Ian Oakley, former Conservative PPC for Watford, who entered a guilty plea to charges of harassment and criminal damage towards Watford Lib Dems, has today been sentenced.
He has been given an 18 week suspended jail sentence and a 12 month supervision order. The magistrate who sentenced Ian did not send him to jai because he took into account psychiatric problems revealed by the pre-sentence reports – the reason that the sentence was postponed until today being that these reports had not been completed – as well as the early guilty …

The sentencing of former Watford Conservative PPC Ian Oakley, which was due to have been passed today, has been postponed for four weeks.
Ian pleaded guilty to carrying out acts of harassment and criminal damage towards Watford Lib Dems back in August, with the sentencing set for today, after a psychiatric assessment had been carried out. The reason for the postponement today being that this report had not been completed in time.
Personally, I don’t think that is it obvious that Ian is psychologically disturbed, as he never seemed like it to …

This has been a hard post for me to write, especially since I was on holiday when this fact emerged.
Ian Oakley, former Conservative PPC for Watford, is guilty of harassment and criminal damage towards Watford Lib Dems. I didn’t think that he was, but he is. I stand corrected.
What he has done is completely unacceptable. And he deserves what he gets for it. Unlike Asp, a contributor to this blog, who wrote a post on this subject whilst I was on holiday, I am certainly not “left with the classic …

Possibly the most interesting story to emerge out of Watford since – well, ever – and The ThunderDragon isn’t around to give us his opinion on matters. Might be the most interesting thing to come out of Watford actually, but I’m just a biased Northerner and assume that all goings on in places where they can’t talk proper are wrong in some way. Still, doesn’t stop me talking about it.
“It” of course being Ian Oakley – and his admission of a campaign of harassment against the Lib Dems. I’d have …

Ian was arrested in connection with a hate campaign conducted against Watford Lib Dem councillors, and has now resigned as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Watford. No charges have yet been brought against Ian, just accusations. As such, Ian has resigned to enable the local party to move on, not because he is guilty.
Personally, I do not believe that Ian has done this. I don’t think that he is so stupid as to conduct such a campaign. However, if he is convicted of this in a court of law, then I …

Sam Coates at the Times‘ Red Box blog asks “is your MP on the roll of shame?” He is, of course, referring to the list of MPs who voted to keep their exploitative and expensive [to us] expense system.
That list of MPs can be seen here, containing 146 (of 172) Labour MPs, of which 33 are ministers – including Cabinet members Jacqui Smith and Andy Burnham.
To answer the question, yes my MP is on the list:

… Claire Ward (Watford) …

Which is why I am out delivering leaflets today, to remove …

Today I have been leafleting in Watford – my first time! I was leafleting to help the fantastic [and hilarious] Conservative PPC Ian Oakley take the seat away from the failing and useless Claire Ward.
It was great fun campaigning with other people, mostly Conservative Future members including a candidate for CF chairman, and will hopefully go some way towards getting more Conservative votes in Watford – and with less than two thousand votes between all three parties at the last parliamentary election [no matter what the Fib Dems claim], every …