Posted by Keith Wright

Edmonton members ask for all-women shortlist – why won’t Labour’s executive oblige?

Women and the cutsWhen all-women shortlists hit the mainstream media, it’s usually because certain party members are unhappy with their application. But in the ongoing centrally-controlled selection in Edmonton, sources tell us local members and elected constituency Labour party (CLP) officers have specifically requested an all-women shortlist. Now, surely this would be welcomed by Labour’s national executive committee (NEC)? Alas, they appear to have decided once again to ignore the will of local members, and men will be allowed on the shortlist too.

Affirmative measures to increase the representation of women have been fought ever since they were first mooted by grassroots party activists. Initially, the proposals of the Women’s Action Committee and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy were fiercely resisted by the party’s leadership and bureaucracy. More recently, some CLP activists have complained that all-women shortlists have been applied, or indeed ruled out, by Labour’s executive to favour certain candidates in the running: women or men. This latest news only reinforces that perception. Continue reading →

Aberavon: the MP’s staff and the financial incentive to select an establishment candidate

Progress-party-within-a-partyLast week, we revealed that the office of Hywel Francis, the retiring Labour MP for Aberavon, had been doing its best to get Progress loyalist Jeremy Miles selected for the constituency at the next election. Phone calls had been made to party branch officers, we’d been told, in which it was said that his main rival “lacked the academic abilities” to be a Member of Parliament.

You might have assumed that this was simply snobbery on the part of the Francis office. But that ain’t necessarily so. We have now heard from several reliable sources that a member of Francis’s constituency office staff contacted each of the frontrunners in the selection – Miles, Stephen Kinnock, and left-winger Mark Fisher. They were asked if they would retain current constituency staff in the event of them winning the selection, and subsequently being elected as Aberavon MP. Continue reading →

Aberavon selection: anyone but a working class candidate?

Hywel Francis (Credit: BBC)What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, we questioned whether Stephen Kinnock, who sent his daughter to a Danish private school, was a suitable potential Labour MP. Since then, we’ve heard that Kinnock now stands little chance of winning the Aberavon constituency selection. His all-star strategy has backfired. Paying to opt-out of state education hasn’t gone down well in a working-class constituency, and neither has flying over Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt – his wife – for a party dinner. As such, Kinnock has not won a single branch nomination – and thus won’t make it onto the shortlist. Instead, it seems party hacks have thrown their weight behind lawyer, Oxford graduate and former Progress NPF candidate Jeremy Miles as the man best-placed to beat the left-winger. Continue reading →

Stephen Kinnock: another private school champion set for parliament?

Pupils at EtonHe swanned over to Wales, and it seemed he meant business. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, his wife and the Danish Prime Minister, flew over for a county Labour party dinner in a grand and rather questionable move that some said would backfire. But apparently, the thing getting Labour members exercised in Aberavon is a story that we only saw ripples of three years ago. The story that Stephen Kinnock had opted for a private education for his daughter.

Yes, that’s right. If selected in Aberavon, Stephen Kinnock can join the dream team of Diane Abbott, Ruth Kelly, Lord Falconer and other rank hypocrites who have graced Labour’s parliamentary benches in recent years. Falconer, indeed, was allegedly told by senior Blair advisors that his bid for a Dudley parliamentary seat would be hindered if he would not pull his sons out of Westminster. It seems that Miliband’s office are less rigorous with advice to their parachutees. Continue reading →

Now universities openly campaign against left-wing students

Debt-in 1The big news of this morning – although it is a story that will largely go unreported – is the forced and violent eviction of the peaceful sit-in at the University of Birmingham. Early this morning, around 25 bailiffs, 25 private security guards and ten police officers, accompanied by a London-based solicitor and university officials, arrived at the occupation and dragged out students who refused to budge.

The students had defiantly voted to remain in occupation – despite a court injunction threatening them with arrest if they did not leave the premises. The university singled out two students in their legal proceedings, an increasing trend in the backlash against student activism in the past few years. But what is perhaps more remarkable is that now, universities are increasingly engaged in open political campaigning against left-wing students. Continue reading →