The Poor Politician

That is how I sometimes describe myself. I might have been a good councillor, especially from the public's point of view, but I could occasionally be lacking from a political party viewpoint.

It can be a very difficult balance to strike. Political parties like (and seem strongly to prefer) non-contentious yes-men (and women) and generally seek to control what their candidates say and do, both before and after election.

They feel they own those whom they helped get into office.

There is a certain degree of validity in that stance; but if they want programmable and controlled robots, why not just build them? Robots don't even need an allowance...

Those in the Conservative party such as Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell are very much part of the speaking-out "fringe"; but they speak far more closely in accordance with wider public opinion than the sometimes overly narrow party line prefers. Our own local MP Mark Reckless is a bit like that too; and indeed the three of them (Dan, Douglas and Mark) are long-term friends.

The Conservatives are a far broader church party than many others in this country, possibly the broadest of the lot, so however uncomfortable it might be to the party hierarchy they are able to pursue their more lateral approach with only rare intervention from on high. Of course, two of them have been rather too high profile to curb all that drastically without producing a "cure" that is worse than the "disease".

They are the exceptions, though; and some of us who have been bold enough to try to make a genuine positive and worthwhile difference as representatives of the people tend to find ourselves on teh wrong end of efforts to sideline us. We're just not considered good enough politicians to be allowed to continue unchecked.

Thus it was that it was made a condition of any candidate selection that, if I were to be selected, I'd be required to cease my blogging. As the party Association officer put it at my preliminary "suitability interview", they wanted to have control over what I put out, even with a disclaimer about being only a personal view, not that of the party. Naturally, I have a recording of that interview...

Although I agreed to that condition, I was not selected, so it doesn't apply and I have resumed political blogging after the gap that regular readers here might recall from that period.

After thinking about it for a while, I left the party so that I could find other ways to protect my former ward from being taken by opposition candidates next year, which is a distinct possibility especially without my name on the ballot paper (long and complicated story, needing a good understanding of the politics of that ward).

For all my faults as a politician, I wasn't about to abandon all those wonderful (and some not so wonderful!) people I encountered during my years on Medway Council. The years ahead will be very tough; and there will be a lot of pressure exerted by the political Left to try to blame any and all Conservatives for anything they can latch onto.

The three seats in my former ward could well become vulnerable for the first time in over a decade. I have to protect them, somehow. Yes, it still hurts to have been manipulated out of the picture (and I have plenty of rock-solid proof of that!) and sometimes, especially late at night, that can bubble up and overflow. I especially feel the need to explain my decisions, particularly if they come across as negative int he light of a well-intentioned and positive suggestion. It's very human of me, I know, but there it is...

However, the people come first with me, not the party and not myself, so I'll find a way to minimise the risk of losing those seats, despite the strongest possible component (being one of the candidates) has been binned by the party.

As Fu Manchu would no doubt have put it: "The ward will hear from me again!"