Horsell Action Day

April 10, 2010 — simonashall

There’s nothing better than a bit of politics when the sun’s shining, people are in and willing to talk and the parliamentary candidate is getting greeted on the street by people who recognise him from literature. But so it was this morning when we held an Action Day in Horsell for my campaign along with Jonathan Lord.

I’ve read an awful lot of baseless rubbish about him elsewhere and in some election literature, which I have addressed previously. While our opponents campaign on the importance of locality because they have little else to recommend their candidate, Jonathan is interested in meeting people to demonstrate the broad portfolio of personal and political skills that we believe would make him a strong and effective MP for Woking. It seems that people in Horsell High Street this morning understood this.

Far from quizzing him about where he lives – as Lib Dem activists have been asked to do if he calls – they are concentrating on the big picture. That is that we need someone to stand up in parliament and argue Woking’s case to the highest democratic authority in the land and that person needs to be charismatic and credible. He was greeted warmly both on the doorstep and in the street this morning by people from all parts of the village who can see what he would offer Woking as our representative if they back him on May 6.

It’s a common theme of Lib Dem literature to erect barriers - a barrier between Jonathan and his party, a barrier between Jonathan and Woking or between anyone else and the people they want to represent. Well, those barriers are all very well as election tools but they don’t exist in reality. As Conservatives, we must not talk the language of barriers, problems and disconnects but of accessibility, solutions and relationships – and watching Jonathan’s reception in Horsell this morning demonstrated to me the value of that approach and why I believe that ultimately it will win through.

Posted in Horsell West campaign, Lib Dem lies, Woking PPC, elections. Tags: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments »

Phillips’s filip

October 28, 2009 — admin
Stephen Phillips - a good Conservative for a good seat

Stephen Phillips - a good Conservative for a good seat

A belated congratulations to Stephen Phillips, who was a candidate in our Open Primary in Woking, on his selection in Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire.

Stephen was a superb candidate and I voted for his passage through the selection process up until the primary itself. We had a good chat before proceedings got underway that evening – Woking probably wasn’t quite the right seat for him but I’m delighted he has been selected elsewhere. He has a first-rate mind, a great sense of humour and will be a huge asset to both his constituents and the Conservative Party if, as I expect, he is elected. The majority there is more than 10,000, so it should be a bit easier than Woking would have been!

As a mark of the man, I emailed a brief note to him at his chambers in London and got a reply within 20 minutes despite what must be a hugely busy working and family life for him. Don’t lose the common touch, Stephen, when you arrive in Parliament (I’m sure you won’t) and I look forward to seeing you rise to prominence early in a first Cameron term.

Posted in Conservatives, Roll on 2010, Woking PPC. Tags: , , , , . No Comments »

Supporting Jonathan Lord

October 17, 2009 — admin
Jonathan addresses Horsell Conservatives last week

Jonathan addresses Horsell Conservatives last week

Jonathan Lord’s core campaign team met today formally for the first time, although the campaign has already begun. Although it was by no means the only thing that we discussed, social media is going to be an important focus for me and a new Facebook campaign has been started to get things rolling.

Meanwhile, Jonathan himself was out in Horsell today with good results and I’m sure we will be hearing a lot more from him in the future.

Posted in Conservatives, Roll on 2010, Woking PPC. Tags: , . No Comments »

Press release: Executive supports Woking Hospice

October 15, 2009 — admin
Woking Borough Council’s executive has decided to support Woking Hospice following the council meeting last night. A grant of nearly £60,000 was approved for the hospice to fund its home-based palliative-care nursing service.

The hospice on Hill View Road has been in discussion with the council about securing financial assistance since April as the effects of the recession bite into its fundraising ability. It recently suspended day centre services due to financial pressures.

Each year, Woking Hospice needs to raise around £2.6million to fund its end-of-life care but NHS Surrey gave only £423,000 to the charity for 2009/10 and future funding from the NHS looks bleak. The hospice estimates that it needs £300,000 by March 2010 to maintain its core services, which provide respite for families and dignity for patients.

Under proposals put forward to the executive, the council would provide £57,400 this year and will consider a similar amount annually until 2012/13 to fund home nursing services. This money would come initially from the Community Fund and subsequently from the Grants budget.

Conservative Leader of the Executive Cllr John Kingsbury said: “We provided £250,000 to set up Woking Hospice but since that time it has managed to raise enough funds without council help. But the recession has meant a big drop in donations and the amount of money it can raise.

“There are many competing calls on the council for money and we are already under a great deal of pressure but the benefits of the hospice’s work in the community are clear. It is vitally important that its work continues and the Conservative administration is determined to support this funding proposal.”

