I have news from the Maidstone & the Weald selection. There's no way of skirting the issue, so I'll just come out and say it. I didn't get past the first interview, which took place on Saturday.I can't pretend that I am anything other than really disappointed. God, I sound like a football manager after a 3-0 defeat! Seriously, I came out of the interview thinking I had performed really well. The selection committee was unfailingly polite and pleasant and I felt we connected. For the first time ever in a selection I spoke entirely without notes and felt I answered all the questions well, but I was clearly deluding myself. Or maybe they are looking for something very different from what I was able to offer. Whatever the reason, I'd like to thank Maidstone & the Weald Conservatives for selecting me for interview and making it an enjoyable experience - even if the outcome wasn't what I had wished for!
I know there are some cracking other candidates, and I wish the remaining contestants all the very best. Whoever wins will have a fantastic career for one of the nicest seats in the country. Anyone who has been interviewed for a seat they really wanted and fallen at the first fence - regardless of party - will know how I am feeling now, but in the end, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and just have to be philosophical about it. It just wasn't meant to be.
Now, where did I put that revolver? :)
Bad luck Iain. Labour bloggers were all rooting for you.
ReplyDeleteIain,
ReplyDeleteIs your sad failure the reason why you are running advertisments to join Nick Cleggs team?
Are you about to jump ship and try your luck with the looking both ways at once party??
Bad luck Iain. I used to work in advertising and now I'm a writer. I know all about rejection!
ReplyDeleteBad luck, Iain.
ReplyDeleteStill, there's always the Monster Raving Loony Party to consider switching your allegiance to.
I’m sorry Iain. Looks like going straight from Widdecombe to you was too much of a shock to the system. Their loss entirely.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that Iain, I hope you have better luck next time.
ReplyDeleteFrom Yes Minister:
ReplyDelete"The argument that we must do everything a Minister demands because he has been 'democratically chosen' does not stand up to close inspection. MPs are not chosen by 'the people' - they are chosen by their local constituency parties: thirty-five men in grubby raincoats or thirty-five women in silly hats. The further 'selection' process is equally a nonsense: there are only 630 MPs and a party with just over 300 MPs forms a government and of these 300, 100 are too old and too silly to be ministers and 100 too young and too callow. Therefore there are about 100 MPs to fill 100 government posts. Effectively no choice at all."
Don't take it too personally!
Drat! i suppose Tom Watson will be cock-a-hoop now!
ReplyDeleteThere must be time to acquire US citizenship and run for President!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear this; you'd have been a great addition to the parliamentary party.
No accounting for some people's (lack of) taste !
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear this news. Politics needs a few who are willing to say what they think.
Alan Douglas
Their loss.
ReplyDeleteIf our candidate was hit by a bus I would contact you straight away.
Now that most solid seats have gone I hope Caroline Spellman starts to look at some of our more elderly MPs who cannot possibly be kept on to 2014 and that you get a seat that way.
We need a few more good media performers in parliament.
I'm very disappointed, too. Frankly they've severely cocked-up on this one. Yes, you might have been a different kind of MP - hardly surprising in view of the present incumbent - but that would have been quite refreshing.
ReplyDeleteI do feel soemtimes that the Kentish associations are geriatric in the extreme. They seem completely inured in a sort of timewarp - Masonic even.
But, given who and what they are you'd probably be better off not representing them.
Fight on!
Strapworld, as I explained in a post below, I'm running the adverts because they are paying me to do so. I rather like the thought of taking money from the LibDems. Don't you?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll treat your second para with the contempt it deserves.
Bad luck Iain, don't give up though. I'm sure there's a seat with your name on it somewhere. You're still a young guy.
ReplyDeleteBen
The Right Student
re 'you could still become president!'@1pm...
ReplyDeletesigh! unfortunately not. Just ask Arnie...
p.s. word ver = "fckbodky" brilliant!
Will they be incorporating an open primary into their selection process? Hope so.
ReplyDeleteI'm very sorry for your disappointment, Iain. My own opinion is that you are too good for politics and you're better off in the media keeping the sluts in Parliament on their toes and commenting truthfully on the scene.
ReplyDeleteThink of the severe shock we would all have if P J O'Rourke announced he was going to stand for the Senate! You can see what a ludicrous waste of talent it would be.
You excel in your own line. Think about staying on the path you're on. You excel at it.
They were offered a good natured, likeable, intelligent, entertaining man of letters with a phenomenal work rate and unlimited energy and they turned you down. They'll have to find someone pretty outstanding to justify such a monumental ill-judgment.
