Friday 5 May 2017

Laura Pidcock Needs To Stand Aside

I may not have won a County Council seat that I have never held, but Laura Pidcock has just lost a County Council seat to the Conservatives. Since she was at the Durham count throughout the afternoon, an extremely productive afternoon from the point of view of my General Election campaign (everyone was there, all right), she presumably thought that her own seat was so safe that the Northumberland count was not worth attending. Ho, hum. She lost that seat. To a Tory.
 
Her Nomination Papers are unlikely to be signed by anyone other than allowance-laden Labour Councillors (such as there still are in Durham, where three Cabinet members were among those who lost their seats today) and persons who, like her, are and have only ever been employed by the Labour Party and its associated bodies. That must pay well, since she apparently has residences both in Northumberland and, bought since the General Election was called, in County Durham.
 
Unless she wants the Liberal Democrats to win North West Durham, then she will stand down in my favour. I am calling on her to do so. She has no ties to this area. Her selection as a candidate here had no local involvement whatever; indeed, she spent much of today being introduced to local Labour stalwarts who had never met her. I have been an anti-austerity and anti-war activist since well before she could vote. Her anti-racism extends only to trying to prevent a mixed-race candidate from being elected, in the grand old tradition of Hilary Armstrong and Neil Fleming.
 
It amuses me no end that she has probably never heard of Neil Fleming, and that she has almost certainly never had the displeasure of a conversation with him. Last night, I briefly caught sight of the forlorn figure of Brynnen Ririe, fated never quite to become Mrs Fleming. Another all-women shortlist here, but still no one seems to have thought to add her name to it. So far as one can tell, the only name on it was that of the far younger and locally unknown Far Leftist, and now the defeated former Northumberland County Councillor, Laura Pidcock.
 
Whether to the council seat that she could not retain, or to the parliamentary seat that she expects to inherit, Ms Pidcock's sense of her own entitlement recalls Hilary Armstrong and Hillary Clinton. Her candidacy would be an insult to the voters here, and a gift to the Lib Dems, or even to the Conservatives, who have of course beaten her once already. She needs to put aside the arrogance of her extreme youth, and confront reality. She would be welcome on my staff, which would be more appropriate for a person of her age, and which I intend to fill from across the political spectrum. But she has just lost her council seat to a Tory. She is the unelectable Left. She needs to stand aside.

24 comments:

  1. why would she stand aside for someone who has no chance of winning - anything apart from possibly a worst dressed donkey competition

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    1. Oh, it really does smart, so to speak, that I am so much better dressed than the football team social, in weirdly matching and clearly uncomfortable excuses for suits and ties, that was the hollering male section of the Labour Party at the count today. It really does smart. Doesn't it? Doesn't it just?

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    2. That was cruel, and inaccurate. You have to be the 2nd best dressed man about the village (after me, of course).

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  2. How many votes did you get, David?

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    1. More than I expected. 203, which wasn't last. But mostly, the count was its usual useful networking self, only even more so this time. Well worth the day out.

      It's the Parish count tomorrow morning. I really would be disappointed if I didn't get back on that. But I'd live.

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  3. you wont stand
    if she stood aside there would be no one.
    if she did what you suggest there would only be a tory standing

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    1. If it's not me, then it'll be the great man, Councillor Owen Temple. The only thing wrong with him is that he's a Lib Dem. But there is that.

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  4. but you support labour - look at all of jeremy's policies you support - ii bet you wear a nice velour trackie at home

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  5. all your twitter posts support jeremy - embrace the movement - youd look dapper in a lypsie

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    1. I'd look dapper in anything. It's a gift. So I can be as picky as I like. And I am.

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  6. 203 - well why wouldnt laura stand aside - given how many more she got than you

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    1. She lost her seat. There is no getting out of that one. I have never had a seat to lose.

      203 in Lanchester is of course 203 more in this constituency than she has ever won.

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  7. Bet your 203 voters wont cough up the £2 each needed for your deposit.
    you wont stand you wont
    you just wont
    no backbone just a typing waffler

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  8. They should put you and Pidcock head to head on Radio 4, it would be a scream, an absolute hoot.

    "Her anti-racism extends only to trying to prevent a mixed-race candidate from being elected" is a very good line, even for you. Her boyfriend was not at the count today. I can't imagine what she doesn't want people to know about him.

    "The football team social, in weirdly matching and clearly uncomfortable excuses for suits and ties, that was the hollering male section of the Labour Party at the count today" sums them up perfectly. They'll be off indulging their unrefined taste in alcohol at this very moment.

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  9. we are and the taste of victory is lager

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    1. Which speaks for itself, I think.

      You'll never keep a majority that small. Just look at the characters, to put it euphemistically. No Overall Control within 18 months, and possibly a year.

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  10. you dont want the votes of the voters who drink the majority drink then

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    1. Oh, I drink lager, but it has to be the good stuff. My attitude to all of them, in fact.

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  11. David, do you really think you stand any chance of getting as MP?

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    1. Yes. I have struck a lot of chords with this, and touched some very raw nerves.

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