Anger over rural buses - Michael Sneath has written on behalf of the Labour candidate Angela Richards at the Fenstanton HDC by-election. The letter is about buses and how the village of Fenstanton has been left without a bus service. That is an election issue. But is this how the Labour Party is going to campaign with letters in the papers? And why is the Agent writing on behalf of the candidate? Can't she write for herself! There have been doubts about letters apparently written by Anthea Cox. Is this a case of Labour putting up "paper candidates". The result may give us a clue!
Countryside Campaign - Is a letter from Alan Fitzgerald who is writing to get people to support the CPRE. The General Election is coming. Pressure Groups will be using the media to press their case by using the public to lobby on their behalf. The CPRE is using the method of getting the public to e-mail candidates in support of their manifesto. Of course the CPRE is in competition with other Pressure Groups using the public to lobby candidates on their behalf.
This isn't democracy - Bob Mullineaux is right in what is wrong. But is wrong in his prescription of how to correct this. The problem with his prescription of an Open Primary for the selection of a candidate costs money. As pointed out in this blog, the Conservatives simply don't have the money to have a postal ballot as held in Totnes. Opening up the selection with an open public meeting, as for the Bedford mayoral candidate will not involve the whole electorate, just some. My answer is for the public to join their local political party or have a properly conducted, publicly funded open primary election.
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