ReplyDeleteCommiserations Iain - Must be some great candidates to keep you at bay.
ReplyDeletechin up! you can always come back to Saffron Walden since Sir Alan Haselhurst MP must be retiring soon ? he must be close to 100 years old?
ReplyDelete:)
Bad luck Iain. For once I agree with Verity - you are too good for politics - your snout is not sufficiently in the trough. Despite taking the LibDems' shilling!
ReplyDeleteChin up Iain, I know it's not the news you would have liked and just before Christmas when bad news seems out of place somehow, but while it's good news for someone else it might be for you too - with your talents there's probably something even more fabulous just waiting to happen in the new year..
ReplyDeleteVery very annoying . I have commentre chez moi
ReplyDeleteCheer up Iain,
ReplyDeleteYou're doing a fantastic job with the blog.
Commiserations Iain. I'm certainly not a Tory but personally think that you would make an excellent member of parliment. Quite what the committee were thinking when they turned you down I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteI will agree with Verity though - I think you're far too good for Parliment.
A Swansea Blog
They saw through your Ann Widdecombe disguise then? Damn!
ReplyDelete(now there's a disturbing image...)
Now, where did I put that revolver? :)
ReplyDeleteCome on Iain chin up lad! Clive of India went on to great things after he had contemplated ending it all. As the BBC web site says:
Clive pointed a pistol at his head and pulled the trigger. It didn't go off, so he tried again. When the pistol failed to fire a second time, the young Clive concluded that his life had been spared for a reason.
Perhaps there is a greater calling for you Iain than just being an MP.
Ian you are fab
ReplyDeleteMaybe if you had taken along a 'wife' in the manner of David Abrahams, you would have stood a chance...
ReplyDeleteIf you answered the questions from a middle of the road or slightly left perspective you are unlikly to be selected.
ReplyDeleteI have noted that the people we interviewed in Mid Norfolk, those that have been selected elswhere are nearly all from the right or said thet were.
I am very sorry you were not selected perhaps you are to honnest and pleasant to be selected.
dont let it worry you. the greatest weakness of the conservative party are the people choosing candidates most of whom do bugger all, choose a crap candidiate then bugger off.
ReplyDeleteI am highly amused by the Lib Dem advert flashing at the bottom of the post!
ReplyDeleteVery disappointing news. I was really hoping you'd be my new MP! Best of luck finding another seat.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they just don't want Alan Partridge for their MP.
ReplyDeleteAh Haaaaaaaaaaa!
And on that bombshell here are my top 94 Abba hits. I'm off to bang a boomerang.
Well there is always someone who is worse off.Just think of the unfortunate candidate in the Thai general election who was found dead in a hotel room. He was naked except for a condom on his .....
ReplyDeleteSorry about that Ian. thought you'd be a great mp youre insider gossip would be great from parliament. don't worry about the constituency one will come up. youra westminster guy so go for a seat where people don't have too many problems. we don't want you wasting time in a constituency when you could be disshing the dirt on all your other MP's
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you did not get past the first stage. This implies a decision on your canditure was made prior to the meeting. In this case they decided a) that you were not for them or b) that they have a favoured candidate(s) and all others would be eliminated irrespective of performance on the day. Hmmmnnn.
ReplyDeleteThe truth will out eventually.
Bad luck.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt some horrid identikit political clone will be selected, or a yummy mummy candidate with zilch experience of campaigning or the real world.
Well, even though I have recently been through a similar experience and although misery loves company, I must say I am pretty suprised.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am confident that you at least will make it to the green benches eventually (assuming you still think it a worthwhile exercies, of course)
I can't pretend that I am anything other than really disappointed. God, I sound like a football manager after a 3-0 defeat!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, to sound like a football manager, you'd have needed to say; "I'm gutted, the decision was a shocker!"
Bad luck.
Canvas...
ReplyDeleteSir Alan Haselhurst retire? Surely not. I can still remember hearing him speak when he was national chairman of the Young Conservatives - and I'm younger than Gordon Brown!
Oh well perhaps Witney Conservative Association could use a candidate with better knowledge of party funding rules!
ReplyDeletePerhaps fate has something bigger and better around the corner for you. A revolution perhaps???
ReplyDeletethank god for that. you'd have been awful in parliament and your blog would have got all boring too. stick to what you're great at.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they already had someone in mind and you were there to make up the numbers, maybe they read this blog and thought they don't really want a gay x factor lover.
