POLITICS: Another one [UPDATED!]
Who’d have thought there were so many women in the Tory party?
I feel soiled just writing this
If you want uplift don't read this, become a Buddhist. If the brilliance of the people getting through to the finals is anything to go by IDS would be better off sitting in a darkened room and going Om.
This week's report from the slough of despond brings news from Cheltenham. The 180 members present chose Vanessa Gearson, 35, the recently appointed office manager of IDS, as their candidate. Dr Gearson — for she has a PhD — is a jolly hockeysticks type, a Barnet councillor, and a former secretary to David Davis and the elegant James Gray. She beat Elizabeth Eyre, a Worcestershire county councillor and Julie Girling (a Gloucestershire county councillor). How Dr G will be able to nurse the burghers of Cheltenham and service Captain Duncan Smith's paperclip needs beats me. Dr Gearson's victory does not make my cold heart leap. She says 'We campaigned on Europe, asylum seekers and tax at the last election. Look what happened. These were our obsessions, not the voters'. Cue yet another signatory to the notion that we have to become soggy and centrist to win. Nonetheless she brings the total number of women selected to seven, compared to four in the same set of seats at the last general election. That's seven out of 32 according to my figures. Indeed, history of sorts was made. Trend-setting Cheltenham — the seat, a decade ago, with wisdom sufficient to choose the now, er, ennobled John Taylor — has the dubious honour of being the party's first all-women shortlist. And gosh, a middle class gel, and CCO staffer to boot, is the result: radical dude!
And more from that jewel, Hornchurch, set in the glittering tiara that is Havering. James Brokenshire, a wibbly-wobbly young City lawyer has been selected. He beat Gareth Johnson (Lewisham West 2001), a small, perfectly pleasant if underwhelming right-winger who was active in the IDS leadership campaign, and Graham Postles, who stood as mayoral candidate in Newham this year and is regarded as being a leftie. Mike Penning, the burly CCO press spokesman, is believed to have applied and sunk without trace. Much as Michael Howard's press flack, Bob Seeley, did at Shipley.
Shipley, vacated by David Senior, has divulged its secrets to me, and so let's listen as I rasp out the final three. George Lee (Rossendale & Darwen 2001) — a finalist at Lancaster & Wyre and the National Director of the Road Safety Markings Association is one; Philip Allott (Brent North 2001) is also in the running. Is this the same Mr Allott who at the 1992 conference demanded that Britain ought to go back into the ERM and attacked the then chancellor Norman Lamont? One hopes not - there are limits to federasty after all. Let's not forget young Philip Davies (Colne Valley 2001) who can be reached c/o Asda House. Mr Davies, an Asda manager, is a polar opposite of Archie Norman. He too at a Tory conference applauded Saudi justice and could see little wrong in that morally bankrupt, corrupt little dictatorship executing a couple of Dundee women. Mr Davies supported IDS. Then there were two local candidates who were knocked out: Juliette Kinsey, a Bingley councillor, and Simon Cooke, deputy leader of the Conservatives on Bradford Council. Mr Cooke, a marketing consultant, stands on the sweetly reasonable wing of the party. Mr Cooke may have another go at Keighley, which he fought in 2001. I hear he will be up against another two local councillors - Kris Hopkins and Andrew Mallinson. Mr Hopkins (Leeds West 2001), is a 38-year-old lecturer and Mr Mallinson, 41, runs an auto-electrical business along with Glen Miller, another councillor whose exclusion from the list has caused a certain amount of disquiet in some quarters. Things are fractious in West Yorkshire and getting worse by the week. Good 'ole CCO man management.
Last but not least whispers from Newbury. Richard Benyon, beloved of the local racing community, who has fought the seat twice before may not be having another attempt. His involvement with the Newbury Show committee means that he would not easily be able to go for the candidature if the association wants to select now. Some sad and well publicised marital problems may not make him eager to re-enter the fray anyway. Eagerly waiting in the wings is Susie Kemp, the leader of the Tory group on the council, who my mole describes as a 'mildly ineffective fourth form prefect'. Don't believe it, this is the modern new caring Conservative party we are talking about. Sometimes I think we've hardly enough seats for all our excellent women.
Support your neighbourhood reptile
Blah, blah, blah, email me email me. Go on, you know you want to.
— The Snake
selected Tory PPCs
CandidateWatch archive
CandidateWatch, September 28, 2002 11:42 PM