OUR BY-ELECTION - A SENSE OF IMPENDING DOOM

I may have mentioned the recent departure of Mrs Mensch from our constituency of Corby and East Northamptonshire where she has been a Conservative MP. She has now been appointed to the office of 'Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead' which which means absolutely nothing but it is the way our British system gets around the fact that MPs cannot, technically, resign. The post, being a 'paid office of the Crown' renders her ineligible to be an MP (I do wonder what overseas readers make of us sometimes). Anyway, the lady is gone but only from Parliament; she is still to be seen on the pages of The Times where she now appears to be a contributor. The last piece I saw with her byline was on the American election and the paper managed to carry three pictures of her. I am now quite convinced that the Picture Editor is in love with her.

So the Conservative Party must now face the challenge of a by-election and has chosen its candidate. Her name is Christine Emmett.A leaflet has been produced and distributed. It tells us very, very little about her. That she is female is evidenced by a photograph and her name - although one can be sure of nothing in these times. We know not whether she lives in the constituency, or whether she is married, or whether she has children (under what my Mother would have called the 'circs' she was probably wise to have kept any personal information like that to herself). She must have devoted ... minutes ... of her valuable time  to writing her message to us. What follows is the main part of her message; it represents just over 40% of the whole. Read it carefully, dear readers. Ask yourselves, does this woman have an adequate grasp of the English language?

The people of Corby and East Northants need a Conservative MP - someone who is on your side supporting local people who work hard and want to get on in life, dealing with the debt so we keep mortgage rates low and cutting taxes for working people.

I kid you not dear readers. Read it again. What is she saying? I can see what she wants to say but Oh, doesn't the subject of that sentence appear to be 'local people'?  Take it from there.

The only thing left for us is to speculate on the size of the Labour majority come the election.