[Politics] Does it matter where constituency candidates come from?

[PascalGroß Tips]

His record in Lambeth would raise serious reservations about that question.

One of our councillors is missing

www.streathamstuff.co.uk

That doesn't read well for 'Young' Tom and he perhaps needs to address it ASAP before we need to put an 'X' in a box.

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

I'm glad someone's mentioned Ashley Ridley, just 23 and zero chance of getting elected, but he's banged on our door and is fully committed to the role. I hope the Lib Dems recognise this, and that when he stands in a constituency or ward where he's got the chance of being elected the residents judge him less by where he's come from and more by what he'll do.

I went to the hustings in Shoreham for the 2019 election. Ashley was obviously very young then (still is really) and I have a brief conversation with him after and told him I thought he'd come over well. I was following him on twitter at the time and I felt he did let himself down a bit after the election with some rather silly and childish and not very nice tweets. Hopefully he's matured a bit 5 years on ... not that that's likely to help him this time around.

 

[Pinkie Brown]

All the parties do it. Some more cynical than others. Worst examples in my eyes, those MPs who bail out of a dodgy seat on the chicken run and into a seamingly safer one. Going back to 1997, Bottomley took flight to Worthing West from his dodgy London seat. His claim to the area at the time, he'd been a regular visitor to the town as a child when Auntie lived in Grand Avenue. How nice.

Nicholas Soames jumped ship from Crawley to neighbouring Mid Sussex, citing feeling more at home in a rural environment. Like, he would have ever lived in Crawley. Fair play to him earlier today for calling out Farage and Tice as running a huge ponzi scheme with Reform. He occasionally talks sense.

This year there are several examples of tory chicken runners. Afaik six so far. Richard Holden Tory MP for NW Durham, despite earlier denials, parachuted into Basildon, causing anger amongst some local activists. Cue his car crash interview on Sky several days ago with Jon Craig where an aide stepped in to stop the interview.

Worst my opinion is the Tory candidate for Bexhill and Battle, a Dr Kieran Mullan. From the Midlands originally he had two failed local attempts at getting a candidate gig before landing Crewe and Nantwich in 2019. With his Crewe seat looking dodgy this year, he applied for the neighbouring Chester seat and didn't make the cut. He then took flight to Bexhill where he got lucky, stepping into the shoes of the departing Huw Merriman. Reports from Crewe suggest him to be an unpleasant individual and for a so called NHS doctor, a curious voting record - recently voted against stronger anti smoking measures. The latest Survation poll gives Labour around a five point lead over the tories in the seat - unthinkable in 'normal' times. The Labour candidate does appear the only local candidate having been a Rother councillor.

Worryingly, almost 20% polled suggest they would vote reform. The same Reform candidate who it was revealed a few days back, suggested Hitler was a good egg and women were a 'tax burden.' Seems a delightful individual. Originally from up north despite his claims of being local. The LibDem appears to be a councillor from North Kent so another with no local roots.

There are a couple of independants for the seat. One is a Bexhill councillor. Problem is aside some whacky ramblings, he is also on bail and due to answer charges at Hove in September of harassing his neighbours. Interesting. Another independant is a radical feminist with some curious views. She's apparently a big mate of Julie Burchill. Regardless of her views, that alone would be a huge red flag for me.

As mentioned earlier all parties parachute non locals in some form and this year is no different. Sitting MPs on the chicken run always stand out more and get most publicity. As somebody mentioned earlier, Luke Akehurst who has expressed some obnoxious views in the past, standing for Labour in Durham after being a councillor in Oxford stands out as quite cynical.

 

[Questions]

Carl Walker should have got the gig, the NHS candidate thing wasn't an issue, as he has stood for Labour twice locally since then but young Tom was effectively 'parachuted in' by the NEC, hence Carl's regrettable resignation from the local party.

It’s not that Carl is left of centre ?

 

[Lenny Rider]

It’s not that Carl is left of centre ?

He told me he was bordering on a Marxist in the Guilbourne Centre last week, but I thought Sir Keir's lot were a broadchurch

 

[Lenny Rider]

That doesn't read well for 'Young' Tom and he perhaps needs to address it ASAP before we need to put an 'X' in a box.

But in the current climate even a Chimpanzee bedecked in Red would win East Worthing on 4th July.

 

[zefarelly]

Who is that then?

I've certainly not voted for Laughton since I moved back to Sussex.

I'm also not criticising "Tom 4 Places That Begin With W That Have A Mosque" personally, merely the whole concept of parachuting in candidate in this way. I readily acknowledge in my opening post that all parties do this. His now-deleted-but-handily-archived Wycombe campaigning site does nicely expose the whole thing for what it is though.

Just a generalisation . . . There can't be many 'local' (yokel) local MP's

Just did a quick google . . . . Roughly half (If like me you can't be arsed to analyse the detail!)

As long as you, me or anyone votes ( a good start) and for whomever they consider to best represents their beliefs/opinions, is all that really matters.

the fact they're a silver spoon public school boy millionaire, flakey townie, a different colour, are religious, or just David Ike, should not make any difference . . .

 

[Questions]

He told me he was bordering on a Marxist in the Guilbourne Centre last week, but I thought Sir Keir's lot were a broadchurch

I’d like him to have stood.

 

[WATFORD zero]

But in the current climate even a Chimpanzee bedecked in Red would win East Worthing on 4th July.

A bit like Bottomley has since he dived from Eltham in 97 (which went Labour that particular GE) to Worthing West which managed to remain Conservative despite a Labour GE win. But it was definitely because there were no reasonable Parliamentary candidates in the whole party or area, that he flew in from the obviously failing Eltham to rescue West Worthing conservatives.

