As most of you know, this weekend is an important one for me, as tomorrow afternoon I will be taking part in the Open Primary in Bracknell. I'm up against six other terrific candidates so I don't underestimate the magnitude of the task ahead of me. Any one of them would make a great MP.
Preparing for an Open Primary isn't easy. We're not asked to make a normal speech. Instead, we make a three minute opening statement, answer questions for 20 minutes and then make a closing three minute statement. As there are seven of us, the whole event may last five hours as I suspect there will be at least two rounds of voting.
So forgive me if I disappear now for the rest of the day. I'm doing the Daily Politics at noon on BBC2 but after that it's time to mug up on all the things I have learnt about the constituency over the last month.
The next time you hear from me I will either be in a state of elation or depression! I know I will sound like an X Factor contestant, but I really do want this. And that's what I need to convey tomorrow.
All the best for tomorrow Iain.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that we may lose your fabulous blog!
very best of luck Iain, fingers crossed for you
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with this, Mr Dale.
ReplyDeleteParliament needs you, Mr D.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Iain - politics needs people you!
ReplyDelete.............and even if the good people of Berkshire Forest can't digest you then there's always Spelthorne!
ReplyDeleteIain
ReplyDeleteI think the mssage you must convey is not "I really do want this" but that "why they should really want you."
In the eyes of the selectorate, it's about them, not you. What you want is of no importance to them.
Best of luck, Iain.
Good Luck Iain - you deserve it
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to you, Iain! Hope you succeed.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry but I don't see why any of the candidates would make a good constituency MP. All have great CVs but there is an enormous leap of faith to saying they are the best to represent Bracknell in Parliament.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I am wrong but I believe none has more than a tenuous link with Bracknell. They have all been parachuted in. These open primaries would be lot more interesting if there were a RON (ReOpen Nominations) choice on the ballot slip. Instead this is more like a magician's 3card trick.
Best of luck Iain for tomorrow, hope all goes well.
ReplyDeleteDale what is it with your ties..
ReplyDeleteBreak a leg, as we thespians say.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck - Parliament needs you!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck Iain, hope all goes well, fingers crossed etc.
ReplyDelete(not wishing to distract you, but knowing your recent troubles with the Daily Vile thought you might be interested in this rather nasty innuendo-based article on Stephen Gately - they really have no shame
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1220756/Why-natural-Stephen-Gatelys-death.html)
Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteGood luck. No idea why you want to move from what you are doing now to become an MP, but all the best in the selection.
ReplyDeleteI hope you lose the general election of course, but that is nothing personal and pure tribal politics!
All the best.
ReplyDeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteWell Iain, good luck and as my 14 year old son would say "go for it"
ReplyDeleteI must say the the HoC could do with some new blood and I think you fit the bill.
Regards
I wish you the very best of luck Iain - I know you will do very well!
ReplyDeleteHanworth & Birch Hill Ward, Bracknell Forest DC. Con hold. Con 640 (42.4%, -14.2), Lab 377 (25%, -1.9), LD 206 (13.7%, +13.7), UKIP 139 (9.2%, +9.2), Green 77 (5.1%, -11.3), BNP 70 (4.6%, +4.6). Swing of 6.2% from Con to Lab since 2007.
ReplyDeleteGood to see your canvassing the other day had such a positive effect - long may it continue
Best of luck Iain, positive vibes making their way up the A322 :-)
ReplyDeleteYour international readership (well at least this bit of it in Canada) wishes you every success. Hope to be reading an elated post tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteRemember it is what you will do for them.
Interested of Bracknell: You are so right. I really do think that mp's should be from the area they represent, and public servants such as police, firemen etc. should live in the area in which they are employed.
ReplyDeleteI suppos IoB can only hope that the best of the 7, whoever it may be, gets the nod and the seat.
Good luck!
ReplyDeleteMy first every post on this blog -
ReplyDeleteGood luck iain!
Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteIf you get this, you do realise you would inevitably be known in the House as Lady Bracknell?
ReplyDeleteGood luck, although a pity this would mean less blogging from you.
I wish you well - but I certainly wouldn't want you as my MP.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but it's true. Iain you shine in other things... Don't let your ego destroy your promising career in the media. It'll end in tears.
Speaking of my MP I hope that dreadful Alan Haselhurst resigns at the next election. He is all about the past. Time for change.
Interested of Bracknell
ReplyDeleteHow many MPs really come from within the boundaries?
Iain Dale has committed to having a house within the constituency. What else should one do?
Besides:
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html
People will love your friendly easy manner and voice.
