North-West Durham Constituency Labour Party's all-women shortlist is complete. The candidates are:
Liz Twist, Unison's Political Officer for the North - guaranteed a seat somewhere, especially in the New Year once all new PPCs are imposed by the NEC;
Anna Turley, Deputy Director of the New Local Government Network, and a former Special Adviser to Hilary Armstrong and to David Blunkett - guaranteed a seat somewhere, especially in the New Year once all new PPCs are imposed by the NEC;
Ann Pettifor, an economics writer and commentator, and a co-founder of the Jubilee 2000 campaign - guaranteed a seat somewhere (if not a peerage), especially in the New Year once all new PPCs are imposed by the NEC;
Lisa Homan, a councillor in Hammersmith and Fulham - if she's on the circuit, then probably guaranteed a seat somewhere (most obviously in London), especially in the New Year once all new PPCs are imposed by the NEC;
Lauren Todd, a 23-year-old politics student from Delves Lane - are you having a laugh?; and
Pat Glass, a government education adviser and my colleague on Lanchester Parish Council.
Only the top and bottom of that list would have made it onto any shortlist that then had to be submitted to a ballot of the whole constituency electorate, and Pat would have won. She is also a publicly declared opponent of all-women shortlists, who would have preferred to win a fair contest. I don't know about the others.
Anyway, ladies, in view of the very real Lib Dem threat to this seat this time, in view of the fact that an Independent who took more votes than the reduction in the Labour vote last time is expected to stand again, in view of the very low turnout universally anticipated, and indeed simply on principle:
Are you:
- pro-life, pro-family, pro-worker, and anti-war?
- an economically social democratic, morally and socially conservative British and Commonwealth patriot?
- committed to One Nation politics, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation?
- a conservationist, not an environmentalist?
- far too left-wing to be liberal, far too conservative to be capitalist?
(As for being a practising Catholic, the root of all five of these commitments in my case and something that I happen to bring to the constituency that contains the old Irish Catholic stronghold of Consett, the remarkable Recusant village of Esh, and Ushaw College, of course it is not essential. But I do happen to know that Pat is a practising Catholic, from an Irish background but born up in that Recusant hill country.)
Do you support real social democratic policies, such as:
- restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law?
- no one's tax-free income to fall below half national median earnings?
- abolition of prescription charges, and restoration of free eye and dental treatment?
- making employment rights begin on day one of employment and apply regardless of the number of hours worked, as promised by John Smith?
- saving council housing, and bringing all council services back in house?
- renationalisation of the utilities and the railways?
- building a national network of public transport free at the point of use?
- removal of all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters?
Do you support real conservative and patriotic policies, such as:
- restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law?
- a return to preventative policing based on foot patrols?
- making each offence carry a minimum sentence of one third of its maximum sentence, or 15 years for life?
- restoration of the grammar schools, restoration of O-levels, restoration of excellent Secondary Modern schools, and defence and restoration of Special Needs Education?
- a legal presumption of equal parenting, restoration of the tax allowance for fathers, and allowing paternity leave to be taken at any time in the first 18 years of the child's life?
- helping farmers and small businesses through a windfall tax on the supermarkets?
- defending village services, saving shooting and fishing, repealing the hunting ban, and making Gypsies and Travellers obey the same planning laws as the rest of us?
- preserving the historic regimental system, rebuilding the Royal Navy, and saving the Royal Air Force?
- removal of all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters?
And do you support real common sense policies, such as:
- restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law?
- nuclear power and clean coal technology?
- restoration of British overall control of our defence capability?
- docking Ministers' pay if either spending or outcomes are lower in the North East than in Scotland or the South East?
- immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq;
- total opposition to lap-dancing clubs?
- an MP's office in Consett as well as in Crook?
- removal of all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters?
A candidate who is and who does will be on the ballot paper, one way or another.
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50 comments:
They are breaking their own rules if they have an anti-abortion candidate from an AWS. This won't be taken lying down.
What's wrong with Delves Lane?
Nothing. I used to make a living as a barman there. But there is everything wrong with a 23-year-old student shortlisted for what is still being held up as a safe seat.
I mean, the sheer arrogant gall of her for even applying! Clearly, the sort of people who used to run Branches no longer do or have gone very soft indeed in their old age. Either that, or she has never attended a Branch Meeting...
