This is just a quick one that snagged my attention in the wee small hours, which has actually quite surprised me, but on reflections seems par for the course – it’s interesting in light of Conservative Party attempts to get coverage of their propaganda on local blogs that I was so annoyed about on Friday.

 As readers will no doubt know, our long standing MP in Aldridge Brownhills – Richard Shepherd – is standing down at the next election. There has been some chatter locally that the replacement candidate – most likely to be next MP in this safe Tory seat – would be one of two local councillors, either Pelsall poster boy Garry Perry or the self-basting former regeneration head honcho Adrian Andrew.

However, a now-deleted request popped up in my running search for Brownhills on twitter in the wee small hours of this morning from a Dr. Teck Khong, who in his twitter bio (user information) describes himself thus:

Doctor & former Police Surgeon. Varied interests. Conservative, Parliamentary Candidates List. Views own, RTs to discuss not necessarily endorse.

This is a gentleman on the list to be a Conservative candidate, but clearly not yet selected for a seat. It seems he’s looking at Aldridge Brownhills, as he’s taking the precaution of asking for info about the place:

The importance of local knowledge. This man could be our next MP, and he’s asking for sociological opinion. Blimey. This tweet has since been deleted.

So, the next MP here could well be a parachuted in candidate with no connections to our area who had to resort clumsily to twitter to find out a few rudiments about us. Minimal local knowledge seemingly only considered important for getting the gig.

This may be shocking, but Old Shep himself was parachuted in, as is the prospective Tory candidate for Walsall North, Douglas Hansen-Luke. Dougie is a man also without previous connections to Walsall, but seems intent on ingratiating himself by the power of slime alone. He’s a former financial wonk from down south.

Labour of course aren’t exempt from this tomfoolery, with Valerie Vaz bravely gaining the seat of Walsall South, despite being unfortunately related to her brother Keith. She was flown in here from Leicester.

Is it any wonder people are disillusioned with politics?