POLITICS: Lock up your daughters
The Candidates’ Department is in town
August slumbers have now come to an end; and it's back to the fray for your cold-blooded friend. September sees an embarrassment of riches as a good number of associations are selecting their champions. So here - in no particular order of importance - are the seats that are due to select this month.
The puckish Portillo-supporter David Senior has vacated Shipley for more promising pastures. The long short list of thirteen has been selected (11 boys, 2 of the other kind), but the smart Yorkshire money is on either young right-winger Philip Davies (Colne Valley in 2001) or Simon Cooke, deputy leader of the Conservatives on Bradford Council and candidate in Keighley in 2001. Surprise omissions include ex-candidates Simon Mallett, David Nuttall and Robert Wilson. Hemel Hempstead is likely to reselect the talented Dr Paul Ivey, who remains popular with the association. The Wrekin is due to select soon - if they have a sense of destiny they should reselect the Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg, the fiercely bright and independent-minded son of the ex-Times editor who has a well-developed sense of the absurd: a necessary attribute for a traditional conservative in these dark modernising days. Accident-prone right-winger, the exuberant Christian Sweeting, who was nominated for the list by co-religionist Ann Widdecombe, is thought to be wanting to have another tilt at Torbay. Will Cheltenham reselect Rob Garnham, a leading local councillor? Ken Andrew, who is now well into his 50s, may well vacate Carshalton & Wallington. Square-jawed Steve Barclay, I have heard, has withdrawn from seeking Lancaster & Wyre's nomination for a jewel elsewhere - which is a tad bizarre given how winnable that seat is. Marion Rix, one of CCO's great white hopes, is said to be opting out of fighting Milton Keynes NE (which will be selecting in October) for something more rock solid. I also hear rumours that Neil Carmichael - one of the last of the One Nation Tories - hasn’t been fast-tracked in Stroud.
There are, of course, a number of seats left over from the First and Second tranches of selection. Norfolk North after a grassroots rebellion which chucked out CCO's nominees still has to select. Devon North has been vacated by the pleasant RC Clive Allen who has been selected for Somerton & Frome; Yeovil has lost Marco Forgione to Richmond Park; Mohammed Riaz (an advisor to IDS on race relations: a hopeless task) who has two unsuccessful attempts at Bradford West under his belt won't be making another bid for glory there. Tim Bonner, an independent-minded farmer, won't be standing for Truro & St Austell. Having done a magnificent job in cutting Matthew Taylor's majority, he's seeking more loamy Tory soil. Nick Longworth, a Wandsworth Councillor and BBC journalist might be tempted to fight Twickenham again.
CCO has a definite allergy to former MPs (with the exception of Stephen Day at Cheadle) standing again. This leaves a number of openings for new boys and girls. That cheeky chappy and oceanic wet Robin Squire stood in his old seat of Hornchurch last year, but with Essex Man (or to be more precise Havering Man) swinging ever further to the right there seems to be three leading candidates out of the 60 or so applicants: Adrian Lee, former Sittingbourne & Sheppey candidate, a card and colourful right-winger. But perhaps ahead by a whisker of a cat-o'-nine-tails in the popularity stakes, is Michael White, deputy leader of Havering Council and equally right-wing controversialist. In his Dagenham election address he was criticised by the usual suspects for attacking Labour for 'importing foreign nurses with HIV' - but there are serious doubts that CCO will allow his candidature? Both would be suitable neighbours for the one-man vote-winning machine that is Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford. Though Mr Squire is probably likely to give his backing to locally active James Brokenshire, a young centrist. Rugby & Kenilworth saw ex-MP David Martin bearing its standard: it is likely to be looking for fresh blood. Ilford North which is not due to select until next month will probably see the victory of Lee Scott, a local councillor who fought Waveney last year, who from rough-hewn politics to his Judaism, is very much in the mould of Vivian Bendall, the seat's rebellious former MP. Hammersmith & Fulham, represented by the ever so decent Matthew Carrington from 1987-97, won't be selecting until October. Greg Hands, a voluble young local councillor who ran a 'Fulham Homes for Fulham People' which was inevitably criticised as being anti-asylum seeker (the point being?) is thought to be a serious contender. Dorset South may buck the trend of not selecting former MPs. Ian Bruce - whose life is the local mayor - is still politically active, recently attempting to skewer Peter Mandelson, and must have high hopes of standing again for the seat which he held from 1987 to 2001.
Hurry hurry! Applications for the following seats will close on 18th September with first meetings starting on 1st October and the last by 7th November. Colne Valley, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harwich, Ilford North, Keighley, Kettering, Ludlow, Morecambe & Lonsdale, North East Milton Keynes, Putney, Shrewsbury & Atcham, Stroud, Warwick & Leamington, Watford, Wellingborough, St Albans, Truro & St Austell and Yeovil. And for added excitement SW Surrey, Virginia Bottomley's patch begins its selection process - the closing date for applications will be the 27th September and the candidate will be announced before the end of November. So come on all you gossips in Surrey, peek out from behind the net curtains and get in touch - I won’t bite, though I do sometimes suck.
- The Snake
selected Tory PPCs
CandidateWatch archive
CandidateWatch, September 5, 2002 11:36 PM