Tory PPC - a 'fearless' campaigner ? Letter published in the Herald Express 220509

The following is the edited version of a letter I sent to the local 'Herald Express' newspaper. Predictably they edited bits attacking the arrogance of Mr Steen and vt5he more trenchant criticism of Marcus Wood (Tory PPC - Torbay). It ended up reading :

JOHN KIDDEY tries to suggest in these pages that Marcus Wood (Conservative PPC) has been a fearless campaigner on the issue of MPs' expenses. However this 'fearlessness' only extends to situations where Mr Wood feels he can portray, rightly or wrongly, the Lib Dems as the bad guys.

In the interests of political even-handedness I asked Marcus for his comments on the £87,000 expenditure, at our expense, on Anthony Steen's £1million plus (second) home in Devon. His response, and I quote from his web blog: 'As to Anthony he will face his executive on Friday — it is for them or the voters of his constituency to judge him'.

Clearly in Marcus' world it's open season in the press on Lib Dem MPs locally, but it's not for him to judge Conservative party colleague Mr Steen.

Is this yet another example of political misjudgement, following your earlier fulsome praise for your Tory colleagues Bye and Carroll ? Let's start talking about policies rather than personalities Marcus, for whatever people in the Bay are looking for in their MP it certainly isn't politics by press release that you currently offer.