Absolutely nothing to do with it being of of the safest Conservative seats in an oncoming Labour win. And he never ever possessed a parachute

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

All the parties do it. Some more cynical than others. Worst examples in my eyes, those MPs who bail out of a dodgy seat on the chicken run and into a seamingly safer one. Going back to 1997, Bottomley took flight to Worthing West from his dodgy London seat. His claim to the area at the time, he'd been a regular visitor to the town as a child when Auntie lived in Grand Avenue. How nice.

Nicholas Soames jumped ship from Crawley to neighbouring Mid Sussex, citing feeling more at home in a rural environment. Like, he would have ever lived in Crawley. Fair play to him earlier today for calling out Farage and Tice as running a huge ponzi scheme with Reform. He occasionally talks sense.

This year there are several examples of tory chicken runners. Afaik six so far. Richard Holden Tory MP for NW Durham, despite earlier denials, parachuted into Basildon, causing anger amongst some local activists. Cue his car crash interview on Sky several days ago with Jon Craig where an aide stepped in to stop the interview.

Worst my opinion is the Tory candidate for Bexhill and Battle, a Dr Kieran Mullan. From the Midlands originally he had two failed local attempts at getting a candidate gig before landing Crewe and Nantwich in 2019. With his Crewe seat looking dodgy this year, he applied for the neighbouring Chester seat and didn't make the cut. He then took flight to Bexhill where he got lucky, stepping into the shoes of the departing Huw Merriman. Reports from Crewe suggest him to be an unpleasant individual and for a so called NHS doctor, a curious voting record - recently voted against stronger anti smoking measures. The latest Survation poll gives Labour around a five point lead over the tories in the seat - unthinkable in 'normal' times. The Labour candidate does appear the only local candidate having been a Rother


councillor for several years. Worryingly, almost 20% polled suggest they would vote reform. The same Reform candidate who it was revealed a few days back, suggested Hitler was a good egg and women were a 'tax burden.' Seems a delightful individual. Originally from up north despite his claims of being local. The LibDem appears to be a councillor from North Kent so another with no local roots.

There are a couple of independants for the seat. One is a Bexhill councillor. Problem is aside some whacky ramblings, he is also on bail and due to answer charges at Hove in September of harassing his neighbours. Interesting. Another independant is a radical feminist with some curious views. She's apparently a big mate of Julie Burchill. Regardless of her views, that alone would be a huge red flag for me.

As mentioned earlier all parties parachute non locals in some form and this year is no different. Sitting MPs on the chicken run always stand out more and get most publicity. As somebody mentioned earlier, Luke Akehurst who has expressed some obnoxious views in the past, standing for Labour in Durham after being a councillor in Oxford stands out as quite cynical.

Excellent research and insight. Appreciated

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

But in the current climate even a Chimpanzee bedecked in Red would win East Worthing on 4th July.

Thanks heavens for the current climate

 

[BrightonCottager]

I've not read all 7 pages of this thread, but this has been on my mind recently as well. When I took my daughter to one of her University open day we got a sample lecture from a politics Prof. It was on the subject of whether an MP had to be representative of the constituents they represent in terms of coming from there, age, gender, social and ethnic background, religion etc etc. She had a show of hands at the beginning (most people said yes) & after presenting the theories and examples most voted no - it was how they represented us that was important .

On the subject of who represents me in Brighton Pavilion, I'd rather have someone who is used to operating as an opposition politician and holding a majority Labour administration to account (& whose views and policies align with mine), than someone with zero political experience in a ruthlessly disciplinary party that has lurched to the right.

 

[halbpro]

Politics, a football coach and works in retail. He really does like being in the public firing line doesnt he.

Did think that, although I imagine knocking on doors is probably lightwork for him

 

[The Clamp]

I work with a chap who happens to be a Tory Councillor in Wedt Sussex I think.

Lovely attitude from him that I overheard the other week

“I do f*** all”

These people get over a grand a month in allowances and expenses.

 

[jackalbion]

Liz from Labour bravely made her way up my drive a few evenings ago to ask me about my voting intentions.

I say bravely because Henry, my large Labrador, was barking quite ferociously at her whilst I sat on the doorstep dripping with sweat having just completed a run.

Henry's a complete softy, but she wasn't to know that.

Anyway, at the end of our chat she asked me how likely out of 10 I was to vote for Labour. I said six. If I had ten voting probability points to distribute, the Liberal Democats would have the remaining four.

Yesterday I did a bit of research on Tom Rutland, the Labour candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham, and quickly found out he was recently a councillor in Lambeth. He resigned to pursue his Parliamentary ambitions. From best I can tell he has absolutely no connection to this area at all, it's just a vehicle to get him to where he wants to be. That's Westminster, not West Sussex.

East Worthing and Shoreham comes calling for Labour Cllr Tom Rutland as Streatham residents seek out their missing man

If you’re a resident in Streatham Common and Vale ward then Saturday might be a momentous morning for you

www.brixtonbuzz.com

AWOL Labour Cllr Tom Rutland finally resigns from Lambeth Council to concentrate on becoming the next MP for East Shoreham and Worthing

Two by-elections now look set to take place in Lambeth following the resignation of yet another Lambeth Labour Councillor.

www.brixtonbuzz.com

My Labour voting probability is now zero out of ten.

I know all parties do this to some degree or another, but that doesn't make it right. I just don't want to vote for someone who has little/no connection to the local area.

This subject came up in this thread, and @arewethereyet?'s views mirror my own.

So, does it matter to you where a candidate comes from?

It doesn't matter where they come from for me, but it does matter whether they live there, have a connection to the local area or at least live in the same city. I would have no problem if for example I had an MP candidate who lived and was from Brighton, but stood in Shoreham or Worthing.