Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Off to the Woking open primary tonight

I have to say I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.

Anyone else going along ? Tickets were apparently 'sold out' on Tuesday.

Will recognisable Lib Dem supporters turn up and try to vote for the weakest candidate ?

The four candidates are described as follows below (lifted from the Woking Conservtaive Web site H/T to Ron ) .

PS Does anyone have any news reports, newspaper articles about any of them etc ( ie stuff other than anon comments about them being wonderful people placed by the candidates mothers and best friends ) ? It would be nice to know a bit more about them all.




Dr Lynne Hack
Born in Surrey and lives here with her husband and family. She is a long standing Borough and County Councillor. Lynne has worked in hospitals as a cancer research scientist and lecturer for over 20 years, including 10 years at the Royal Marsden.
Dr Fiona Kemp
A GP with 20 years front-line experience of the NHS who has lived and worked in Surrey for many years. She was a hospital doctor in the Breast Cancer Unit of the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford and obtained a degree in Human Biology at the University of Surrey prior to entering General Practice.
Jonathan Lord
Chairman of Guildford Conservative Association and since June 2009 a Surrey County Councillor. He has a background in media, communications and marketing and is currently a Marketing Consultant helping small and medium size enterprises succeed in the current difficult economic climate.
Stephen Phillips
Grew up on the Goldsworth Park Estate in Woking before reading Law at Oxford. After a short stint in the Welsh Guards and attending Sandhurst he was called to the Bar in 1993 and appointed a QC in 2009. He is Chair of the Governors of the only sign-bilingual school in Britain.

4 comments:

ContraTory said...

"Will recognisable Lib Dem supporters turn up and try to vote for the weakest candidate?"

Drop the word "recognisable" and my answer would be,

Does the Pope have a balcony?

Man in a Shed said...

Since people have applied by name and there are the usual canvassing returns I would hope the organisers are keeping a on eye on this.

But I'll still be playing spot the Lib Dem to entertain myself during any dull moments.

Terence Eden said...

Bit late to this but, isn't that the point of an open primary?

I - as a registered member of the Monster Raving Looney Party* - can choose a Tory candidate who more closely matches my beliefs. That way, if she wins the primary, I can either vote for her or at least feel reasonably happy should she win the election.

It also has the side effect of forcing me to listen to all the (Tory) candidates. Which may cause me to switch my allegiance from Screaming Lord Such.

So, why would it be a bad thing having members of other political parties at your "Open" primary?

T
*I'm not

Man in a Shed said...

@Terence : The worry was that other parties might vote for the candidate "they want" - ie the weakest, or one with a clear flaw.

However that didn't happen.

It was a good night and perhaps the most mass involvement with politics that Woking has had for a long time.

There were a few left wing friends of mine I knew where there, but they voted the same way I did ( for Jonathan Lord ) on the basis he'd be the best MP for them to get particular issues taken up with.

So in the end it worked !