Sunday, January 20, 2008
Boys and Girls, Young and Old
Iain Dale has a deeply thought provoking piece in yesterday's EDP (sadly not on-line) about the trend in Norfolk Conservative PPCs. Newly selected Chloe Smith (Norwich North) got a splash in the paper mainly focused on being a young candidate - she's a tender 25 years old. But the fact is that the Conservatives are a younger party now (CF has more members than its Labour and LibDem equivalents put together) and Norwich / Norfolk have a strong youth wing of the party. Also the Norfolk Conservatives have strong trackrecord of trusting their younger members with standing for parliament - I was 26 on being selected for Norwich South in '04, whilst we also had 26 year old James Tumbridge (Norwich North) and 28 year old Trevor Ivory (North Norfolk). Chloe isn't remarkable beause of her age, but, as Iain points out, because of her sex. She's only the second female candidate in Norfolk for the Conservatives since Gillian Shepherd was chosen for South West Norfolk in 1983. Well done, Chloe - it doesn't matter if you are a boy, girl, young or old, Norwich North needs a Conservative.
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3 comments:
Antony, once again, your ability to put party above your own personal ambitions sets you out as a real jewel in the crown of the Tory Party.
As a Norwich North resident I am in a dilema. I really want a Conservative government, but equally I reall want Ian Gibson to be our MP. Can I have both? Probably not, so I'm forced to choose. If you were the candidate there would be no choice Antony because I think you'd make an excellent parliamentarian in the mould of Dr Gibson.
I know nothing about this new young lady and, having allowed my Tory membership to lapse some years ago, I couldn't turn up to vote. She'd have to be remarkable to win this seat. It's just a shame the local Tories have turned their backs on the one man who could have beaten Gibson.
Kepe at it, Antony.
Thanks for that Anon; although I am flattered I cannot agree with the thrust of what you say. Chloe Smith is a fine candidate who'll certain show up the fault lines in Dr Gibson. Maybe you should renew your party membership and get involved? I am sure that I'd prefer Smith in parliament to Gibson!
Anyone attending a city council count in recent years would notice that the Tories rival the Greens for the number of younger faces in their ranks. Labour on the other hand.....
Will reserve judgment on Chloe. I recall a colleague saying how good James T was last time around and yet he acheived no swing at all. Will wait to see if Chloe can make a bigger impact.
As for Gibson's fault lines - they are very apparent but unfortunately that seems to be the reason a lot of people keep voting for him.
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