The media’s perception of our women candidates is woefully lacking. Today’s Daily Mail’s headline asks, “Have Cameron’s Cuties really got what it takes to transform politics?” Just reading those two terms, “Cameron’s Cuties”, makes me squirm because it is so belittling of the immense talent these women have, and, of course, their desire to transform politics. The good news is that it doesn’t bother them, their mind is on far more important things, and they accept it is par for the course.
Just being selected as a candidate is an incredible achievement on its own, with up to 150 names thrown in the hat for some seats, so these women can already be immensely proud of having made it this far.
All candidates, whether selected for a winnable, marginal or non-winnable constituency, need to possess the same qualities and attributes, including leadership, project management, passion, patience, confidence, public speaking, the ability to listen, creativity, endless energy, the willingness to sacrifice family and career, as well as coughing up the financial costs involved – estimated at up to £10,000 a year. Candidates can easily end up in debt in pursuit of their parliamentary dream.
I regard our candidates who put themselves up the unwinnable seats as our unsung heroes of the election, they fight tooth and nail to give their political party a voice in an area where it is not strong or popular. Their primary aim is to increase the vote share so they can boast of having made a difference. While it might help on a CV to later include this experience, it is no guarantee of being selected as a candidate next time round as the pool of talent for potential new candidates increases.
Being a candidate in an unwinnable seat can be a very solitary and demoralising existence as political parties naturally focus their attention on those seats they hope to win on polling day; they get no high profile ministerial visits to attract media attention. I know one candidate who had an ingenious idea for a campaign to highlight the dangers of young people taking drugs using an X-factor theme, but she was advised to forget it and support a fellow candidate in a neighbouring constituency who stood a better chance of winning. This is somebody who willingly travelled 200 miles at weekends to organise fund-raising events and gather an army of volunteers, but has no say on how she contests her seat.
Let’s appreciate the brilliant work these forgotten candidates make, and their contribution to the democratic process.
Ask not what you can do for your Party, but what your Party can do for you.
I think the BNP have shown that many of the ‘rotten borough’ council seats, aren’t safe so much as uncontested. So while I can understand the ‘unwinnable’ tag, I’m think ‘tougher’ would be a better fit.
saw this photo in the paper today 🙂
Ellee you ought to be a candidate! Try the next Election. Should be within a year of the one in May (assuming the country can afford it)
[…] Ellee Seymour asks us to think about the candidates selected from a huge pool of applications for a seat that they’re never going to win in a month of Thursdays. Why do it? To et experience, to be blooded in combat, and because even getting selected is a huge […]
Are you saying none of the Tory women will win? Most demoralising…
Jeremy, thanks, maybe I would have liked to have done.
Mutley, I’m saying that all our Conservative women qualities have already gone through hoops to be selected as a parliamentary candidate, and they have great qualities to do the job.
I would never vote for any woman who took part in such a photo shoot .
What on earth do they think this is a beauty contest or a take for some lads mag ?
They really are Camerons cuties .
Can you imagine Anne Widdicome ever lowering herself to such tripe .
No wonder I cant vote for this lot.
disaffected, you have been seduced by the media’s perception of women too just because of one photo-shoot. I find that very disappointing, you should be able to see through it.
And most certainly yes, Widdecombe totally exploits her looks with her fighting fat programme on TV on this subject. She might not be “cute”, but she is canny. And so are those women in the pic. What’s wrong with being an attractive women politician? Why do people find that so hard?
Because its not about looks , its about having the ability to do a very special and important job and these women should rise above the modern nedia spin wish .What they look like is just a matter of luck of the draw , and we all end up loosing our looks .Twenty years down the road they would still need real talent and drive.
Just look at that photo , all carefully set out , they were clearly even told what colours and types of clothes they had to wear ! Co-ordinate , co-ordinate , Stepford wives comes to mind.
This isnt politics its pretence.
The fact that they went along with it instead of saying ” Im out on the streets doing the business not parading in front of a camera to put forward an image ” tells you lots about them as people.Its all so shallow.
I expect just like Blairs Babes if they were ( very unlikely ) to get a seat in the house they would be simply voting fodder for the whips .
Good for them. They may look attractive, but people shouldn’t assume that is their only talent.