ReplyDeleteThe selection panel were probably made up of Normal Conservatives.... they tend to like tax cuts and family values. Not much hope of that with Cameron and his cronies.
I am really sorry Iain- thought you would have been perfect.
ReplyDeleteBad luck Iain, I have coached a number of candidates through selections and I always tell them to make a list of all the questions they were asked - whilst the experience is still fresh in the mind - and think about how they can give even better answers if they come up again. You can lose a selection, but you should never lose the lesson.
ReplyDeleteHappy to help if you wish: www.getselected.blogspot.com
Perhaps they just wanted a woman!
ReplyDeleteMerry Xmas,
Annabel H.
Good luck next time. Wish you could stand in Pudsey. We've got a local councillor standing for the Conservatives. Yes, just like you'd expect him to be. We need good candidates in these marginal West Riding seats. God help us.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that Iain, having lived in Maidstone for my childhood years and going to OPGS (great school!) I can certainly say you would have been a good choice but hey such is life - I'm sure another constituency will snap you up.
ReplyDeleteFor the record,the man who I mentioned was Supoj Pisutsiang,59, standing for the Prachamatu Party.
ReplyDeleteHe was stabbed to death.An 18 year old woman has been arrested.
Never mind, Iain; now I can cross you off my list of "People I Automatically Despise" and that must be worth something, eh?
ReplyDeleteDK
Iain , this is slightly off topic- but you might want to comment...
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth did Gordon Brown say at his press conference this morning?! The arrogance of it all - how very dare he ? Check out this article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7151634.stm
Surely, after the CCHQ knifing Thatcherite PPCs in the Gillingham and Rochester selections, you would have realised that your chances were zero. You were only interviewed to keep you, as a prominent Tory blogger, and Widdy quiet.
ReplyDeleteThe Cameroons have marked your card, or file, as a Thatcherite and Davisite. They will never let you get to the final of a safe seat. You are, like the Cameron sychophants in CWF, in denial.
Face up to reality. Your career in the Party, like mine, is over. We are victims of the purge conducted by Ritchie, May and their wimmin cronies. It's a question of sanction. Get out whilst you still have your dignity.
Do you think they wanted someone with a more heavweight profile rather than someone renowned for tittle-tattle? (not meant in a rude way, just a thought)
ReplyDeleteMaybe they are looking for a younger, ethnic minority woman ? Better luck next time...
ReplyDeleteHold up, Thatcherite ex-candidate. Iain was turned down by the Maidstone Association, not the Central Office.
ReplyDeleteIt's very sad when people let their own personal misfortune brim over into spite. As Charles Clarke said, Labour has discovered a loyalty it never had in the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s; maybe the Tories would do a bit better with something similar.
This is surely the first recorded case of blogaphobia.
ReplyDeleteBeing big on the web can be intimidating to those who have yet to purchase their first PC. It's like the prospective prospective candidates of yesteryear who turned up in motor cars when all the Constituents still rose around on horseback.
Maybe a title would help. Sir Iain Dale of Blogadiary or something.
No sign of Cameron rift with Davis or anyone else. No stir value here, I'm afraid. Nothing simmering.
Can't win them all, Iain. Got to be in it to win it, and all that. Everyone has setbacks, it's how you come back from them that counts.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you're disappointed but (seflishly) relieved! You are too good a blogger and journalist to be an MP. Stay on the outside and be a thorn in their side or give praise where it's due .... the thought of you toeing the official Conservative line is horrible to contemplate. It is their loss and our (your readers') gain.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to know by what criteria they judge. Perhaps they felt you were doing to good a job here.
ReplyDeleteMaidstone & Wealdstone's loss is the blogosphere's gain.
ReplyDeleteIain, sorry for your disappointment, but remember Ann W went for ?21 interviews before finding a seat.
ReplyDeleteHaving interviewed more candidates than I could shake a stick at, and having supervised some selections recently, I can only say that selection panels are funny old things (copyright M Thatcher), and you can rarely predict who they will think well of.
My advice to would-be candidates is always BE YOURSELF.
And heck, if you want regular influence and public recognition, you are probably better off running this blog than being an MP!
I'm genuinely very sorry, and somewhat surprised.
ReplyDeleteI think that, leaving party politics aside for a moment, the House of Commons badly needs more MPs who have actually done something outside politics, as Iain has.
Hard luck Iain
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there will be plenty of other chances, but I reckon you might be wasted as an MP anyway.
