By some extraordinary coincidence I happened to be campaigning in Scunthorpe yesterday and in Dewsbury today just as the stories relating to those town’s respective MPs were breaking. The Elliot Morley story broke it the morning and as I arrived in Dewsbury it had been just announced that Shahid Malik had resigned as Justice Minister. The anger of people in both communities was palpable and sadly was directed at ALL MPs of ALL parties. I have no doubt that this anger is seen by candidates up and down the country. I share that anger and I am so annoyed with MPs who still fail to see the seriousness of the situation. If only we could have kept out of this then the electoral dividends would have been massive. We have to be much firmer on the reform message and if that means a few heads on poles then so be it. Small parties may benefit, but in the longer term we may see the emergence of Independent candidates and coincidentally in Dewsbury that hs happened already albeit for unconnected reasons: www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/Councillor-resigns-from-party-to.5269961.jp Having said that the YouGov poll in The Sun today looks encouraging and others may be reading the situation in an equally positive way as I am starting to get letters from people wanting work as my Parliamentary Assistant when I am elected!
There was a scene on the ‘sweary chef in America’ programme where he took a restaurant owner up to the hills behind Los Angeles in order for him to get his frustration with his employees out of his system. To do that he was encouraged, miles away from people, to scream as loudly as he could. I feel I want to do just that. I am sure the last few days have been enormously demoralising for people seeking election to office. An estate agent I met yesterday said he was delighted with the recent events as for the first time in living memory his was no longer the most hated profession. He felt he could hold his head up high in polite society. Somebody else said that rather than become an elected politician he might go and sell cigarettes to Third World countries and then his friends might speak to him again.
