You know you’re in a marginal seat when Boris Johnson is spotted with your Parliamentary hopeful at the tube trailed by camera crews, shorthand scribbling reporters and long lenses. This lunchtime I encountered BoJo and Angie Bray the millionaire Conservative candidate who only bought a house in the borough on her candidate selection (in posh Chiswick though not proper Ealing) at Ealing Broadway station. The two took tea at a caff opposite and Boris said Crossrail would do wonders for the area… except the Tories don’t seem to have guaranteed funding for the project. When I asked, Angie said they were behind it. No-one seems to have told their transport spokeswoman Justine Greening however as highlighted by this week’s Ealing Gazette.
There were tv cameras around to also record my question to him asking when David Cameron would follow Boris’ lead in advocating an amnesty on illegal immigrants. Again a non-answer followed. Council leader Jason Stacey disapprovingly referred to me as the Labour candidate in Walpole – which I am, well spotted Jace. Then they were off again. To my knowledge no-one was recorded making ungaurded remarks after.
Finally in my capacity as a candidate I’ve had a letter from Toby Young who is having a hustings on Friday with the PPCs for Ealing Central and Acton motivated by his campaign to launch his own school instead of his local comp Acton High, apparently his alternative will be like Eton. The incentive for us to attend is that BBC tv cameras will be there.
Who said that this would be the first internet election? What with the leader’s debates it’s the first 24 hour news channels television one – as I write cameras are fixed on a 66 year old’s frontdoor in Rochdale hoping that the PM trips up in his post-faux pas remarks.
UPDATE: Just seen myself pictured with Boris on 10.30pm BBC Local News. The voice-over called me “a Labour council candidate”.
UPDATE 2: This consequence of the comments has gone up on the Ealing Today site.
8 comments
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April 29, 2010 at 11:24 am
David Millican
I suppose I don’t blame your hypocrisy, or should I say lack of honesty, moaning about Toby Young wanting to set up a school in Acton. After all everyone wants the best for their children.
I remember you coming to the Northfield Councillors’ Surgery, congratulating us Conservatives on being elected. Nauseating really, but then that was the approach you took. You were clearly buttering is up as you wanted us to pull strings, or whatever, to help get your child a place in the nearby school.
It sounds like a remarkably similar approach to that which Gordon Brown took yesterday. Say one thing to someone’s face, then something different behind their back.
As you said you were pleased to have Conservative Councillors in the Northfield Ward where you live, you’ll presumably be voting for us next week.
April 29, 2010 at 11:52 am
rupahuq
Hi David, thanks for your comment.
It’s polite to congraluate the winner of an election surely?? Yours was a particularly good result. And should a ward councillor not represent ward residents irrespective of what political party they may belong to? Surely any person within the boundaries is entitled to go to a surgery, as I did with various other parents as representatives of a much wider group – 30 or so kids who were denied places at their catchment school. Perhaps you are confusing me with somone else who was in the delegation??
In the event our visit came to noaught so you have lost votes among those who campaigned on that issue I’m afraid. In fact the non-response from councillors, Conservative lead member for education etc was a factor in my decision to stand this time…
See you at the count if not before.
April 29, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Anthony Woods
Dear Mr Millican, your comments leave me speechless! Rupa is one of your constituents and you have a responsibility to represent her to the best of your ability; just like any other constituent? Or do you only want to help Conservatives in this ward? Also Rupa is anything but Nauseating, she is one of the most committed and hard working Politicians out there, with a brilliant knowledge of all the local issues!
If I was you I would get off this blog and start knocking on some doors in Northfields. There is no Tram this time!
Kind Regards
Anthony
April 29, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Aaron
David, you sound a little upset.
She was hardly “moaning” about it, simply calling for people to attend. I hope you’re not scared of the debate? Of course people want what’s best for their children but the discussion is far wider and more complex than that. And you have to realise that a lot of people disagree with the Tories attitude to public services and realise that what DIY actually means is “Dave’ll Ignore You”.
Rupa congratulating you on winning, then asking for help and then not, subsequently, being happy with you is nauseating? See, that sounds a little naïve and implies that you want or expect people to vote Tory in exchange for any help you offer (or not as the case may be). Honestly, you’ll be charging next…
Incidentally, I don’t think any reasonable person would call an Internet Blog (particularly a well known one), which by its very nature is visible to all, yourself included, “behind your back”. Indeed, your very presence here would seem to illustrate how patently “in your face” it actually is. Welcome to the 21st Century… you’re gonna love it!
April 29, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Tim
So let me get this right.
People pay their taxes, elect councillors and pay them an allowance for them to serve their constituents.
In reality this means councillors hanging about on websites, making snide comments and breaching the confidentially of casework from their ward. Frankly I find this behaviour totally appalling.
Cllr Millican you are doing a diservice to the borough. Especially as you should be lobbying your fellow conservatives to ensure that Crossrail actually happens.
April 30, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Cleo
David: irrespective of party politics, I know you to be a hard working and committed local councillor – but your comments here are mean spirited, snide, completely unnecessary and do you no good at all in the eyes of any constituents who may be reading them.
And, who, reading your bile, wouldn’t think twice about congratulating the winning candidate if in so doing you later get accused of “hypocrisy”?
May 3, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Eric Leach
Toby Young has written to me and I’m sure all Ealing and Acton Council candidates about his silly idea to run his ‘own’ State school in Ealing. As I wrote back to him to say it’s as silly as his wanting to run Ealing Hospital or Ealing Police or Fire Station. Good conventional State schools are what we need throughout the borough.
Councillor Millican’s outburst is a little surprising and he rarely visits the online world. His support for plans to build 14,700 new homes in Ealing – mostly along the Uxbridge Road corridor – over the next 16 years with no published plans for new schools is hardly doing the best for Ealing children.
On a lighter note, I lived for 14 years in what is now Rochdale. It was good of Gordon to put the town on the map!
May 6, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Mark D
As one of the parents who attended the Northfield’s Councillor’s Surgery with Rupa two years ago, I am astonished at the way David Millican has distorted what was a courteous and inoccuous comment made by Ms Huq, congratulating her adversary on his party’s recent election.
He was less than sympathetic to the plight of our children, (my daughter was offered a place at a school in Southall – 2 x 1.5 hour round trips every day!), and his reticence to help in any way since that time appears increasingly cynical, especially in light of his recent comments. I wonder how many constituents are aware of the extent to which he has abused his post.
To accuse Ms Huq of ‘buttering you up’ when, as a constituent, she shares the same rights and fears for her son’s education as the parents of 30 other children who did not receive catchment school places in the immediate area, shows that you lack the morals and integrity necessary to fulfill the role of an adequate L A councillor – perhaps you would be better suited to working with Hammersmith & Fulham L A – an ideal candidate to continue their good work it would seem.