Next week we'll be focusing on candidates who achieved big swings to the Conservative Party at the last General Election. This week we're focusing on journalists who would be Tory MPs. We start with Danny Kruger, chief leader writer for The Daily Telegraph...
NAME... Danny Kruger.
WELL KNOWN FOR... Resigning as Conservative candidate for Tony Blair's seat of Sedgefield (where he had campaigned against the hunt ban) after provoking Michael Howard's wrath. Danny had talked about Britain's public services needing a Schumpeterian "period of creative destruction”. William Rees-Mogg was outraged at MH's wrath and explained why in The Times.
CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... Worked as a speechwriter for Iain Duncan Smith (for his last two months as Tory leader) and worked in CCHQ's Policy Unit from the beginning of 2004 until last year's General Election. With IDS he authored 'Good for me, good for my neighbour - The Conservative way to social justice'. Danny was an active supporter of the campaign for party members to keep their vote in the leadership election.
SPECIALIST AREAS... Public service reform. Law and order. Localisation (a leading author of the Direct Democracy agenda).
DID YOU KNOW...? His mother is the celebrity cook, Prue Leith.
MAIN STRENGTHS... Wordsmithery. Intelligence. Mastery of policy detail (he was also Director of Studies at the Centre for Policy Studies from 2001 to 2003).
IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... Home counties marginal.
MORE INFORMATION... Three recent articles in The Daily Telegraph...
- Cameron must see Brown for the Scottish bourgeois he is;
- Mr Cameron, a whig in Tory clothes;
- Judas is innocent and hell is empty.
WOULD DANNY BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?
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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED. 213 VOTES WERE RECEIVED. 61% WERE IN FAVOUR OF DANNY KRUGER JOINING THE GOLDLIST. 36% WERE AGAINST. 4% DIDN'T KNOW.
NEXT NOMINEE: DANIEL FINKELSTEIN (WEDNESDAY).