Hey Iain,
ReplyDeletewhereas I can understand you are sorely disappointed by this news, I can't help feeling that Maidstone's loss is the Blogosphere's gain. I feel you are much more influential and much more important to the Conservative movement nationally by running your exceptional blog then by being an anonynmous back-bencher. UNless of course, your close ties to David Davis assures you that once in Parliament you could legitimately aspire to a junior minister position in Davis' Home Office (should the Tories win and should Davis become a cabinet minister), in which case you would be in a position to more directly and actively serve our country (not that they don't also serve who wave their order sheets and cheer their PM).
Via your blog and you other activites you are far more important doing what you do now then most government activities i could think of!
Iain, lots of good food for thought (along with a few rasberries) in the posts above. My advice: use your dwelling on the past to help prepare for the future: for the best is yet to come.
ReplyDeleteONE comment about the process: seems remarkably non-transparent from my stranger-in-a-strange-land perspective. For example, is the list of candidates who applied for the selection process publically avaiable? Along with names of those who were picked for interviews and made the first cut?
For all its messiness, prefer US primaries to selections (or caucuses for that matter) because by definition primary elections greatly expand the number of citizens involved in the decision. This is good for the decision AND for the party. Even though primary turnout is almost always way below general election turnout (here in WA State runs about 1/2 or thereabouts) is still better than ten wackos/wackettes in dirty coats/funny hats.
Just one man's opinion.
You are an honest man, not much ot that about nowadays.
ReplyDeleteGood. You being an official party hack would completely undermine the aura of professionalism you have when you host 18 Doughty Street. We need you there. Not rotting on the back benches.
ReplyDeleteLook, if they didn't let someone as personable, politically experienced, articulate and quick-witted as you past the first interview, they have already selected someone and they're going through the mandatory motions.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you're a famous blogger and a successful publisher, you can speak out whenever you choose - not just when the Speaker calls you. I really don't see a free spirit like you being happy in the chains of Westminster pettiness and sleaze.
I think when you look back on this, after you've made the same success of your new mag that you have of this blog and Politico's, you'll recognise a lucky escape.
"Margaret on the Guillotine" is a disgusting but telling handle for a Cameroon harpie.
ReplyDeleteCentral Office interferes at every stage of the selection of a candidate in a safe Tory seat like Maidstone. Iain has been stuffed by the Wimmin2Win clique that runs the Candidates Department.
But look on the bright side - you could, if things had been different, been spending last saturday sorting out policy exchange's little local difficulty..
ReplyDeleteIain hard luck, but I can't help thinking that there are still many local Tories who would want a married male MP with wife and two children in tow.
ReplyDeleteIan - You're doing a much better job as it is - why risk being gagged by a political party regardless of which one. Stay as you are. You've really helped to change the face of politics by stripping away all the shit and saying it as it is.
ReplyDeleteCommiserations, Iain.
ReplyDeleteBetter luck with the next one.
Anon 2.43 pm said ...
ReplyDelete"Come on Iain chin up lad! Clive of India went on to great things after he had contemplated ending it all."
But he did commit suicide in the end by stabbing himself with a penknife.
They'll probably make you Lord Dale at some point.
ReplyDeleteI hope David Cameron would have the good sense to offer you a peerage so you could contribute to Parliament without compromising your independence of mind. "Lord Blogdale" perhaps? (I recollect once seeing the place name on an old map of the Yorkshire Wolds).
ReplyDeleteIain, on another thread you said; If anyone bar Giuliani or McCain is chosen as the Republican nominee, I couldn't support them.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the good people of Maidstone wanted a real conservative to represent them? Just a thought.
We pray for the souls of the Selection Committee.
ReplyDeleteStrapworld me thinks is one of those Cornish former Tory Revolutionaries.
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to say that you are one of the most influential figures in Conservative politics. During the LibDem leadership campaign more people read your blog than voted for a candidate. Though very disappointing, this will give you a chance to concentrate on your new magazine and no doubt a few more books.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your blog was influential in my decision to join the Conservative party. It might be worth running a poll to see how many people have been converted (or are thinking about it)to the party in the last year.
Iain, when we met in Fuengirola last month I saw you as a straight-talking man who should be an MP already.
ReplyDeleteI've not changed my view - you will be a credit to the HoC when you are elected somewhere else.
I've sat on selection panels before: the panel wanted different things than an open primary might like, and the voters are obviously very different at that next stage too.
Candidates in front of us cut their cloth to suit the audience they were addressing. I once helped select a (subsequently elected) MEP who pretended to be EU-realist but went native as soon as he got there. I've regretted my vote ever since.
Don't ever compromise your convictions just for a nomination, but understand that when you are selected then I will fly across and pound some pavements for you.
