Welcome to Sir Cyril Townsend
Welcome to Sir Cyril Townsend who served as Conservative MP for Bexleyheath from 1974 to 1997 and who, earlier today, announced that has joined the Liberal Democrats.
Sir Cyril attended the first of the Hustings meetings in Plymouth at the weekend, and met Sir Ming Campbell, pledging his personal support.
David Cameron was the author of Michael Howard’s illiberal manifesto just last May. If he believed what he wrote then, how can he believe what he says now? And since he voted for the US invasion of Iraq, and has been continually Eurosceptic, what right has he to our respect for his international intentions?
I am supporting Ming Campbell’s campaign to lead the Liberal Democrats – who I joined last year – because I admire his consistency and integrity, and I believe his distinct radical liberalism would be a breath of fresh air in British politics.
Given that the Conservatives and the media made a big thing a few days ago about the defection of a little-known Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate who came third in West Suffolk earlier this year, I wonder how they will react to the loss of someone who served for 23 years as a Conservative in the House of Commons?
January 29th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Great work, team-Ming.
January 30th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Is this the same Cyril Townsend who lost the Conservative nomination for Bexleyheath & Crayford in 1997. Is it the same Cyril Townsend who nominated David Walter (who posted above) to stand for Parliament in Torridge and West Devon – effectively outing himself publically as a Lib Dem well before now? Is it the same Cyril Townsend who helped turn a Liberal Democrat majority of 1,194 into a Conservative one of 3,236?
Just goes to show how rattled you are that you have to re-heat some old news like this. Wouldn’t it have actually have been better to parade Sir Cyril rather than Brian Sedgemore during the general election, rather than now, when no one will take any notice?
January 30th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
The swing against us in Torridge and West Devon was in line with the average swing in seats where an incumbent was standing down and replaced by a new candidate. Unlike the others, there was not the cushion of a substantial majority to start with. Clearly in seats like this where we are facing the Conservatives, the support of former one nation Conservatives like Cyril is enormously helpful. Cyril only actually became a party member after the General Election.
January 30th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Maybe so but it’s a long time to keep this quite – like I said, re-heated old news. The fact that he signed your nomination papers shows, whether he was a member or not, that he was already a Lib Dem supporter well before today.
As a word of advice David, I am not so sure whether parading defectors was such as Sir Cyril or John Lee was a good idea in the first place, nor was Hugh Dykes either. Remember Torridge and West Devon’s past history with defectors. Emma Nicholson managed to make herself the most unpopular constituency MP *ever* when she defected – she upset a lot of people, both Conservative and Liberal voters alike. Bringing out people like Sir Cyril and John Lee probably only served to drive the voters further away from you David than before. I wouldn’t try it again in Torridge if I were you.