"I may order some reselections to take place in some seats".
Those were the words from David Cameron's Sky interview which will send a shiver down the spine of many a Tory MP. He said he may take this step once the Scrutiny Committee has completed its work. He didn't say by what criteria he would make this judgment or even under what rules he, as leader, has the power to order reselections, but his intention is clear. I think this is a highly significant development which may well win hum plaudits in the party in the country, but will further anger Conservative MPs who are already none too pleased at some of Cameron's willingness to talk open about how local parties can deselect them.
I think this is a veiled threat to Bill Cash who has obviously decided he wants to hang on. Cameron seems to be saying "Go now or I'll get you deselected."
ReplyDeleteCameron needs to come out with a loud and convincing response to the Mail allegations on his expenses.
ReplyDeleteOops:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/335653/MPs-expenses-scandal-Conservative-chief-David-Cameron-is-embroiled-in-expenses-row-after-clamping-down-on-his-own-MPs.html
Fancy a bet?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1189801/Tycoon-issues-100k-challenge-Cameron-Euro-referendum.html
Good.
ReplyDeleteIt's all too obvious a lot of Tory Mps need a good kicking (metaphorically of course).
Cameron is showing good leadership skills and demonstrating he can take tough decisions and upset people if need be.
The Tory troughers should not be allowed to snatch defeat from victory and if it upsets a few grandees then tough, let them cry into their moats.
Cash is obviously much more popular in his constituency than some. He might even win an open primary, or do well standing as an independent.
ReplyDeleteCameron is going to have to accept that he won't be able to sack everyone he disagrees with, or get away without sacking some of his closer colleagues.
Forcing reselection should be a tactic reserved for recalcitrant local parties who are too close to the existing incumbent. The fact that the Dents dominated the CA in Bromsgrove and were also Kirkbride's employees would have been a suitbale case had it proved necessary.
Tough on those MPs who unable to face their local people without shame. I weep for them.
ReplyDeleteDavid Cameron needs real support in his efforts to clean up. Power is given to those who want it and earn it.
"Cameron needs to come out with a loud and convincing response to the Mail allegations on his expenses."
ReplyDeleteThere are no allegations if you read the story under the headline. What he claims is his second home is his second home. The ACA went on the second home. That's it.
Some people really do like dancing to No.10's tune.
Cameron needs to go for the jugular of any Tory MP who won't stand down voluntarily if they fail the scrutiny panel examination.
ReplyDeleteThis may not be popular with some local associations, but the stakes are much much higher than whether some local association chairman gets the hump.
Mmmmmm ... "Hum plaudits"?
ReplyDeleteCash will go UKIP if deselected surely?
weasel words 'may' and 'some'
ReplyDeleteFits with the discrepency in his treatment of Kirkbride and Cash.
ReplyDeleteExpect to see anyone else who's stubborn, awkward and generally independent to be threatened and bullied by CM Dave, over comparatively trivial misdemeanours, while those who are of his circle will get defended as much as possible.
Good. But ...
ReplyDeleteHe's in a bit of a catch 22 position though. If he want to rely on the democratic process then it would be up the local party to make any decisions. If he wants to show leadership and override the rules then he needs to mave a mandate to do that. This may come back to haunt him if he is not careful.
But as leader he has to draw the line/s somewhere. I would say he needs to distinguish between (1) fraud (2) tax avoidance and (3) low morals.
I would say that he needs to act differently for each type of abuse.
Pardon Me Mr NLA .... what has he got to explain?
ReplyDeleteHe is perfectly entitled to an ACA to help him buy and maintain a home in his constituency (or like Brown, to maintain a home in London if he already has a constituency home - ooops, Brown has flipped his so his home in his constituency is now his 'second' home!).
Cameron has paid down his Witney mortgage to save the taxpayer money. He is in fact 406th of all MPs in respect of his ACA.
So try again Mr NLA - you need to come up with a better smear.
Well to 'quote' some other politicians "if they have nothing to hide they have nothing to fear." If it's good enough for we proles then it's good enough for MPs I reckon.
ReplyDeleteWhat chance of such a policy being followed by Gordon Brown or Clegg??
ReplyDeleteDenis MacShane's piece here is well worth reading:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/denis-macshane-end-the-cant-and-save-bill-cash-for-the-nation-1693377.html
With regard to Cameron I have taken the time to show why it is Nonsense the MOS is peddling:
ReplyDeleteCameron buys Witney House for £650,000.
Cameron gets Mortgage on Witney House for £350,000.
Cameron therefore has equity in house of £300,000.
At the time Labour had not yet managed to cause the Financial Service system to collapse so Mortgages were easy to come by.
Surely if Cameron was using £75,000from the Witney Mortgage to pay off his London home it would have been much cheaper and easier just to put £225K into the Witney House and take out a slightly bigger Mortgage.
