A very long night (part II)

May 7, 2010 — simonashall

No question about it – the most important thing about last night was ensuring that Woking retained the services of a Conservative MP. All the work that we have been doing in Horsell West and Horsell East was geared to ensuring that Jonathan Lord became the next MP for Woking and that we fought off the Cowley Street Works being foisted on the constituency by the Lib Dems.

They really did throw just about everything at the place – copious literature, Christmas cards, glossy Hello!-style eight-pagers, handwritten pledge letters as well as the on-street campaigns in the town, railway station and the online stuff. We got the full treatment, including a personal and vicious campaign against Jonathan portraying him as a grasping outsider who didn’t care about the town. I’m glad that people have roundly rejected this cynical and low messaging.

Knowing what defeat is like, I’m not going to gloat at Rosie and knowing Rosie, the above carry-on wasn’t her doing anyway. A couple of weeks ago, I don’t mind saying that I was a touch anxious about the way things were going but we finished very strongly and not only did Jonathan hold Humfrey’s majority, he actually increased it - polling an enormous 26,500 votes and 50% of the share for the first time since Cranley Onslow’s tenure.

I’ve worked pretty closely with Jonathan during the past six months and I can tell you that not only is he a hell of a nice guy, he’s also going to be a cracking MP for Woking. If you believed all the cant in the Lib Dem literature, I think it’s safe to say you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise when you meet him and understand his “get things done” outlook on life. He’s an effective and strong voice and will be able to work with Surrey MPs to place Woking’s priorities at the heart of what we hope will be a government led by David Cameron.

Last night, he gave a speech in which he also paid tribute to the other candidates in a way with which I would entirely concur. Representing the people; the democratic process – those things are serious. But politics is fun – let’s remember that now the election is over and put away the silly slurs and insults to work together for what our town and its surrounding villages needs.

Many congratulations Jonathan, may this be the first day of a long tenure for you here in Woking.

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Woking’s fifth choice

April 28, 2010 — simonashall

We’ve all heard about how local the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate is. She’s been variously “at the heart of our community for thirty years“, “helping people for over twenty years” and has “a strong record of local action” according to Lib Dem literature. Certainly, if the election is a “localness” competition, she would fare well.

What I’m concerned about – and it seems I’m not alone judging by the latest comments on UK Polling Report - is the ability to get things done and stand up for Woking in parliament. And judging by their hesitancy to select Rosie Sharpley in previous general elections, it appears that the Lib Dems agree with me.

Four years after Rosie was elected as a councillor, the Liberal Democrats chose Dorothy Buckrell to stand for Woking in the 1992 general election. In 1997, while Jonathan Lord’s talents were recognised by the Conservative leadership and he was given a teeth-cutting “no hope” seat to fight at the age of 34, the Lib Dems once again passed over Rosie in favour of Philip Goldenberg. In 2001, they chose Alan Hilliar and in 2005, while Rosie was “looking after residents” in Horsham by finally getting selected to fight a seat somewhere, Anne Lee was the candidate in Woking (she “didn’t even live in the constituency“, by the way).

Am I the only one to wonder why it is only now that someone who obviously wanted a parliamentary career has been picked to fight in her own back yard when she’s has 20 years to do so? And doesn’t this make her Woking’s “fifth choice”?

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A Strong Voice is needed

April 26, 2010 — simonashall

After knocking on a few doors over the weekend and speaking to those who manned at our very successful Town Square stall on Saturday, feedback from voters is very clear. They want an MP in Woking who:

1) Has local interests at heart

2) Is an effective advocate for Woking residents

3) Is an effective champion for Woking causes

I fully accept that anyone standing for parliament in Woking has Woking’s interests at heart – why else would they be here? I know that Jonathan Lord has spent many, many weeks getting to know the area with various teams from across the constituency. No doubt Rosie Sharpley has similar motivation.

But let’s look at numbers two and three. Imaging that there’s a bill in Parliament on the future of some grand project such as AirTrack that will affect Woking significantly if it goes ahead. With a direct train route to Heathrow, it will attract thousands of travellers and commuters through the station and boost the Woking economy. Investment in the station to improve facilities and capacity could also follow, making life for the thousands of Woking residents who commute a great deal easier.

Other MPs oppose it – they want an alternative scheme that will benefit their towns instead but Anne Milton in Guildford and the Woking MP are due to give speeches to persuade the house that AirTrack is the way to go and that final funding for it should be approved to the benefit of the area. Below is a series of interviews with all the candidates – the first minute is Jonathan Lord and the second is Rosie.

Who would you rather have making that argument in parliament? If residents want a persuasive advocate and vocal champion for Woking, I believe that there is only one realistic choice and that is to vote for Jonathan. Woking needs a strong voice in parliament and that is something that only he can be.

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Mythbusting Jonathan Lord (part 1)

March 22, 2010 — simonashall

During the past few weeks, I’ve encountered all sorts of nonsense about Jonathan Lord from Lib Dem campaigners and activists across the borough. It is quite normal that Lib Dem campaigns in areas where there is Conservative incumbency focus on current areas of discontent and supporting “Motherhood and Apple Pie” while at the same time furiously attacking the Conservative candidate. In the past, it has been very effective – less so now as voters see through it more.

I know that Jonathan is intent on running a positive campaign based on the direction that the Conservatives want to take Britain while emphasising his credentials as a communicator and man of action who will be a great representative for Woking. So it’s left to me to defend some of the negative rubbish that the Lib Dems are blogging and tweeting among themselves.

Myth #1 – Woking was Jonathan Lord’s third choice. This is a very strange use of the word “third”. Jonathan fought Oldham West and Royton in 1997 but hasn’t stood for Parliament since. Before Humfrey Malins announced his retirement and the Woking seat became available, he sought selection for two other seats unsucessfully. Compare this with Rosie Sharpley, whose been a councillor in Woking since 1988. If she is such a popular and passionate candidate, why was she not selected to stand in 1992, 1997 or 2001 and why did she stand in Horsham in 2005?

Myth #2 – Jonathan is a “career politician”. Jonathan is an experienced council politican who was deputy leader of Westminster City Council and in charge of multi-million pound budgets. He is a campaigner and a campaign manager with a proven track record of getting elected. He stood for parliament once before. In between elections and being a councillor, he held down a job like anyone else. Let’s compare again to Rosie – her political career started in 1988, she too has been deputy leader of a  council in Woking and stood for parliament once, while holding down a job in between her duties. The only different between Jonathan and Rosie is that his political career has been on a bigger scale than hers.

Myth #3 - Jonathan’s not around in Woking much. Jonathan is out in Woking all the time – from Horsell to Brookwood and from Maybury to Mayford, Jonathan has been knocking on doors, attending functions and meeting with community organisations to understand their successes and problems in equal measure. If he hasn’t knocked on Lib Dem doors, that’s probably because they were out. It’s not uncommon. And has anyone actually seen Rosie outside of her full-colour 42-picture literature? I saw her in Sainsbury’s the other day in the cheese aisle - it didn’t look impressed either.

Myth #4 – Jonathan’s Conservative colleagues don’t like him. In order to back this one up, the Lib Dems are quoting the same person over and over again. We’ve no idea who he is, whether he is who he says he is and even if he’s genuine, people don’t always agree in politics. You have to take decisions and that entails pleasing some people and not others. As a journo I heard many people say many things about Rosie Sharpley too. Most of them were positive – as I’ve said before, Rosie’s a good councillor. But not all of them were – that’s the nature of the political arena. It’s no big deal.

I’m sure that they’ll think of more myths in the coming weeks…part II to follow.

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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.

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