I was rooting for you .. I'd have voted for you for sure, you'd have been great for Maidstone. That's really hard luck, for us as well as you :(
ReplyDeleteBad luck Iain, and ignore those attacking you. If it'd been them they would have claimed they pulled out or something like that.
ReplyDeleteComiserations - but can't help feeling you are far more influential in your present role!
ReplyDeleteIain! Don't think its 'cos your Gay, it bloody well is of course, but don't go thinking it OK! 'cos we all know that in Cameron's Conservatives that sort of bigotry doesn't exist, now does it!
ReplyDeleteI recently had cause to correct your use of the phrase "bite the dust".
ReplyDeleteFor the record - THIS is biting the dust.
I can sympathise, but I wonder just how many prospective candidates there were for this after all rather safe seat.
ReplyDeleteI say this as one who has recently been put in the position of having to select our own candidate -- something I have never done before, and do not feel best qualified to do -- and having recently met 42 such potentials at a special event we hosted at Rochester and Strood. I wasn't allowed to go with them to the lunch we laid on, but I was permitted to say hello at the initial meeting for coffee.
What it taught me was the sheer scale of the operation -- dozens of approved candidates interested in fighting our seat. In reality, the probability of any specific individual being selected is small; and all of them will have their pluses (and their minuses, I expect!) -- we don't put up rubbish for these selections (I hope!)
Therefore there is no disgrace is not being selected, and it is a positive sign that so many people are interested enough to put in the effort to stand, in an age when it is, in general, actually quite difficult to get folk to stand.
I'd treat this as another rehearsal, ready for the big "YES!" that is sure to come one day.
10:01 - I don't think it had a thing to do with Iain being gay! I think they'd already made up their minds who they wanted.
ReplyDeleteIain has far more influence as a blogger, publisher and a media commentator than he would have in the HoC, except after 20 years of incremental seniority. (By which time he'd be ... given how his age is so curiously static ... oh, 56 or so.)
From the outside, though, he can be (and is) a powerful and popular voice. In fact, I think Iain probably has a unique influence and would be daft to sacrifice it to be an MP.
My views seem to reflect the opinions of most people posting here. We think Iain can be more influential outside Parliament than in it.
Come On. Iain didn't have a hope in hell.
ReplyDeleteHe's soft on jails for a start. Maidstone has a proud tradition of locking people up. (Wikipedia.) It could be a hub for asylum detention and a thriving forwarding point for those destined for the new Lakeside Prison Ship complex in Tilbury.
The many neighbouring motorways are ripe for clocking speeding motorists and Maidstone council is in the forefront of parking fines and sniffer bin pay as you throw rubbish technology.
This is the council that spent public money (council tax) on a report about young people 'hanging about'. (As if there's anything to do in Maidstone.) That should tell you something.
http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=1705689
The council hates the idea of Maidstone being anywhere near the University of Kent . . . . Oh My God . . . Students. Talking to anyone in Maidstone Council is like talking to Robert Morley in the old Cliff Richard films from the Sixties.
Only a time warp fascist will get selected anywhere near Maidstone. It's probably the most of out of touch gulag in Britain.
Hope you aren't feeling too cut up. Like Verity, I think you are very much on track with what you are now doing, and that you'd be better off perfecting your skills as a blogger, commentator, and writer, than trying so hard to get into parliament. What you have acheived here is quite remarkable. Keep it up, develop it, and continue improving, and I really think the best is yet to come.
ReplyDeleteSi
I'm sorry to hear this news, Iain. Would you address this question specifically: do you believe your sexuality was an issue for the selection panel?
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that Iain. Better luck next time.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why they'd not go for a nice guy like you?
Iain,
ReplyDeleteAlthough not a Tory, I do feel you'd be an asset to British parliamentary politics - do keep pushing, we need more intelligent, articulate individuals in the Chamber.
I would echo the thoughts of other posters by agreeing wholeheartedly that you'd represent a real benefit to opposition/goverment.
Dare I ask whether you feel you particular "personal circumstance" (go, how twee... but I'm sure you get my drift!) had anything to do with your failure to advance to the next round of interviews, especially in that part of the country?
Regards,
Wallenstein
Wallenstein, No I don't. I think it is wrong to jump to that conclusion.
ReplyDeleteWallenstein - What's your nickname? Wally? We got your "drift". So now, could you do everyone a favour and drift away?
ReplyDeleteSuch an upscale, sophisticated (even aristo) constituency seems an unlikely spot to harbor significant anti-gay sentiment.