Jonathan Lord, the recently selected Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Woking said: “It is clear that Woking Hospice fulfils an essential role within our community.  I am delighted to support the Conservative administration’s efforts to help the hospice maintain its services during these tough economic times.”

Posted in Community, Press releases, Woking Borough Council, Woking PPC. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

Voice of experience

October 11, 2009 — simonashall
Jonathan Lord

Jonathan Lord

Last week, my post on Jonathan Lord’s selection was taken down by someone hacking into my WordPress account. Very petty. It also raised hackles that I appeared to “forget” that there was an election for us to fight if he was to become the next MP for Woking. No, I haven’t forgotten that, hence my many, many posts on the next election. The point about elections, for those who haven’t forgotten that they are happening but have perhaps forgotten how to win them, is to convince as many people as possible that a candidate is the person who will best represent their views and interests.

I am confident that in Jonathan, we have a candidate who is experienced in campaigning, who is an excellent performer on the doorstep and who talks with people easily and fluently about the issues that concern them. Hence, I believe he will be the next MP for Woking – if you can’t say that about the candidate you are campaigning for, why on earth would you be campaigning for them?

Today I went to a very enjoyable lunch event at the house of Cllrs Michael Smith and Anne Murray, which was well-attended and at which Jonathan spoke eloquently and spontaneously about the challenges we face as a party and a country. It reminded me again of the reason that he was selected – at the Open Primary he captured the imagination and support of the hall and was a clear winner on the night.

His CV is impressive – he has been a deputy leader of Westminster City Council, one of the country’s foremost local authorities and ran Anne Milton’s successful campaign to re-capture Guildford in 2005. All the evidence based on recent electoral history told us that the Liberal Democrats should have held onto Guildford – but they didn’t because of Jonathan’s excellent campaign and those involved in it. In June, he was heavily involved in the Guildford county campaign where the Liberal Democrats were pushed out of two Guildford seats and a third, Worplesdon, was turned from a marginal into a safe seat.

He is a proven campaigner, a superb speaker and is excellent one-on-one with people. He is local – I know that won’t stop his opponents trying to place Guildford as 40 miles away instead of four – and he will become more so as the campaign progresses. We know that the Liberal Democrats are targetting Woking, having given up in Guildford not in small part due to Jonathan’s efforts. I don’t blame them – but we will be ready with a candidate who they are going to have to work harder than in Guildford and South West Surrey combined if they are to beat.

Today, the Horsell and Woodham branch that saw Ben Carasco elected in Horsell pledged it was 100% behind Jonathan Lord in Woking and I am confident that with a smart strategy and dedicated teamwork we will be able to put Woking out of reach of the Liberal Democrats. But whatever the result, it should be one hell of a campaign and I for one am looking forward to it.

Posted in Conservatives, Woking PPC, elections. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . No Comments »

Candidates for Woking

September 23, 2009 — simonashall

The notification for the candidates selected for the Woking Open Primary was issued last night and picked up by ConservativeHome and will, one assumes, be in the local press later on this evening (for subscribers like me) or tomorrow.

I’m very happy with the four names that we have ended up with and particularly that we sidestepped a few potential landmines on the way! The Woking selection process has been pretty drawn out and has taken much, much longer than it should have done. It leaves us with just seven months to get our candidate known.

But whoever wins (and more of that in a moment), I’m convinced they will become known very soon. All four have  personal charm and the ability to connect with people and all four have the local connections that I insisted were so important. Not perhaps, the nooks-and-crannies knowledge that I envisaged – but none have been “parachuted in”.

My views on the candidates are not intended to sway opinion and I will not be lobbying on anyone’s behalf ahead of the open primary on September 30, although I considered doing so. I would encourage everyone with an interest to come along and take part - including political opponents. If you are looking for a weak candidate to try to get elected, you won’t find one in Woking.

Fiona Kemp, my preferred candidate - but they are all good!

Fiona Kemp, my preferred candidate - but they are all good!

I will be voting for Fiona Kemp because I think her experience, broad knowledge and personality are not only perfect for the constituency but are potent weapons with which to fight Rosie Sharpley. I think she will be someone who can connect easily to people on the doorstep and whose expertise on the NHS will prove valuable to the Conservative Party and the country if she is elected.

The same could be said of Dr Lynne Hack too, who has a great record with the county council and in Reigate and even garnered praise from Private Eye. Jonathan Lord, current chairman of Guildford Conservatives, has an enviable electoral record and is very highly thought of, while Stephen Phillips has an astounding intellect coupled with gracious humour that make him anything but a stuffy lawyer.

