Bercow's Buckingham Campaign Gets a Boost

Bercow's Buckingham Campaign Gets a Boost

Iain Dale 5:09 PM

John Bercow's campaign to be re-elected as MP for Buckingham got a boost today with the news that his predecessor George Walden is backing John Stevens, the former Europhile Tory MEP who defected to the LibDems and is fighting Buckingham as an "Independent". With me so far? Walden has never had much time for Bercow, who will lose little sleep over this development. Indeed, it might be in his interest for Stevens to take the spotlight off Nigel Farage.

I have to say I am not a fan of Mr Walden. Back in September 2006, I wrote on this blog...

Former Tory MP George Walden was one of Britain's worst ever High Education Ministers. Since leaving Parliament he has earned a living writing pseudo-intellectual drivel about politics and culture. It's usually unreadable. I attended a discussion evening with him and his wife a couple of years ago, organised by Living Marxism. He was insufferable and spent the whole evening putting down his wife. In the Independent on Sunday diary there is a piece on his book The New Elites in which he slags off David Cameron for "being a posh man pretending to be common". Utter rubbish. But even if it were true, it's better than a pub bore pretending to be an intellectual.

As The Slog says, I stayed on the fence on that one...

How on earth Mr Walden managed to produce the veritable beauty that is his daughter Celia, only God can know. His wife clearly not only has the patience of a saint, but the looks of Athena.