We have had ten years of record investment in public services and the
highest employment ever, as well as a new prime minister who was the most
competent chancellor, creating stability and a growing economy.
This would be the same Judith Symes who appeared before Poplar & Canning Town Conservatives a few short monthd ago wanting to be their candidate, and whose main pitch to them was how appalling Gordon Brown is.
She complains "elitism and exclusivity are at the heart of the party." What a hypocrite. She lives in one of the most exclusive riverside developments in Docklands - Free Trade Wharf on The Highway. How she can refer to "exclusivity" in Tower Hamlets from the decadence of her yuppie luxury apartment beggars belief. I doubt there will be many people in the Tory Party shedding tears about this. I certainly won't be.
34 comments:
Got to see you have been co-opted to the 'Rapid Reputation Rebuttal' unit by Cameron...
In your opinion, Iain, how many more A-listers are secretly considering a defection?
Not exactly of pressing moment Iain. I didn't know A listers even existed any more. Mind you, that Adam bloke male model/actor/whatever has just been nabbed for shoplifting in NZ, I read in the paper, so that's another one down.
Have I got this right ? She does not think the Tory Party under Cameron is sufficiently centrist & egalitarian?
She could have waited a month or two - I suspect Dave would be happy to have, erm, 'accommodated her needs' in time for the General Election..
I wonder if she'll be given a standing ovation by the Labour conference?
Free Trade Wharf is a horrible building - looks like it has been ripped straight off the Costa del Sol. It isn't one of the most exclusive developments in Docklands as 3 bed apartments go for £400 a week there - cheap for London/Docklands although admittedly not for Tower Hamlets.
And surely if we went down the road of criticising any politician who lived in a reasonable middle-class property and talked about tackling exclusion/criticised elitism, I can't think of any current politician off the top of my head who wouldn't be facing a tongue-lashing.
Hi, Iain.
Just to let you know that Judith Syme's isn't from a BME community. That said a London Labur councillor, who is, will defect to US - think it happened this morning but not going to say anything until it's official.
I've actually known about it for some time now - and have blogged about it.
http://hunterandshooter.blogspot.com/2007/09/exclusive-senior-london-labour.html
Meeowwww
but who is Judith Symes ???
"BME A-list" ? She doesn't look Black or Minority Ethnic to me ?
You may not be shedding tears over this - but does it not mean that DC has a bit of a dilemma ?
One side of the party pushing in the general direction of Tombstone, and the other wing pushing to take on Gordon Brown head on. How can he be pleasing both factions at the same time ?
Whatever he does he is going to get another 'Quentin Davies' style defection, or otherwise more of the 'Judith Symes' young turks jumping.
I wonder if she's a pro-european like Quentin. If only Constituencies would ensure that their candidates are sceptics, it would stop most defections.
Mind you, liars will always get through the net.
Nice to hear all about the economic stability she admires from the Enron Chancellor - with banks unable to borrow from each other in the UK without government guarantees. It's not the kind of stability that Cameron has in mind, I am sure.
"the decadence of her yuppie luxury apartment beggars belief"
She lived the Thatcherite dream and now she's decadent? You certainly told that capitalist running dog. This Tory shift to the left has been bigger than previously advertised.
We're with you comrade!
Is disgust at wealth the new party line?
"exclusive riverside developments", "decadence of her yuppie luxury apartment beggars belief".
Sounds like you're the one who should be doing the defecting. To the SWP.
Let's demolish Free Trade Wharf and build social housing. Would that be less 'decadent'?
Fancy Ms Syme spending here money on whatever she likes. The cheek.
I take it you'll be issuing a list of what will and won't be decadent under Cameron's new order?
Anyone with half a brain (so I exclude Peter C and Leon t) could see I was discussing her hypocrisy. She slags off the Tory Party for being exclusive, yet lives in an exclusive block. Good luck to her. I used to live in a simialr block 50 yards down the river and very nice they are too.
So why describe her as decadent? It makes you sound like a communist.
She will fit right in with Liebour, some of us can remember when they used to be socialists.
On the plus side Labour will never trust her.
But good grief Iain, don't you get the wider point?
Frisky little politics-lite wannabes like this are taken up as 'A listers' by one main party, and then are taken up as prized catches by the other Party.
This simply convinces the rest of us outside the goldfish bowl of the metro-London UK political elite, what a rotten and meaningless charade the whole circus has become.... Nothing to do with the rst of actually living and working real lives.
As Mr 5.44pm: Is it actually hypocritical for her to criticise the Tory Party about elitism?
Sykes appears to rent in Free Trade Wharf rather than own a property there, so if it is a one-bedroom apartment she would be paying well under average rent for London.
Couldn't you be very very middle class and still be intimidated/dismayed by the number of ex-oxbridge, ex-particular public schools that dominate the upper echelons of the party?
Although I personally think that the fact Cameron is an old etonian has no real relevance to his genuine desire to tackle social inequality, its hardly surprising that other people take a different view.
Elitism doesn't just come in the form of house prices - are you basically saying that anyone who owns/rents a house with a value of more than £300,000 can't criticise elitism in government, political parties or the city ?
