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When it comes to fixing – is the Labour Party ready to stop taking the piss?

June 1, 2012 1:18 pm

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Mark Ferguson

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For too long in the Labour Party there has been an acquiescence (if not complicity) in the fixing culture that pervades the party. That acquiescence was practised by those at the top of the party as much as anyone. And yet, with the power to change the poisonous ethos that flowed through the party, they did nothing.

Nada.

Rien.

Sod all.

It was unthinkable that senior party “managers” didn’t know that our selections were being nobbled, stitched up and conveniently arranged. After all, every member in every CLP in the country knew. They knew fine well, and they let it happen, encouraged it – and often partook in it.

No longer.

After our coverage of NPF selection shenanigans in recent weeks, an internal email sent today (and leaked to Guido), by General Secretary Iain McNicol admonished staff for interfering in selections, saying:

“Although no rules have been broken, the spirit of the rules has been tested and the timings questionable. With NPF and NEC as well as Police Commissioner elections coming up, there is a lot of attention being given to these key selections.

Recently emails have gone out to members from some people seeking to gain positions in these elections. I must remind staff that helping candidates to contact members whilst they are seeking election unless it is part of your constituency responsibilities is not acceptable.”

Good on you Iain. If you’re serious about this, you have my support – and the support of members across the country who want to see fair elections not ballot rigging shenanigans.

That said, it’s much harder to fix and stitch and nobble in the age of the internet. Sunlight, as they say, is the best disinfectant. It’s good to see McNicol taking a firm line. I hope that he’s true to his word. And LabourList will be making sure he is – because we’ll be watching.

Every selection.

Every attempt to trample over members rights.

Every attempt to subvert democracy.

Every attempt to – lets be blunt – take the piss.

We’ll be watching.

Because our party has been controlled by the fixers for too long. It’s time to put it back into the hands of the people to whom it really belongs – the members. Or membership will fall, activism will diminish, a self selecting clique of Westminster insiders will run our party into the ground, and we’ll end up as far from the electorate as we’ve ever been.

And I for one think that’s a pretty crap election strategy, don’t you?

http://twitter.com/_DaveTalbot David Talbot

Well done for leading on this Mark.

I’m like many a member when I say I am fed up to the back teeth of the mafiosi-cronyism that predominates the Labour party. It simply has to stop.
- https://mikestallard.virtualgallery.com/ Mike Stallard
  
  Has it not occurred to you that that is exactly why the ordinary people are suspicious of Big Government?
  It is just as corrupt as Tory Big Business.
  Only it is paid for out of our money. (Called taxation).
  - chrisfowler08
    
    I cnnot understand it, why am I the only one paying TAX when everyone else seems to be avoiding sorry is it called evading paying income tax, I’m not sure which is which-who can enlighten me! It seems many people are at it and how does one go about it.
    - George Davidson
      
      not just you … me as well. I did some calculations recently and counted up 53% of my salary disappears on NI, income tax, VAT, duty, tv tax, legally enforced licenses, council tax, road tax and the horse it rode into town on.
      High rate of tax? Not a bit of it – I’m a base rate taxpayer!
      No wonder theres no consumer spending led recovery … big government is sucking up all the disposable income and people are now spending to survive.
      - https://mikestallard.virtualgallery.com/ Mike Stallard
        
        So how about cutting back on the government expenditure?
      - http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone
        
        I hear government spending is being slashed in Greece – why not emigrate?
      - George Davidson
        
        how about you explain to me how taking MORE THAN HALF of my earnings is ‘fair’? shouldnt the labour of this particular worker, benefit this worker and his family?
      - http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone
        
        You think things are bad? Be assured, they are going to get much worse.
        
        Not only will you have to fulfill the social obligations you feel are already unfair but you’ll have to stump up even more as subsidies for the continuing failure of the private sector – following on from the the banking crisis of 2008. In April, from a diminishing pot of government revenue, Osborne pledged £10billion of our money as a ‘loan’ to the IMF, to be handed over to the private sector ponzi scheme known as the Euro Zone. And still the situation deteriorates daily.
        
