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Tory Meltdown: Where Have All the Hoorays Gone?
Luke Akehurst has been wondering: Where Have All the Tories Gone? as Eh? Listers and others "drop like flies". With details available back at Luke's, the bare bones are:1. Jill Skalla was the Tory candidate for Colchester.
2. Simon Rouse was the Tory candidate for Nuneaton.
3. Elly Jupp was the Tory candidate for Hayes & Harlington.
4. John Woodward resigned as the Tory candidate for Camborne and Redruth in October.
5. Kevin Hollinrake resigned as the Tory candidate for Dewsbury in October.
6. David Potts has resigned as the Tory candidate in Edinburgh South West (Alistair Darling’s seat).
7. Alf Doran resigned as the Tory candidate in Chorley in May.
[... snip ...]
But is there something else slightly more unusual going on? Could Conservative Central Office or Tory paymaster and Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft be conducting a purge of candidates that no longer fit the bill, withdrawing their support from candidates who are not making the grade organisationally or whose faces don’t fit politically?
Tory organiser John Moss was quick to rebut ...
Sorry Luke, No story here.
Half the people up there were never on the A list and losing 7 out of 250 selected candidates is a fairly low attrition rate.
I know two of the names personally and can absolutely confirm the family and business reasons cited.
In case you hadn't noticed, Gordon Brown has wrecked the economy and some people have to put their families livelihoods ahead of their political careers.
10:01 PM, November 04, 2008
Shame he had to get all political there at the end. But what is the candidate burn out rate for other parties, if any? Surely Lab, Lib Dem and other PP candidates, like Russians, love their children too?
2 comments:
The difference between the average Conservative candidate and Labour or LibDem candidates is that Conservative candidates are more likely to be in the private sector and therefore feeling the effects of Gordon Brown's mismanagement of the economy.
Most Labour and LibDem candidates are drawn from the ranks of those who do non-jobs in the public sector and are therefore more cushioned from economic reality.
For now.
You think so? Really? Perhaps someone could analyse the jobs and occupations of these people instead of making these assertions.
And even if that were correct John Moss's excuse is sad twaddle, whereas Luke's analysis reflecting on the self-reported lack of proper support for Tory candidates - mostly in what were until recently at least "winnable" seats - seems to be the real answer.
These people did take on the candidacies when some kind of slowdown was at least highly likely. Have they simply given up because things are harder than they expected? Because their CAs are in-fighting and idle idiots? Because Lord Ashcroft will not give them £10,000 a year?
They had perhaps thought it was going to be a walkover and it clearly is not.
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