"Dear Ali,
As you will recall, I and other members of Hertsmere Conservative Association worked closely with you at the last election, in Watford, and were tremendously impressed with your hard work and commitment. Watford is a seat where the Conservative presence in local government has almost disappeared, and so to come as close as you did to winning it was a real achievement. Although I disapprove of the A List in principle, I was pleased you got on it, and looked forward to seeing you win a seat off Labour or the Liberal Democrats at the next election.
So it was with huge dismay that I read the article about Witham on your blog, and have heard your subsequent interviews.
You consider that you have been unfairly treated by comparison with white male candidates. Consider, you have been placed on the A List, ahead of many people who are just as well-qualified, and have done just as much for the Party, as you have. You have been privileged. It is a matter of fact that white, male candidates have been much less likely to be placed on the A List, than either women, or ethnic minority candidates. Are you seriously going to argue that you have been worse treated than suitably qualified white male candidates who have been denied the opportunity to apply for target seats, by being excluded from the A List?
You have implied that you are only interested in fighting safe Conservative seats, rather than marginal seats. This is astonishing. Most people on the Candidates’ List would jump at the opportunity to fight the target seats that have selected candidates, so far. Indeed, the vast majority of seats that have chosen candidates to date have been target seats, rather than Conservative seats, for the very sensible reason that they wish to have candidates in place at an early stage. The vast majority of these target seats were held by the Conservatives in 1992, and many of them were reckoned to be very safe, prior to the 1997 defeat. With the Party leading in the polls, and with the right candidate, I have no doubt that many of these seats could be safe seats once again.
Sometimes, candidates get lucky, and are chosen for a safe seat almost immediately. It is far more common, however, for a candidate to take many years to get chosen for a winnable, let alone, safe, seat. Michael Howard, for example, first fought a no-hope seat in Liverpool in 1966. It was not until 1983 that he was elected for Folkestone & Hythe. Very many able people never get chosen at all, or are chosen in bad years for the Conservatives, and so fail to make it into Parliament. So far, you have had nothing to complain of.
I am sure that if you are prepared to fight a target seat, then you will be chosen for somewhere that is a realistic prospect. But if you insist on only seeking a safe Conservative seat, if there is such a thing these days, you will have a very long wait indeed.
Yours sincerely,
SEAN FEAR,
Chairman, Hertsmere Conservative Association."