European Selections

All Conservative party members in the South West (not forgetting Gibraltar) should be getting their European candidates postal ballot through the door any day now.
This is the first time every member has been given the chance to vote on the rankings of the candidates
Giles Chichester has been reselected as the sitting MEP therefore automatically goes top of the list.
You have 5 to select from and you have to put them in order of preference. As many of you will be aware the highest ranking female will automatically be top of the list after Giles. I could go on for hours about positive discrimination and how unfair it is but I won't as I haven't ever met anyone who thinks it is a good idea, not even women.
I haven't been able to meet the candidates as I was unable to make the 'speed dating' event in Bristol a couple of weeks ago. However I have spoken to a number of people who have met the candidates and they all agree that we have an excellent group of candidates to choose from. In particular Zehra Zaidi and Mike Dolley seem to stand out from the others.
As with any election I would encourage you to use your vote. Regardless of your views on Europe we are part of it and we will be part of it for the foreseeable future. We need to make sure we are represented by the right people and that process starts with selecting the right candidates.

CF Election, the end at last

The CF election results are finally in after an extraordinarily long campaign. The elections don't appear to have run 100% smoothly, with CF getting itself some bad press in the process.


It is all over now and hopefully CF has a fresh start and can move onwards and upwards.


The results are as follows:


Chairman

Michael Rock - 291

Daryl Williams - 249
Matt Richardson - 228


National Management Executive

Christian May - 413
Adele Douglas - 400
Owen Meredith - 380
Steve Ricketts - 378
Anastasia Beaumont-Bott - 358
Patrick Sullivan - 347
Matt Lewis - 339
Karen Allen - 323
Charlie Groome - 320
Craig Cox - 299
Anne-Marie Bray - 273


I have deliberately refrained from commenting on the elections until now, partly because I didn't feel I knew enough about any of the candidates and partly because any mention of the election appeared to attract negative comments which I don't think was constructive for CF or the party or fair on the candidates who, on the whole, were working hard for CF and its members.


All but one of the elected candidates was present at the Bristol hustings and I was impressed with all of them. I am sure they will work well together in assisting CF to reach its full potential. I can assure anyone who wasn't able to meet the candidates at the hustings that Michael Rock showed great leadership qualities and I am in no doubt that he will do an excellent job as Chairman.

I would like to congratulate all the candidates who have been elected and I look forward to working with you and drawing on your skills and experience to help develop Somerset CF over the coming year