April 27: Is KCC leader the Oliver Letwin of 2010?
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Back in 2001, the general election campaign was momentarily
enlivened by an episode in which a senior Conservative
‘disappeared’ from the campaign trail after it emerged he had
briefed a national newspaper about a possible £20bn of Conservative
tax cuts.
His name was Oliver
Letwin who went to ground after his faux pas and was
widely taunted by the opposition parties for his disappearing act.
Labour even went to his Dorset constituency and put up "Wanted"
posters.
I suspect something similar may
have happened to KCC Conservative leader Paul
Carter after his comments about free schools and their
potential to impact on council-run schools rather overshadowed
everything else that was happening yesterday on the campaign
trail.
It was interesting to note that
despite many requests from broadcasters offering Mr Carter the
chance to clarify his comments, none were taken up.
No rift
over schools policy, says KCC
leader>>>
(A colleague tells me that the
county council press office said that Mr Carter was bound by the
purdah rules, limiting what councils and councillors can say during
election campaigns, which is nonsense).
I can’t help thinking that
Conservative Central Office had a hand in this,
clearly believing that maintaining a discrete silence on the whole
affair was a better PR strategy than one that might have given the
story more legs, as we like to say.
Still, whether we see Mr Carter
out on the campaign trail in the coming few days I rather
doubt.
I dare say that Labour and Lib
Dem candidates, meanwhile, could be exploiting the free schools row
in election literature.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How realistic is it to expect
the Lib Dems to make a breakthrough in Kent?
On the figures, the odds are
stacked against them. In the one seat they are targeting –
Maidstone and the Weald – a fifteen per
cent swing would be needed to spring a surprise and
overturn a Conservative majority of nearly 15,000. Even in
Folkestone and Hythe, where they came second in
2005, they need a swing of 12.5 per cent
But who knows? Maybe the Lib
Dems will prove to be a bit like the British Olympic team at
Beijing, who surpassed all medal expectations when they were
supposed to be peaking for the London 2012 games.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DAMIAN Green has been out on the
campaign trail in Redditch, supporting the local Conservative
candidate. That’s Redditch, the seat held by former Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith, who instigated the series of events
that led to Mr Green’s now infamous arrest.
Ms Smith is under threat and
could lose her seat. If she does, I dare say the shadow immigration
minister will regard it as one of the more satisfying
results.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile, the Labour candidate
standing in Ashford has taken exception to a leaflet put out by Mr
Green. Chris Clark is concerned by the leaflet’s
inclusion of a photograph featuring Mr Green alongside the chief
executive of Ashford’s Future, Judith Armitt. He suggests that it
implies Ms Armitt is endorsing Mr Green.
Candidates get quite sensitive
about this sort of thing but having seen the leaflet, we’re not
entirely convinced that Mr Green has much of a case to answer. Ms
Armitt is certainly there in the image but is not identified or
even named.
Well known though she may be in
some circles, I very much doubt whether she can be readily
identified by voters who might have had a copy of the offending
leaflet.
Tuesday, April 27 2010
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