How old were you when you first on Lanchester parish council?
21, which was the legal minimum age in those days. Well into my third term, I'm still the youngest person on it. And now as then, I am one of 15. The other 14 certainly weren't 21. Whereas a seat only has one MP.
"committed to One Nation politics, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation?"
As the only possible response to this is "what are you blibbering on about?", I don't think you're going to get much useful information by asking.
Is this your way of saying that you have not managed to raise £500 for the deposit and you will there support this Pat as she is Catholic blah blah. What a cunning excuse for not standing yourself....no one will guess.
"Lauren Todd, a 23-year-old politics student from Delves Lane - are you having a laugh?;"
Like in the 1980's when a 23-year politics student called Charles Kennedy was elected to the Commons perhaps.
Cratchitt, if you have to ask, then there is no point telling you.
Jo, the deposit is safe and sound.
The Aberdonian, hardly a happy precedent, all things considered. Nor would they appreciate comparison with the Lib Dems and their predecessors.
Five hundred quid? Have you ever met David Lindsay?
It's only because of him that there is a good Catholic on the short list, as Anonymous 00:30 says they are not allowed under the rules of AWS, but they really are terrified of losing this seat to the Liberals.
If Pat Glass gets it then the endorsement that is this post will have had a lot to do with it. Anything to keep a Catholic right-wing of Old Labour splitter off the ballot paper. He would have taken just enough votes to make this seat a writeoff. Without him it will be a hell of a fight but not a writeoff.
David won't thank you for calling him right-wing.
Cratchitt, try the policies listed in this post and the principles set out at http://www.britishpeoplesalliance.org.uk, the things they don't teach Lauren Todd on her course, the things they did teach David Lindsay in the NW Durham CLP.
Unfortunately I think today's post on Peter Tatchell gives a clue to why David might not stand. Everyone knows that he has been ill. He has talked about it on here. There's no shame in it.
But he will stand anyway if the Labour candidate is not to his liking. He and Watts Stelling will take more votes than the Lib Dem majority. Only one thing could buy David off after that. The Labour nomination in 2014. He won't be ill by then.
What's this "not to his liking" bit. David always presented himself as standing for his principles, and certain to win. If he's going to duck out because Labour have picked a good candidate, what does that make him?
James is right. David and Watts between then would have more votes than Owen Temple would beat a Labour candidate by. Definitely if that candidate was some schoolgirl. Neither of them could quite do that on his own. But they could between them, no bother. Watts is a bit old to demand much and probably couldn't be brought on side anyway. No prizes for guessing what David would want for when he'd still only be in his thirties.
James, I have read them. And I reckon David's actually 47% One and 53% Nation.
Two local candidates, one 23 one a grown woman. No contest.
An out patient, Fezziwig. A man with a willing spirit but weak flesh as the Good Book almost says.
I don't understand this talk of David not standing, or only winning enough votes (combined with other Independents!) to spoil the Labour vote. He's explicitly said that his victory is all but guaranteed. He's been preparing for this for years and now is his moment. David, don't listen to these false friends.
Making them run someone who can keep him off the ballot will be an even sweeter victory than winning.
Was David a schoolboy when he was a governor of two schools? He was younger than 23.
A safe seat at 23 when someone now that age could easily live to be 90? For a student? What an insult! She'll be unemployable because she'll never have had a proper job. So the seat really will be stuck with her for 40, 50, 60 years.
Where as Pat Glass is 53. Two terms and retired. This girl will then be 31 to 33 depending on how long the parliaments last. David's age now except he had done more by hers.
Is this Little Miss Todd a governor of two schools? At that age David was a well known political figure locally. No-one has ever heard of her.
While I doubt this 23-year-old has the experience to be a good MP, I'm not sure you do either. Even if you do have more experience than a 23-year-old (and I haven't seen her CV, so I may be doing her an injustice), this is hardly a reason to vote for you. I'm still very unclear on what you've done that qualifies you for serious consideration as a prospective MP.
She's 23, it is physically impossible for her to have the necessary experience, least of all in that field and then the one at the Election itself.
