Some of you will have heard of David Cameron’s A-list, part of his unstinting and useless selfless efforts to modernise his party, specifically in this case to get more women and ethnic minority candidates selected for safe Tory seats.
Some of you may also know that there will shortly be a by-election in the ultra-safe and ultra-Little-England Tory seat of Bromley & Chislehurst following the sudden death of the last incumbent Eric Forth (who was not exactly one of David’s buddies). David would like (but won’t force) the constituency party to select one of his A-listers. In truth, the best he can probably hope for is that they might select Forth’s widow, even though she’s not exactly one of his buddies either.
So Channel 4 is reporting the story from the constituency and interviews an old friend of the dead bloke, who comes out with the line (update: edited now I’ve been able to check the video clip, about 4 minutes in):
“I think they’ll be looking for a candidate who’s quite normal rather than a candidate who’s exotic”.
David really does have his work cut out with this bunch…
9 comments on “We’re not racist, we just want normal people”
I’d have thought “exotic” is just another codeword for “gay” here — as with Francis Maude’s “mincing metrosexuals” last week, but perhaps I’m wrong. I didn’t see C4N.
Forth was vile. I know one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, etc., but when I met him last year he seemed, well, vile, in a way that even Conservative politicians generally aren’t.
i saw exactly the same report. that is exactly what he said, you’re safe. cos, y’know, someone like eric forth is “normal”.
did you also see the bit where they said “an Old Etonian is 384 times more likely to be an MP than a state school pupil?” i really hope the researcher got a week off, or at least a raise, for that.
It was very slightly differently worded (mainly, he said ‘they’ rather than ‘we’…) - I’ve corrected it.
He might have been thinking of sexuality, I suppose (but that wasn’t the context of the report).
I’d managed to forget the bit about Old Etonians, who are of course such normal representatives of the British population…
A late relative of mine used to use “erotic” a lot, actually. He or she also referred to Africa as “The Black Countries.” 5 guesses who she voted for…
Oh dear. I really meant “exotic” there!!
But Sharon, he isn’t really going to get rid of them: he’s just going to keep them in the Lexus.
What, he won’t let them ride his bike?
And Rob, I suppose that’ll be one of them Freudian slip thingummies?
Well, the exotic and the erotic are often conflated, as with dancers.