Down at the school gates they think I am mad. Why? Have I gone vegan, dyed my hair purple or run off with the games teacher?

No. According to many of my friends I have joined the ranks of the truly crazy people. I have decided to leave “ordinary life” behind and try to become an MP.

Many of my friends and family are stupefied. I have no background in politics and although I have been a journalist all my working life, I have never reported from the lobby.

But for five years I have reported on some of the worst social issues to face this country and what I saw was a perfect storm.

Pregnant teenagers, the fall-out from 24-hour drinking and a nation living on credit, co-joined with too many politicians looking for a sound-bite with precious little front-line experience of life in Britain on the edge.

Last summer I did not even belong to a political party. I did not know any MPs, any councillors or any political advisors other than the ones I had interviewed for ITV, Sky or the Daily Mail….and some of those have crossed me off their Christmas card list after encounters on ITV’s Tonight programme that did not go their way.

But I have always been a Conservative at heart so I joined the Richmond Park Conservatives Association and started doing some research.

I discovered I had to sit the Parliamentary Assessment Board in order to get on the list of approved candidates. I was, by now, so close to the deadline I had to mail the forms from my holiday, having slipped into a French supermarket photo-booth for the pictures first.

Twelve weeks later I found myself in a Cheshire hotel room with six hours of tests ahead of me. I was only slightly more nervous covering the overthrow of Indonesia’s President Suharto. I also remember registering that I was the only woman, the only person with children and the only person with no political footprint whatsoever.

Still, I passed the tests and got onto the List. I still find it hugely impressive that a political party is prepared to move that quickly when they see someone with potential.

Since then I have had a great deal of support from the Candidates’ Committee and from individual MPs I meet along the way. Senior Shadow Cabinet Ministers have taken the time and trouble to give me their advice. But now I am concerned.

I can see that there is sometimes a very big gap between the candidates favoured by the local associations, and the ones on the list. This is understandable. The associations develop relationships with potential MPs over many years. They can be resentful of anyone being parachuted in.

Alternatively I can understand our leadership wanting a more diverse range of candidates. It is the only way to get to the widest range of voters. We already know how important it is to have accessible women MPs – some commentators have called it the Grazia effect.

There is a disconnect here, but it is not insurmountable. At least we are able to fast track promising candidates in a plausible way, even if it does not always work.

But while I agree with much of what David Cameron had to say this week, I feel strongly that the debate over the selection of women has become mired in party politics rather than a discussion over how the selection process can accommodate the practicalities of life as a woman in Britain.

The simple fact of the matter is that many women who could be persuaded to represent their communities do not have the time or the support system to start a political career in the current system. Representative women are not single barristers, special advisors or scions of political dynasties. Representative women juggle a combination of family budgets, child-care and supporting partners – if they are lucky enough to have one.

Take one afternoon this week. I had a letter-writing panel to re-structure, a ward committee meeting to chair, emails to write thanking people I met at the previous evening’s Conservative Women’s Organization’s dinner, three children to feed, two sets of homework to supervise, a partner whose business had spent the day under intense pressure. To cap it all, the cleaner did not return from Poland.

Oh. I forgot about the day job. I run my own company, DuberleyMedia, which underpins the whole endeavour.

Now, I am a determined person, but even I had pause for thought when I found myself in the middle of Northwood Hills on a cold winter’s night last year, with a sack of leaflets, a torch and a map for company. Did anyone know I was there?

Since then I have had many enjoyable trips but I am beginning to wonder about the opportunity cost to my fledgling business.

My day out in Waltham Forest was fascinating. I was helping with a local by-election. I spent a pleasant morning with the ex-chair of the association - a charming woman but I am not sure that it increased my political footprint. Maybe I now leave a slight indentation.

As part of Zac Goldsmith’s campaign team I spend a lot of time – as he does – on street stalls or out canvassing and leafleting. I love it. My local association is packed with genuine people but it is time consuming and does it help me get a seat? I am not so sure because no other association will have any contact with me before they see me on the day of a selection.

