The Real Disgrace

Rod Liddle writes:

I think it was the arrival into the debate of those Blairite ghosts Mandelson and Reid which helped me make my mind up. Somehow, Ed Miliband has been coerced into taking on the Unite union on the grounds that they are doing shady business on the matter of selecting candidates.

Mandelson and Reid are both demanding Miliband stand firm (an interesting thought) and stick it to Len McCluskey: Unite is trying to influence Labour’s agenda, they howl. Well god forbid that unions have any input into the Labour Party’s policies.

I don’t know what Len and the boys have been up to, but the real disgrace about candidate selection is the regularity with which bien pensant London-based party apparatchiks are foisted on constituencies with which they have no familiarity and even less affection.

At least, with Unite gerrymandering the process, they usually get a local candidate.