Zac Goldsmith

No, you're not the only one. He is (and will be) a Conservative by default. He's often voted against the government on environmental issues, so he'll be seen as a rather posh and rich eco-warrior. Nothing will change.

That would be a shame, because his constituents disagree with him about Brexit and the campaign he ran to be London mayor was a disgrace. If he'd have won, presumably he would have deserted his constituency.

I doubt very much whether other parties will decline to stand.

Basically I think he's a spoils brat - as you say he's campaign to be mayor was a disgrace - I don't think for one minute he's a racist
but he was willing to run a racist campaign.

I don't think he's a racist either, but he wasn't brave enough to stop what was happening. He's good at lobbying for his favourite causes and he did some valuable work on child abuse, but I get the impression that politics are a hobby. I think this is grandstanding. A by-election will make no difference to the decision about Heathrow, because the LDs aren't in favour either.

Well at least he had the honesty to do exactly what he said he would do- and I respect that. Very refreshing.

John McDonald said Goldsmith was a man of principle

Like granjura I have to admire the fact that a politician has followed through with a promise - a rare occurrence - even though he and his policies are not to my liking.

I get the impression that Zac is not very bright simply based on him not having gone on to higher education as I would expect from his background, but perhaps I am misjudging him.
Good on him for standing up for his principles. Let's see what happens now.

JayH
Perhaps the thing about going on to higher education is for many people the idea that they will get a better paid job in the end.

He didn't really need to do that:
achieved four A-Levels at Cambridge Centre for Sixth-Form Studies so he could have got into university had he wanted to go

Goldsmith travelled throughout the world with the International Honours Programme (courtesy of his uncle Edward Goldsmith), including to Thailand, New Zealand, Mexico, Hungary and Italy. Goldsmith lived in California for two years, working at first for the think tank Redefining Progress from 1995 to 1996, and later as a researcher for Norberg-Hodge's International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) during 1996–98. While working with ISEC, Goldsmith travelled to India, spending a short time on an ashram in Rajasthan and later lived in Ladakh for six months, studying traditional cultures and helping run a tourist education programme
From 1998 to 2007, he was the editor of The Ecologist magazine, after the magazine's owner, his uncle Edward Goldsmith, gifted it to him.

I think he is bright, and why would you bother to go to university unless it is for the love of learning itself - and who is to say that all that travelling (lucky thing) did not give him a broader education anyway?

I have never really thought about him, whether I like or dislike him, he is not my MP, but to say that you get the impression he is not very bright is not really fair - privileged, yes, lucky, yes but there was really no necessity to get a degree to further his career.

And having a degree is not a failsafe measure of intelligence.

Exatly. And you might just as well say Jeremy Corbyn isn't very bright, having achieved two E grade A levels and not finishing his degree course.

I'm no fan of Corbyn but I certainly wouldn't say he was dim!

I hate it when people blame others for their forebears, be their criminal or billionaires - he didn't ask to be born into a very wealthy family. And good on him for all the work he has done abroad and the travelling- he probably learnt a million times over that way than going to Uni for Uni's sake.

I know many who know him personally and say he is extremely bright and generous, and very open. I have never been a Conservative btw.

Labour are talking about not putting a candidate up either.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-mps-call-for-the-party-to-stand-down-against-zac-goldsmith-to-avoid-splitting-anti-tory-vote-a7380841.html

For me it was his article in the DM during the mayoral election accompanied by the 7/7 bus photo that truly appalled me -where were his principles when he allowed that? His promise to resign and run as an independent is extraordinarily self centred and all about look at me

Am I alone in finding it impossible to get worked up about Zac Goldsmith? Was he ever a serious aspiring politician? He seems a reasonably personable privileged young man (although has managed to "lose" one wife already) moneyed background, clearly a career path of some sort will be smoothed for him, but what else?
Is Theresa May shaking in her kitten heels? I don't think so.
I remember at the time of the London Mayoral Election, reading a very good article saying what the Conservative Party needs is more Ruth Davidsons and fewer Zac Goldsmiths.

Green Party candidate is standing aside and asking members to vote for LibDems.

Jacob Rees-Mogg is canvassing for Zac, along with half a dozen other Tory MPs. Shows what an empty gesture it was. Rees-Mogg wants a runway at Heathrow.

Yes, it always was an empty gesture. He's Conservative to the core, but he's trying to show that he cares about his constituents by having a bit of a hissy fit.

Maybe Richmond voters will have their Brexit/Trump moment and vote for anybody except the 'establishment'. We'll see.

I wonder if the lincolnshire voters will do that. I understand the Labour candidate is a local dustman - hardly establishment.