Tory Army recruits
Following the controversial news that David Cameron has recruited the former army chief Sir Richard Dannatt as a defence adviser and Conservative peer (and possible future minister), the Conservatives have now also enlisted the help of Dannatt's predecessor as chief of the general staff, General Sir Mike Jackson.
OK, I admit, it's in not quite such a high-profile role. The chairman of the Devizes Conservatives, Ken Carter, tells me that Gen Jackson will be acting as their "moderator" when local members in the Wiltshire constituency meet on 1 November to choose as successor to Sir Michael Ancram as their candidate.
Gen Jackson, who lives in the constituency, in the village of Great Bedwyn, will in effect chair the selection meeting, which is likely to be hotly contested, since it is a safe seat (with a majority of 13,194).
Mr Carter doesn't know if Gen Jackson is a member of the Conservative party, but the question surely now arises as to whether Sir Mike is about to follow Gen Dannatt and come out in support of Mr Cameron and his team.
I think it most unlikely, however, that Gen Jackson will follow Gen Dannatt and back the Conservatives quite so publicly as he did, since he was very unhappy about the way Gen Dannatt behaved earlier this month in hitching his wagon to Mr Cameron's party amid such great fanfare.
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 19th Oct 2009, stanilic wrote:This is just a local big-wig doing what local big-wigs do. It is like that in the country: it works you know. To read anything more into it is to contrive at being sad.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 19th Oct 2009, bookhimdano wrote:the thin red line.
between stupidity and sanity seems to get blurred in the army?
does dannat think he is in some Tennyson war poem?
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismayed?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
Someone had blundered:
Theirs was not to make reply,
Theirs was not to reason why,
Theirs was but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)