        Sadly, for us, the consequences of the crisis have been rendered worse by the incompetence of Cameron and Osborne: the austerity junkies are haplessly destroying the demand on which much of our economy depends.
        
        There’s one certainty: very soon you’ll have even less disposable income than you have now.
      - chrisfowler08
        
        What income!
      - chrisfowler08
        
        New Blue Labour doesn’t care about working people like you and many others.
        The membership should take back the Party.
        Get rid of the sheep and the cronies.
      - chrisfowler08
        
        Dear George,
        You do have have my sympathy.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Absolutely!
- chrisfowler08
  
  Dear David,
  What does mafiosi-cronyism mean?
michaelcollins10

Similar correspondence should be sent to the Brothers and Sisters in the trade unions who seek to do exactly the same.
- Jamesberry1
  
  The unions are a thousand times worse!
  - chrisfowler08
    
    What union do you belong to
- chrisfowler08
  
  What has my brother and sister got to do with it, they don’t belong to a union.
Winston_from_the_Ministry

Good on you Mark.
Kev Peel

We’re all getting in a terrible tiz about staff supposedly fixing internal elections, but what about party members elected to internal positions and then abusing their access to membership lists to promote their own candidacy or that of someone else for another internal role? This is going on at the moment and is as serious if not more so.
- Sidsidsid
  
  Your overlooking the fact that All modern poilitics work on the same principal and all the parties need folding up and discarding, and a new system needs introducing.
  - chrisfowler08
    
    I am very interested in your message on how do you fold up a politcal party and dicarding. It just does not make sense, are you into origami. My wife is into that and she has been folding things up for years but she never discards anything she normally puts it inthe airing cupboard.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Why are you getting in a tiz when you are having a fix normally I get a High. I must say I have never abused anyone but myself.
flyingtrain

though i totally agree with the sentiment expressed above and in previous articles on this topic, i can’t help wonder why now?

as you say mark, this has gone on for years. I am but 28, but for most of the time i was a member (from 18 up until early this year in fact) i knew this went on at ALL levels and frankly took part in much of it. I was part of a group on a clp that stitched up EVERY parliamentary or council selection, and every clp, conference and branch position going. Whether you got a place depended on who you knew, rather than what you were capable of. Now i am not proud of this, but it happened everywhere i have been, and will continue to happen. This is not a cancer at the top, this is a cancer throughout the entire party.

back to the question of why now though. Hate to be cynical, but you must have known about this for years, has something happened to your cost because of this? Are you now on the receiving end of fixing, rather than doing the fixing?

I will apologise if i am incorrect, but do you see where i feel the labour party has got to? From the top down, i feel it is now a party of people out to help themselves, not others and when something like this suddenly appears, my first thought is why now, not how do we stop this?

(i feel this topic has similarities to the changes the fa in england are tying to make re youth football. You can have as many reorganisions and strategies as you want, but until you sort the underlying problem (in youth footballs case the parents coaches who love the idea of being area X’s alex ferguson and thus only care about winning and not developing players), quite frankly, you can piss in the wind as much as you want, but nowt will ever change.
flyingtrain

though i totally agree with the sentiment expressed above and in previous articles on this topic, i can’t help wonder why now?

as you say mark, this has gone on for years. I am but 28, but for most of the time i was a member (from 18 up until early this year in fact) i knew this went on at ALL levels and frankly took part in much of it. I was part of a group on a clp that stitched up EVERY parliamentary or council selection, and every clp, conference and branch position going. Whether you got a place depended on who you knew, rather than what you were capable of. Now i am not proud of this, but it happened everywhere i have been, and will continue to happen. This is not a cancer at the top, this is a cancer throughout the entire party.

back to the question of why now though. Hate to be cynical, but you must have known about this for years, has something happened to your cost because of this? Are you now on the receiving end of fixing, rather than doing the fixing?

I will apologise if i am incorrect, but do you see where i feel the labour party has got to? From the top down, i feel it is now a party of people out to help themselves, not others and when something like this suddenly appears, my first thought is why now, not how do we stop this?

