Candidates Conference meets.

Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth
pic Friends of the Earth

On Saturday the Conservative Party had a candidates conference for people who had been on both the approved list and the now fabled 'A-list'. About 200 candidates attended and listened to presentations from (amongst others), John Maples MP the new Vice-Chairman in charge of candidates and Shireen Ritchie (step-mother of Guy and mother-in-law of Madonna!), the 60 year old founder of Women2Win and head of the Conservative's candidates department. The conference was organised by David Senior who has stood in Shipley and Mary Macleod who was recently selected for the ultra-marginal seat of Brentford and Isleworth.
It was all quite good natured but apparently Maples aside that CVs might need a 'bit of polishing' if candidates were not getting interviews with constituency associations went down like a lead balloon with the 75% of people in the room who because they were not on the 'a-list', hadn't yet even been able to apply for a seat!
Another classic from Mr Maples was his comment that candidates often appeared too stiff and formal, always in suits which didn't go down too well with the 20% or so that had turned up in suits! More seriously he claimed to be ignorant of the practise where local candidates had been vetoed by the Candidates Department of the Conservative Party and where CVs had not been forwarded on by the Party to local associations despite Candidates requesting that they were.
For some reason the audience was also addressed by the Vice-Chairman of Friends of the Earth Tony Juniper. Apparently he was applauded by about 20% of the audience for saying that the money spent on Trident should instead be used on providing solar panels and other environmentally friendly items for Iraq. History doesn't record what the reaction was with the other 80%...