Summing up 2

Quality of candidates

There were MPs who should have lost and didn’t. In many cases they were good constituency MPs who ran an excellent, well-organised campaign. In the course of the election, 8 Hustings were attended in 5 different constituencies. It was striking to see the range of quality of candidates on show. One Independent in Macclesfield was impressive. The others weren’t.

Three Labour candidates in unwinnable seats were streets ahead of the one picked by High Peak to fight a marginal seat. She was a lovely lady but who admitted on two separate occasions that, “public speaking was not her strong suit.” What? Was this a claim to be the country’s first Trappist MP?  It goes with the territory. So why stand? And why on earth get selected?

The Tory in the High Peak had paid his dues and had come a close second last time. He made his pitch ‘a local man for local people’ and will probably be ok at constituency matters. However, in a time of national crisis it would be better to have someone with a view of the bigger picture. He did not strike me as someone who would robustly stand up against the whips office. The Liberal Democrats ranged from excellent, through ordinary to poor.

Selection procedures matter. Congleton (a safe Tory seat replacing the other half of the odious Winterton duo) used a primary system to select their conservative candidate only to find out after the event that the winning candidate had bussed in supporters from her church to boost her vote.

Several people came forward in response to Cameron’s plea that the Tory party had changed and that they were looking for newcomers who shared their values. They paid £1500 each to get trained as a candidate. Not one was selected to stand as a candidate.

Having seen how poor some candidates are, it is understandable why major parties try to parachute future stars and members of the political class into relatively safe seats. On the other hand it was delicious to see the electorate give the two-fingered salute to several Cameroonies. These were members of the beautiful people club who thought that to turn up would be enough.

There has to be a better way to get the best people as candidates rather than selecting time-served local councillors, Z-list celebs, mates of the leader or bent businessmen.