Pick ‘em local and Pick ‘em early (…and stand up for traditional values)
A paper published by the Cornerstone Group suggests local Tories should resist political correctness and avoid lightweights and celebrities when picking parliamentary candidates. Pick them local and pick them early is the message from research conducted by the 40-strong group of socially conservative Tory MPs.
In a paper published today (Tuesday), David Burrowes, MP for Enfield Southgate, who won the seat from Labour with the biggest swing in the country, examined nearly 70 contests to identify the elements that produced the biggest shifts in votes at the 2005 election.
The research identified a number of key factors that included:
• Early selection
• Local candidates
• Professional, well-funded campaigns
• Targeting areas outside Tory heartlands
The report says: “A thoroughly local approach requires a candidate who can offer genuine conviction and concern for the area they represent. The electorate can no longer be relied upon for traditional ties or loyalty to a single party. They are more often than not turned off by party politics or even politics generally. They want someone who can affect real change and influence life in the constituency for the better.”
Mr Burrowes also highlights the importance of positive campaigning – avoiding the temptation to attack your opponent at every opportunity – and the impact of strong values on voters who have lost interest in politics and come to distrust politicians.
He writes: “I believe that we underestimate the electorate’s desire for their representatives to be clear about the values they hold. We can be so keen to water down anything which may alienate one group in society that we throw out the baby with the bathwater. We need to be more ready to say what motivates us to be in politics and the convictions we hold. We cannot expect the electorate simply to come out and vote as a matter of habit or duty; we need to work harder at giving positive reasons why they should be supporting a particular candidate.”
Chairman John Hayes says: “The idea that we can parachute insubstantial and untested candidates with little knowledge of the local scene into key seats to win the confidence of people they seek to represent is the bizarre theory of people who spend too much time with the pseuds and posers of London’s chichi set and not enough time in normal Britain.
“David Burrowes, like other Cornerstoners that captured their seats at the last election, has proved that standing up for what you believe in, sticking up for vulnerable people and stoically campaigning all year round on local issues are what counts with voters. That’s why I’m so pleased that David Cameron has decided to encourage early selection in target seats.”
