I'm grateful to those candidates who attended yesterday's conference and provided me with feedback. Here are some of the observations I received...
- Two hundred or so A-list and other approved candidates attended.
- Grant Shapps MP gave an excellent presentation on e-campaigning and on the benefits of contacting 7,000 voters a week and to do so with next to no funds!
- Rishi Saha of CCHQ gave a highly practical presentation on how to get a social action project off the ground and demonstrate 'compassionate credentials'.
- Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth admitted that nuclear power was an option even if it wasn't FotE's favoured option.
- John Maples’ suggestion that CVs might need a bit of polishing if candidates weren't getting interviews went down like a lead baloon with the 75% of non-A-listers in the room who hadn’t even had the chance to submit a CV.
- John Maples and Shireen Ritchie appeared ignorant of “local” candidates being vetoed by Candidates’ Team/CCHQ after being invited to apply by local Chairmen.
- Mary Macleod struggled to put a positive gloss on finding it impossible to get a shadow cabinet minister to go north of Watford – no, sorry, north of Westminster – to do a policy briefing for candidates in the north.
One of the questions for John Maples was - "Why do we (non-A list candidates) have to find out about upcoming seats from Conservative Home and not from you?" This reportedly generated a good deal of applause and provoked Mr Maples to say he would "consider it". Shireen Ritchie's said that she had initially seen ConservativeHome as a threat and an irritation but now was able to "live with it". Maples also said he had to "sometimes" read this to find out what was going on.
There was also a lot of gratitude to David Senior and Mary Macleod of the Candidates' Association for organising the event.
