The Tories are going to have an open primary for the nomination for London Mayor in September, where Boris Johnson is up against a bunch of Tory nonenities and everyone knows Boris is going to win. So why bother with an open primary? According to conservative activist Jesse Norman, "an open primary promises to reach out to new and untapped voters in London, and to start to re-engage them not merely with the Tories, but with politics itself."
Or it could just be a means of raising money. According to Boris Johnson's website, Conservative members are automatically registered to vote, but everyone else must phone a premium rate number that costs £1.00 per minute from a BT Landline. If Tories really wanted to reach out to untapped voters, they wouldn't have used a premium rate phone number.
My advice to non-Tories, is Don't Bother. Boris will win the Tory nomination anyway, so wait till the actual election for London Mayor to vote against him free of charge. And if you have £1 spare, give it to Ken.
(Thanks to my sister for alerting me to the above).
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Seems to be common Tory practice these days.
I live in a Northern Labour stronghold (we even have a Labour controlled borough council!) yet they Tories held an 'open primary' to select their parliamentary candidate.
They ended up re-selecting the chap who lost rather badly last time. Hooray for engaging voters!
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