Peter Kenyon

An easy, easy guide to give members a say: PPC selections

The Labour Party NEC has decided a fast-track procedure to get candidates in place asap whilst at the say time giving members priority in the selection process for as long as possible even after a General Election is called. I have already drawn attention to interminable delays in some quarters.

However, this is in sharp and welcome contast to the procedure being deployed now by the Conservative Party, which show it's in a right pickle.That is at least according to this account by leading Tory blogger, Iain Dale here.

Buried in his Friday Snippets, Iain a shameless Tory PPC wannabee reveals:

All other seats are now being selected by the new system in which Eric Pickles nominates a shortlist of at least three.

But back to the democratic socialist party's selection process. Typically, the 'powers that be' have chosen a command and control approach. Applications have to be sent to a central email address. No facility has been provided to enable local party officials to be copied in. That's a pity.

The easy easy guide is this:

1. All members in CLP put on red alert by MP stepping down in grovelling letter for inconvenience caused by late resignation by email and post (there is not a single MP in the House of Commons who could conceivably claim poverty whatever the cost of a 1st class stamp.)

2. All interested applicants to submit CV to Head Office AND a CLP Procedures Secretary

3. Scorecard agreed between CLP and Head Office to be used locally to sift from many to long-list.

4. All members to be offered preference ballot of long listed candidates to 'guide' the Special Selections Panel regarding short-listing.

5. Special Selections Panel to invited CLP representative(s) to observe shortlisting

6. Agree a (record) of the shortlising process between SSP members and the CLP observer(s) for publication.

Reality check: Deadline for Leyton and Wanstead applications 8 February. Interviews for shortlisting 11 February. Applications before deadline announced 60+. Missing procedure: sifting from many to manageable long-list. Watch this space. Why 8 Feb? Why not 5 Feb so local activists could long-list next weekend? Not rocket science, unless you are a control-freak.

The above procedure would ensure an open and transparent method of remaining Labour PPC selections. (Very different from the Pickles approach adopted by the Tories.) Of course, it would reduce the temptation of the 'Labour Party powers that be' to rig the short-list for their preferred candidate. It is so easy, short-list one serious candidate, two plausible make-weights and one that never turns up. Bah, boom!

Of course, the Labour Party NEC disgraced itself last week by failing to rule that any one on the SSP would be disbarred from seeking a seat. It compounded its error by refusing to agree to CLP observer(s) at the shortlisting stage. Not very smart for a party seeking to rebuild trust with the electorate and get re-elected. 'Twas ever thus in TIGMOO.

Balls drops leadership hopes: calls strategy 'classic New Labour'

Alex Smith, editor of Labourlist has a revealing interview with Labour Schools minister, Ed Balls. Tackled about apparent differences between himself and m'Lord Mandelson, Balls said:

"...our strategy of supporting middle and lower-income families is quintessential, classic New Labour."

There is a lot with which I agree in Balls' responses, but this repeated use of a damaged brand must be challenged by those charged with formulating the Labour Party's election strategy. The sooner it is erased from Labour's lexicon the better. Academic blogger Darren Lilleker thinks the expression had served its purpose even before the 1997 election. I agree. Haven't knowingly used it myself except in a pejorative sense for over 10 years.

Having listen to TU colleagues contributions to the policy debates at the NEC on Tuesday, I can only presume Balls has abandoned his leadership ambitions.

Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow: selecting Labour PPCs

What is going on? There are a number of Labour Party prospective parliamentary selections that seems to have been going on and on and on and....you get the idea...for a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long time. John Reid MP for Airdrie and Shotts announced his intention to stand down at the next election shortly after former Labour Leader Tony Blair got the heave-ho in 2007. The absence of a fresh candidate to seek to represent these good people north of the border was meant to have been addressed by the Labour Party's fast-track selection procedure agreed on 19 November 2009. But no. There is still a vacancy. The lapse time north of the border eclipses that in Leyton and Wanstead by some 22 months. Nevertheless Harry Cohen MP announced his intention not to seek re-election at the end of June last year. Heroic efforts by the local party to get the selection process started were mysteriously delayed by alleged irregularities cited by the Regional Office during selections for the local council elections - supervised by the err...Regional Office. According to Labour Party insiders ((as a member of the Party's National Executive Committee I (very modestly) have no illusions - I'm not one of them)) an envoy from No 10 had a meeting with a senior Head Office official with a clear message - fix it for 'you know who'. Exploratory meetings between 'you know who' and local party contacts took place. Since then nothing has been seen of 'you know who' except in the columns of scurrilous newspapers and disreputable blogs like this. 