(i feel this topic has similarities to the changes the fa in england are tying to make re youth football. You can have as many reorganisions and strategies as you want, but until you sort the underlying problem (in youth footballs case the parents coaches who love the idea of being area X’s alex ferguson and thus only care about winning and not developing players), quite frankly, you can piss in the wind as much as you want, but nowt will ever change.
flyingtrain

though i totally agree with the sentiment expressed above and in previous articles on this topic, i can’t help wonder why now?

as you say mark, this has gone on for years. I am but 28, but for most of the time i was a member (from 18 up until early this year in fact) i knew this went on at ALL levels and frankly took part in much of it. I was part of a group on a clp that stitched up EVERY parliamentary or council selection, and every clp, conference and branch position going. Whether you got a place depended on who you knew, rather than what you were capable of. Now i am not proud of this, but it happened everywhere i have been, and will continue to happen. This is not a cancer at the top, this is a cancer throughout the entire party.

back to the question of why now though. Hate to be cynical, but you must have known about this for years, has something happened to your cost because of this? Are you now on the receiving end of fixing, rather than doing the fixing?

I will apologise if i am incorrect, but do you see where i feel the labour party has got to? From the top down, i feel it is now a party of people out to help themselves, not others and when something like this suddenly appears, my first thought is why now, not how do we stop this?

(i feel this topic has similarities to the changes the fa in england are tying to make re youth football. You can have as many reorganisions and strategies as you want, but until you sort the underlying problem (in youth footballs case the parents coaches who love the idea of being area X’s alex ferguson and thus only care about winning and not developing players), quite frankly, you can piss in the wind as much as you want, but nowt will ever change.
Davidch1

no more ‘parachuting in’ the favoured one to, for example , an aws in say birmingham ?
- Guest
  
  Or like Harriet Harman’s husband selected on an all-woman short-list?
  - Just_Another_Voter
    
    I think he actually was referring to Mrs Jackie Dromey.
    - Guest
      
      Yes, my apologies. And what a stunning MP he has made as well.
      - John Dore
        
        Lets not get all negative here, lets stay on the positive. He may not be a brilliant MP but he’s made
        £65,738 p/a + expenses.
      - Dagon
        
        We should all applaud a man of enterprise.
      - chrisfowler08
        
        What enterprise? When you say applaud does that mean I have to CLAP?
      - Dagon
        
        You have the clap? Can’t you clear that up with a course of prescribed tablets these days?
      - chrisfowler08
        
        Do you know a doctor because I can’t afford one at the moment.
      - treborc1
        
        psychiatrist are free mate under the NHS
      - chrisfowler08
        
        I surprised he didn’t claim for more-they usually do!
        Also who is getting negative, I went digital years ago.
      - chrisfowler08
        
        Why are you apologising? and when you say ‘stunning’ does that mean she is good looking.
  - George Davidson
    
    Harriet Harman is a painful reminder that “our” labour party has absolutely no interest in the working man, his problems or his aspirations. To la harman, he is simply the mule to be beaten when she wants to justify her entitled, law ignoring, hypocritical, arrogant existence.
    - Chrisfowler
      
      Absolutely-What do you expect from Blue Labour.
    - Chrisfowler
      
      Absolutely-What do you expect from Blue Labour.
      - John Dore
        
        Rubbish,
        Blue Labour is just a deadlabel. When you talk about the Dromeys its about the individuals Jack and H.
      - chrisfowler08
        
        Yea you know where to put your rubbish!
    - JoeDM
      
      She is a classic example of the champagne socialist toff – aristrocratic background, private education (St Pauls), excellent uinversity has given her a ladder to bypass that greasey pole that is politics.
      
      Tony Benn was another cut from the same template. (Do they still block the footpaths across land at Stansgate Abbey? How very socialist and public spirited. )
    - chrisfowler08
      
      Spot on old chap!
    - chrisfowler08
      
      Has HH ever heard of working class?Does she even know anybody who even works because doesen’t.
  - ClosetRed
    
    How DARE you? Harriet knows best in all things.
    - chrisfowler08
      
      You cannot be serious! How Red are you?
      - Red
        
        Kind of “not really”. Favouring any one colour over another would be discriminatory, and that would be baaaaaaad. Harriet said so. All colours are equal and must love each other.
      - chrisfowler08
        
        I thought so and are you HH lap dog, and so obedient, so PC as well. Well if HH said all that it must b/s. Do you have your own opinion-if not get one.
  - AlanGiles
    
    That was flagrant – how on earth did he manage to get away with it?. Did he go to the selection meeting in drag?.
    
