I'm Not Mad - I Just Want to Get Even with Britain's Selfish Mps ; Esther Rantzen Continues Her Occasional Diary of Her Plan to Reach Parliament

Summary

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I am not used to the lofty leader writers of The Times worrying about my mental health, let alone my bank balance. So I was astonished to read the headline on a leader article in The Times on Wednesday: 'That's Life, Esther Rantzen has made an expensive mistake.'

And not just expensive, they said, but barmy. I had picked Luton South as a constituency where I might stand as an independent parliamentary candidate after the sitting Labour MP, Margaret Moran, was revealed to have claimed Pounds 22,500 in expenses for dry rot treatment at her partner's home in Southampton. I then stuck with my decision even though Moran announced she would stand down at the next General Election - meaning her Labour replacement would be much harder for me to defeat.

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I'm Not Mad - I Just Want to Get Even with Britain's Selfish Mps ; Esther Rantzen Continues Her Occasional Diary of Her Plan to Reach Parliament

This was, said The Times, 'eccentric' of me and, even worse, 'bizarre'. Why? Because, they said, as an independent candidate with no local connections, I would have no chance of being elected.

They are not alone. Every political pundit I have spoken to over the past two ...

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