It’s spring of an even year, and time therefore for an excess of self-promotion on social media. Why on earth, I hear you cry. Because in a few months time ballot papers will hit the doormats of two hundred thousand Labour members, for that most glamorous of glamorous elections: for members’ reps on Labour’s national executive committee (NEC).

These elections have, since they were reformed in the late 1990s, been fought out between two slates of candidates. On one side, the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance: a loose coalition of left groupings which has most recently included the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD), the Labour Democratic Network and the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). On the other, a slate of figures from the party’s right has been put forward by the shadowy Labour First grouping. In recent years this slate has been promoted jointly with the Blairite group Progress. This year the agreement appears to have disintegrated somewhat: Continue reading →