A posh-sounding Northumbrian

Browsing Conservative Home today I find an innocuous enough blog post showing the shortlist for a Conservative parliamentary selection.

It's a reminder of something I unfortunately failed to do with Lib Dem Voice -  to reduce the secrecy surrounding the candidate selection process.  My early attempts faced a strong backlash, not from the party hierarchy, but from the readers of Lib Dem Voice themselves who felt I was going too far too fast.

Some of the post-Henley debate is centering on the choice of a not-particularly-local candidate. I'd be interested to see if there is a greater appetite for candidate selection transparency now.

Candidate selection in England, in and out of byelections, has been a constantly thorny topic for the party, and there are many who think the time has come for root and  branch reform.