My main qualifications are my principles and my views, but also, among other things:
- Independent by name – answerable to no one but the voters;
- Independent by nature – a mind of my own;
- lived in this constituency almost all my life, never went to school anywhere else, went to university within five miles of here;
- long-standing local activist, councillor and school governor;
- worker in all three of the public, private and voluntary sectors;
- entirely State-educated, non-Oxbridge, buried his father at 13, had major emergency surgery, been unemployed, been self-employed, been on Income Support because former employer did not keep up stamps for Incapacity Benefit;
- two degrees, councillor from 21, primary school governor for two four-year terms from 21, comprehensive school governor for two four-year terms from 22;
- decades of service to offer;
- mixed-race, like one in five British children under five, but unlike any current MP;
And so on, and on, and on.
But as I say, my main qualifications are my principles and my views. No 23-year-old who can get herself onto a New Labour shortlist will be noted for either, any more for than for having taken any hard knocks.
Anyway, Jeff at 16:01 has it right.
In proper times David would have been groomed as the heir apparent in this seat. Problem is these aren't proper times but they groomed him anyway. Still that does make him groomed. I've nothing against either of the local candidates but have they ever been to a Labour party meeting above branch level? Has the young one ever been to a branch meeting? David has been a parish councillor about three times as long as Pat Glass and this Todd girl has never even been that.
Looks like you are preparing to run away just like you did with the BPA.
Frit.
Sticking to your guns is one thing, David, but we all know that you would really fight this seat in order to make your point. This spring that would kill you and you know it. But you'll do it if we don't nominate Pat Glass, I suppose. If you do it against anyone else you'll be a martyr. If you do it against Pat you'll be a fool, and a dead fool at that. You are many things but you are not a fool. Looks like our nominating Pat is the only thing that can save your life.
The BPA not only still exists, but in a more viable form than before.
You should listen to "one of your oldest friends". You still haven't been given the all clear have you? So it will be nearly Easter if then. The election could be March and will probably be May. But OOYOF is right about another thing, you'll do it unless you are satisfied with the Labour candidate.
What about your thinktank? How about Baroness Armstrong and Mrs Patricia Glass MP as patrons? Why have you never mentioned it on here or is that because it is still a work in progress? It's looks good, very good. Don't kill yourself, David. Concentrate on that.
Trouble is he will if it means taking enough votes to keep out a Labour candidate he considers unacceptable.
Letting in a Lib Dem seems to bother him less. Suppose he expects them to be bad but thinks Labour should be better. He will do that to himself to do it to anyone off this list. Apart from one, perhaps.
A think tank is a brilliant idea but David is right not to let on too much about it until it is properly up and running.
If David is the Fool, then who is King Lear?
You belong inside the parliamentary process. I've seen the think tank stuff and it is superb. Brilliantly simple like all the best ideas.
An election would kill you but there is more than one House. Is the other one a House of Parliament or a club for the great and the good? If a House of Parliament then it is a much better bet for getting a more representative spread of views than the parties will allow in the Commons.
Considering the attention that you are already getting on the quiet, a couple of years of your think tank - when are we allowed to say the name? - and you will have all the glowing references you need to get in. Who needs short lists and selection committees when you are David Lindsay?
Looks like the message to the NWD CLP is clear, select Pat Glass to keep David Lindsay alive for the nation and promoting the principles you taught him deep into the 21st century.
You need to decide this one for yourself, no one can do it for you. Everyone who knows you knows that a parliamentary campiagn this spring would make this Friday your last Christmas before the Christmas and Easter that never end.
What do you want to be to the re-emergent movement? A leading figure for many decades? Or an iconic lost leader, a martyr, the man who cost Labour a seat in 2010 and lit the fire but who died as a result later that year? I suppose we'll need both. The question is which you want to be. Only you can answer that one.
Some things are worth dying for David but most things aren't. You know that. Lanchester hasn't had a big civic/political funeral for a while but we had expected to see you at the next one not to be burying you. What would it take to stop you? Pat Glass? She's the only credible local candidate anyway so let's do it.
We all know that you are not one to back down but why let in a pro-abort Lib Dem against Pat? Especially if the campaign is going to make you fatally ill.
Concentrate on your new think tank and see if you are not on the Cross Benches by 2014. If not then give that a go because the realignment will have happened by then and the party you helped create will be up and running.
Don't die next year, David. We need you and this seat needs a pro-life MP not a Lib Dem.
You will against this slip of a girl though won't you? And against anyone who isn't pro-life?
Eight posts today, only one a copy of someone else's with nothing by you added. Mind you could have written it, it's very you. So of the seven all or partly by you, how much could this littl'un read never mind write? You could have witten them at that age, but you have never been normal.