ReplyDeleteJust enjoy yourself and good luck.
Remember you have soooooooo much to fall back on. Many strings to your bow, lucky you.
What is all this nonsense that MPs should be from the area they wish to represent?
ReplyDeleteHad we followed such a rule then our country would never have had the benefit of Winston Churchill or Margaet Thatcher (or Ted Heath for that matter, but that might undermine the arguement!)
No-one expects their GP to live above the surgery nor question the quality of their greengrocers bananas because he doesn't live nearby.
What people want is a decent, honest, hard working constituecy representative who will fight for their interests and contribute to the good governance of their country.
Very best of luck.
ReplyDeleteI was at school with Rory Stewart and what he has done with his life so far makes me feel less than an inch tall (I'm 6'2"). Having said that, may the best person win.
ReplyDeleteTo Interested of Bracknell.
ReplyDeleteI think you will find that Dr Phillip Lee lives just a few miles outside the constituency and that his practice covers some of the constituency. Phillip himself covers the whole of Berkshire as a locum and an on-call GP.
Bedford Mayor gone to second round ---between Lib Dems and Conservative---in case you're interested
ReplyDeletejulian de montefiore: "Break a leg, as we thespians say"
ReplyDeleteBut Iain's not a thespian - he's a gay man!
I hope that Rory Stewart gets selected - he's a Great Briton, rather than a little Englander like our host! :-)
all the best. head up focus on back row of hall. Keep eyeline up al all times and shoulders well back, BUm well beck in seat,PROJECT,SMILE, drink warm not iced water all that said you'll sail through....JB
ReplyDeleteGo in there and prepare for government
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that Iain, I don't know where Bracknell is but it sounds Tory to me...
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteAll the best - it it's right for you, it will happen.
ReplyDeleteLib Dems beat Conservatives by 2000 votes for Bedford Mayorship
ReplyDeleteGood luck. Try not to get angry if you're asked about Jan Moir's piece about Stephen Gately.
ReplyDelete_
I'm utterly shocked by that Daily Mail article.
ReplyDeleteIt makes the Hardcastle homophobia against Iain look positively tame.
It's a shame Iain's so busy in a way as I'm confident he'd take up the cause.
Good Luck Iain.
ReplyDeleteIain
ReplyDeleteIf you read this (from a highly distinguished and practical economist) :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/09/cameron-osborne-recession-recovery-inflation
realise that it is true and that as an MP you should oppose legislation that will do more harm than good then you deserve to be selected...
The issue with parachuting in candidates is a simple one: it's the tories (other parties are no better) saying "I am afraid that you aren't up to representing yourselves. Don't worry - we'll do it for you."
ReplyDeleteThis is a continuation of the political elite. 100,000 people in Bracknell yet no-one meets the grade? Unlikely.
Good luck Iain but please note that what you are participating in is not in any sense an "open primary". An open primary would be a ballot open to every elector in the constituency, held by post or at polling stations like a general election. The meeting you are taking part in is more accurately described as an "open caucus".
ReplyDeleteBest of Luck
ReplyDeleteIain Thank you for the canvasing help in getting me elected last night. Very much appreciated. Hard choice to make tommorow due to getting to know the 6 of you during the campaign. All excellent candidates with diffrent qualities on offer, I hope people go in to the meeting tommorow with an open mind and make their descion on what is said. I know I will
ReplyDeleteThe very best of luck to you sir!
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
ReplyDeleteHint - people care most about money.
ReplyDeleteThey pretend and even believe all kinds of other crap, but when the real choices are made, money talks.
How good is Iain Dale at managing money? Or George Osborne? Or Boris Johnson?
And at least how much money will you steal from your voters?
Reality time is impacting on Britain.
Will you stop Britain from heading over the cliff into bankruptcy Iain?
I AM SPARTICUS said...
ReplyDeletegood luck mate. i hope you succeed.you have all the makings of a great Tory member of parliament. so don't forget us mere mortals when you stride,like a colossus,over the serried ranks of mediocrity.
Um - good luck Iain - but respectfully the point isn't how much you want to do the job (I'm sure you do, and I dare say the other candidates do too), but rather what distinctive and special qualities you will bring which will make you serve your constituents better.
ReplyDeleteOT: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop wasting taxpayers' money on climate change propaganda designed to frighten our children.
ReplyDeleteNo10 Climate Ad petition
Good luck tomorrow, Iain. You'd be a wonderful MP, with more maturity, judgement and experience than some - but if you end up in Parliament, please try to retain a degree of autonomy - sometimes what our party leadership truly needs is friendly scrutiny and criticism, not obedient lobby-fodder!
