Wednesday 21 October 2009

Bracknell Primary Is Throwing up Some Questions

1. Why was Councillor Paul Bettison, leader of Bracknell Forest Borough Council has been excluded from the shortlist for the Primary? Or any other local councillor see here.

2. Was this an open Primary or an all ticketed caucus, you had to register and despite being told that it was not a ticketed event you was provided with a ticket?

3. Why were there no local candidates in the Primary (ok Phillip Lee is almost local)?

4. How many members of the attendees were not local conservatives? It’s quite hard for anyone to take up a Saturday afternoon for any event. The hall was not full and I do not have any numbers of attendees. I did see alot of conservative tickets (they were blue others were white).

5. Why was this not done as a postal vote? Was this just down to cost?

6 .Why was there confusion with using the ballet boxes? I never got to use them in the end. All tickets had to be handed to a Steward. I believe that nothing underhand was happening after all there is no reason for this plus I could see the count from the door. It’s just the ballet box could have been used and numbered tickets provided, for extra insurance.

7. Why were we not able to simply number the candidates and put them in order on our first voting slip? Would have been faster plus the first slip was printed in this format.

8. Why did the 3 women go out in the first few rounds? Iain Dale explains in this post that only 1 woman has won the last 7 open primaries.

9. Did Conservative HQ change the list of candidates?

10. Instructions were posted on the Tuesday before the event on the Saturday which included a question slip. Conservative members also had these details but their tickets were blue and not white. However attendees also had a question slip included in this pack which you had to get back to the Bracknell office by the Friday. How much time does this give you especially given the current postal problems?

Most Attendies I know did not get their tickets until the Thursday. Did the Conservative members get their information and question form sooner and therefore could they get their questions in on time? I didn’t even receive my documents for the event. I therefore couldn't ask my question and was unaware that I had to get it in before the day of the event.

11. Why do the conservatives use alternative vote* for voting selection at a primary but are not in favour of any change from First Past The Post at national elections? See Here.

12. Now there is this video on Mark Reckons blog which is posted by Dan Haycocks, who is campaigning for our current MP Andrew MacKay to pay back the money he appears to have over claimed or step down if he is not willing to do so.

This may all just be because this event is new and there were alot of CV's (near 200) sent into the Bracknell Conservatives. Some would have to go though the interview process. Maybe alot of the above is just down to learning pains but that is alot of questions.

If anyone has any answers please post the question number and the answer in the comments below.

*I have changed this line to alternative vote from proportional representation as it has been point out to me that this voting system can be “even less proportional”.

4 comments:

  1. Three more observations:
    1. During the voting for the last three remaining candidates a rumour went around about Iain Dale that resulted in me overhearing a converstion between a group of men who decided they would no longer vote for him. Iain was knocked out during this round.

    2. During the voting for the final two candidates a word was being spread around that Rory Stewart was previously affiliated with the Labour Party. Rory lost the vote this round.

    3. Don't get me wrong, but there were three fully flegged Lib Dem party members at the meeting whose votes could have cost one of the stronger candidates the chance to become the PPC. Was it right that another PPC from another party should have a vote? I would say even though he was permitted to be there, I feel he was unethical in his attendence. I hope he can assure us that he didn't cast a vote.

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  2. Wow you know your stuff that's a shame about the first two points the gap between votes was what allowed these conversations to happen. +ne of the lib dems was infact me I voted for the best candidate every time. Ray the lib dem ppc left before the vote and was only there to see the speeches

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  3. I'd love to know what this rumour was supposed to be...

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  4. Anonymous - com on whats the rumour remember we wont know you you are

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