Sunday, February 15, 2015

"General Election 2015 'Portillo Moments' " Danny versus Drew gets a mention in the Huffington Post

Referring to election night in 1997 when Michael Portillo was unexpectedly rejected by the voters (Steven Twigg, the Labour candidate had not expected to oust the then Conservative Defence Secretary) the Huffington Post has occupied itself by listing a few more potential "Portillo moments" that might occur in 2015. Danny Alexander features in that list as a potential casualty. 

The Huffington Post states: 

"Drew Hendry is the SNP candidate hoping to overturn the chief secretary to the Treasury's 8,765 vote majority in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. "I get the fact that an awful lot of people want Danny Alexander beaten in this election," he says. "I know, for instance, that a major Labour Party donor has placed a keen bet on him losing."

Hendry, the leader of the Highland Council, says Alexander's "unerring commitment to Tory policies and cuts makes him many people’s number one target to defeat". Of course, Hendry would rather win because people like him rather than because they dislike Alexander. "Nothing would be more pleasing than to have people voting for me and our positive campaign ahead of their desire to see the incumbent out," he says." More on the HuffPo here. 

Interestingly the HuffPo suggests that Danny, should he survive, is a candidate to replace Nick Clegg as leader of the LibDems. Danny has also been touted as a potential leader of his party in this well-written article on the Conservative Home site. 

So what is it to be for Danny? On to greater things after the General Election or is he toast? Presently the bookies don't rate his chances of survival very much but there's still a long way to go before we all head for the ballot boxes. As the election draws near however there is bound to be lots of media interest in Danny's fate and maybe we soon will see a few journos and their cameras strolling down Nairn High Street trawling for opinion?

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