ReplyDelete(Sending Rory Stewart to Parliament would be a fascinating experiment - whether a disaster or not, time only would tell, but in any event fun to watch. Still, if the choice were mine, you'd get Bracknell and he's get Penrith - after all, it's a marvellous place for long hilly walks, which, given his Afghan experiences, he'd probably enjoy.)
Best of luck to you mate!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck Iain. I voted for you in the North Norfolk last general election because of your integrity and sense of fair play. Only wish I could vote for you now.
ReplyDeleteAll the best, Iain. You will make a great MP. Hope you succeed.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
ReplyDeleteCall it how you see it and say what you think.
Good luck, please link to my politics blog :)
ReplyDeletei have my fingers crossed for you Iain,i just hope the daily mail readers stay at home.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes/ Just promise not to claim expenses.
ReplyDeleteWV=felon !
Very best of luck, Iain. I think you would be an outstanding MP.
ReplyDeleteMatthew
Do not forget to stay on the side of the people.
ReplyDeleteWe have been betrayed by mainstream politics.I could genuinely weep at the money they have taken for themselves.Why should people earning £8,000 help support people earning £65-£121k?
Be true to yourself and your parents.
I remember your support for the way the primary at Bedford was held Iain. I thought then that the processes and things that went on were corrupt practices. Now it has gone to the Lib Dems perhaps you might want to reconsider. The people of Bedford were not stupid. The democratic process won out in the end and the Tories lost. What went on was a disgrace to democracy and should be consigned to third world countries and banana republics!
ReplyDeleteGood luck Iain! Hope you become the candidate and then after a GE the MP!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck, Iain.
ReplyDeleteI've been away all day and I'm not sure what all the fuss has been about but your twitter stuff about the dead boyzone seems to have taken priority over your Bracknell stuff and you might note that the pro Moir talkbacks did actually exceed the antis. I very much doubt that Bracknell voters will be happy to be religated to a secondary role if there is a gayers or israeli first issue for you to pursue.
ReplyDeletewv docati "nearly ducati"
Good Luck Iain
ReplyDeleteCant you bypass being just a MP and go staight to being PM
have sent you an E.Mail on iain@iaindale.com. Please look at it, if you have a moment.
ReplyDeleteBracknell is a new town and was founded by migrants who came from east London and elswhere.
You will, I hope, be the latest addition to this flock. Good luck.
I'll go against the grain, here, if I may:
ReplyDeleteIain, I see you as a great political commentator, and an influential mouthpiece for progressive ideas within the Conservative party.
However, from reading several of your comments about the whole "MP expenses scandal" thing, you've given me the impression that you don't quite connect with the depth of feeling, nor the reason why the electorate is so thoroughly disgusted with MPs on this issue.
And in my view, until you DO understand that, I really don't want you to become an MP. Sorry, but that's the way I feel. Although I do not dislike you from what I know of you, still, I have to say that I wouldn't vote for you, because I'm not sure that you really understand the prime edict that as am MP, "you work for us, not we for you". I would rather that you continue as an influential blogger, publisher, and disseminater of ideas and political debate. That's where your talents lie, in my opinion.
Bavaria is rooting for you, but not in the Biblical sense.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
ReplyDeleteI don't live in Bracknell, but I would love to have you as my local MP.
Though after reading this -
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n13/stew01_.html
- I think I'd like to see your opponent as Defense Secretary, rather than the faintly absurd Liam Fox.
I don't understand why you are standing for Bracknell. Apart from the fact that you want to be a professional politician. Isn't that 'profession' part of the problem?
ReplyDeleteThe population of an area surely are entitled to a representative from within their ranks, unless what exactly? The party hierarchy considers the local electorate to be too stupid, the party is too weak in that area to provide a single candidate, there is no interest whatsoever in the local electorate in providing a candidate? My area has a Tory MP who is a good constituency MP, less good at Westminster, but he was parachuted in, and if a local Tory ran against him, the local would win hands down everytime because even after all these years he "is not one of us". I will go further: he is actually disliked because of the fact that he was rewarded with a safe seat for services to the hierarchy, and there are many locals who would like to see him fall on his face purely for that reason. Iain can actually do more for the party as a blogger and media personality than he ever will as an MP, and that is fact.
ReplyDeleteMy mother is attending and has been fully briefed.
ReplyDeleteBest of British.
Lets hope those concerned recognise just what you have achieved for not only the Tories but politics in general.
ReplyDeleteVery best wishes for your success
Fenman
Oink, oink!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck, Iain!
