Wednesday 20 May 2015

Aspiration

Whatever else the recent General Election result expressed, it was certainly not aspiration. Not unless there are people who aspire to different ancestors? Good luck to them, if so.

Rather, enough people to deliver a victory voted for a party that ran very explicitly on its members' inalienable, hereditary right to rule. Effectively, those voters confirmed that right at the ballot box. That is where this country now is.

Andy Burnham and Tom Watson, who are easily and thankfully on course to become the Leader and the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, need to declare that for every seat that that party did not currently hold, its candidate would live in the constituency, would have done so throughout the previous 10 years, would never have attended a university, would be employed in the private sector, and would live in rented accommodation.

He or she would not necessarily have to be a Labour Party member until having been selected, but would of course be required to join at that point.

At least ideally, the shortlist of two would be submitted to a binding, independently administered ballot of all of the constituency's registered parliamentary electors.

With absolutely no exceptions, these arrangements would remain in place for three electoral cycles. Everything else, such as all-women shortlists, would be abolished forthwith.

A simple announcement of all of this would make ratification by Labour's committee system a formality. That always worked for Tony Blair.

3 comments:

  1. Magnificent, absolutely spot on.

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  2. A brave thing for you to have written, writing yourself out of hundreds of potential seats. But you are right.

    Labour doesn't need a Leader like you. Labour needs you as the Leader.

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  3. Enough people to deliver a victory voted for a party that ran very explicitly on its members' inalienable, hereditary right to rule? I didn't know the Armstrongs or the Flemings were on the ballot paper.

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