Blogging and candidacy….

As defiantly being one of the former and being a approved one of the latter looking for a seat to call my own I thought it was about time I had my two-penneth on this debate. You see while all the contributions thus far have spoken to some kind of truth I think they have all missed a vital (and probably determining) ingredient in the mix. Normally, following some big political scandal there is alot of public outrage, feelings ‘something must be done’ and that politics and politicians need to make radical changes. Eventually this mood subsides and despite all the public indignation people return to things being pretty much business as usual.

There is no doubt in my mind that the expenses scandal is sliding down the news agenda and out of the front of the public conciseness. However, the long-term impact on the voters psyche may well be more radical than we suspect; small signs are already becoming apparent in the fact that support for ‘others’ is showing no marked subsidence in opinion polls. I think this may in the long-term also reflect itself in the fact that the monochromatic candidacy’s parties often produce may well no longer be as widely accepted as they have been previously.

It may well be the case that being considered something of a maverick within the circles of any given party may be seen as something of an asset and that a willingness to speak your mind on say a blog won’t be as big a barrier as it has previously been. This is probably why David Cameron initially tried to get his reticent party to take on ‘outsiders’ as candidates because he recognised that there was and is a growing market for candidates who are not seen as being ‘within the system’ to the extent they have worked their way to candidacy by winning inner-party recognition. I think this subtle sea-change within the viewpoint of the wider public could well mean that there is a space for advancement of representation for some of the more ‘fringe’ trends alongside the mainstream within all parties and, on-balance, I think that can only be a good thing.