Salisbury selects today from a shortlist of six excellent candidates: Victoria Atkins, Ian Axton, Fleur Butler, John Glen, Jeremy Quin and Zehra Zaidi.
Party members and other registered members of the constituency will be gathering at the Salisbury Playhouse for six interviews that will begin at 2pm. Each interview - to be conducted by Major General Patrick Cordingley - will last thirty minutes. The first round of voting will start at about 5.15pm. A result may not be announced until after 6pm if a number of rounds of voting are necessary.
Talking to friends and family over the last few weeks it has been obvious that the major barrier to people coming is the three or four hour length of the process. Some selection meetings have taken five or six hours. Churchgoers are anxious about missing evening services. Political enthusiasts such as myself are resigned to missing things like the Man Utd V Arsenal game but do we have to make it so difficult for people to attend? Why six candidates and not four? Four seems an adequate enough choice to me. That's my thought for the day and something else for CCHQ to consider when they review the selections during this Parliament.
Tim Montgomerie
