in a statement, mark meznies said... "it has been an enormous privilege representing the people of fylde since 2010, but due to the pressures on myself and my elderly mother i have decided to resign from the conservative party and will not stand at the forthcoming general election. this has been a very difficult week for me and i request that my family's privacy is respected." 0ur political correspondent iain watson has the story. this all got under way, really, when the times newspaper reported a bizarre story where apparently, last december, mr menzies, according to the times, had called, met a local official in his party, in his constituency at 3.15 in the morning demanding £5,000, which he said was a matter of life and death, because he had to be released from a flat in which he was locked by, quote, some bad people. in addition to this, the times newspaper also alleged that some other funds that were meant to be used