Unless the Labour candidate signs up to all the policies here and the principles on the BPA website then you should go for it. You must. Anon 15:19 is right, some things are worth dying for but most things aren't. This one is.
use your heart is right that you had this sort of capacity from a very early age, much younger than 23. Probably like him/her I have never met anybody else quite like that. But you won't lose it by waiting a few years until once again your body is as healthy as your mind. If you die or become permanently seriously ill you will be ruining your gift. Also what about letting in a pro-abort Lib Dem against Pat Glass? At the very least say that you won't run against her.
The real Lauren Todd? -
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lauren-Todd/718197142
Or is it? -
http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=19538687
http://twitter.com/lorentodd is spelt diferent, but you never know.
I know you're also on Facebook and Twitter David, but your pages are just a teeny bit different. Would have been when you were 23 as well.
Typical bloody Labour party, you're always too young until you're too old. Left you on a parish council all those years while they sucked up to Armstrong's office boy and lost two district seats in the process. You ended up getting more votes as an Independent than as Labour and he nearly lost his parish seat.
Passed you over for that other district seat up in Stanley because some dynastic simpleton backed by Kevan Jones wanted it. You as a district and then unitary councillor would have been well enough placed to prevent the all women shortlist, too obvious a candidate to be passed over. At the very least they would have had to give you a seat elsewhere. But no. What took you so long about leaving Labour?
If you do die then they will all come to your funeral and one of them might even say a few words on behalf of the parish council. You should leave written instructions about who should have to do it. We both know who.
Why do you want to be MP for these ungrateful, spiteful, bitter people? Why are you even considering killing yourself trying? Tell them to fuck off.
The problem is intellectuals can get elected to safe Westminster seats as party candidates but not as Independents. They even struggle to get party nominations these days. Too much of a threat to the people at the top whose parents could afford school fees or houses in expensive catchment areas. Little Lauren geting it would be because she can't read this blog never mind write it, not in spite of that sorry fact.
Please do not swear on my blog.
"guaranteed a seat somewhere, especially in the New Year once all new PPCs are imposed by the NEC;"
That's not true. Shortlists will be drawn up/imposed by the NEC, but the final vote between those shortlisted will be done by the full CLP membership as usual. Unless someone stands down at the very last minute and there's no time left to organize the vote (it hasn't happened since 1997)
I wish I lived in your world, I really do. Unfortunately, it is not the real one. CLPs choosing candidates? You can't be enjoying the Spandau Ballet reunion tour, since you can't be aware that they have ever been away.
When not on radio and TV denouncing the AWS the Labour leading lights round here are adamant that things had to be in motion by the end of this month or the CLP would be given absolutely no say.
"I wish I lived in your world, I really do. Unfortunately, it is not the real one"
Many thanks for your "polite" reply.
Really constructive. It's always nice to be told you are mad.
"adamant that things had to be in motion by the end of this month or the CLP would be given absolutely no say."
things in motion by the end of the year: CLP executive committee shortlist applicants; CLP membership select
starting from New Year: NEC in London shortlist; CLP membership select candidate among those chosen by London (if London want to parachute someone, they simply don't shortlist local candidates)
very last minute: central party decide candidate
"if London want to parachute someone, they simply don't shortlist local candidates"
Quite.
The immensely experienced local Labour great and good here are in no doubt: if they hadn't had things in motion by the end of this month, then someone would simply have been appointed. Those whom I list as guaranteed a seat are precisely that. They have it made. Just not here.
"Those whom I list as guaranteed a seat are precisely that. They have i made. Just not here."
I doubt about Lisa Homan. I think she's just a "filler".
But the rest, yes, it's not the last time we hear about them.
Who is the 23 year old girl? Is she known locally or within the CLP?
In a word, no. I was at that age, which I don't mean in a blowing-my-own-trumpet way, but merely to illustrate that it is perfectly possible to be. But she isn't.
And no one would have shortlisted me for a safe or winnable parliamentary seat back then, nor should they have done. In fact, the very people who have inexplicably shortlisted her would have put me firmly in my place if I had dropped any such hint.
It must be because they don't know her, so cannot have anything against her either absolutely or at least until she matures a bit. Yet she is from within the constituency. So who has written her references? I honestly cannot imagine.
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