Alex Deane is a partner at a City consultancy, former political aide, and the Conservative candidate for Finchley and Golders Green.
It’s not an unexpected question. Friends and acquaintances have long known of my passion for politics – but they look at the current opinion polls and ask variations on… er, why now, Alex?
The answer is threefold.
The first is a national one, and it applies to us all: now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the Party. Fairweather friends are one thing. It’s when times are harder that you know who is really by your side.
Our great Party needs us. I believe with every fibre of my being that whatever criticisms might be levelled at the current Government, our country is infinitely better off under Conservative government than Labour or any other current alternative. Many will obviously disagree – but not conservatives.
The second answer is specific to Finchley and Golders Green.
When I saw that Mike Freer – a truly exceptional MP – was standing down after being on the receiving end of several credible death threats; when I saw that he had been targeted by Sir David Amess’s killer; when I learned that the Association office had been set on fire… I decided that I could not stand idly by.
The Association might very well not select me, I reasoned – but I could at least try.
I tried, and I’m proud that I did – and I’m so proud that they chose me. In Margaret Thatcher’s seat, with Mike Freer’s legacy to try to live up to. It is a great responsibility for me and it’s one that I relish.
One aspect of that is obvious, but I’ll say it anyway. My opponents (all, by dint of the events I have described, selected well before me) are palpably decent people who believe as we do that change in society comes through the ballot box; that our democracy is served in the battle of ideas, not by creeping up in the dead of night and leaving a building in flames.
We are going to have a great debate in Finchley and Golders Green. We are going to argue, robustly and civilly. But in the end, it will have been made clear to all people that that which unites those in such debates is far stronger than what divides us.
Because, in such question, the great divide is between all of us who believe in and stand up for democracy and those who think that violence is the right means to a political end.
In so acting, in conducting a debate with sincerity and with civility, my opponents and I will collectively do honour to our democratic tradition and, I believe, leave a community better rather than worse for having had that debate, whoever may prevail.
Given the Finchley legacy, I trust that you’ll forgive the last answer being one that was dear to Lady Thatcher’s time in office.
The opinion polls say that if the election were tomorrow, we would lose. But the election is not going to be held tomorrow. It will be held when the time is right, and opinion polls are there to be changed between now and the election – and it is for us to change them.
“How low are we in the polls?” Thatcher would ask her advisers. “Really? Well, not low enough!”
For holding office was a time for taking action, and then – when the fruit of that time was apparent – going to the public, for the only opinion poll that really matters.
I ask for your support in Finchley and Golders Green, and for your Conservative candidates around the country.
The post Alex Deane: Three reasons I’ve stepped forward, despite these challenging times, to stand for Parliament appeared first on Conservative Home.
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Author: Alex Deane
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