380 Conservative candidates go missing
Written by Mark Pack on 23rd April 2007 – 5:49 pmAnd then they were mostly found again; thanks to the person who pointed out the reason for the bulk of the difference in the comments. I think the few who are still missing are best not fussed over 
A little while back the Conservatives boasted about the number of candidates they were standing in the local elections. This story is no longer on their website as this link shows though thanks to Iain Dale we can all still read the numbers.
Why might you want to read the numbers? Well, the (independent) Press Association has now added up the number of candidates from each party and the Conservative total in England is actually 380 fewer than they claimed (8,884 compared with 9,264).
Oops.
P.S. If this was the Liberal Democrats, I am sure you can imagine the frothing at the mouth indignation on Conservative blogs about lies, dodgy statistics, gutter politics, shoddy cover-ups and predictable mud-slinging. But I’m a nice chap, so I won’t froth. But feel free to froth on your own.
P.P.S. Boring technical bits: some variation in the figures is to be expected because of some late withdrawls that may have happened after the Conservative figures were published and, having double-checked the breakdown of the figures, I am comparing England with England. It’s not a matter of one set including Scotland and the other not.
Posted in News
23rd April 2007 at 7:24 pm
It might be that the tory figure includes Scotland and that the figures for other parties excludes Scotland.
23rd April 2007 at 7:26 pm
The Conservative’s own figure is the total of all their English regional figures whilst the PA figure is their UK total minus their Scottish total.
i.e. they are both England only figures.
23rd April 2007 at 7:32 pm
I think you forgot the complaints about how the Liberal Democrats can’t count so should never be put in charge of the economy, indeed nothing more significant than a village jumble sale which we would have had, Mark.
As you say, it would be quite puerile to respond in kind so I won’t, Black Wednesday, damn that just slipped out, sorry.
23rd April 2007 at 7:53 pm
Or could the 380 be those who have already been returned unopposed, and so are no longer candidates?
In which case, that would be egg on your face, I presume?
23rd April 2007 at 7:59 pm
I prefer my eggs scrambled. I’ll go ready a frying pan.
23rd April 2007 at 8:10 pm
The PA figures say 365 Tories returned unopposed so that still doesn’t quite add up.
Plus it would be odd to refer to candidate totals as not including those returned unopposed.
23rd April 2007 at 8:11 pm
OK so PA are being odd by the looks of it!
23rd April 2007 at 9:59 pm
Maybe, just maybe, this story is true - I don’t know. But Conservatives are contesting 88% of seats up for grabs Vs. 64% for the Lib Dems. Why the shortage?
People in glass houses…