Monday 11 June 2012

Reading East Labour

my little poll (right) is showing a stand-off between Tony Jones and Martin Salter for Labour candidate for Reading East.  I am a little surprised that Mr Salter is in the running, you'd think he wouldn't want to go back, although I suppose having pretended to represent Reading East for so long he would like actually to do so.  I reckon Tony Jones thought it was his for the taking.  But both of them are, how to put this, past their first youth.  Nothing wrong with starting a new job in your 60s, I intend to do precisely that when I retire from the one I am currently doing - but younger people may well be interested in the role as a career move.  My personal view is that Mr Salter will not go for it, because he knows that Rob Wilson may be expected to hold the seat, however unpopular the coalition is.  But we'll see.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really? why would Martin Salter go for Reading East? Surely if he wanted to go back to Parliament he could get a better seat than that? Overturn a 8k majority?

janestheone said...

precisely my point. Though I doubt he could get selected anywhere else, with his record and at his age.

Anonymous said...

Tony Jones parks his tanks on Reading Labour's lawn once again I see.

It'll be interesting to see whether the younger activists led by Duncan Bruce will stand by and watch the old boys & girls sew their nomination for 2015 up.

Don't reckon that they'll have a chance, anyway.

Anonymous said...

Who, precisely, is the 'Old Girl' in this ball park, so to speak?

Anonymous said...

I thought that Salter was advsied to stand down quietly because Parliamentary colleagues were worried about his personal drinking? That's what I understood anyway. And he has a temper and they were perhaps worried about the possibility of an incident. Sort of Eric Joyce type? I wonder if Eric Joyce had been advised to stand down too - before his Strangers' escpade? Often the Whips can bring this sort of unpleasant occurrence on by pestering drunks. Makes them drink more to get over it.Easier to let them rot, really. They usually fall off their stools by natural selection, so to speak.