Audentior

Like South-West Norfolk, after this evening's Dispatches Watford also needs, even more urgently than everywhere else, a candidate of any party or, far more probably, none who has an absolute commitment to the monarchy, the organic Constitution, national sovereignty, the Union, the Commonwealth, the countryside, grammar schools, traditional moral and social values, controlled importation and immigration, and a realistic foreign policy.

Who has a no less absolute commitment to the Welfare State, workers’ rights, consumer protection, strong communities, conservation (not environmentalism), fair taxation, full employment, proper local government, a powerful Parliament, and a base of real property from which every household can resist both over-mighty commercial interests and an over-mighty State.

Who, unlike Claire Ward, does not feel the need for a second home on expenses in order to represent a constituency a mere twenty minutes from Euston and very largely inhabited by London commuters.

And who, unlike Richard Harrington, sees neither national sovereignty, nor foreign policy realism, nor a strong Parliament, as compatible with the purchase of British politics by the Israeli Hard Right or by any other foreigner. What is Harrington going to do? Send round Gerald Ronson?