Thursday, 20 September 2007

Already

On the matter of Bob Wareing MP, Clive Staples (it's been a while, Clive - welcome back) comments:

Since he has left Labour, and since yours is actually a movement rather than a party at this stage, he is already in it anyway, as its only MP.

And Lord Stoddart seems to be its only peer, already, regardless.

So the movement as such already has representation in both Houses of Parliament, even leaving aside the several MPs and many peers who really belong in it.

I'd never thought of it like that, but of course Clive is perfectly correct.

Furthermore, please note that all of 175 people had any say over who would be given Labour's majority of over fifteen thousand in Liverpool West Derby. There has been much disparaging comment about Wareing's age, but at 77 he would be no older than many of those 175, and quite a bit younger than some of them. Both in terms of numbers and in terms of age, such is now the pattern of all political parties throughout the country. So we need new ones. What are you waiting for?
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous20 September 2007 at 17:15

    "Furthermore, please note that all of 175 people had any say over who would be given Labour's majority of over fifteen thousand in Liverpool West Derby."

    This is nonsense. You can't "give" Labour's majority of over fifteen thousand to anyone, without the consent of well over fifteen thousand people (don't know what the total Labour vote was there in 2005). Stephen Twigg isn't the MP now, and he won't be unless and until many thousands of people choose to make him so. As it is, it's up to Labour Party members, and nobody else, who the next Labour Party candidate should be.

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  2. David Lindsay20 September 2007 at 17:22

    Well, the 175 people clearly think that they can, just as the tiny remnants in safe seats of all parties think that they can just appoint MPs like peers, on the increasingly rare occasions when even they are given any such opportunity by party machines that assume for themselves the right so to ennoble in all but name.

    Here's to proving them wrong in previously deep red, deep blue and deep yellow seats the length and breadth of the land.

    Mass abstention in most constituencies (though certainly not in Liverpool West Derby, of course) this autumn could have some VERY interesting results. By next spring, we should be able to stand more candidates of our own. By spring 2009, we should hang our heads in shame if we haven't found someone in each and every seat.

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  3. Anonymous20 September 2007 at 17:26

    No, the 175 people don't. They think they can select who they would like their MP to be, and who they would be happiest campaigning for at the next election. That doesn't mean that they are choosing the MP, unless the electorate agrees with their choice.

    Nobody gets to appoint MPs. It isn't the fault of constituency parties if the electorate consistently votes for the person they selected.

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  4. David Lindsay20 September 2007 at 17:30

    I bet that if you asked them, then they'd tell you something ever so slightly different...

    In fact, they have probably never even thought about the matter except in the terms that I set out. Same with the Tories in, say, Henley. And same with the Lib Dems in, say, Orkney and Shetland.

    Well, it is high time that these people WERE made to think differently.

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