From the comments on various web sites, it appears that the Conservatives have decided to pretend that Ian Oakley was never anything to do with them. They take offence at his description as a Conservative candidate - a post that he clearly held when he committed the offences and are seeking to remove every trace of Oakley’s connection with the party. Except they haven’t quite succeeded!
Now the reaction of the Conservative Party is to refuse to comment. In the Daily Mail it states:
A Conservative Party spokesman said they could not comment on the issue as Oakley was no longer a member of the party.
Really! I look forward to the Conservatives keeping silent on all other major crimes committed in the future!
Elsewherethere are prominent Conservatives denying that Oakley is anything to do with them. Worse still, there are still those who believe that he hasn’t done anything wrong really.
Blog postings on ThunderDragon(a blog hosted by a Watford Conservative, who stood for Three Rivers council earlier this year) include:
Well, he’s not been convicted exactly…
and
“So what?”
and rather unbelievably
Is Ian Oakley the first parliamentary candidate to resort to shady dealings? Certainly not, and I doubt he’ll be the last. It happens with any job - some people want it so much they do things they shouldn’t have.
Look at the list of charges and tell me which other PPCs have been convicted of such offences?
Of all the Conservatives on the web, Iain Dale seems to have got closest to grasping the seriousness of the issue. But even he finds that sorry seems to be the hardest word and some of the comments are truly shocking:
Oakley was a one-off - and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was a plant by another party anyway.
And on ConservativeHome, a Watford Conservative says:
Of course the Watford party was not complicit in this. If this was the case, other members of the party would have been in the dock with Ian Oakley and suggesting otherwise is both dangerous and extremely foolish. I have been a member of the Watford Association for over ten years and know Ian Oakley well. I was extremely surprised by his arrest and admission of guilt.
Although he does continue to say:
We will now have a very difficult task in turning this seat around.
But as my colleague Cllr Iain Sharpecomments, the Conservatives cannot simply wash their hands of the man from West Drayton. He was a Conservative candidate when he carried out the offences and when he was arrested. And today at court I watched the sickening scenes of him being welcomed and feted by current councillors and activists. If that had been one of ours, I certainly wouldn’t have been holding a love-in with them.
In case we forget, Oakley admitted that he did all this to improve the electoral standing of the Conservatives and to subvert democracy. The fact is that thankfully he failed to do either.
8 responses so far ↓
1 ralph pryke // Aug 6, 2008 at 0:28
I showed the reports of Oakley’s conviction with the list of things he carried out to a Conservative council colleague who has a detailed knowledge of how Conservative target seats work this morning. He immediately said that as Watford is one of their targets, there’s no way others in Central Office, and more particularly, Ashcroft’s operation, could not have known about and implicitly condoned Oakley’s actions. He didn’t go so far as to say they might have encouraged it. But …. leaflets cost money to print and someone has to print them - it’s hardly likely Oakley did it all himself. And apparently in Ashcroft-funded target seats, everything but everything has to be run by the machine first, and the product (leaflets, media coverage etc) reported back to Ashcroft and underlings asap. When will the Tories admit that this ‘party within’ has totally subverted their brand, and is wagging the DC dog?
2 Asp // Aug 6, 2008 at 9:08
I’m afraid I must draw issue with some of the quotes you’ve drawn from my post on The ThunderDragon, and put them into context.
The “He’s not been convicted exactly” was in response to the quote made by the blog author that he’d stand corrected if Ian Oakley was convicted. Which he hasn’t been, technically - although I’m sure The Thunderdragon will admit that he was wrong!
As regards my “so what”, I’m looking at it from a political perspective. I’ll use the same cliché from my posting - Oakley’s done the crime, so he’ll do the time. It’s not “so what, it’s nothing major”. It is, and it’s good that he’s been found out and will serve a suitable punishment. Hopefully it’ll go some way toward recompense for the affected persons.
However, there’s no need to make a political story out of the actions of one person (and there’s no indications that I can read that it was anything but the actions of a solitary man). To mix my metaphors competely, there’s a ban banana in every bunch.
Are there examples of other PPCs harassing candidates? Well, I don’t know - but it has happened in local politics. But, I’m talking generally. There’ll always be politicians who think it’s necessary to resort to illegal ways to obtain their goal - dodgy loans; harassment; or any one of a multitude of ways. Just as there’s people so desperate in every way of life.
Does it make it right? Of course not. But it’s the *people* who did it, not the organisation.
So, instead of just “So what?” - “So what if he was a Conservative?” He could have been a Tory, LibDem, Labour, or Monster Raving Loony. He’s been found out, as others will in the future….
3 Sara // Aug 8, 2008 at 11:41
Excuse me for not commenting earlier, but I’ve been a little busy.
I can’t see the point of pulling apart most of what you’ve said, leading to a long pointless debate. But that doesn’t mean I don’t stand by what I said.
However on the point of conviction, you are plain wrong. Oakley has been convicted on seven counts and asked for a further 68 to be taken into consideration. A conviction a finding of guilt for an offence considered by a criminal court and a finding of guilt includes a plea of guilty.
4 ThunderDragon // Aug 9, 2008 at 23:33
Sara, can you please edit your post to contain the caveat that the author of that post was not myself, but a completely unconnected party. Asp is neither a Conservative or from [or with any connection to] Watford? Thank you.
I have only just got back from a two week volunteering holiday and will be composing a post on this issue once I have had a chance to unpack, unwind, and catch up on some sleep - and the news.
5 Sara // Aug 9, 2008 at 23:59
I said that the blog was hosted by you, which it is. I think to say that it was ‘a completely unconnected party’ is pushing it, unless you are claiming to have done a Grant Shapps?
6 Nich Starling // Aug 10, 2008 at 0:17
I’ve been the subject of some local election troubles in the past. A Tory on my school governors tried to make my job untenable, I got one or two silly calls, but never the sort of stuff Oakley did.
ASP, you really need to know the difference between a bi of mild abuse and what Oakley did.
7 ThunderDragon // Aug 10, 2008 at 14:57
Asp is a university friend of mine who I asked to cover some posts for me whilst I was on holiday. He is completely unconnected to the Conservative Party or to Watford except through his friendship with me, which has nothing to do with politics.
I made that comment because you appear to be insinuating that any comment made by Asp can be directly attributed to myself and my position as a local council candidate, through the sentence:
“Blog postings on ThunderDragon(a blog hosted by a Watford Conservative, who stood for Three Rivers council earlier this year) include:”
This very much implies that I am either the author or approve of and agree with everything that is posted there. I do not.
Please clarify the statement mentioned above to make it clear that it is not my words that you are quoting.
8 Today is Global Handwashing Day // Oct 15, 2008 at 17:55
[...] be a real day of fellowship for Watford’s Conservatives [...]
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