    The problem is, I suspect however much we complain there will always be instances of friends of the family making a total ass of us – whether it be a male candidate in a female selection list, or Mandy’s friend in Stoke.
    
    I think the only way that the party will be sanitized is if the old waxworks who were noted for thier jiggery-pokery over the past 15 years are just totally ignored in future – while they remain there is always the danger of falling back into the old discredited ways.
    - chrisfowler08
      
      Whats Stoke got to do with it? Has Mandy become become dicrepit-I wish he was!
  - chrisfowler08
    
    Does that mean HH husband has had a sex change.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Who uses parachuts these days-I don’t.
Dan Mccurry

Well done with this campaign.
- AlanGiles
  
  Everyone has said it Mark – but congratulations on having the courage to tackle something neither of your predecessors would have done – and not to make it a “one-off”.
  
  You might succeed where others have failed – or not even tried.
Sunny Hundal

Good man Mark. Keep at it.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Dear Sunny, What do you mean Mark keep at it, is he some sort of sex maniac.
  If so, what is he on?
therealguyfaux

Straight outta Chicago circa 1960′s. There were complaints about the Democratic Party and the elected officials from that party blurring the line as to what was city governance and what was political-party intramural stuff, reminiscent of the Tweed Ring in New York a century earlier. Richard Daley, the mayor at the time, famously summed it up: “Of course we always help out our friends. Who are we supposed to help out– our enemies?”
- chrisfowler08
  
  What are you talking about.
  - therealguyfaux
    
    When in Government, it’s bad, as it is self-perpetuation of a political class. But when in Opposition, it’s still bad, as it reeks of desperation to hold on to a vision the voters rejected, when the high-ranking Party Members want simply to put their placemen in as a reward for having been with them in the good times and now sticking with them in the bad. Misplaced loyalty you might call it. One would expect it would be the other way ’round. A new crop of challengers for the heart and soul of the Party need not be seen as an insurgency of sorts. Why would anyone want to vie for Party positions if there is a chance their candidacy can be undermined by those who regard them as upstarts? That’s the point I was trying to make with the Mayor Daley quote. If you just reward arse-kissers you’ll see what happens when you’re back in Government and the Uriah Heeps are the Party people telling you what you want to hear instead of what will solve the problem.
    
    PS– Chrisfowler08: This isn’t for your benefit, it’s for the benefit of anybody else who may have wondered about the reference. A word to the wise: If you’re going to take the piss, don’t do it whilst you’re on the piss OK?
Ian Geary

Mark.

Well done for highlighting this issue.

Ian Geary.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Are you on MOTD.
  - AlanGiles
    
    Judging by your jokes, I can only assume you are some sort of strange substances
    - chrisfowler08
      
      My mum never said I was on any strange substances-very strange indeed!
      - treborc1
        
        yes she was right
treborc1

Your all lucky you do have a bloke like this, in the party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Asghar
- chrisfowler08
  
  Sorry but what bloke are you talking about.
http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

“a self selecting clique of Westminster insiders will run our party into the ground”

Spot on, Mark. Too often they replace the values of what should be an open and inclusive Party with their own sectional interests and personal ambitions.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Dear Dave,
  What does fiddle-proof internal democracy mean?
Edsdog

Alas it happens at local level also. Very sad as it drives away the very people needed to put out the message. Very very sad.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Don’t be sad Edsdog-with a name like that I’m not surprised.
Amber Star

Harriet Harman represents women in the Labour Party. The Labour Party is now so strongly preferred by women voters that it gives Ashcroft, Osborne & Cameron sleepless nights worrying about it. By that measure alone, Harriet is a huge asset to the Party.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Hilton-Holloway/708772773 Hilton Holloway
  
