Thursday, March 22, 2007

James Cleverly Selected for GLA

Congratulations to my good friend James Cleverly, who was selected last night as the Conservative GLA candidate to replace Bob Neill on the London Assembly. I'm delighted for him.

18 comments:

dizzy said...

excellent news!

Praguetory said...

Nice one, James. As an aside he's one of your best 18 DS regulars.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to James and comisserations to Cllr Rebekah Gilbert who was runner up on the fourth ballot.

Anonymous said...

James will make a fantastic Assembly member. This is great news for him and for London. He was an absolute star of the candidate circuit and he will be prominent in our party for many years to come. A Major in the TA he also brings vital military experience to the table. This is great news.

Andrew Ian Dodge said...

Good chap is James. Congratulations to the Tory Party for selecting someone so bright and impressive.

Anonymous said...

I like James, I've met him a couple of times and saw him at one of his previously unsuccesful selection meetings, I am also happy he has found a place on the GLA.

However I must take issue with Louise Bagshawe's comment.

"A Major in the TA he also brings vital military experience to the table."

Now I know that Livingstone increasingly concentrates on foreign policy now that the day job bores him, but surely he isn't gearing up to having a defence policy too?

Anonymous said...

"James will make a fantastic Assembly member."

I thought he was just selected to be a candidate, he hasn't won yet!

Anonymous said...

There are plenty of Londoners who serve in the armed forces, Hannibal - any reader of James's blog knows how well he argues against the way this Government treats those in uniform. I think his service adds an extra dimension to his intelligence and all-round likeability! The party, and London, are lucky to have him.

Newmania said...

He seems like a nice enough chap but come on .Anyone who joins the TA is a god awful creep an over grown Boy scout with socialisng problems.

Why the hell would any sane man want to run around pretending to be a soldier . Service ? Bollocks . Major..now you`re talking . I`ve met a few over the years and they are all that rather pompous sort thatwas pretending to be 30 when they were 20 .
Apart from this black mark he seems ok.

TA ha ha ha ha...bang bang your dead come on chaps lets lug our fat bodies into the helicopter ride . Christ half of them left when they thought they might actually have to go and fight. What a waste of time and money

Anonymous said...

Er...newmania...I think you'll find James was in the regulars before he transferred to the TA. From memory he is one of the essential components of the TA which lend to it a professional leadership the weekend warriors could otherwise lack.

Newmania said...

Well I did say he seemed a nice enough chap....cough cough...

Anonymous said...

Well done James, a truely excellent choice and one that will be good for Bexley and Bromley.

Unknown said...

A truely excellent choice, WELL DONE JAMES

Malcolm said...

Clearly 'newmania' you know sod all about the TA.
Typically nasty comment from John Coles ,why?

Newmania said...

I know the kind of twerp that joins it Malcolm

Unknown said...

Iain,

Cheers for the plug. I can't wait to get stuck in and replace Livingstone with someone who actually cares about London an Londoners.

James

Andrew Young said...

Hmmm, methinks a waste of talent by sending James to the GLA.

Parliamentary material this guy - no point wasting it in City Hall.

Put simply he's too good for 'em

Anonymous said...

Newmania, you probably bumped into an unfortunate who joined for the wrong reasons and runs shelves.

Mr Coles, that might have been true during the Cold War, when the job was just to hold off the Russians for 72 hours in a ditch outside of Hanover. Times have changed. These days, with so many reservists ending up being deployed overseas, there is experience in the ranks and pretty rigorous training - because chances are they'll need it for real.

So stop dissing the commitment and professionalism of my colleagues! Besides, they're armed :)