe Councillor Palmer is dusting off his cv
ReplyDeleteKensington is not a seat that "is in the gift of Central Office". Those days are past.
ReplyDelete