The Conservative short list of candidates

8.49.25am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 6th Oct 2009

The Conservative short list of candidates to represent the Bracknell constituency at the next General Election reveals just how little they have learnt from the MPs' expenses scandal.

A more motley assortment of bloggers, hacks and carpetbaggers would be hard to find Only one candidate seems to have had any previous association with the area and none live or work in the constituency.

Twenty eight years of Tory hegemony under the now discredited leadership of Andrew MacKay MP has clearly left the local Conservative Association believing that it is still business as usual, despite all that has happened this year.

Local applicants who thought they might have had a chance of becoming a Conservative candidate under David Cameron's publicity drive to encourage more people to stand must be sorely disappointed.

Electors too will not be impressed to learn that their declared preference for an MP with at least some working knowledge and experience of the area has been largely ignored.

It also says a lot about the local Conservative Party that it was unable to bring itself to put forward one of their own for the public selection meeting on 17 October.

I can understand them wanting to spare the blushes of our very own 'Bin Baron', Cllr Paul Bettison, given the collapse of the town centre regeneration programme and his disasterous record as Leader of Bracknell Forest Council but perhaps Mr Cameron's A-list simply had to take priority!