Today, EPolitix.com reports that Nadine Dorries said the following at a Conservative Party conference fringe meeting:
"In my own perspective, and speaking in no other capacity but as an individual, I would rather die than go into a full election as a coalition candidate,"I think that every single Liberal Democrat would feel the same way, even if they wouldn't express it in quite that manner. But seeing that nobody has either seriously, or jokingly suggested this as an idea, I think we can all rest easy.
It was Nadine's later comments, about her Lib Dem opponent Linda Jack which I thought were absolutely atrocious. Linda has always been sceptical about the Coalition, but given her experience of fighting Nadine, it's hardly surprising. You might remember Linda from the news coverage of Conference - she was the representative who asked Nick Clegg at the Question and Answer session whether she could still trust him with her Party.
Anyway, back to Nadine. She said of Linda:
"My previous Lib Dem opponent, she is a bit like a Japanese prisoner of war, no one has told her the election happened. She still thinks it is going on; she is still fighting the Lib Dem corner.Apart from the obvious tastelessness of the analogy, she clearly doesn't get one of the key things that the Liberal Democrats are about - campaigning all year round, and not just at election time. We may be in coalition with the Conservatives but we will still fight them, and beat them - between now and the next election in 2015.
Nadine Dorries really is a walking, talking advertisement for both a power to sack an MP and for a fairer voting system which gives people more power over who represents them. I am not sure she'd do so well under PR given the number of people she offends - the most recent being disabled people who have the nerve to use social networking and have political opinions. I've already written about that but you might want to have a look at this from Rachel Olgeirrson.
