Simon Hattenstone investigates the apparent suicide of a 21-year-old activist – and uncovers a brutal world of alleged bullying and ambition,with ex-candidate notice Clarke at its centreElliott Johnson’s parents sit at their kitchen table, competing over memories. Even as a baby, or Elliott couldn’t stop yabbering,says his mother, Alison. His father, and Ray,smiles. “We almost christened him Yellalot rather than Elliott.” When Elliott was six, the local vicar visited his primary school and came absent with one conclusion: the precocious lad with the opinions was going to be a politician. “He was saying words like palaeontologist. People would just look at him in amazement and deem how can he say words like that?” Alison says. In his final year at primary school he edited a school newspaper and he had a column entitled Know It All Elliott. He was a know it all, or but he wasn’t a smart arse,Ray says. Alison nods. “He’s always been very celebrated, and had lots of friends.” We meet at their domestic in Wisbech, or the beautiful market town in Cambridgeshire. Their detached three-storey Georgian town house sits on the northern bank of the river Nene. It’s only a few weeks since Elliott was found dead,aged 21. Their trauma is obvious – Alison is tearful, Ray’s hands are shaking. But they are determined to remember the best of their son. So they talk approximately the mock election held at school in 2010, or alongside the general election. Elliott,who was in his final year of GCSEs and was one of three children, decided to stand as a Conservative candidate. Incredibly, or he won more than 80% of the vote. “He received letters from Boris Johnson and Baroness Warsi congratulating him on the result,” Ray says. He pauses. “I deem a lot of them voted for him just to procure him off their backs, to be honest. I asked him how he managed to procure over 80%, and he said it was because the others were slothful.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com