In short, I’m very proud that we as a constituency and a party have been able to attract candidates (and there were many, many, applications) of such calibre and it’s very encouraging to think that the complete shambles currently residing in Whitehall will be replaced in 2010 by people of real ability, fresh thought and committed duty. I know too, that none of them would forget Woking, nor the electorate that put them where they were.

Roll on 2010.

Posted in Woking PPC, county council. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

Six of the best

September 14, 2009 — simonashall

I know it’s a bit spurious of me to blog of the Woking PPC selection because I can’t mention details on here of who’s involved etc.

What I can say is that it was a pretty intensive experience that gave me an good insight into what people who want to be MPs have to go through and it must have been pretty nervewracking for them. A few were obviously very nervous and some showed it less although must have been inside.

At the end of the initial selection, we have going forward six excellent candidates, any of whom I think would make a superb MP for Woking and would be in a good position to keep Rosie Sharpley safely out of reach of that honour. She has a decent record as a councillor but is in no way suited to being Woking’s next MP.

During the county elections, we only won in the Woking constituency by 1,609 votes – 5,000 short of Humfrey Malins’s current parliamentary majority. That kind of figure simply won’t be good enough in 2010.We need a candidate who is not only electable, likeable and normal but one who has a proven connection with the area and who is a top-notch campaigner. With the exception of 2007, the Conservatives have largely underachieved in Woking during the past 15 years. That’s not the fault of individuals, it’s a collective issue. We need greater coherence, better messaging and sharper tactics to respond to a very real Lib Dem threat. We need a PPC who is prepared to come in and lead from the front to shape and operate a smarter campaign and who has the track record to show they can.

If they aren’t that person, or don’t inspire that campaign, what looked like a superb opportunity to occupy a safe seat in parliament could turn into a bitter disappointment and one of election night 2010′s “shock” results.

Six gets narrowed down to four this Saturday.

Posted in Conservatives, Woking PPC. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

First thoughts

September 12, 2009 — simonashall

I’ve just moved this blog from Blogspot because everything’s just a bit more polished here. This weekend is the selection panel for the next Conservative PPC for Woking. Obviously I won’t be allowed to discuss details of this process but we are following the open primary model, with the executive panel meeting after the selection panel and an open primary on September 25 for all Woking voters.

It should be an interesting couple of days judging by the signs so far. I’ve already outlined my priorities for the candidates going forward, we’ll have to see how it goes.

Posted in Other blogs, Woking PPC. Tags: , . No Comments »

Meritocracy or madness?

August 3, 2009 — simonashall

There’s been a bit of a stir in Conservative ranks since the party launched its new selection guidelines for 2010, which included the stipulation that shortlists for selection must contain a 50:50 male/female balance. This is the process that we are following in Woking to select Humfrey’s successor.

A ConservativeHome poll suggests that 91% of party members are against this with just six percent in favour. Count me as among the six percent.

Discrimination of any kind, be it against the minority or the majority, goes against everything I stand for. But at the moment, 91% of the parliamentary party is male (the same number as those opposing the new rules) and there are just 17 female Tory MPs. This is despite DC’s “modernisation” and everything the party has been through since 1997 – we have just four more female MPs elected in the two elections since then.

I think that the Conservative Women’s Organisation and Women2Win are vital to the party’s future and a few of the naysayers would do well to visit the websites. There is no magic solution to the gender imbalance within the Conservative Parliamentary Party but there are compelling reasons why something needs to be done.

First of all, credibility. Unless the party increases the number of women elected, it will simply not be taken seriously, especially by the women voters so vital to success. There is also a trust implication here – we have promised to modernise the party and this is a significant benchmark – to fail here is akin to a broken promise.

Then there is simple natural justice. It is intolerable that such a large proportion of our representatives are taken from such a small pool – however distinguished that pool may be. I don’t care if we have old Etonians splashing around; but I want to see some more people like Nadine Dorries, Justine Greening and Anne Widdecombe who can truly claim to represent a broad spectrum of people.

Thirdly, it will be beneficial to the party and the country to have a more prominent female input into policy and the administration of policy. It will also demonstrate to some of the more resolute grandees that progress is here and they need to get used to it. It’s about time that we dragged this party into the 21st century and if that means balanced shortlists, fine.

I know that I’m probably the only member of the panel in Woking in favour of the 50:50 rule. But the party as a whole has demonstrably and catagorically failed in this area for 30 years – the past 10 years of which have been spent saying that something would be done. Now something is being done and those who don’t like the method can’t say they weren’t warned.

Posted in Conservatives, Woking PPC, elections. Tags: , , , , , , , , . No Comments »
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