Ellee Seymour

Julian Sturdy

Many congratulations to Julian Sturdy on being selected the Conservative candidate to contest the new York Outer parliamentary seat.

It was a particularly great achievement as he was chosen in preference to two A-list candidates, Kevin Hollinrake and Julie Moody who, like Julian, are locals. Julian believes he had the edge because of his policital experience - he stood against Environemnt Secretary Elliot Morley in Scunthorpe during last year’s general election and ousted a Lib Dem Mayor when he won his seat on Harrogate Borough Council in 2002.

His Lib Dem rival is Madeleine Kirk and we are looking forward to planning our campaign on local issues.

Did I mention that I shall be his Press Officer? Oh yes, I can’t wait because I know what a genuine and great guy Julian is, just like his dad MEP Robert Sturdy.

Julian is also subject to much interesting speculation on ConservativeHome, I recommend you take a peek.

Senator John Edwards

US Senator John Edwards has this advice about winning a future election in an age of informality - don’t sound like a politician, at least in the USA.

Neville Hobson believes that many politicians over here might share the same view, but wouldn’t admit to it publicly.

This is his extract from Edwards:

“The problem is that we’re so trained and so conditioned over a long period of time that being normal and real and authentic requires you to shed that conditioning,” Edwards said of politicians. “It is not an easy thing to do.” Edwards then alluded to the next presidential election. “My own view is the next president of the United States, or certainly the one after, is likely to be the single candidate who doesn’t sound like a politician,” he said. “I want to tell you on a personal level, I’m trying every way I know how not to do it. We’ve been trained to do the wrong thing,” he concluded. “That’s the problem.”

Hobson goes on to say that David Miliband and Margot Wallstrom might be close to “not sounding like a politician”. As I’ve said before, Wallstrom writes a very spirited and open blog, while Miliband’s is just a ministerial post.

Melanie Phillips today also writes about the present state of the Tories, quoting Francis Maude as saying the “party’s transformation needed to be wider, deeper and faster.”

In fact, what politicians need is to have sound policies and connect to the public, to listen to their constituents and represent them well, acknowledge all their correspondance, get out to the grass roots and talk to people. The should not patronise their constituents, never take them for granted and should support their campaigns. They should certainly communicate with them regularly and update them about local issues they are working on, demonstrate how hard working they are. And, of course, be honest. A glowing example is Grant Shapps who runs a brilliant interactive forum for his Welwyn Hatfield constituents and fulfils all this criteria.

Moving house is already one of the most stressful experiences anyone can have, but be warned, this time next year it will be considerably worse!

A new law is due to be implemented from June 2007, the new Home Information Packs, which experts have warned will hit jobs, reduce consumer spending and undermine the economy.

Michael Gove has urged the Chancellor to intervene and force the Government to abandon John Prescott’s “half-baked and dangerous new regulations”.

Ross Clark’s report for the Sunday Telegraph warns that the new regulations are in disarray and will bring chaos, that only 4,000 home inspectors will be trained in time, far short of the 7,000 required.

My concern is that HIPs fail to make it compulsory for soil samples to be included which would highlight contaminated land. Families in Littleport, Cambridgeshire have had their lives devastated by this discovery.

The present threshold for chemicals is set very low and local MP Malcolm Moss has urged the Government to review this so the blight can be removed - without success. Malcolm wanted soil samples to be a standard requirement in HIPs, but according to Lester, soil samples will only be taken on an “advisory” basis.

It seems quite clear why this not happened, it would jeopardise John Prescott’s plans to build on brownfield sites. The Littleport homes were built on the site of a an old gasworks and children have been told not to play in gardens because the chemicals are potentially carciogenic.

I remember seeing Sir Trevor McDonald report this on a TV documentary and an expert showed how easy it was to take soil samples, we already have the technology.

It seems HIPs comes under Ruth Kelly’s umbrella, which does not instil one with confidence after her poor record as Education Secretary. Incidentally, why does her job title include the portfolio for Minister for Women? Surely the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Minister for Women are two separate jobs.

UPDATE from Malcolm Moss: “A soil analysis from the garden is not mandatory although buyers may ask for some “comfort” in this area. There’s the rub, You may be damned if you don’t do one and damned if you do with soil guideline values in such disarray.”

Update 19thJuly: The doomed scheme is scrapped.