ReplyDeleteIF the fix was already in, why didn't they let Iain make the finals THEN screw him? That's the way old Mayor Daley (and Lord Beaconsfield) used to play the game: keep your enemies close enouogh to wack'em good & proper.
As always, these things come down to one thing: who has the votes, and who does not. Clearly on this occassion Iain didn't have the votes while others did. Why? is difficult to answer as the selection process is opaque to say the least.
Think a poster above may have been on to something re: Miss Widdecombe. Could be that significant sentiment exists (even among some great fans of AW) that the constituency "deserves" a more conventional MP.
IF this is true, then Iain's greatest strengths would have counted against him IN THIS CONSTITUENCY at this particular time.
I'm sure you would have fared far better had you conducted the vetting and voting process yourself.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear it Iain.
ReplyDeleteAt least you could apply though, hundreds of men on the candidates list cannot even send in a CV.
I'm sorry. You've had a rotten year.
ReplyDeleteI hope 2008 brings better prospects.
@ Wallenstein
ReplyDeleteI concur entirely with Iain's comment.
But I'd possibly go further and suggest that in some (nameless) quarters it may even be de rigeur.
One's opinion only, of course.
Couldn't Matthew Parris give you some advice ?? He famously did well in the Tory Party, despite Mrs Thatcher having a rather low opinion of him..
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could dive into the Thames to save a drowning dog ??
Or you could tie some 'water wings' to Gio and 'rescue' him from your local duck pond - voters love that sort of 'Have a go hero saves cuddly pooch' far more than any real policies or 'I want to help my fellow man' stuff..
p.s. I am waiting for the first 'Iain is taking money off an atheist ' [sorry, the 'agnostic end of atheist' ] Don't you just love the Lib Dems ?...
If they turned you down Iain, the quality of the other candidates must be phenomenal. Sad for you but good for the Tories. There's always another seat: why not try Coventry? We haven't had a decent MP since the late and much missed John Butcher.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Verity on all her points.
ReplyDelete1. They had a candidate preselected. I wonder who he/she is.
2. You are about a million times more influential as blogger and businessman than some bankbencher will ever be.
3. please please really think twice about the whole nonsense and about better ways of serving your country while you have the chance.
and very best of luck in whatever you do decide.
Nicola Name (and others who have made similar points)
ReplyDeleteYou are about a million times more influential as blogger and businessman than some bankbencher will ever be
True - but you are assuming that if elected as an MP, Iain would remain a backbencher. I wouldn't assume that.
The point I was making was not necessarily to argue that Iain should or should not give up his media career to become an MP, but that the House of Commons badly needs more people who have done things outside of machine politics - in his case run a successful business (it only closed because of Ken's congestion charge.)
Iain, don't think for a moment that Labour bloggers would wish you any ill feeling on your attempt at becoming a candidate.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that some of your old enemies that travel through here would have loved the chance at turning you over from across the floor.
I won't say better luck next time, as you might not believe it, but perhaps you need to have a second look at your approach or get someone else to do it for you.
It needn't be this hard.
Gary
Only the truly evil with contacts can get a seat of power. Think yourself as one of the less-evil. Or not-evil-enough.
ReplyDeleteKalingrad??
ReplyDeleteIain: my politics and yours couldn't be more different - but I'm afraid that to go from a Christian conservative to a gay libertarian in one leap may have been too much of a shock to the system.
ReplyDeleteI will never, ever vote Tory, but as we have to have Tory Mp's (!) it may as well be you....
First Rhydian and now this. People are clearly morons.
ReplyDeleteIain, I thought you were v.good on the Sky papers review yesterday. This news is Maidstone's loss clearly however have you not thought of defecting to Labour? They always reward defectors. You don't even have to be an existing MP to be welcomed with open arms: http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/165220/5998c290-b35c-c134-c922-d0be59cac454
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was simply the combination of your really poor result in Norfolk in 2005 with the jitters of the near loss of a the safe seat in not-too-far-away Bromley in 2006 made you just too much of an unecessary risk Iain.
ReplyDeleteOn paper, all you good media work could never offset such a bad result. Perhaps you need to first erase that blemish by fighting a seat that will (hopefully) show you can *increase* or at least maintain the Tory vote.
Bad luck Iain. Everyone knows you are doing a great job for the party with your media work
ReplyDeleteMy mole tells me that Sir Alan Haselhurst will retire after the next GE.
ReplyDeleteIain for Saffron Walden!!!! Lets start a camapign!!!