Tuesday 19 May 2009

The State of Independence

Esther Rantzen is probably what Margaret Thatcher once said that the Queen was: "the sort of person who votes for the SDP". Or did, of course.

But in Luton South, to which she has no apparent connection and where in any case the sitting MP seems extremely unlikely to stand again, she is not putting up as that or as anything else. There will apparently be such candidates all over the country.

Well, here in North-West Durham, you will at least have the opportunity of voting for an Independent who has been planning it for years.

An Independent who has grave doubts about a High Tory newspaper's campaign to re-restrict Parliament to the independently wealthy, and about the hounding of a man from the Chair because Quentin Letts can understand no accent but his own.

And an Independent who wants to talk about policy.

10 comments:

  1. Im A Celebrity ...Get Me Into Here.

    It is the Joanna Lumley factor. As second rate politicians try to become celebs on Have I Got News For You or Celebrity Fat Club, it follows that second rate celebs will want to go into politics.
    Those the Gods destroy they first make mad.
    Spittin Image merely signalled a House of Commons where Joanna Lumley, Esther Rantzen sit.
    Who else will make a stand...Jamie Oliver? Jeremy Clarkson? Richard Branson? Ant and Dec?
    While the situation has never been better for genuine local Independents, it has brought out some publicity seeking celebs......and the benefit frauds in the UKIP, the tree hugging Greens and the racist BNP
    Incidently Esthers consumer credentials were severely dented some years back when Private Eye revealed the discount her repulsive hubby received on a car purchase.

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  2. They might have a lot to offer. But what is it?

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  3. Who's the independent in North West Durham, then? I haven't heard anything about that one. Will you be voting for her?

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  4. No all-women shortlists here.

    So no schoolgirl daughters of the glitterati.

    And no compulsory support for partial-birth abortion, either.

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  5. I never mentioned an all-woman shortlist. Surely you're not suggesting that a woman can only be selected if there's an all-woman shortlist?

    Anyway, you didn't answer my question - who's the independent candidate in North West Durham?

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  6. I am.

    And I'll be posting a bit more about it later.

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  7. Oh, really? Well, good luck - I don't know enough to be sure whether I'd want you to win, but I sincerely hope you don't embarrass yourself.

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  8. I don't think it's possible to embarrass oneself against whatever rubbish the New Labour machine throws up. The sitting Labour MP openly agrees with me on that one.

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  9. I don't think I follow you. Does you mean it would be more embarrassing to lose to "whatever rubbish the New Labour machine throws up"? Or that there would be no embarrassment in being defeated by them?

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  10. Neither. I mean that no matter what I may do, I cannot be more embarrassing than my opponent.

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