As most herald the success of all-postal ballots the loosening of control over candidate choice has predictably ruffled some feathers. The argument though largely dismissed in the case of Congleton is that open primaries are vulnerable to particular interest groups an accusation not supported by research or the Open Up campaign!

In Congleton out of 220 participants, 35 members of Fiona Bruce’s local church took part in the primary leading to one Shadow Minister’s fear of religious groups mobilising support:

“We do not want the Tory Party to become like the Republican Party in this respect”.

“is the 14th person to be picked to fill one of the safe seats that have just come vacant (with eight more currently to go)”.

As noted by Glover, 38%  of these new candidates are women, three are doctors (one chosen just ahead of a teacher) and the final two run businesses. Only one of the new influx of Tory candidates went to Eton. Has the stereotypical upper-class, very wealthy, aloof Tory been replaced by:

“ local, middle income, probably state educated and quite possibly employed in the public sector, with a record of voluntary work and a deep-seated distrust of the central state and the European Union”?

As the Conservatives seek to win a solid majority in the General Election, open primaries are proving to provide a breath of fresh air, not only to the Conservative party, but also to the state of British politics

Glover endorses the Conservative policy of directing candidate selection as being responsible for the “change” of future MPs.

The event was attended by over 700 members of the public, making it the most successful open primary to have been held in the UK. However, according to reports Conservative HQ again chose the final six conservative candidates from over 600 applications therefore ensuring central office control.

Dominic Raab, has yet to move to the area, but will now take the place of Ian Taylor, the current Conservative MP, who is to stand down as a result of the expenses scandal. According to, Mr Raab “one of the real advantages of this open primary has been the opportunity to get down here – talking to residents, talking to businesses, talking to councillors”. Local constituents must be delighted that this ‘open’ primary has ensured Mr Raab the opportunity to ‘get down here’ to the area he will now live in and represent.

It must be noted that constituents’ questions had to be submitted before the event, and spontaneous questions after each speech were not permitted. There is no doubt that the Conservatives have led the way on the ‘open primary’ discussion but it would seem there are still immediate changes needed before these can justifiably be labelled truly ’open’.

http://tinyurl.com/ych762v

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