And further to my last comment, as I become obsessed with Free Trade Wharf, a flat there was sold in March for £272,000. With the average cost of a residential property in Tower Hamlets being £334,736, I really don't think you can condemn her as a hypocrite on this basis.
Having said that, I can't think of any high-profile defector of recent times to whom the phrase 'self-interested slimeball' cannot be applied and this woman appears to be no different to the rest.
Don't sit on the fence Iain. Nice touch giving the address and conducting an ad feminam attack.
Trying to be a PPC in a seat where Tories will be lucky to be third next time. You seem to be making more of this than LP will.
At least we won't now have to take the allegedly light fingered Mr Adam Ricketts.
I can't see what is so awful about this woman wanting to further her career and being pragmatic about it. Granted, there are politicians of conviction, but the politics of opportunism (see the leader of the Conservative Party who is a socialist by conviction) has been pretty evident throughout history. I don't blame her. She wants a seat for purposes of her own. Why shouldn't she try to get one?
It seems as though Quisling Davies has started a fashion. I would be hard put to give credit for this to Brown.
The A list has little to do with candidates who profess Conservative ideals but follows some other but mysterious tune.
Two factors here - Ms. Syme simply wants a place at the polly's trough - she is sure that she will not achieve that under a Cameron-lead party. She sees no sign that he is able to dive into a phone box and emerge capable of great deeds.
Rats and Ship come to mind.
Victor
Re-arrange these words into a well known phrase:
"Ship, sinking a leaving rats"
Likely to be more once the ship goes down I'm afraid
I wonder how many more defectors to Labour will be abused as Quislings, traitors, gullible, whatever before we realise there is no-one left?
An 'A'-list candidated defects? What a surprise. Does anyone think these people give a damn what party they're in?
Central Office should have let the local association choose their own candidate - someone who actually has views and beliefs, and doesn't just want power for its own sake.
I do not know the block she lives in, and I would never criticise anyone for living somewhere expensive, such as a Chelsea town house. But I would criticise people (and certainly a potential politician) for living in "gated communities" - these are insidious, divisive and, frankly, unBritish. The point about a Chelsea town house is that it may be in a smart part of town, but you step three foot outside the front door and you are in a public street, so if there is local crime, local street cleaning problems, local beggars etc, it affects you, and your fate is to some extent connected to the local community. Some of these new gated places just foster a mentality that nothing matters outside their own safe little world (and incidentally they are very difficult to canvass, and so are also cut off from the political process that way).
Whether or not that is what Iain has against this block I do not know.
On a different point, people should stop bashing Trust funds. In most cases all they mean is that a child's grandparents had the good sense to safeguard the child's education regardless of the fecklessness or poverty of the parents. A measure of investment income from a young age gives people a stake in society and a degree of financial independence. The only problem with Trust funds is that not enough people have them.
Iain, it doesn't matter where she lives. It maters what she says and what her motivation is.
I despise people who jump ship for seemingly politically advantageous reasons - which I suspect this is.
But, the shadow cabinet is our achilles heel! There are an un-nervingly large number of well heeled individuals who, no matter how committed they are to defeating, or how much they 'theoretically speaking' understand poverty, most (with the exceptence of David D) have never known anything other than a (at best) middle-class secure upbringing, or in many cases, an upbringing of real priviledge.
It is frustrating that a number also seem to spend a large amount of time earning rather handsome salaries outside of Parliament (I don't have a problem with 'keeping your hand in - but the scale of some of the stuff must gives the impression that the ShadCab is a 'part-time' job).
One member in particular holds six directorships on the board of a bank (which must earn him a six-figure salary if it earns him a penny), sits on the board of a managment consultancy, and also earns between £25k and £40k as a 'stretegy advisor' to Accenture.
So, when does he get tme to do his day job as an MP, or his other political role as a member of the front bench then?
No wonder Tim M says we aren't 'hungry' enough for power.
If we actually won an election, this lot would have to give up the directorships, and learn to survive on a a meagre £110k as a minister and £70k as an MP, rather than feathering their nests with their fat-cat part time salaries.
Sorry - but the rot starts at the top. And our top has a lot of rot to cut out!
If we don't we are domed top a generation of Flash Gordon!
Yes, the notion that exclusive 'A' lists would produce people of quality and commitment, rather than that the local party, whose interests are at stake, would judge the best person to represent them was always repellent.
So an ambitious A-lister, who would probably never have made a short list in a local contest switches sides. So what? All this does is endorse the notion of the rest of us that Dave and his people are inept and silly.
It goes to show that some people want to be a MP for the status power (and money), rather than to actually be an MP and represent the people. Principles? What are they?
It's only when they get ordinary people which want to represent their consituents that we'll get quality of people we want, rather than those looking for a gravy train and long holidays.
IIn 1999 Judith Symes was a Conservative councillor in Tunbridge Wells. She was then known as Judith Aungier. I thought she was in the wrong party then.
Malcolm Dunn : You do not have to be so rude and offensive. You give me nothing but snide sneering responses. I did nothing to you so I do not know what you issue with me is.
You ave no manners and have a very snide effite arrogant tone. I find you unpleasant. Just as you have decided to take out your frustrations on me for no reason.
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