  Harriet has enacted laws that are activated if women are underrepresented but are not activated, for instance, when the graduation rate is over 60 percent female. Half of mothers have sons. Harriet has driven away the older women voters who have children. Still, with the graduate fertility rate in the UK plummeting, it won’t matter in 20 years.
  - Amber Star
    
    I am an older woman voter who has one child, a son. I have not been driven away; I very much agree with Harriet’s politics. My son hoped to be a candidate for councillor in our ward which was subsequently made a woman only ward. I’m proud to say that my son nominated & campaigned vigorously for the woman who was ultimately selected. He was genuinely delighted when she won.
    - AlanGiles
      
      In all honesty, I don’t think Ms. Harman represents ALL women, any more than Barbara Follett did, or any more than Blair or Ed Miliband represents all men: they obviously have resonance with certain men and women, but I am sure the world of (for example) David Miliband is totally different to the one I know.
      
      I have to say though, she is somewhat hypocritical in promoting AWS then seeing her husband selected, but hypocrisy seems to be a prerequisite of politicians of all parties and both sexes.
    - chrisfowler08
      
      I’m sorry you are an older women but you should have had your son earlier then you wouldn’t be so old would you.
      Does HH have any policies-Idon’t think so.
      Perhaps he campaigned so vigorously for her because fancied her and I bet he hoped she would lose really.
  - chrisfowler08
    
    HH is a very confused woman who does not understand red politics only blue ones. She and others do not belong in the true Labour Party. When are we going to get the true Labour Party back? Wilson, Attlee et al must be turning in their graves to what has happend in the past Blair/Brown era and their shenanigans.
    I await your criticisms asap.
    
    ps Blue in Lab/Party has not gone away.
    
    pps What has the fertility rate got to do with UK plumbing let me know.
- Chrisfowler
  
  Utter nonsence-HH is not true Labour-Blue Labour.
  - Amber Star
    
    Good. Blue Labour supporters make themselves ridiculous whenever it is used to justify politics which disadvantage women.
    - chrisfowler08
      
      I love you Amber.
      - Amber Star
        
        Do you love me enough to do me up the bum?
      - chrisfowler08
        
        Dear Amber,
        I’m shocked, I must say Idon’t DO anyone up the bottom.
        I wish you well.
- milliboot
  
  She stood back and let her husband (Jack Dromey ) take a seat in a constituancy that was meant to have a women only short list ! shes dishonest, and a bit bonkers !
  - Amber Star
    
    There are few things as pitiful as an anti-feminist apparently supporting all women shortlists so that he can attack Harriet Harman via her husband. It is both amusing & sad at the same time.
    - chrisfowler08
      
      Don’t be anti men Amber-I love you and we can have our children together as long as you are fertile,I am.
  - chrisfowler08
    
    My wife never stood back behind me, she is always in front of me.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Are you going through the change of life Amber?
  What Labour Party, does it exist please let me know.
  What is an asset?
  Sleepless nights you must be joking-you are aren’t you.
Sid Hollands

Absolutely on the button Mark, keep up the good work
- chrisfowler08
  
  Dear Sid what button are you talking about.
Daniel Speight

Well done Mark.

I see Labour’s problem as being the balance between the paid professional politicians and the membership as a whole. In recent years this has balance has moved so far in favour of the professionals that activists are now like WW1 cannon fodder just there to fight and put the pros on the gravy train. It’s very third world politics.

The party needs more bottom up and less top down. Get that fixed and maybe the party can go on to be something one can take pride in.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Whose bottom are we talking about? yours or mine and why do we have to use gravy can’t we use honey- much better than gravy.
  
  Also, when you talk about more bottom up and less top down, what kind of party is that.
  
  I await your reply in anticipation.
https://mikestallard.virtualgallery.com/ Mike Stallard

Well

bugger me!
- chrisfowler08
  
  I never bugger anyone
Dagon

The Labour Party is feudal rather than democratic. From dictatorial Blair onwards the Party now dances to whatever tune a coterie of morally ambiguous leaders decides to play. The modern Labour Party is Stalinist. The Party doesn’t give a toss in respect to the views of the membership and, I regret to say, I will be very surprised if this sorry state of affairs changes in any way in the foreseeable future. Modern Labour leaders don’t listen to the Party membership these days or appear to have much by way of a moral code or smattering of human conscience to guide them as far as I can see.

