Friday 16 June 2006

The A-List and 4Rs

The author of Mrs Dale's Diary (former candidate for Norfolk North, former David Davis campaign manager, apparently named by London Evening Standard's Power People list as one of the top 200 most influential people in London, yet not one of the top 100 Tories not yet in the House of Commons) visited this site yesterday evening and left a comment I would like to answer if I may.

Mr Iain Dale said about my comment that only 2 A-List candidates had made the Folkestone and Hythe shortlist:

This is utter bollocks. It is simply not true that only 2 of the 20 in Folkestone are A Listers. I don't know where you got that from.


Well if Mr Dale had bothered to open the link that cited that very fact he would have seen it led straight to a Torygraph article on 9 June were a Conservative spokesman (please note the gender specific epithet) in denying that Adam Rickett's failure to make this list was a failure for the A-List said:

Two other priority candidates, including Simon Walker, a former media adviser to the Queen, and Priti Patel, a former Tory press officer, had gone forward to the next stage of the selection process at Folkestone and Hythe.


Now as Mr Dale has been unable to either provide a different number or another source I'll have to stand by what is out in the public domain. However, if he is willing to articulate errors in my arithmetic I will read what he has to say and write it up. After all as a Liberal Democrat I'm determined to lead by example with the 4Rs of Education.

2 comments:

  1. Well seeing as I personally know of 6 people on the A List who made the shortlist of 20 your point is wholly redundant. And my blog is not called Mrs Dale's Diary. As you very well know, it's called Iain Dale's Diary.

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  2. Thank you for that Iain, and as promised I have added an addendum to the original article.

    And you are quite correct I do know the correct title of your blog but like the Torygraph and the Gruaniad it is known by an alternative name in certain circles.

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