A few days ago I had to call the Candidates' Department at CCHQ. After a very friendly conversation with Shireen Ritchie I left two messages at CCHQ and never heard back. Didn't think much of it but casually mentioned my experience to a friend who is on the candidates' list. The reaction was volcanic. "They treat us like sh*t... We are made to grovel towards those people... They never return our calls." I mentioned my experience to another candidate and got the same kind of response.
On Thursday and Friday I emailed thirty-five candidates - none yet adopted - and surveyed them about their experience. Thirty-one replied.
The first question I asked was the number of times they had to call the Candidates' Department in order to get a response. The average number is 3.19.
I then asked them to say if various words captured their experience of the Department. The word cloud below summarises the response:
The Candidates' Department has a lot of power. This survey suggest they need to exercise that power in a much more generous way.
Tim Montgomerie
