Sunday, December 11, 2005
Cameron to announce "A-List"
David Cameron is on Monday poised to announce a radical plan to increase the number of female Tory MPs.
Announcing a short-term freeze on candidate selection, Cameron is set to create an "A-list" of candidates, where women will feature strongly.
Half of the A-list candidates will be female and Cameron wants ethnic minority candidates to feature among its number.
Local Tory associations are being warned that they must select from the list unless they can prove there are 'exceptional circumstances'.
Commenting on the policy, deputy chairman Bernard Jenkin said: "The election of David Cameron as Conservative leader has demonstrated that there is a huge desire for change at all levels in the party.
"Members want to make sure that we have the best possible candidates at the next election and that the party is representative of Britain today."
I don't know about you but I am against this, it appears positive discrimination (if such a term is not an oxymoron) is being forced on us. Of course a am all for women being selected and then elected as MPs - but any selection policy should be done by the local association on the basis of merit and talent for the job, and not by the national party on the basis of whether or not you have a vagina.
# posted by Chris Hughes @ 2:40 pm 
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I really don't like this idea! I think it's important for a candidate to be "Local" you represent your own people! I know that if i was ever an MP i'd want to live where i'm representing for a reasonable amount of time before hand.
If you had presented me with this idea a year ago I would have been a tad angry.
However at the moment I feel this is a positive step. Currently we have a disgraceful number of female and ethnic minorities (which should also be looked) as Conservative MP's. For a party and a parliament that is there to represent everyone in society, you would be forgiven for thinking it was decided by white middle and upper class men. This needs to change. Considering some of the utter tosh that we have got in some previous candidates for example the lad who stood here, John Harrison, then I am all for broadening the selection process
Cameron's policy is not forcing female candidates on the local branches like Labour have done. Rather it is about giving women greater access to a process that has for to long been biased in favour of males.
Whilst it may not seem the best way having to force this upon local associations, it is the only way and will eventually lead to a more representative Party.
However at the moment I feel this is a positive step. Currently we have a disgraceful number of female and ethnic minorities (which should also be looked) as Conservative MP's. For a party and a parliament that is there to represent everyone in society, you would be forgiven for thinking it was decided by white middle and upper class men. This needs to change. Considering some of the utter tosh that we have got in some previous candidates for example the lad who stood here, John Harrison, then I am all for broadening the selection process
Cameron's policy is not forcing female candidates on the local branches like Labour have done. Rather it is about giving women greater access to a process that has for to long been biased in favour of males.
Whilst it may not seem the best way having to force this upon local associations, it is the only way and will eventually lead to a more representative Party.
Well its a statistical certainty that the Conservatives in Ruislip select Etonians who get elected by the rest of the population (albeit on decreasing majorities from 20,000 plus in the 1980s and an absolute majority of the votes cast to where it can be a three way seat based on the 2005 result.
If it becomes realistic for it to happen in my home, the Tory Rhondda of old, then quite frankly we need surgery, even if it whacks white men like me out of the frame.
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If it becomes realistic for it to happen in my home, the Tory Rhondda of old, then quite frankly we need surgery, even if it whacks white men like me out of the frame.
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