Recently, I made my first applications. I got to the last eight for Holborn and St Pancras. The selection panel was nerve-wracking but then so was being shot at in Jakarta and tear-gassed in Seoul. I received some very useful but retrospective advice from Teresa May and I will be using it next time.

The trouble is I can overcome my nerves – three years of covering riots and mayhem in the Far East and hundreds of live-shots for 24-hour news saw to that. I can polish up my performance but I know from years of experience in raising children and running a home while working in a pressurized environment, that the way forward is with a clear framework. Without that many women candidates will end up either exhausted or broke - or both.

I

Tags: Daily Mail, ITV, Richmond Park Conservatives Association, Sky

Monday, 11 May 2009 at 13:09

One Response to “Down at the School Gates”

• AA

  Interesting blog, interesting article in the Daily Mail (not my paper of choice, I find it is racist & xenophobic with a BNP sympathetic readership. But I read the online version as it is wise to be aware of what the enemy is thinking).

  So you wish to become an MP? In your blog you say you are Conservative with a Capital C. In the Daily Mail article you are conservative with a little “c”. Maybe you are having second thoughts about your political affiliations. Anyway I digress.

  Your approach to becoming an MP is all wrong and hence your lack of success at it is not at all surprising.

  To become an MP or to even go into politics you need a cause célèbre that you feel passionately about - whether it is world poverty, or nuclear war, or simply the state of education or these days the corruption and expenses fiddling of our MP’s or as a Daily Mail person “immigration”.

  Nothing of that sort comes across in your blog or article. The impression given is that “I am ordinary” “Cameron said he wants ordinary people as MP’s”, “I am a mumsy sort of person” “there is a shortage of women MP’s in the conservative party” “I am a woman” “I want to be an MP” and hence “I am qualified to be an ‘ordinary person’ MP”.

  Firstly you are not ordinary. Most ordinary people do not have access to the National media to air their gripes about how their pet project is not getting off the ground. In your blog you winge about your “Polish cleaner not returning” - most “ordinary” people do not have cleaners, Polish or otherwise! You may not have a political footprint, but you do have a Google footprint (which is how I found your blog)! Most ordinary people do not have a Google footprint! Thankfully your Google footprint appears to be clean and try as I might I couldn’t find skeletons in your closet, but then I didn’t look too hard either.

  As for political footprint - either you need political patronage or you need a political following. You seem to have neither. By your own admission, even the fellow “mums at the schoolgate” do not believe in you! You obviously have not cultivated a political following as evidenced by the fact that there are no comments on your blog and your evident lack of success!

  It is not Cameron who you should be pleading to but the people who you wish to represent and who you wish to select you as a candidate for MP.

  You say you do not wish to be parachuted in as a prospective MP, but the impression given is that is exactly what you want Cameron to do for you, simply because you put yourself forward. You are treating becoming an MP like a job application. You sound like the people who send of many job applications but fail to get interviews and then write to the media winging about how perfectly qualified people (ie they) don’t get picked for jobs.

  You are naive for thinking that you do not need to be political to become an MP. That is a bit like saying you do not need to do sports but still expect to have a chance of winning at the Olympics in 2012 - how absurd is that?

  Becoming an MP is not about you, but about a cause that you believe in and the people you wish to represent.

  Politics is not about envelope stuffing or begrudgingly leafleting. As for wanting a refund on your Conservative membership fee for not getting selected - that shows a lack of commitment.

  To succeed you need to pick a cause and show people what you will do to make their lives better.

  If you really believe in yourself and don’t get selected by the Conservative party then why not stand as an independent MP? Martin Bell did and won! He was also a media type person! With the state of politics at the moment it is ripe for independents with a cause. Look at Esther Rantzen - She is not pleading to Cameron to get her selected! Oh of course, if you did stand as an independent, then you will need to get off your backside and find people who actually believe in you and support you rather than lazily relying on a party machinery to set you up.

  I don’t know your politics (other than upper Middle class lifestyle and Conservative) and I am not conservative but I wish you success in your endeavors to become an MP. My view though is I seriously doubt whether you are MP material. And ordinary no!

  05/31/2009 at 07:33