Postbag
Candidacy can be a poisoned chalice
I AM delighted that Salisbury Liberal Democrats have chosen Nick Radford as my successor to fight the
constituency.
He is young, enthusiastic, local and the boundary changes will undoubtedly assist him at the next election.
My only hope is that the current collective leadership of the local party affords him better support than I received in 2004/2005.
Salisbury Liberal Democrats have an unenviable track record with their parliamentary candidates over the years.
I am grateful for the support I enjoyed from a small and dedicated team of activists.
Sadly, an influential clique were instrumental in
undermining my candidacy in 2005 and witch-hunting me afterwards. The then chair absented himself from the official count, which was unprecedented, and I was not invited to the post-election campaign evaluation, which was also unprecedented.
At my performance review I was criticised for being too political at a Sunday coffee morning at Salisbury Methodist Church and chewing gum in an aggressively bovine style.
One councillor rounded on me for dressing casually at a successful Liberal Democrat fund raiser.
I stood condemned for rattling my bucket too
aggressively in the Old George shopping mall during a collection for the victims of the 2004 Christmas tsunami.
I would be the first to admit that being "too pushy and left of centre" and having a Portland home address didn't help.
However, my hard work helped to maintain our strong second-place parliamentary base, saw the Liberal Democrats double their constituency Wiltshire County Council representation and assisted Salisbury Transport 2000's campaign to see off the unnecessary Brunel/Harnham link road.
The new candidate deserves better support than I enjoyed.
Every success to you, Nick!
RICHARD DENTON-WHITE
Salisbury Liberal Democrat candidate in 2005
4:46pm Thursday 27th March 2008
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