ReplyDeleteClimate change Ad has received over 200 complaints so far.
ReplyDeleteIain you have to understand that its not about you in this selection - its about getting the best candidate to become Conservative PPC. To say how much you really want this is turning the attention on to you.
ReplyDeleteSo be careful on that one...
Also focus more on policy - and want policies you particularly want to put on your own political agenda. I have read your blog and you don't mention enough on policy prescriptions in my opinion, its dominated by personality.
jojoko,
ReplyDeleteActually due to the Expense problems of the current parliament the local candidate thing is actually going to be done away with IMO.
Instead we will have a more professional parliament where decent MPs are selected because they are good politicians. Not because they know X and Y in an association or in the Lib Dem case have lived their all their lives. What sort of yardstick is that to use against people as whether they are fit for office? Lib Dems had for a while caught prople with the thinking it was a good thing but when you look at their MPs who claim to be local if you look around various LD MPs they are all currently campaigning on local post office closure, Railway stations/links, local by-passes or road expansion or green belt areas. Nothing local about that but a central Lib Dem strategy.
The profiliration of localism has left this country with a Lib Dem blocking minority that has proped Labour up at General Election time for the last three elections.
It is time for this country to elect the best on national issues not who can talk loadest on dog fouling or bin collections.
We live in a changed world and our politics needs to chnage with it.
I dont know the result of the selection but will be pleased as Punch if Iain gets it, If not he is still a top bloke and a talent politics has not heard the last of so Good luck Iain!
commiserations
ReplyDeleteNope. The blog stays. I can think about voting Tory again. Bad luck, Iain. Good luck for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteSea Shanty Irish here:
ReplyDeleteJust got the word, that Iain came in third, and that Philip Lee has been selected.
Am sorry you didn't make it THIS time, Iain. But you made a very good showing given the quality of the field.
Better luck next time!
And I'm convinced their will be a next time. Keep in mind, there are plenty great parliamentarians past and present, from all parties, who had to brave selection gauntlet more than thrice before they were selected AND elected.
Be the bulldog!
Sea Shanty Irish here:
ReplyDeletePhilipa, then I reckon you also don't understand why (for example) Winston Churchill ran, was selected and elected consecutively for Oldham, Manchester North West, Dundee, Epping and Woodford.
The reason is simple: under British parliamentary practice of VERY long standing, constituencies are NOT compelled to elect a local resident to represent them in the House of Commons.
Instead, they are free to choose any otherwise qualified candidate from any part of the UK (or even beyond). While this has had it's downside, for example in case of pre- (and even post-) reform rotten boroughs for example, the upside is proven by many distinguished AND non-resident parliamentarians who served their constituents AND their country very well.
The idea of electing a local worthy sounds great. BUT all to often, the practical result is (or would be) selection and election of a party hack. That's esp. true of safe seats, of which there are (all too) many.
illiberal democrat, I couldn't disagree with you more. Face up to the fact that the public doesn't vote libdem because they aren't convinced the fencesitters are up the job. As for localism being the devil that has dragged this country down, I would say the complete opposite. It is the collectivism of all political and public services that has infuriated the populace and destroyed local government. The people of a market town are fit and able to govern their own public services. Police, A&E, etc. stationed 30 or more miles away does not save money or lives. Politicians parachuted in as a reward for handlicking are not wanted when a local candidate with experience of local politics through serving on parish, district and county councils, or donating time as a school governor, working with charitable organisations etc. will be known to the local electorate and they can decide whether he/she is good enough for the job of MP. Carry on screaming about the unfairness of the voting system to libdems. If you and your party came up with some decent policies and credible leaders, you would have no problem in attracting votes. Those who sit on fences usually wind up with splinters in sensitive areas.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is certain. LibDems will not be forming the next Parliament as for sitting as a scholl governor, local councillor and so on, it these very people - the professional committee members that need to be taken out of politics and repleace with people who have experience of the big bad worl. The country is virtually bust,they say if the British population starves for three or more days there will be a civil war. Hard nosed decisions now have to be made and quickly. Iain might just have introduced some original thinking but perhaps the good citizens havde actually got the candidate they deserve, not the candidate they need
ReplyDeleteBRAYS DUCKHOUSE BLOG: http://tinyurl.com/pknlxn
The people with experience of the big bad world are the very ones who are running the country now. And running it into the ground they surely are. It seems that their experience of the big bad world has enticed them into the very behaviour they claim to abhor. It is time for local government to be given back to local people and taken out of the hands of Westminster. It works well in other countries, and God knows a change is due.
ReplyDelete