Conservatives admit that they didn't do enough to stop Ian Oakley
It appears that the shock waves that reverberated around Watford, after then Conservative parliamentary candidate Ian Oakley pleaded guilty to a vile hate campaign against his LibDem opponents, has hit Conservative Central Office. Newsnight’s political editor Michael Crick has obtained a copy of the minutes of a top level meeting at CCHQ which demonstrates some real nervousness about the ticking timebombs in some constituencies. Crick says:
“The Conservative Party high command is so worried about some of David Cameron’s Parliamentary candidates that they’ve started holding meetings every two weeks to monitor what they call a “watch-list” of those “have the potential to embarrass the Party”.”
Looking closely at the minutes, it seems that the Conservatives are not only worried about the behaviour of some parliamentary candidates, but also some local associations:
“Care needs to be taken over the candidates that have the potential to embarrass the party - there will now be a fortnightly meeting to assess the watch-list of candidates. [...] Associations can sometimes be the problem rather than the candidates … but there is nothing to deal with the awkward associations.”
Interestingly the meeting was held on 28th October 2008, less than two weeks after Ian Oakley was sentenced for his crimes. So was was Oakley the prompter for this – or just one of the many?
After Oakley was charged, it appeared to be business as usual for the Tories. They firstly tried to claim that he must be innocent and then that Oakley was nothing to do with them. Whilst the case wound its way through the legal system, the local Conservative Party continued to behave as if nothing had happened. The Chairman of the local party, best known in Watford for his spectacular failure of an elected Mayoral campaign against Dorothy Thornhill, turned up to sit with Ian Oakley at court, shaking his hand and patting him on the back. Perhaps it was unreasonable to expect him to act any other way, particularly after the news of him knifing one of his Conservative colleagues in the back became public last month. When asked for a quote by the local newspaper, he claimed that the whole Oakley saga was merely a ‘little hiccup ‘.
The local Tories moved from hiccups to silence. They refused to apologise, waiting for the whole thing to blow over. They claim that they knew nothing about the possibility of a Conservative carrying out the campaign of hate which was an open secret across Watford politics, despite senior LibDems having made very pointed comments to that effect. More than once, Oakley went out of control in a public place and in front of his party colleagues, behaving in a manner one would have thought more akin to Dave Spart’s mob than Dave Cameron’s parliamentary party. David Cameron’s only priority was to get another candidate in place as soon as possible. And when they did move to get a new candidate, they did it quietly, without the usual notice on ConservativeHome. Why?
As my colleague Iain Sharpe comments, the deafening silence implies that Watford Conservatives they are not really sorry that Oakley behaved as he did and believe that in some way the LibDems deserved all the harassment, the false allegations of violence and paedophilia, the damage to cars and homes. It appears that they do not have the decency to condemn the criminal behaviour of a Conservative in case this condemnation in some way assists another political party.
But the evidence of the leaked minutes shows, the Conservatives recognise only too well that they did not do enough to monitor either the activities of Oakley or of the local Conservative association. Still they view the situation only from their own standpoint, seeking to minimise embarrassment to the party, rather than the harm caused to others. After a quick flirt with compassionate Conservatism. they are back to the Nasty Party. What a surprise!
So will the Conservatives now admit that they failed to do enough to spot Oakley’s campaign and do something about it? Will they be able to be a little less selfish and apologise to those individuals who suffered simply because of their support for a particular party? Or do they believe that all is fair game in an attempt to ‘change the political landscape of Watford to the benefit of the Conservative Party‘, after all their only three councillors in the constituency were elected with majorities of 2,3 and 47. Once more, I’m not holding my breath.
Related posts:
- McBride, Draper and the Ian Oakley link
- A Watford Conservative speaks about Ian Oakley
- Ian Oakley charged
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