The most popular post this week was Conservative Vandalised Billboards which I followed-up yesterday with the Big Society posts (and see here). Related was the interest in the TBH’s polling results in my Cornwall’s Tories are Stuffed. Also this week, I drew attention to Conservative PPC for Camborne and Redruth George Eustice’s pitch on his Green credentials. Mr Eustice might care to use his influence as an ex-speech writer for cycling, sledging Dave, to have a word in his leader’s shell-like about how Cameron lets the plane take the strain. Oh, and I’m still waiting a reply from Mr Derek Thomas about Mr Chris Grayling’s endorsement of homophobia.
In a recent post I raised the question of why such an apparently decent man as Derek Thomas, the Conservative hopeful for St Ives, would want to represent the Nasty Party.
The St Ives Conservatives website provides a clue to the answer. After an impressive list of Mr Thomas’ good works – a list which makes you wonder, What the hell is this man doing with the Nasty Party? you get this statement from him:
Furthering the Conservative cause is increasingly important to me as the core values of Conservatism sit most comfortably with my personal faith. Many new ideas and new values have been adopted by this nation in recent decades and where traditional values have been discarded our communities have declined. The Conservative Party’s direction of travel and our core values provide a basis for leading the nation towards stronger, healthier, more caring communities.
I must confess that I haven’t an inkling of what all this is supposed to mean, but it would be of help to voters if Mr Thomas would decode it for us. Except that he is a Christian, I don’t know just what variety of Christianity Mr Thomas’ ‘personal faith’ might be. ‘Where traditional values have been discarded our communities have declined’ – which values and communities? It’s just a little bit scary when politicians start bringing their ‘personal faith’ into politics – just in case they turn out to be bonkers fundamentalists.
In a recent post I challenged Cornwall’s Tory candidates to tell us if they agreed with shadow home secretary Chris Grayling’s remarks that people who run bed and breakfast in their own homes should have the right to reject homosexual guests. Is,this, perhaps a Conservative ‘core value’ Mr Thomas shares, or not? I think we should be told.
The Conservative candidate for St Ives, the nice Mr Derek Thomas, recently bewailed the lack of a Tory MP for the constituency since David Harris left parliament in 1997. Anyone who is thinking of voting for Mr Thomas and a return to the Golden Age of Tory representation for St Ives, perhaps needs reminding of the tenacity with which the Tories fought for the interests of Cornwall when they ‘spoke’ for the county.
Here is David Harris, in a question in the House on 6 November 1996, fighting the good fight for the low-paid of the county:
Oral Answers to Questions — Trade and Industry: Business Support (Cornwall) (6 Nov 1996)
Mr David Harris: …. Does he agree that grants are not the beginning and end of everything, and that what industry in Cornwall would fear, probably above all else, is the imposition of the social chapter and the minimum wage—policies advocated by the Liberal Democrats?
Ah,yes, in the current economic climate, Cornwall’s workers could do with a bit more of that.
A recent leaflet from the Conservative party (People Talk, page 2) says: “Freezing council tax. Conservatives will work with local councils to freeze council tax for two years, by reducing wasteful spending.”
However, the budget plans of the Conservative/Independent Cornwall Council tells us that this coming year, 2010/11, council tax will go up by 2.9 percent. For the next three years after that there are planned percentage rises of 2.5, 2.25, and 2.0 percent.
Freeze and spend, Mr Thomas?
If nothing else, we can thank Derek Thomas, Tory PPC for the St Ives Constituency, for reminding us of the time when St Ives last had a Tory MP.
In a letter to me, Mr Thomas says:
‘Since David Harris retired we have lacked the influence of an MP in the governing party or main opposition. Electing a Conservative MP would address this and be good news for West Cornwall and the Isle of Scilly.’
Ah, yes, the good news for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly when Mr Harris was the MP for this low wage constituency, was that he and the Tory party robustly opposed the introduction of the minimum wage on the (false) grounds that it would result in the loss of hundreds of jobs in West Cornwall.
Now some people might think that perhaps at a time of high unemployment and recession, the last person you would want to defend jobs and pay was another Tory MP in the constituency.
In the remaining weeks to the general election, TBH will be taking the occasional walk down memory lane to the golden age of Tory representation for St Ives – and inviting Mr Thomas to join us.
The prospective Conservative MP for St Ives, Mr Derek Thomas, says he ‘will meet his own tax liabilities’ should he be elected at the general election. This promise to pay his taxes like the rest of us is made in the St Ives Conservative party’s ‘West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly News’ leaflet that recently cluttered up my letter box.
So, the long shadow of Lord Ashcroft reaches even as far as the St Ives Constituency.
The great mystery about Mr Derek Thomas, prospective Conservative MP for St Ives is,well, just what’s he doing in the Tory party? He looks nice, talks nice and is up to his neck in Good Causes and Good Deeds, now and over the years – if, that is, we are to believe a Tory election publication entitled ‘West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly News.’ As we do.
Perhaps the answer is that Mr Thomas is so nice he just doesn’t get it.
Derek Thomas, the prospective Conservative MP for St Ives, has let slip his view that the Tories won’t win the general election.
‘To change the government in Westminster, the Conservative have to win here in St Ives’, Mr Thomas opines in an election leaflet arriving at my address this morning. (What’s happened to my ‘No Junk Mail’ edict?).
So, Gordon, on Mr Thomas’ analysis, you can settle down to another five years in Downing Street.
