Sunday, April 15, 2007

Dagenham Has Seen the Future - And it's Conservative!

There's an interesting story developing in the Dagenham & Rainham Parliamentary selection. Three out of the final four are different generations of Conservative Future personalities - Simon Jones, Paul Bristow and Claire Palmer. Simon is a good friend of mine, while Paul and Claire and regulars on 18 Doughty Street. And to think, whichever one of them wins will have West Ham's Chadwell Heath training ground in the constituency. What more could a candidate ask for?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

As its so desirable Iain, and with your strong local connections I can only presume that you applied and weren't shortlisted-bad luck!

Iain Dale said...

Your presumption is sadly incorrect. I am not applying for seats for the foreseeable future.

Anonymous said...

"I'm forever blowing bubbles, little bubbles in the air...."

Anonymous said...

What a hard choice this will be for the association/primary! All three would be superb candidates and excellent MPs!!

Mark Clarke said...

I have worked with all of them and they would all be excellent candidates. All are very hard working, passionate individuals who have done a huge amount to bring new, young people into the Conservative Party and reach out to new voters. I would say that they have very different styles so it will be a genuine choice for the seat. And they are all friends too!

Old BE said...

Is the constituency winnable? Can we have some stats?

Anonymous said...

X is a friend of mine. I've known X since X was in nappies. X was chairman of North East Frog Town CF branch and doubled the membership by 100% to 2. X will be a good candidate/MP for this seat (insert name of seat) and I look forward to campaigning for X. Good luck X!

Give us a break!

Anonymous said...

No disrespect intended to Bristow/Palmer etc. but *why* are we getting excited about unwinnables like this when key marginals, like Eastleigh, haven't even selected yet?

What the hell is the delay?!

Is there something wrong with the local association? Do they not have the members? Are they staffed with muppets? Are they scared of Huhne?

All our key marginals should have selected by now. If not, then CCO needs to give them a kick up the arse.

Tim Aker said...

anonymous 1.28pm - Cameron might need the likes of Huhne if he tries to form a lib/con pact...you don't scare the chickens if you need them to lay eggs!

Caroline Hunt said...

I do with them all luck but I cant help wishing the lovely Paul Bristow just that little bit more luck than the others. He is such a hard worker and such a good campaigner and such a sweetie as well.

Best of luck Bristow!

Anonymous said...

Dagenham & Rainham is certainly difficult but not unwinnable.

Boundary changes have given it a notional Labour majority of 6581, and put it at 164 on the Tory target list.

Anonymous said...

Personally I would like to see Simon get it. But all three are fairly decent and hard working.

Anonymous said...

Yes - why the delay in eastleigh? Is it an attempt to squeeze the last candidate back in there again?

Anonymous said...

At least Palmer works for a living. The other two are just professional politicos. sure;y the party has better people than this

Anonymous said...

What about the fourth candidate, Jane Archer? She too has a proper job and is a very credible candidate.