POLITICS: 'Such dear, mad, foolish brave boys'
They're doing it for the vulnerable
Unfinished business
Carshalton & Wallington has reselected Dr Ken Andrew (Downhill School, Tottenham & University College, Wales) to be its candidate. A businessman (Chairman of the St James Business Group which invests in property in the Far East) and staunch Thatcherite he has defied the iron-law that militates against those of oak-like maturity. Dr Andrew is a respectable 57, second only to Northampton South's Brian Binley, a splendid 60. Since the mantra is that we need to select people more reflective of our (ageing) country as a whole we need to see more people like Mr Binley and Dr Andrew getting through rather than smooth-faced poppets. Human nature being so, there is the added bonus that the older you get the less biddable you become.
And at last . . . Brooks Newmark (Bedford School), an over-tanned American-born Harvard-educated capitalist has been reselected for Braintree. Despite being an Oxford chum of Mr Hague's, he was a Portillo supporter. So by my reckoning thirty PPCs are now in place.
Après Barclay
Some news from Lancaster & Wyre. A list of the final five up for selection has come into my armless possession. The best known is Ben Wallace, an MSP who won on the North East Scotland list. The 32-year-old former Scots Guards captain (the same regiment, as it happens, as the dear leader — and known for favouring skiing over scholasticism), educated at Millfield and then Sandhurst, has irritated many in the Scots rank-and-file, because of his open ambition to leave Holyrood and seek fertile pastures among the Sassenachs. He was mentioned in dispatches during two tours of Ulster and seems to be at the very least quotable and a touch dashing. His copybook, however, is blotted in my expressionless eyes — he was Mr Portillo's campaign-manager in Scotland despite looking like a pink-faced parliamentarian from the pre-Woolton era. Paul Carter (Bolton South East 1997), is on the Clarkeite One Nation wing and is described to me as a thoughtful chap (grammar school, then the Universities of Manchester, London and Cambridge) who says things that are worth listening to; Tobias Ellwood (Worsley 2001) has the sort of Sunday evening Beeb costume drama look that might go down well. Educated at Loughborough University, he was a Captain in the Green Jackets and is a Hertfordshire councillor active in the Bow Group (oh dear, that sets off my hack-o-meter); Matthew Palmer (Durham North 2001) is like a novelty-tie: not to everyone's taste. Mr Palmer is a loud, colourful right-winger, educated at Greenwich University, who describes himself as a journalist. Some acid-tongued types have suggested that he causes outbreaks of 'corridor swerve'. The fifth (but not least) is George Lee (Rossendale & Darwen), alumni of the Paisley College of Technology, an ex-party agent and National Director of the Road Safety Markings Association (well, I never).
At Dorset South, Ian Bruce, its former MP, fell at the first selection meeting. There are three runners for the prize. IDS 1st ballot supporter Ed Matts (Oxford W & Abingdon, 2001), leader of Mendip Council and a financier: a natural front runner, he's already been a finalist for Guildford, and Somerton & Frome. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he is an Anglican of Anglo-Catholic persuasion who lost his wife to cancer two years ago. Up against him is Charles Walker (Ealing North, 2001), a Wandsworth councillor and company director married to Fiona, a former secretary of IDS. The last of the troika is flappable Joanna Richardson (St Ives 2001), a soon to be ex-adviser to David Lidington, who was educated at Stoodley Knowle Convent School and Sunderland Poly.
TTFN
Lots still in the locker, but I'll be doling this out in judicious fashion — we don't want Trish to suffer from information overload. There's only one way I can do all this, and it's because of my sinister intelligence, for which, as ever, thankssss. One other thing actually, I was sorry to read that Dominic Cummings has no interest in a Tory seat, when I'm sure he would have proved an irresistable prospect for any selection committee, but perhaps it's better that way for all concerned.
— The Snake
selected Tory PPCs
CandidateWatch archive
CandidateWatch, September 23, 2002 11:55 PM