Don’t get you hopes up.

Labour Party members exist to serve the perceived needs of the leadership.

(Not the other way around!)
- James
  
  What happened was that after being out of power for 18 years Labour were desperate to get back into office so when Blair came along and said “If you let me do anything I want and don’t make waves I can win an election for you” the party said “OK” and let Blair run riot pretty much unopposed (except for Gordon Brown). This kind of slavish behaviour got carried on over to the next election… and the next election… until it became so ingrained nobody had the spirit any more to stand up to the leadership and try to make it do what was right. Because of this cowardly permissiveness the party eventually allowed mad, bad, spineless and misguided people do terrible things without challenge or argument just like Tony Blair before them, i.e., horrible people like John Hutton, James Purnell, Yvette Cooper and Co., and stood by while they played with things, tinkered with stuff, experimented and toyed with and ruined people’s lives via a raft of dreadful ill thought out and badly implemented policies. I don’t reckon weaklings like this will rediscover their spines and backbones any time soon. The PLP is full of sheep and dung beetles who will say anything, support anything, and do anything if they believe their actions will help them cling on to their seat in the House of Commons and their £65,000+ MP’s salary for another four or five years.
  
  Almost every Labour MP deserves to receive a white feather.
  
  After so many years on their knees do any of them have enough strength left to be able to stand upright like a free human being any more?
  - AlanGiles
    
    James: As Oscar Wilde said:
    
    “I wish I had said that”
    You are 100% right.
    - chrisfowler08
      
      My dog is called Oscar Wilde and I didn’t hear him say that, are you sure it was Oscar.
  - llanystumdwy
    
    Could’t agree more. The complete party rolled-over for Brown and Blair and their tiny elite of sycophants which server them, and for what??
    After 13 years of power they have left a legacy that they can hardly be proud of. Even the economic success, which was hailed as one of Labours strengths during their time in office, turned out to be an illusion – amounting to no more than a debt binge which the country is paying for now.From the point of view of the health of the party, their obsession with spin and control freakery has turned Labour into a timid, spineless, non-entity whose only purpose is power itself. Labour has lost its soul – a far cry from the party that I was proud to call myself a member of for over 30 years.Harold Wilson once said that the Labour party is nothing unless it is a radical party. If the party wants to regain power then the party hierarchy today needs to show the courage, boldness and radicalism of the great past leaders like Atlee and Wilson. Above all, put principle and substance above spin and presentation and behave honestly. They will gain far more respect from the electorate even when they make mistakes rather than Brown Blair got from their disastrous years in destroying our great party.
    - chrisfowler08
      
      Absolutely and Harold was right-we are talking about Steptoe arn’t we?
    - treborc1
      
      New labour had a handful of people, but the principle architect was Kinnock after he lost he decided the party needed to become new and leaning towards the Tories, at the time he was my MP and if you listened to him he was bitter very bitter.
      
      Then he brought in people like Gould then a few of the spin doctors, it was then they Brown joined the new labour group only because he believed he would be leader, but they went for Blair hence the meeting between Blair and Brown to do deals.
      
      It was Kinnock who then worked on changing labour he changed the logo and the rose and the New labour slogan, Blair was the figure head
  - chrisfowler08
    
    I couln’t agree more. The PLP is full of sheep, not sure about dung beetles I thought that was from cow dung.
    I also agree with the people you have mentioned and that they are not sheep but have probably contracted CJD which I would not wish on anybody-but that is why they are as you say horrible.
    
    Also I have not been an upright free human being since the days of Margret.
- chrisfowler08
  
  Absolutely! They do not listen, like professional footballers-not in the real world.
  No morals.
  Thought Salin was dead.
chrisfowler08

I agree Mark-What do you expect from New Blue Labour Party.
Stop taking the piss.
Pingback: An opportunity for debate | TopOfTheCops.com
chrisfowler08

My comment is waiting approval, there seems to be no freedom of speech on this web site.
Censorship is very bad.
Please post my comment asap.
From what I can see you still have not posted it yet Big Brother are you Blue Labour?
chrisfowler08

What are you doing Big Brother. Post it, what are you afraid of freedom of speech?
- AlanGiles
  
  Chris, you seem to abuse freedom. You have made dozens of otiose one-liners on this thread, few of which make any sense at all.
  
