Here at Open Up, we’ve been following the story of Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Elizabeth Truss with interest. According to this report in the Guardian, members of the South West Norfolk Conservative association are considering deselecting Ms Truss, after it was revealed she had had an extra-marital affair with a Conservative MP – a fact she had apparently not disclosed to party members before her selection. Ms Truss is what’s known as an “A lister” – that is, she’s on a list of candidates drawn up by Conservative Central Office as a means of broadening the number of female and ethnic minority Conservative candidates, especially in safe seats.

The local party and those Conservatives aligned to the central office have been trading insults on blogs and in the press. But wouldn’t it be better if instead of spatting, the Conservatives gave the residents of South West Norfolk the opportunity to decide for themselves who represents them in the next Parliament, by holding an open primary? We think so, and that’s why we sent the local Conservative association a letter yesterday, reproduced in full below. We’ll keep you posted on how this develops.

Mr David Hills
Chairman, South West Norfolk Conservative Association
Shirley House
23 London Street
Swaffham
PE37 7DD

2nd November 2009

A return to local choice for South West Norfolk – Open Up

Dear Mr Hills,

Having read the article ‘Conservative leadership takes on local party faithful’ in the Guardian (31/10/09), I am writing to introduce the Open Up campaign and offer our support for local choice in South West Norfolk.

Open Up is a non-partisan campaign calling on political parties to hold Open Primaries in every constituency before the next General Election. Also, Open Up calls for all MPs standing in the general election to compete for re-selection through an Open Primary.

Open Up is not backed by any political party, candidate, association, or company—we are simply a group of people who feel the current political system doesn’t work in the interest of taxpayers and voters anymore.

We are deeply concerned that local constituents have little say into which candidates are deployed by Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) to stand in the General Election. We believe that Open Primaries empower local people to select the candidate that’s right for their community.

The Conservative Party made a positive choice to hold an open primary in Totnes, and have committed to following suit in Gosport. We encourage the South West Norfolk Conservative Association to demand that CCHQ hold an Open Primary in your constituency—thus giving the choice back to the people of South West Norfolk.

Open Up can help in a number of ways, including making our experienced supporters available to answer any questions that might arise over the feasibility of holding an Open Primary. For example, Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government at Oxford University and a constitutional expert, would be delighted to answer any questions you might have. In addition—but only if you wish—Open Up can help drive positive media coverage of the primary. And of course we are open to all suggestions you may have about how we can assist.

This is a huge opportunity for South West Norfolk to join the success of Totnes, Bracknell and, soon, Gosport in transforming the political system to one that’s honest, effective, modern and democratic – a government of the best possible people representing local issues.

We want to feel proud of our politicians again, to feel proud of our government, to feel proud of our country. I will follow up this letter with a phone call to you, to see how we might move this forward.

Yours sincerely,

JOE HEWITT
www.openupnow.org