There was a sudden flurry of activity at HO in November with the NEC presented with a paper for a fast-track procedure. After amendment protecting members rights to decide whom their PPC would be, well at least so some of us naives thought, one would have thought that decisions would be raced through.

But no. What continues to titillate is why has the timetable for the Leyton and Wanstead selection still not been announced? It was not until the NEC Special Selections Panel met on 21 January to decide that L&W should be an Open selection ie. MEN can apply as well as WOMEN. While timetables were posted on 25 January for selections in two of the four seats determined as Open or All Women Shortlists..the good members of Leyton and Wanstead, not to mention the wannabee MPs are still waiting. Will ''you know who' be one of them, or has s/he taken soundings and decided not to risk embarrassment so close to home?

Labour Party NEC: Mandelson mystery lecture

As you might expect yesterday's Labour Party National Executive Committee was focussed on the forthcoming General Election, whenever that might be before 3 June. In the absence of the Prime Minister and Labour Leader Gordon Brown in Northern Ireland the Agenda was rearranged. Deputy Leader Harriet Harman and Election Manifesto coordinator Ed Miliband were both scheduled to report, listen to debate and answer NEC members' questions. But nothing by way of either advance notice or explanation helped clarify a mystery 30-minute lecture by m'Lord Mandelson on Labour's electoral prospects - all of which IMHO had been rather better covered by Harriet and Ed. The most telling question came from a colleague who must remain nameless about whether there were ideological lessons to be learned by Labour from the banking crisis, credit crunch and subsequent recession. In the light of the obfuscation that followed from m'Lord, the famous rebuke offered by former Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee to former party chair, Harold Laski came to mind. Attlee is reported to have written:

"I can assure you there is widespread resentment in the Party at your activities and a period of silence on your part would be welcome."

I can't help thinking that m'Lord's latest idea reported earlier today that former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair will join the election campaign, had it been put to a vote in the NEC might have revealed a less than enthusiastic response. And after Friday, and Blair's scheduled appearance infront of the Chilcott Inquiry, phew!

Stream of Labour MPs stepping down - a blessing?

Leading Tory blogger Iain Dale is tracking Labour MPs stepping down at the next election, particularly those in marginal seats. He concludes:

They all expect Labour to lose.

For those of us who believe there is everything to play for, it is a blessing. Which Labour Party activist would want to go out and campaign for a defeatist?

Making the public think: Labour Party NEC must require declarations of interest

In the struggle to catch the public's attention, the Labour Party National Executive Committee could do worse than adopt a simple good governance practice at the start of all its meeting from now on. It should maintain a register of members' interests and require declarations of pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests at its meetings relating to the agenda.

Sometimes it is necessary to be even more demanding of members representing the different sections of the Labour Party

Next Tuesday's bi-monthly meeting of its National Executive Committee will have the first set of minutes from the newly-established Special Selections Panel (SSP) on the agenda. Candidate selection is an important right of party membership, and that was set out explicitly in the NEC November resolution concerning the final prospective parliamentary candidate selections. Any suggestion of impropriety aroses passion, as was evident in the Erith and Thamesmead selection last year.

