Of course the Tories are watching what their candidates are saying

Michael Crick has taken to his blog to reveal the contents of leaked
Minutes from a Tory meeting:

“”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, and the reasons they are on the list needs to be taken into consideration.” And the document shows that a Conservative Central Office official has even been appointed to keep a close eye on what these potential trouble-makers get up to: “The public output e.g. blogs, websites, press releases of candidates will [sic] now to be monitored by a new member of the CRD team,” the minutes read. “Let JM or Stephen Gilbert know if there are any problems with candidates – de-selection should be the last option.”

I must admit to being distinctly underwhelmed by the monitoring aspect of this story. Does anyone believe that the other two main parties don’t have similar procedures in place? In these days of the internet and the 24.7 news cycle it would be irresponsible not to. The last thing any party wants is to be blindsided by the comments of one of its candidates.

What’s more interesting is that there is a watch-list of candidates. Again, this is not a huge shock—but it does suggest that the party already has an idea of who can and cannot be trusted in front of a microphone. Indeed, what would be even more interesting to see than the names of those on the watch-list is the list of those who CCHQ are actively trying to get into the media. There are already some Tory candidates who are being tipped by those in the know to be in the Cabinet within a year or two of entering Parliament.

PS Iis it perhaps worth pointing out that the biggest PR mess involving the current crop of candidates, the Tatler photo-shoot, was actually encouraged by CCHQ