The Tonbridge Conservatives have apparently made their choice. Ex soldier and all round action man, Tom Tugendhat, aged 40, is the candidate who has been chosen ahead of the other three who made the short list. Tom is still relatively young at only 40 and has a tough act to follow with out going MP Sir John Stanley having served the community for 40 years. That's a long shift by anyone's standards. I must say that I never voted for him so in a sense he didn't represent me but, that said, in my few dealings with him, he always seemed to take action where needed and seemed to care about his constituents. The new guy, Tom, is a former Army officer who, I'm informed, served in Iraq and Afghanistan. That in itself doesn't necessarily make him a great guy but it certainly buys him a lot more respect in my eyes than if he'd been, say, a career politician or long standing borough councillor. Tom is quoted as saying that he has no political background, but that his time in the Army and experience in working with a community would serve him well as an MP.
He said: "I grew up in Sellinge near Ashford and spent most of my holidays around Kent.
"I've just left the army and I feel it's extremely important that those who have experience are represented in Parliament. There are so many professional politicians, which concerned me, and I felt the need to do something about it."
Unless the liberals or Labour put out an extremely strong candidate Mr. Tugendhat is a virtual shoe-in at the 2015 general election in this Tory stronghold parliamentary seat. Just hope that someone will be able to pronounce his name! Any thoughts?....
5 comments:
I expect most of the people of Tonbridge would vote Tory whoever was standing. One can only assume that none of them ever need to use the NHS or state schools or are in any danger of becoming unemployed.
I am afraid that the previous anonymous is wrong. This town is not naturally right wing. The record shows that for most general elections during John Stanley's 40 years the majority of Tonbridge voters did not vote tory, they voted for someone else, but because that(anyone but John)vote was split between Lib Dem and labour, the conservative vote won the day with a minority of the votes cast.
I thought unemployment was going down. as for nhs it was a mess under labour just as much as the tories. when you let every tom dick and harry from europe have free health service then no matter how much money you give it, it will be crap. labour spending plans put this country back years, but as usual the tories get all the stick trying to fix it!
I agree John Stanley has been for the most part a good constituency MP taking an active interest in things local. My view of him is though tainted by the homophobic comments he has made in recent years which make me worry about his view on other issues and whether they are just as bigoted.
As an aside when John Stanley first stood in 1974 40 years ago as the Tory candidate for the newly formed Tonbridge and Malling constituency his labour opposition was none other than Jack Straw.
If you are interested take a look at John Stanley's voting tendencies.
Looks like he often changed his mind.
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