Our 2001 candidate in Birmingham Edgbaston has been selected for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. Mr Hastilow needs to overturn a projected Labour majority of 4,140.
Nigel Hastilow is a blogger and offers some strong views in his regular postings. Here's one of them from last Wednesday:
"No doubt most Guantanamo prisoners are terrorists. But if that’s the case, prove it. Bring them to trial – in a reputable jurisdiction, not a kangaroo court set up and run by the US military. Charge them in public. Give them decent legal representation. Let the case against them – and the case for the defence – be heard. Let justice be done and let it be seen to be done. Justly, openly, fairly. Until we insist on an end to arbitrary imprisonment without trial of this kind we are no better than the Iranians who captured our sailors and detained them illegally, to the outrage of an entire nation. You can’t fight wars and pretend to support the self-appointed world policeman of the United States and retain any fig leaf of respectability if you behave with a complete lack of respect for the basic demands of legality and justice. Guantanamo Bay reduces every nation which connives in its existence to the same low level as the vile terrorists it purports to defend us from."
He'll need to keep his blog under control if he's to avoid the bad publicity he caused William Hague when he was last a candidate.
