Priti Patel has just been selected as Conservative Candidate for Witham. This seat has a notional majority of more than 7,000 and 250 people attended the selection meeting tonight. Her opponents were Charles Elphicke, James Brokenshire MP and Geoffrey van Orden MEP. Elphicke went out in the first ballot. Brokenshire and van Orden tied for second place n the second ballot so there was a runoff. But the good thing for Pritti Patel was that she was ahead on every single round of voting.Perhaps this will finally put to rest the myth that Conservative selection committees in safe Tory seats won't select women or ethnic minority candidates. Four of the 18 shortlisted candidates for this seat (of which I was one) were from ethnic minorities. Five were women. I kept being told that Essex Man and Essex Woman would not choose a woman let alone an ethnic minority. How wrong those people were. The very best of luck to Priti Patel.
18 comments:
I am so happy to hear the news. Congratulations to Priti, a wonderful, able, Eurorealist candidate. It is so good to see that our party welcomes the best and brightest of both sexes and all ethnic backgrounds and Witham have made an excellent choice.
I look forward immensely to serving with Priti in Parliament. Commiserations to the other three very strong candidates, the seat was fortunate to have such a strong range to choose from. I am sure they will find excellent seats very soon.
An Indian! Good! They'll be articulate and argumentative and persistent. Goody, goody!
I was impressed with Pritti at the first round selection at Mid Norfolk, but at the second round she did not appear as confident to me and did not win.
She must have got her act together and should do well.
And this is the seat which Ali Miraj thought was too racist to choose him. Fantastic result.
I see Ali Miraj has changed his tune a bit http://www.alimiraj.com/?p=70
It would seem that the comments by AM raised firstly an issue which needs to be addressed and secondly PP's profile and that such combination was enough for her to get selected.
Moreover BJ's "forgotten comments" of white-middles-class-male-only-for-witham are cleverly given the veneer of being wrong.
AM should have been that bit braver and revealed the precise detail of what according to rumour one ex-Leading conservative allegedly said to him -that he could never be selected in the retiring chap's seat because he is a muslim. Like BJ would that MP "forget" too?
Jim The Chimp, that was a terribly funny post. (Perhaps helped by my having had a couple of whiskies, but funny!) I just went back and reread it and laughed helplessly again.
yes, but Ali Miraj has a chip on his shoulder, and it shows.
does she still consider the wearing of a union jack tie racist?
Just the kind of drivel we dont need in the party.
Did she say wearing our Union Jack is racist? Did she explain how?
If she did, I sincerely hope she craters.
Iain as opposed to JimtheChimp- well done for covering this- to an independent like me its great news the Tories will have candidates from different backgroudns- and its nice to see you being magnanimous in defeat- good luck in your own search for a seat or should I say bad luck- it might interfere with the blog.
Well done Pritti. This grumpy old man volunteers to do some legwork and he will enroll one or two others.
Cannot the Conservative Party cast its net wider than someone from Harrow who worked on Spin in Conservative Central Office ?
The Union flag comments are highly disturbing. This woman has as big a chip on her shoulder as Ali Miraj.
Ms Patel, who worked on the former Tory leader William Hague's press team, said that at her first interview with a constituency selection panel she was thrown when she noticed a man at the back "wearing a union jack tie".
She added: "I found that very distasteful."
Where the f does she think she is?
This is Britain, we should be proud of our flag and our country. Why is it distasteful? Does she feel that the Union flag is only a union of white people? Why does she have this belief? It is surely her belief alone, and a deeply unpleasant and racist one: it implies that she imagines that being British doesn't include people like her. What is she then? If she does not feel she is British and cannot identify with our flag, why is she standing for election for the British Parliament?
This doesn't happen in America, politicians there regardless of colour or origin are proud of their country, but it seems this ghastly woman regards Britain as an unpleasant concept.
Why are we selecting candidates that hate Britain? To be clear this is not a race issue: I am married to a woman from South East Asia, and she is constantly surprised that people in this country seem to be encouraged in the name of cultural diversity to set up ghettos and to live separately from Britain. This is a particular culturally Marxist far-left agenda that has no place in the Conservative party. The conjugation of racism for these people is follows "You are unconsciously discriminating." "He is racist." "I need affirmative action"
I am not sure that this woman is really does bring us any diversity:
She is
"Manager of responsible drinking and corporate relations for drinks company Diageo"
"Previously a Policy adviser and consultant to a range of organisations including the Bar Council of England & Wales, Nestle, IKEA, Rolls-Royce and BMW. "
Ah yes, the authentic voice of the common man. Responsible drinking advisers everywhere will realise that the Conservatives are finally starting to look out for them.
There is a long thread about her here, and while her views on Europe are welcome, her extreme racial politics are closer to Yasmin Alibai-Brown than to any rational conservative.
Her background is Ugandan Asian, so you can bet she knows all about hard work.
Really? I couldn't give a toss if Priti was from an ethnic minority or otherwise.
Presumably, she got the job because she was the most talented person there - that's the way it should be but slavering about how wonderful it is to have someone from an ethnic minority as candidate is over the top in my opinion.
Let's focus on what a good job she can do, and I'm sure she'll be just grand, rather than where her ancestors came from.
RS
Having seen the Patel girl in action I can tell you now she's a class act who'll go places.
Could even end up sevring in the same cabinet as the man whose mouthpiece she used to be...
I'd bet that the majority is cut.
Those who selected her are unlikely to be representative of the local voters. How did the lady do who was chosen to fight Enoch's old seat do at the last election.
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