Thursday, February 21, 2013

Why Maria Hutchings missed the BBC Eastleigh hustings

The Conservatives' deeply unimpressive campaign in the Eastleigh by-election continued in its accustomed style today as their candidate, Maria Hutchings, failed to attend a hustings organised and broadcast by BBC Radio Five Live.

Her excuse, as Michael Deacon reminds us in the Daily Telegraph, was that she had to accompany David Cameron on a visit to the Prysmian Cables & Systems factory in the town.

Cameron, says Deacon, said that she simply hadn’t had time to take part in the hustings because of the factory visit.

But it seems that the same journalists from the BBC had no trouble in reporting both events.

Maria Hutchings herself said she had to come to the factory early to "prepare and come and speak to the people at this business".

So guess how long her speech at Prysmian Cables & Systems lasted.

One minute, 57 seconds.

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2 comments:

Tim (Kalyr) said...

Do you get the impression the Tories are deliberately trying to throw this byelection in order to shore up the coalition?

mcrosby18 said...

I don't think it's deliberate; more liketly David Cameron is just letting the nasty Right of the Tory party have their own way. If they win, he looks good and has thrown them a few crumbs to keep them off his back. On the other hand, if they lose, or even better, lose big time, he can say that his more moderate way is what the electorate want, so they sholud do it his way in future. (Like the failure of the loony right Republicans in America). Either way he gets something out of it.