Six of the best

I know it’s a bit spurious of me to blog of the Woking PPC selection because I can’t mention details on here of who’s involved etc.

What I can say is that it was a pretty intensive experience that gave me an good insight into what people who want to be MPs have to go through and it must have been pretty nervewracking for them. A few were obviously very nervous and some showed it less although must have been inside.

At the end of the initial selection, we have going forward six excellent candidates, any of whom I think would make a superb MP for Woking and would be in a good position to keep Rosie Sharpley safely out of reach of that honour. She has a decent record as a councillor but is in no way suited to being Woking’s next MP.

During the county elections, we only won in the Woking constituency by 1,609 votes – 5,000 short of Humfrey Malins’s current parliamentary majority. That kind of figure simply won’t be good enough in 2010.We need a candidate who is not only electable, likeable and normal but one who has a proven connection with the area and who is a top-notch campaigner. With the exception of 2007, the Conservatives have largely underachieved in Woking during the past 15 years. That’s not the fault of individuals, it’s a collective issue. We need greater coherence, better messaging and sharper tactics to respond to a very real Lib Dem threat. We need a PPC who is prepared to come in and lead from the front to shape and operate a smarter campaign and who has the track record to show they can.

If they aren’t that person, or don’t inspire that campaign, what looked like a superb opportunity to occupy a safe seat in parliament could turn into a bitter disappointment and one of election night 2010′s “shock” results.

Six gets narrowed down to four this Saturday.

Meritocracy or madness?

There’s been a bit of a stir in Conservative ranks since the party launched its new selection guidelines for 2010, which included the stipulation that shortlists for selection must contain a 50:50 male/female balance. This is the process that we are following in Woking to select Humfrey’s successor.

A ConservativeHome poll suggests that 91% of party members are against this with just six percent in favour. Count me as among the six percent.

Discrimination of any kind, be it against the minority or the majority, goes against everything I stand for. But at the moment, 91% of the parliamentary party is male (the same number as those opposing the new rules) and there are just 17 female Tory MPs. This is despite DC’s “modernisation” and everything the party has been through since 1997 – we have just four more female MPs elected in the two elections since then.

I think that the Conservative Women’s Organisation and Women2Win are vital to the party’s future and a few of the naysayers would do well to visit the websites. There is no magic solution to the gender imbalance within the Conservative Parliamentary Party but there are compelling reasons why something needs to be done.

First of all, credibility. Unless the party increases the number of women elected, it will simply not be taken seriously, especially by the women voters so vital to success. There is also a trust implication here – we have promised to modernise the party and this is a significant benchmark – to fail here is akin to a broken promise.

Then there is simple natural justice. It is intolerable that such a large proportion of our representatives are taken from such a small pool – however distinguished that pool may be. I don’t care if we have old Etonians splashing around; but I want to see some more people like Nadine Dorries, Justine Greening and Anne Widdecombe who can truly claim to represent a broad spectrum of people.

Thirdly, it will be beneficial to the party and the country to have a more prominent female input into policy and the administration of policy. It will also demonstrate to some of the more resolute grandees that progress is here and they need to get used to it. It’s about time that we dragged this party into the 21st century and if that means balanced shortlists, fine.

I know that I’m probably the only member of the panel in Woking in favour of the 50:50 rule. But the party as a whole has demonstrably and catagorically failed in this area for 30 years – the past 10 years of which have been spent saying that something would be done. Now something is being done and those who don’t like the method can’t say they weren’t warned.