At a recent meeting, which I am not at liberty to speak about, someone who shall remain nameless claimed to be an avid reader of this blog. I am not easily flattered or deceived. But avid readers will have noticed that I failed to report on the May NEC meeting. Apologies, I hope to remedy that omission, with an explanation later. But in the meantime, I was struck with the editorial in the latest issue of Tribune. I'm reluctant to take Tribune's editor to task. But would the Norwich North by-election have been in vain if the apparent unfairness of the deselection of Ian Gibson were addressed directly by the NEC? My CLGA colleague on the NEC Ann Black in her report of the July NEC meeting writes: "I still do not know why Ian Gibson was referred [to the NEC Endorsements Panel]". If that isn't grounds for an emergency NEC to decide whether there is a case for review of Ian Gibson's deselection and how to conduct it, I don't know what is. Ann is a member of the NEC Endorsement Panel!
A contrite NEC, righting wrongs it may have committed, would be an excellent starting point for a credible Labour Party relaunch in the run up to Party Conference.
There is however a practical problem. The NEC is currently not scheduled to meet again until 22 September.