I think the cashing in on shares is a viable and likely story.
Maybe Gordon Brown swapping a tax payer funded flat into his wife's name (Worth £700K and reported in the summer of 2007 in the daily telegraph) and then taking a special Mortgage out is more Fertile Ground for the witch hunt imo.
I'm a supporter not a member but Cameron risks creating a bigger story of tory sleaze if he continues in this vein whilst Labour get away with doing nothing.
ReplyDeleteHe has a mandate in relation to the conduct of those in the shadow cabinet and their advisers but it stops there.
It would be far easier to say its now a matter for the constituencies. They are after all the people who have to get the vote out on polling day. Do not disenfranchise or demoralise them.
Presumably in the light of Mail on Sunday reports, Mr Cameron will be inviting himself to consider his position?
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked the way his statement answered the question that MoS was meaning to ask, rather than the one that it did.
Mr Cameron may not think this loan payoff is 'dodgy', but some 'colleagues' that have felt the rough end of the leader's high moral tone may think differently.
And as Mr Cameron has made clear, appearence in politics is all, and as Sir Peter Viggars knows, "if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck..."
So, after today's Mail on Sunday frontpage revelations, will Cameron be prepared to deselect himself??
ReplyDeleteThought not..
If Cameron tells associations to de-select - the next step will be to tell them who to select.Then they will be told who will be leader. A bad, bad move.
ReplyDelete"There are no allegations if you read the story under the headline. What he claims is his second home is his second home. The ACA went on the second home. That's it.
ReplyDeleteSome people really do like dancing to No.10's tune."
I would go a bit further.
When this story first broke in the Mail, I wrote a reasonable comment which was censored out - very, very unusual for the Mail.
The article sounds as though it was written "under orders", because the journo has actually concluded that Cameron has nothing to answer for, and included a couple of jabs at Labour.
Usually the Mail comments are solidly anti-Brown ranters, but for this piece, there are masses of very suspiciously bogus sounding "comments". I have little doubt that this whole article is a plant from Campbell or equivalent. The Labour party has nothing left but lies, manipulation, and dirty tricks.
It may be tomorrow's chip paper, but the Tory PR/Media operation looks utterly woeful from where I sit.
Deselection ? I really, really hope he is referring to Maude, who should have gone weeks ago.
I think Cameron needs to move from the "may" and the "will seriously consider" comments onto firm action. He started this whole thing with the smack of firm leadership and I loved it. I fear he's drifting away from that a bit.
ReplyDeleteI think "May" is the big word in that statement.
ReplyDeleteLeaving aside Labour and LibDem complete non activity in this.
ReplyDeleteDC has got himself in a spot of bother as far as I can see. There has been nothing consistent here. Basically he has reacted to the worst "sounding" headlines ( ducks, moats and all that bollox) One clearly fraudulent claim Mckay went straight away.
What is interesting is I think there are so many people implicated, how do you sort it out?
It's almost at the point of no return in that either the vast majority have to go or the only answer left is that Dave declares that ALL candidates have to stand for reselection ( which I think is the only option to draw a line under this for the Tories)
What interests me would be how many of the ousted MPs end up fighting the election for UKIP and using the you deslected me but not Maude, Duncan, Gove etc argument.
Offering himself up now for re-selection would smack of firm leadership and might give the eighteen millionaire shadows a push in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteSo is Cameron delaying his demand for an immediate General Election until after the Scrutiny Committee has completed its work?
ReplyDeleteOr was the demand for an immediate GE never really meant to be taken seriously?
Cameron cannot in fact order re-selections which are a matter for local association who are autonomous units under the Conservative Party's rules and constitution.
ReplyDeleteHe can request that local associations reselect and he may be able to get the Party's Board to take actions towards re-selections but he does not himself have to powers to do this himself.
join the petition to get the MP for Witney to stand down
ReplyDeleteDid someone say Flood or Expenses warning
Matthew Parris pointed out the other day that one of the unintended consequences of the expenses scandal is that it could end up strengthening the hands of party leaders. Apart from throwing a few morsels to the wolves, he must surely be tempted to use it to purge his party's ranks of dissenters and free-thinkers so that he ends up with any party leader's wet-dream - a docile parliamentary party which will do whatever his whips want. So, clean-up yes, but for a party leader to have such sweeping powers cannot be healthy for our democracy.
ReplyDeleteI think Cameron was on thin ice on Channel 4 news this evening - first on his own mortgage arrangements which make him look pretty hypocritical, but more significantly on the question of consistency in the treatment of Gove versus Viggers etc. He's starting to look quite 'top-down' and 'centralised' with these latest remarks. Thank god the Brown PR machine is so ineffectual......
ReplyDeleteIt depends on whether you feel that Cameron wants a broad canvas Tory party or whether he will use it (as Blair did) to "create man in his own image" and, therefore, lobby-fodder !
ReplyDelete