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Revision as of 20:52, 1 May 2006 by 84.66.255.198 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Michael Keith Smith (born 1953), commonly known as Mike Smith, is the chairman of the Conservative Democratic Alliance (CDA), and an activist in the United Kingdom Independence Party. He was formerly on the Executive Council of the Conservative Monday Club, of which he has been a member since the early 1970s. Professionally he is a Chartered Surveyor.
He had been expelled from the Conservative Party in May 2002 for attacking Iain Duncan Smith in print and threatening to stand against an official Conservative Candidate. He subsequently challenged this unlawful expulsion with a Writ. He was readmitted before it reached court and his costs paid by Central Office.
On 27 June 2002, The Daily Telegraph carried a letter from the CDA, signed by Smith as its Chairman, attacking the Conservative Party and its Chairman Francis Maude for "the sleaze, double-dealing, arrogance, incompetence, Europhilia, indifference and drift with which the party is still associated. Voters", he said, "deserve a real alternative to Blairism and his 'straight kinda guy' chicanery. Mr.Maude and his C-Changing Tories are incapable of providing it."
In the 2005 General Election he stood as the United Kingdom Independence Party candidate for Portsmouth North. Both unsuccessful Tory candidate Penny Mordaunt and political commentator Richard North blamed Smith's intervention for the Tories' failure to win back the seat.
Smith is opposed to the Iraq War and what he sees as the Americanisation of the world generally, and the United Kingdom in particular. These views may increase the distance between him and the modern Tory party.
Michael Keith Smith recently won a major test case for libel over the internet against a former schoolteacher. He was awarded £10,000 plus £7500 costs.
References and Notes
- refer: The Independent, 18 May 2002
- Refer: The Times, 21 March 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2096902,00.html IT Week, and The Guardian, both 22 March 2006, http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1737001,00.html?gusrc=rss