David Owen will now so style himself, supporting Labour in the House of Lords, and having already given it £7,500 in order to help save the NHS. One feels bound to say, in order to help save the NHS from Shirley Williams.
Presumably, then, he will be becoming a registered supporter, at three times more expensive than becoming the equivalent, a "Supporter/Friend" of the Conservative Party, which must be three times more desperate to acquire them.
Barely a year from now, and thus five years before the General Election after that, a Queen's Speech ought to contain a ban on any personal donation above three pounds, and on corporate donations outright. That would do the trick.
But even the changes that have just been approved, and which have brought Lord Owen more or less back into the fold, a status familiar to some of us, do not go far enough.
Any qualified person (an individual Labour Party member of two years' standing for a parliamentary candidacy, a Labour MP in good standing for the Leadership or Deputy Leadership) ought to be entitled to - and this "word" really is used - self-nominate for a parliamentary candidacy, or for the Leadership, or for the Deputy Leadership.
All such self-nominees, together with any qualified nominee of a Branch Labour Party or of an affiliated branch at constituency level, and together with any qualified nominee of a Constituency Labour Party or of an affiliated organisation at national level, ought therefore to go out to a ballot of all individual members, affiliated members and registered supporters in the constituency or in the country, as the case may be.
The two highest scorers in that ballot would then be submitted to a decisive ballot of all registered parliamentary electors in the constituency or in the country, as the case may be.
Registering as a supporter, with regular but fairly infrequent updates and with the right to vote in parliamentary selections and in Leadership and Deputy Leadership Elections, but with nothing more than that, ought to be free of charge, and conditional only upon neither being nor adhering to any non-Labour candidate for the House of Commons in Great Britain, including by being a member of any party that fielded such candidates.
That would bring in everyone from Independent Councillors, to those who contested European Elections under the No2EU banner, to all sorts of people in Northern Ireland. Also, with no charge, possibly even Crossbench Peers.
But even the changes that have just been approved, and which have brought Lord Owen more or less back into the fold, a status familiar to some of us, do not go far enough.
Any qualified person (an individual Labour Party member of two years' standing for a parliamentary candidacy, a Labour MP in good standing for the Leadership or Deputy Leadership) ought to be entitled to - and this "word" really is used - self-nominate for a parliamentary candidacy, or for the Leadership, or for the Deputy Leadership.
All such self-nominees, together with any qualified nominee of a Branch Labour Party or of an affiliated branch at constituency level, and together with any qualified nominee of a Constituency Labour Party or of an affiliated organisation at national level, ought therefore to go out to a ballot of all individual members, affiliated members and registered supporters in the constituency or in the country, as the case may be.
The two highest scorers in that ballot would then be submitted to a decisive ballot of all registered parliamentary electors in the constituency or in the country, as the case may be.
Registering as a supporter, with regular but fairly infrequent updates and with the right to vote in parliamentary selections and in Leadership and Deputy Leadership Elections, but with nothing more than that, ought to be free of charge, and conditional only upon neither being nor adhering to any non-Labour candidate for the House of Commons in Great Britain, including by being a member of any party that fielded such candidates.
That would bring in everyone from Independent Councillors, to those who contested European Elections under the No2EU banner, to all sorts of people in Northern Ireland. Also, with no charge, possibly even Crossbench Peers.
And why not have registered supporters elect representatives with the right to
speak, but not to vote, at Conference and at NEC meetings, very much
like Group Observers in local government?
In each region, each supporter would vote for one candidate, and the top two for the NEC, the top 10 for Conference, would be elected.
That would certainly go some way to balancing the extraordinary South-Eastern domination of this year's list of candidates for the NEC.
By the same means, perhaps every five or six years, the registered supporters in each region might also elect three, maybe four, or possibly even five of their number whom Labour would then nominate to sit as Peers, but not as Labour Peers, in a relationship similar to that which Lord Owen has now adopted, and which one might also hope to see Lord Stoddart adopt.
In each region, each supporter would vote for one candidate, and the top two for the NEC, the top 10 for Conference, would be elected.
That would certainly go some way to balancing the extraordinary South-Eastern domination of this year's list of candidates for the NEC.
By the same means, perhaps every five or six years, the registered supporters in each region might also elect three, maybe four, or possibly even five of their number whom Labour would then nominate to sit as Peers, but not as Labour Peers, in a relationship similar to that which Lord Owen has now adopted, and which one might also hope to see Lord Stoddart adopt.
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