I was interested to read the following piece, just published by The Commentator :
I was interested for two reasons. I worked for the Conservatives at CCHQ for two years (2006-8) and I was a minor donor for a time, before cancelling my party membership in late 2009 when David Cameron announced his intention to use a number of all-women PPC shortlists to select candidates for the approaching general election. He planned to take advantage of legislation introduced by Harriet Harman in 2008 for the purpose – it allowed all-women PPC shortlists to be used for the coming 25 years. I’m always interested to hear about what’s going on at CCHQ, whether from pieces in the public domain, or from former colleagues (and a small number of people who were taken on since my departure).
The second reason is that this ‘dirty tricks’ campaign shows the level of fear in the Conservatives about the electoral prospects of UKIP. I have it on good authority that CCHQ is keeping a ‘watching brief’ on our activities too, and doubtless they’ll try to smear our candidates in the fullness of time. We’ve just selected our first candidate to contest a seat at the 2015 general election, and we’ll be revealing the person’s name in the coming week or two.
It costs at least £1,000 to fund a candidate at a general election, if they’re to have any prospects of making an impact (£500 deposit + £500 for campaign literature, which is delivered to households at no charge by the Post Office). I would therefore ask you to make a donation, however small, to our campaign funds. Nobody involved with the party earns any income from donations. If you feel able to donate a minimum of £20.00, we’ll invite you to comment on our public consultation document (link below). I’ll read your comments personally, and respond. Thank you for your interest in our work.
http://j4mb.org.uk/our-public-consultation-exercise-2/
Mike Buchanan