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Googling the Gosport candidates, just in case!

Peter Henley|17:36 UK time, Wednesday, 4 November 2009

After the fuss over Liz Truss in South West Norfolk, where angry locals were told that if they'd googled their candidates name they'd have known about her affair, I thought I'd save the Gosport Conservatives some work.

But it really isn't quite as straightforward as the Conservative HQ hotshots suggest.

Of the six names released today only one seems to have her own website, two get decent biogs in other places, two more are misleading, and one is invisible.
gyimah.jpg

It doesn't help that the Conservative press release on their candidates manages to mis-spell two of the names!

First up Sam Gyimah - an entrepreneur in his 30s who's been up for Conservative selection before and really ought to know better than leaving up his rather forlorn attempt at a Twitter account. I suppose it may be someone else poaching his name - but it does seem to ring true.

There's plenty of information available by googling elsewhere - this is my pick of his on-line biogs.

Social Housing entrepreneur John Moss has the unfortunate problem of a Canadian author with the same name. Some may be fooled by this Google summary:

John Moss is a mystery writer with a background in the academic world, a zeal for endurance sports, and an abiding interest in rebuilding old things....

Could come in handy in Gosport..

The real site is much more informative - Mr Moss is a regular blogger, lots of policy ideas to help make up your mind, and a snappy line to please the locals:

If I am lucky enough to be selected, I will base myself in the constituency from now until the General Election and treat my candidacy as a full-time job.
www.mariacaulfield.co.uk is a smart site, but Brighton councillor Maria Caulfield may come to regret the claim on her council website that"I have lived and worked in Brighton for many years now and I don't think I could ever leave".

The new website has evidently been done in a bit of a hurry. If you click "about me" you get the business blurb you're supposed to replace:


MariaCaulfield.jpg

But at least there's something there, Here's the Guardian's reference to Caroline Dinenage - but links are now broken to the Conservative party micro-site left over from her last attempt in Portsmouth South.

The best write up of Julia Manning I've found is on Bracknellblog - from the Open Primary last month, perhaps not something she wants to talk about now, though.

Which just leaves us with James Bethel. Try as I might I still haven't found out any more. Perhaps it's another duff spelling from Conservative HQ? Anyone who knows anything about him - comments below would be much appreciated!

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