Friday 14 January 2011

Chloe Smith - The intrigue continues.

Following my earlier post about this MP and her spat with a verger, the local press have now picked up on the story. Oddly enough, one extract from this report:
"She has got a habit of being a bit difficult and distant and I found her very difficult," Mr Evans said. "I just wrote to her and told her about it, because I didn’t see why, when you are putting yourself out as a volunteer you have to put up with that. It gives the impression that she is just using people. That’s all it was."

ties in rather nicely with this post from England Expects in which Gawain Towler discusses the Tory grassroots (the wife) against the LibDems (the mistress):
"A dangerous game to assume that the wife will stay  and accept this public flaunting of the mistress today. They are more likely to leave, taking the house, the children and a great chunk of the money."
It would seem that Verger Evans may well have a point and that Conservative MPs should heed the warning encapsulated in EE's last sentence, namely: When will the grassroots realise they are held in such disdain by those who purport to represent them?

Even the Taxpayers Alliance has become interested in the 'Saga of Norwich North' and reports here.

More recently a similar example of the disdain with which the Conservative Party hold local activists has been at Old East & Saddleworth, where it has been widely reported that there was a lack of effort in campaigning so as to help the LibDems gain the seat, or at least come a credible second.

Reverting to Chloe Smith and the 'troubles' in Norwich North, a recent letter appeared in the Norwich Evening News (no link) from a Mrs. W. Howes:
"Former councillor Ian Evans has claimed that Norwich North MP Chloe Smith is a difficult person top deal with. This is not the Chloe that I know. I met her when she was selected as our parliamentary candidate in 2008, and as a local party activist I have worked on the by-election and general election campaigns. She has always been appreciative of the work that I have done, and I have found her approachable and friendly. Even more important, I know she is passionate in her determination to be a good MP."
No doubt any candidate would be approachable, appreciative and friendly by and to party activists, especially if it resulted in being elected an MP. How gullible can one be, for heavens sake?

Another interesting item from the newspaper story is that Verger Evans is an ex-employee of Barclays Bank. Now research has led me to discover the Gurney family are a well known local landowning and farming family, and, I am informed, have close connections with Barclays bank. A Chris Gurney runs the Northrepp's Aerodrome, although whether Shelagh Gurney is part of the same clan is unknown and Cottinghams Drive, I am reliably informed (again), is just an ordinary estate on the outskirts on Norwich.

Not only does it seem difficult to ascertain details of all the intrigue that is happening but it is also difficult to ascertain anything about Chloe Smith's 'background'. Whilst it is accepted that an MP's privacy must be respected, it is odd that at the general election all candidate's election material had a brief history about themselves and their families - all that is except Chloe Smith.

There are many 'unexplaineds' in this saga which is what makes this story all the more fascinating. Why have Conservative Central Office put Norwich North Constituency Association on "special measures", yet this is denied by the person put in by CCO to sort out the "problem"? Odd too that three of the 'cast' featured in this story appear to have a link to Barclays Bank - although, in fairness, this could be just a coincidence.

It is obvious that all is not well within the Conservative Party, what with 'unrest' in Norwich North, Old & Sad and within Conservative MPs generally - is the 'cast-iron' grip that David Cameron has managed to exert on his party having a destabilising effect? One would have thought that he would have learned a lesson from both Napoleon and Hitler - when fighting a war, don't open a 'second front'!

3 comments:

Voyager said...

She is a protegee of Gillian Shepherd and worked for Bernard Jenkin and was clearly sponsored by Deloittes just as William Hague was sponsored by McKinsey.

She is nothing and knows nothing but is an instrument for the string pullers to isolate independent constituencies and enforce Gleichschaltung.

James Higham said...

She was trouble right from the word go as one of the "parachuted in" brigade. Her subsequent actions have been questionable.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

Voyager: agree with your last para!

JH: Indeed!