The remain-supporting Conservative MP, Dominic Grieve, is facing deselection by his party after losing a confidence vote held by his local association by 182 to 131 votes.
The Conservative association in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire – Grieve’s constituency – said it no longer had confidence in the former attorney general after he put his case to members at a meeting on Friday.
And, while he remains its MP for the time being, a meeting will soon be convened to discuss his future.
Democracy works best when it is localised. And here we see it. Dominic Grieve failed to represent the wishes of his constituency party so they have decided that his number is up. Maybe that’s how to rid the commons of these people – for the local parties up and down the country to sack the bastards and start afresh. Be nice to think it would happen, but I’m not overly optimistic. But this one is a nice change. Actions have consequences.
Optimistic. The Conservative Party has moved so far from actual conservatism that most sensible members in local constituencies have left. They don’t even publish membership numbers anymore. Any new candidates to replace deselected MPs will be from a centrally-vetted list that contains no actual conservatives. A new party is needed. This one’s terminally f***ed.
This article by a guy who is a staunch Conservative (you can read his previous postings on his blog to verify this) is … interesting to say the least:
https://wulfstansghost.com/2019/03/28/the-post-brexit-tory-doom/
In other words, you have two types of socialism, Express socialism under Labour and Fast socialism under the Conservatives. same destination, just how quickly you get there is the difference.
We voted to leave, they stood on a platform promising to deliver Brexit, we should have left yesterday. Those who prevented that happening are treacherous bastards, deselection is too good for them.
The difficulty here, as elsewhere, is that while the constituency party has a say, they can be essentially overruled and a candidate imposed by “Conservative” Party Central Office. Usually this happens with useful idiots like Louise Mensch who was parachuted into Corby in 2006, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this happened with Dominic Grieve.
Even were this not the case, should the soon-to-be-former MP decide that he IS shameless enough to ignore the clearly stated views of his constituency party then he could seek re-adoption as the parliamentary candidate for the next election. Unlikely, to win I would have thought, but in the absence of a better candidate (and presumably a promise of better behavior once BRExit has cleared the decks), I would have thought that he stood some chance.
So. Never say never.