Tory Candidate has already tried to stand for Labour

If you scratch just a few millimetres below the surface of any Labour, Conservative or Lib-Dem politician then they are increasingly all looking the same. The policy convergence of the three biggest parties in British politics is reaching the point where it doesn’t really matter which one you vote for.

The interchange ability of party and policies is now spreading to candidates, especially if you are one of the sought after demographics. Helen Grant is the perfect example of this. Up to 2006 she was reportedly an enthusiastic New Labour supporter and allowed them free use of her offices in Corydon as a Campaign Headquarters and was seeking to become a Labour Candidate. Now however she is set to replace Ann Widdecombe in Maidstone in Kent as a Tory MP.

Ms Grant must not have any ideological problems with going from Corydon Labour to Maidstone Tory and indeed the two party’s policies are so close on most things that it’s only in insignificant details that they differ. If in doubt all she has to do is follow the European Union line and she’ll be fairly safe. Insignificant detail being about the only policy areas that the EU hasn’t nailed down, but give them time and they will control everything, no detail will be tiny enough to be insignificant enough to escape their rulings.

Of course as a political career Labour is not the way to go at the moment. Labour are likely to loose the next general election and give the Tories a go at running the country (under the watchful eye of the European Union Commission of course) so any ambitious politician will be looking closely at safe Tory seats for 2010.

Ms Grant as a black woman ticks both the sex and ethnic minority boxes, making her a win win for the Tories. Of course the "woman" box is not quite as sought after by the Labour Party these days as there are already 95 Labour women (27% of the Party’s MPs) in the House of Commons compared to 17 Conservative women (8.7%) and 9 Lib-Dims (14%). No doubt “Call me Dave” is desperate to equal the numbers to prove he is in touch with both women and the ethnic minority groups.

Interestingly women make up 54% of all MSPs and a massive 68% of all Welsh Assembly Members. I wonder if that says anything about the perception of the relative importance of politics in Westminster, Holyrood and Cardiff?