Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tories Choose By Election Candidate
The Conservatives have now chosen their candidate for the Ealing Southall by election this lunchtime. He is Tony Lit, MD of Sunrise Radio. He will be in Ealing this afternoon campaigning with David Cameron. I also have news of a new website being launched relating to by-election campaigning. More on that later.
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20 comments:
Lit? is he a
Lazy Idle Toad?
He is certainly a C.Lit - or is he?
Not that it matters of course but one asssumes he is a Tory?
(Sorry to be so 'Old Party')
Isn't it 'bye-election'?
Unless you are in Bermondsey, where it was a "bi-election". Or so he says.
If you examine the facts then he is not an entrepreneur - he works for his dad, he has no record of supporting the Conservative Party, and his radio station was fined for beaches connected to the 2001 election.
Why am i supposed to feel good about this? Isn't it rather patronising to the local community?
So not one of the new Tory administration on Ealing council fancies a crack at the job, then?
Tony Lit is not even a member of the Conservative Party! The things some people will do to promote their radio stations.....
we will come a poor third in both of the by elections.our record in parliamentary by elections is appalling. the last time we gained a seat was in 1982, 25 years ago.It is about time we put someone in charge of by elections who knows what they are doing. the key is to establish in the minds of the electorate that we are in second place and then hoover up all the anti government votes. you can do this by holding an opinion poll, that hopefully shows us in second place, early in the campaign.We never do this, why not?
Election watcher
I agree with your conclusions but not all of your comments.
We cannot emphasise we are in second place as in Ealing Southall we no longer are, thanks in part to the short sighted CCHQ tactic of insisting that weak opposition-helds seats put all their resources into helping the target marginals.
This has resulted in a number of perfectly viable seats to go into electoral freefall (Hornsey and Wood Green being a local example)and at by-election time we pay the price.
There are so many so called opinion polls and graphs showing support in by-elecions (usually by Lib Dems) that the message given by a real one would be lost in the crossfire.
Sunrise Radio was fined £10,000 by the Radio Authority after it broadcast extracts from a political interview with Dr Avtar Lit (Tony's father and station owner) a matter of few weeks prior to the general election.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/rau/newsroom/news-release/01/pr073.htm
On 20 March, Sunrise Radio twice carried extracts from an interview with Dr. Lit. One concerned Dr. Lit's views about the political dissatisfaction of people living in Ealing, Southall, and the other outlined his policy proposals for this constituency. Members decided at their meeting on 6 June that the interview breached Section 90(2)(b) of the Broadcasting Act 1990.
Richard Hooper, Chair of the Authority, said:
"Those who hold radio licences should be in no doubt that they may not use that privileged position to publicise their own views on political matters. The Broadcasting Act and our Codes make it clear that this applies at all times, not just during elections."
"Tony Lit, MD of Sunrise Radio"
Dear oh bloody dear - sounds like a horrendous mix of Mike 'Mayor in your Dreams' Reid and Smashie & Nicey..
Saints preserve us from some Alan Partridge-a-like trying to get into Parliament..
Dr Avtar Lit = DrivAL tart
This ones goin out to all you truckers out there.
Another lamb to the slaughter. But a least his radio station will get a lot of free publicly.
I put my name forward but I was told that they want someone local.
Now we found out that the chosen candidate was not even a party member not on candidates list.
No doubt we will remain at No.3.
Ealing Southall 2005.
Lab 23,000 votes
Lib 11,000 votes
Blue Noses 10,500 votes
...And this at the hight of Blairs unpopularity. Prepare for a bigger Lab majority in the seat. And wtach Camera On scuttling around the area like a fool.
"We cannot emphasise we are in second place as in Ealing Southall we no longer are ..."
This kind of inconvenience rarely seems to stop the Lib Dems from claiming it's a two-horse race.
Don't understand the big downer on Mr. Lit. Firstly, Southall is an Indian area and Mr. Lit is Indian.
That's sensible.
Secondly his father got 6,000 votes as an independent in 2001. That's a creditable performance (the Tories came second, and the Lib Dems a poor fourth).
Thirdly, Indian families generally have true Conservative values and are a good match for Conservative politics, even if the connection has not always been made.
Fourthly, Sunrise Radio is an Asian radio station, not a rap station linked to gun crime and violence, and there is no reason to deprecate this as a trendy choice.
Finally, his father is a successful entrepeneur with a multimillion pound fortune from the radio stations, and I'm sure Daddy will support his son, Asians are generally very good at this.
So I don't see how the Conservatives could really have found a better candidate for Southall - this really is a bit of a coup, rather than some Kensington Tory destined to lose they have a man with MAJOR local connections.
Majority of local Sunrise radio listners are Labour supporters. His Dad supported Cllr Gurcharan Singh in 2004 for GLA election (Ealing & Hillingdon), they were never Tory supporters.
He lives in Osterly, London Borough of Hounslow, though he is a Sikh, but will he get Sikh votes.
Tory party should have put Kulveer Ranger, he is Sikh and True tory.
Why is it that that most by-elections have been in safe Labour seats since 1997? It's not fair.
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