I have already suggested to NEC chair Ann Black that any member of the SSP who has either expressed an interest in a parliamentary seat or is even thinking about it should resign from the SSP immediately. That would be for the avoidance of any doubt about why a particular seat has been designated an 'open' selection or an all-woman' selection, or why a particular individual had voted in a particular way when short-listing starts in earnest using the 'fast-track procedure'.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, at receiving an eMail at the end of last week from a journalist pal suggesting that a certain well-know member of the NEC, who sits on the SSP, was expected to declare his interest in Leyton and Wanstead early this week. Last week the SSP declared an open selection for L&W. I hope that's just a misunderstanding. If we want to restore public trust in our Party, we have got to clean up our own act first.

Labour Party NEC - pre-meeting warm-up: Barking and Dagenham

There were lots of volunteers today in Barking and Dagenham to deliver leaflets for 'Hope not Hate'. Labour Party activists were out in force too, delivering direct mail for Jon Cruddas MP in the Dagenham constituency. I know. I was out with them all day.

Next Tuesday, I hope to be able to persuade my colleagues on the Labour Party National Executive Committee to compare the capacity of the 'Party on the Ground' in Stoke-on-Trent with that of B&D. There is a history of interventions by the Party heirarchy in both locations, protracted in S-o-T. It has got to stop. People don't join the Labour Party to be told what to think by hired hands, whether they are in the employment of the Labour Party itself, or one of its affiliated organisations.

There has to be discipline, yes. But, in any event, that does not extend to threatening disciplinary action against members who mobilised public opinion to oppose policies imposed by former Labour leader Tony Blair. I am assured by colleagues on the Org Sub that there is no-one on that body (that is 'managing' S-o-T) that supports the 'elected mayoral' model for local government. That's very encouraging. So why are Labour Party stalwarts that organised the successful community-based referendum campaign to get rid of the elected mayor in Stoke in 2008 (Democracy4Stoke) being hounded by the Labour Party NEC today in 2010? 

There is a time and a place for everything. It is said. Now is not the time for shooting ourselves in the foot. Listening to BNP newspaper deliverers in Blake Avenue, Barking was a stark reminder of how much prominence Labour must give to home building and job creation in its next Manifesto. As important is the task of rebuilding the Labour Party on the ground. That challenge was not helped last week by a regional Labour Party officer wrongly instructing CLPs not to hold AGMs this side of the election. If there is a suspicion that 'outsiders' are rigging outcomes in the Labour Party, why would anyone want to join, if only to campaign? 

That's the real nature of the challenge facing Labour in the General Election, not David Cameron.

Labour Party PPC selections in the spotlight

They are off. The race to select prospective parliamentary candidates in Erewash, North Tyneside will be from All Women short-lists. That in Leyton & Wanstead and Wansbeck will be Open. While Pontypridd has been delayed.

I have asked whether all members in each CLP will be informed of the timetable and asked for their views on possible candidates.

A well organized CLP will have more email addresses than the Labour Party central database. And in urban areas well organized branches will have member delivery rounds for hand delivery of letters/notices. Well that's what some of us are used to.

Any CLP with a vacancy will have its members on 'Red Alert' sifting through CVs of potential candidates. Oh, and observers at the Special Selection Panel meetings would be a good idea. Just to make sure everything is open and transparent. I wonder if anyone has thought of that? I must ask at next week's NEC.

...Mortgage lending up...Crime down...can this go on?

The Council of Mortage lenders published December 2009 data shortly after the Office of National Statistics released the Public Borrowing figure (lower than expected) prompting me to ask 'what next?'

Then up pop the Home Office crime stats for England and Wales. You can read its press release here. According to the BBC report:

Ministers say the British Crime Survey's separate study reveals that the risk of being a victim of crime has reached its lowest recorded level.

My emphasis. That's something else to be cheerful about.

A job for Labour Party activists is to get that message across on the dorstep in those marginal seats, and council wards facing elections in May/June, along with lots of others to boost Labour's vote.

Yesterday employment, today public borrowing, what next?

Labour Party activists were given a fillip yesterday with the publication of labour market statistics. Today Sky News has just tweeted:

British Government borrowed £15.7bn last month - less than expected.

You can read the full report from the Office of National Statistics here.

Another reason to feel a tad more cheerful. What next?