Since when has “asking difficult questions” to a politician become a crime? What, so someone might not ask David Cameron a patsy question? Wouldn’t want that now, would we.
If you look here, you could be forgiven for thinking that David Cameron was ready to respond to whatever questions people put to him.
The core premise is very simple: David Cameron visits a community centre and anyone who wants to come is invited to attend and take turns to ask David about whatever’s on their mind.
There are no scripts or planted questions, and the events, which are taking place throughout Britain, are open to everyone who lives in the local area, no matter what their political persuasion.
Cameron Direct gives David the chance to discover the local and national issues that people are concerned about. And it gives the people of Britain the chance to meet David and ask him about the issues that matter most to them.
But now we know from his mouthpiece, he really only wants to answer easy questions from people who are sympathetic to David Cameron and the Conservatives. So please, comrades in Halesowen and Rowley, don’t ask anything too hard.
Seriously wide of the mark. One of my friends had a Cameron Direct event in their constituency and discovered that party members are BANNED from attending, literally. They only take members of the public outside of the Conservative Party.
The issue is that Phil Harris has used his Parliamentary email account for political ends. If Mr Harris had used a private email account there wouldn’t be a case to answer.
“Letters from A Tory” is correct – I live in Edgbaston – not too far from Halesowen and I’m a member of the party but wasn’t even aware of this event – if DC wanted to fill it with Conservative supporters he could easily have done so by asking members like me to attend.
Isn’t the issue that Cameron wants to meet real people with real questions. He doesn’t want soft questions from Tory party workers, similarly he doesn’t want the meetings hijacked by Labout activists trying to score points.
The aim is noble – Labour’s actions are cynical. Perhaps points to a wider distrust that Labour has of the people and their ability to form their own opinions and ask their own questions. State control has it’s limits!
As no one in Stoke on Trent is a member of the Conservative Party, can you let me know when Cameron Direct is coming to us?
The Stoke People’s Popular Socialist Democratic Liberation Army have a few questions we’d like to put.
In a list of crimes, using your parliamentary e-mail account for party political purposes must be right up there with…. walking on the cracks in the pavement!
Is that really the best you can do?
The Parliamentary email account is paid for by those of us who pay our taxes, as no doubt was the salary of the person posting the email at the time he sent it.
I wasn’t going to mention this – but as you’ve decided to push the issue – since you object so much to planted questions – can we expect some righteous fire directed at most if not all the Labour MPs in the next PMQs?
I note you don’t have a response to the fact that the only plants in the audience will be the ones the Labour Party put there.
Bob
If I were you I’d be very careful around cracks in the pavement if you go anywhere near Hazel Blears then:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/08/email-calling-hazel-blears-liar
Be serious, Damon. You mean you think those Tories who win the ballot for PMQs think the questions up all by themselves? And if you are expecting people to believe that Conservatives are banned from attending these meetings, you need your bumps feeling. Try slowly dissecting the words… no matter what their political persuasion.
(By the way… did I mention ‘planted questions’?)
As for the Blears thing… I don’t know where you work, but if you use your work e-mail to tell people your boss is a twat, just wait and see how long you last if they find out.
There really wasa no attempt to control who was at the event or who asked questions – apart from, as an earlier comment said, to stop Conservative Party members from being there.
There were certainly people who we knew were Labour activists – including the local Labour candidate for the ward and her husband who asked a question – and activists from other parties, including the Green Party’s candidate from previous elections.
We knew that those people had asked to attend and we had no problem with that and David Cameron’s office was quite happy to have them there – there would have been nothing worse than an hour of “So tell us why you are wonderful and should be Prime Minister”.
That’s quite different from trying to pack an opponent’s public meeting and using your parliamentary staff to coordinate political activities – the full version of the email went from one parliamentary assistant to another and then on to a non-parliament email address.
If Sylvia’s staff want to continue to do political work during work time then perhaps they should declare it as an election expense like non-incumbents have to do with their staff.