A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.
Virendra Sharma has been selected as Labour's candidate for the Ealing Southall by-election.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 11:00 pm
Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012 and since 2020. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.
8 Comments:
Well, any other issues apart how refreshing to see someone with a really useful, highly responsible job, but one which is generally considered to be far from glamourous or particularly desirable. We have plenty of ex-barristers, policy wonks etc.
Well done Virenda, sounds like a breath of fresh ever.
And well done to Sonia for a very magnaminous comment which I sure augurs well for her own future.
However moving from an all woman shourtlist to an all man shortlist is pretty bloody silly / wrong - and persons outside of Ealing need to take learning from that - AFTER the election.
11:20 pm, July 04, 2007
A breath of fresh air?!
Sharma has already been a councillor in Ealing for 25 years. He is a has-been and will add nothing new to the political scene.
The Southall consituency is one of the most prominent seats likely to be won by an Asian candidate and we are so desparately in need of parliamentarians who can communicate with disaffected youth from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Sharma doesn't seem to have any passion for engaging these issues. He is exactly the type of grandfather figure who makes young British Asians think that parlimentary politics will never give them a voice.
1:17 am, July 05, 2007
I think you can be sure of one thing. You haven't see the last of Sonika Nirwal. Whatever that thing is that those people have alluded to and some people know more than others - she has held herself very well through-out and will continue to do so this and a lot of people will be watching this space. anybody knows her knows she is fundamentally a politcal class act and in this day and age they're a rarity (PS I am not her mum)
She would have been a very exciting prospect for Ealing Southall and a very exciting kind of MP - it's plain to see that we don't have any of her kind of person in Parliament. Labour talks big on equality yet depending on the order in which elections are called at the next general the first Asian Women MP could be a Tory.
I personally think that the people at the top have made a mistake. She would have ridden a small storm and then romped home in Ealing Southall and the people there would have been very lucky to have her as their MP.
Nevertheless now we've got a candidate we need to get behind him.
9:40 am, July 05, 2007
In 2003 Luke's good friend and self-styled Stalin's Granny Hillary Perrin ensured that Robert Evans was selected as candidate for Brent East over Shahid Malik in a similar manouvre. Remind me which of the two is now an MP? It's proof that right wins over in the end. My guess is that Labour will lose this one (shock!) and she'll either re-take it next time or be selected elsewhere for taking this so well. You can only imagine the backroom cajoling she must have faced from the party staff to let this one go and hold on for elsewhere. Or am I over-optimistic that Labour does actually want a representative Parliament?
10:12 am, July 05, 2007
This so called choice was an absolute disgracefull one.
Sedgefield had 5 to choose from, we in Southall ended up with 2?!!
One of which was a non-entity in local politics and the other one won!
I wont name names but allot of people in Southall feel cheated and robbed of the opportunity to vote for 'their' candidate and it definately wasnt Sonica that's for sure!!!
9:10 pm, July 05, 2007
what a joke - I was all set to go and vote for a candidate on Wednesday and to choose from a varied list - instead it was a choice of 2! A total stich up - if this is Brown's new party, I am not impressed
6:28 pm, July 06, 2007
Sharma is just a mini Khabra and just as comatose. A lot of Labour supporters feel betrayed and selction committee showed it's contempt for the people of Southall by have a non entity and a has been. People in Southall are in the mood to give Labour a bloody nose! and that's from a life long Labour supporter!
10:20 am, July 07, 2007
Far from being a breath of fresh air, since coming to power last summer, Virendra Sharma has never ever voted against the government in parliament.
More a waste of space than a breath of fresh air.
Source: www.theyworkforyou.com
4:22 pm, March 18, 2008
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