  Perhaps a bit of self-discipline and editing?….
chrisfowler08

What are you afraid of Big Brother. Post it.
chrisfowler08

Stop being a Silly Billy otherwise I will tell the Sun what you are up to.
chrisfowler08

I spoken to my MP about this and he is going to make a statement in the House of Commons asap.
chrisfowler08

But I don’t drink, you are so sensitive.
AlanGiles

Mark, in addition to your excellent work in highlighting jiggery-pokery in the part hierarchy, I wonder if I could ask you to do the same thing with Labour List.

I think it would be a good idea if we could be sure people are not posting under multiple names, because there is evidence that at least one contributor is using three different screen names.

It is hard to take anybody seriously if they indulge in behaviour like this – at best it looks puerile and worst it looks deceitful and dishonest.

The thread by Conor yesterday about the coalition’s U-Turns provides some of the evidence to this. Not Conor himself I hasten to say.

This is only one case I know of – we know there have been others when we had the spate of bogus posters a few weeks ago.

I think it would be of great benefit to everyone if we know we are dealing with one individual at a time, rather than those who feel they have to mislead by pretending other identities.
no trot no hot

I am still waiting for a reply from the NEC about an official complaint our members made regarding the overt and absurd fixing of the longlist in the Feltham and Heston by-election….. still waiting ….. still waiting ….. still waiting

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Vicky Foxcroft selected as Labour’s PPC for Lewisham Deptford

Vicky Foxcroft has been selected by Lewisham Deptford CLP as the party’s candidate for 2015 at a selection meeting this afternoon. Here’s a brief biography: Vicky grew up in the North West in a single parent household, and was the first person in her family to go to university. She has held many positions in the party including Chair of Labour Students, has sat on the National Policy Forum and is currently a local councillor and is Chair of Lewisham [...]
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Comment
Labour’s future schools policy: why accountability matters

By Mike Ion

Stephen Twigg, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary is one of the more thoughtful and pragmatic individuals to hold this vitally important brief for some time. To his credit Stephen has been out and about these past two years listening to pupils, teachers, parents and governors and finding out more about the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis. In addition Stephen has been looking closely at some local, regional, national and international programmes that have had a demonstrable impact in raising [...]
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News Seats and Selections
Falkirk selection process suspended by the party

The Labour Party have this afternoon suspended the selection process for Falkirk, after concerns were raised about “membership recruitment”. We understand that Ed Miliband was “keen to act swiftly” as the selection process was due to formally begin on Sunday. An officer of the party – yet to be confirmed – will investigate. A Labour spokesperson told us this afternoon: “We have suspended the start of the selection process of the Falkirk parliamentary seat. Concerns have been raised about membership [...]
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Comment Seats and Selections Unions
Working Class MPs – the end of a era?

By Paul Wheeler

It is interesting to see that the Labour Party is returning to the vexed issue of its parliamentary selection process. The changes may be well and good. But maybe we should be asking a bigger question – are we witnessing the end of working class representation in Parliament? When the Labour Party was first founded it was more simple. Then the explicit aim was to secure working class representation, and specifically organised labour, in Parliament. Inevitably it became more complicated [...]
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Local Government News
An absolutely classic Lib Dem bar chart

Earlier this week we brought you a decidedly dodgy bar chart from the Tories, but it seems that they’re not the only party in Camden adopting dubious use of bar charts. Step forward Camden Lib Dems, with this classic of the dodgy Lib Dem bar chart genre (courtesy of Theo Blackwell). Even by the pretty shoddy standards of the yellows, this is a corker: Update: Haringey Lib Dems might want to work on their bar charts maths too (via [...]
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Vicky Foxcroft selected as Labour’s PPC for Lewisham Deptford

Labour’s future schools policy: why accountability matters

Falkirk selection process suspended by the party

Working Class MPs – the end of a era?

An absolutely classic Lib Dem bar chart

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