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.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Labourlist Column

My Labourlist column this week explains why the French PS' experience of primary elections doesn't translate to the UK: http://www.labourlist.org/vive-la-difference--primaries-non-merci

posted by Luke Akehurst at 10:56 am

1 Comments:

Blogger David Lindsay said...

Labour First, lest we forget, does not want CLPs to have any say in PPC selection.

One of the French candidates, Senator Jean-Michel Baylet, was not even a member of the Socialist Party, being the Leader of the Radical Party of the Left. Do not be confused by that name, it is only the more left-wing of the two successors to the old Radical Party, and it is therefore heavily concentrated in the old Radical heartlands of the South West. (What is it with South Wests and this sort of thing?)

That strikes even me as taking these things a bit too far. But in the course of each Parliament, each party should submit to a binding ballot of the whole constituency electorate its locally, internally determined shortlist of two for Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, just as each should submit to a binding ballot of the whole constituency electorate its internally determined shortlist of two for Leader.

Many a stalwart of the Council or of other aspects of the local Big Society (trade unions, co-operatives, and so on) would then beat many a Westminster Village boy or his girlfriend. And our Parliament would be infinitely better for those victories. If one party made these changes, then they would all have to.

Ed Miliband, over to you.

9:34 pm, October 27, 2011

 

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