Monday, September 10, 2007

Liverpool West Derby selection - Labour Party candidate for next general election

For those who like to know these things, the short list for the Liverpool West Derby selection for Labour candidate in the next general election is as follows (in alphabetical order)

Martin Cummins (former Liverpool Councillor and member in Norris Green)
Roz Gladden (Liverpool councillor for and resident of Clubmoor which used to be in West Derby) Cherie Hill (former Ellesmere Port and Neston Councillor and ethnic minority candidate)
Floyd Millen (already shortlisted in Putney and Bristol West and ethnic minority candidate)
Stephen Twigg (former Enfield Southgate MP who famously beat Michael Portillo in 1997)
Bob Wareing (sitting Liverpool West Derby MP)

The clear favourites are Roz and Stephen who secured the most nominations between them.

The voting will be carried out on Sunday 16th, on a single transferable vote basis which means that Labour Party members within Liverpool West Derby will be asked to vote for their first choice, their second, their third and so on, up to six.

If a candidate secures 50% plus of the vote on the first round then s/he will be elected. If no candidate secures 50% then the bottom candidate drops out (or more, if their combined vote is less than the fourth placed candidate) and the second preference on those ballot papers will receive their votes instead. This procedure carries on, with candidates dropping out in each round and the next preference on their ballot paper receiving their votes.

This should mean that the candidate who is finally selected secures the majority of votes of the the majority of members.

It does remind me of a scene from Auf Viedersehen Pet, where the lads vote for their preferred colour for the inside of their residential hut on their building site in Germany. Barry announces after much deliberation that using the STV method they have voted for pink paint. When challenged by Oz to explain why it is to be pink when nobody has voted for it, Barry says that is democracy, that it is the least worst option.

I hope West Derby picks the most best option........

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this reselection process is incredibly unfair on Bob Wareing, and an insult to the voters who elected him for decades - with an increased majority last time, by the way, unlike those local MPs who voted for the illegal neo-con war of agression.

Clearly the Labour party have learned little from Blaenau Gwent.

If Bob loses he should stand as an independent.

Whenever I have called his office at the Commons he has answered the phone himself, and followed up issues with letters to ministers.

Louise Baldock said...

JB

It is the Labour Party policy. It is not unfair, 99% of Labour MPs are endorsed by their members automatically. This is incredibly rare, I can only recall about another twice it has happened in 10 years.

It shows how extraordinary the situation is. Bob does not have the support of the members of his Labour Party in West Derby, it is them who have decided to have a full reselection and them who have shortlisted and them who will vote for their preference.

That's democracy.

He can stand as an independent if he likes, that is his choice. But to stand under our party banner requires a commitment to our party, obvious though that sounds. He does not have that commitment.

Nobody is a party candidate by right, they have to earn the trust of the local party in order to stand.

He does not have it and did not have it back in 2001 either, he only scraped through with 30% of the vote that time, but it did not teach him a lesson.

He has also had a good innings, now it is going to be the turn of someone else to represent Liverpool West Derby.

Anonymous said...

as one of the local members who have made a choice that its certainly time for a change.
I endorse Louise's comments

Anonymous said...

"This is incredibly rare, I can only recall about another twice it has happened in 10 years. "

I think since 1997 a trigger ballot loss happened 6 times:
- Wareing before 2001 GE
- Jane Griffiths in Reading East before 2005 GE (and she lost the open selection)
- Helen Clark in Peterborough before 2005 GE (she won the open selection, but she lost the seat to the Tories)
- Tom Cox in Tooting before 2005 GE (he was 70+ years old...after losing the trigger, he decided to stand aside and not contest the open selection)
- Bob Wareing again this year
- Frank Cook in Stockton North this year

Louise Baldock said...

Thanks Andrea, that is helpful. I didnt know my old colleague Frank Cook was up against it.

What is the story there?

I was really talking about being deselected altogether, although admittedly I am making assumptions about the result.

I was thinking about Jane Griffiths and a Hull MP, Stuart someone.

Anonymous said...

"I didnt know my old colleague Frank Cook was up against it.
What is the story there?"

I was told that he lost the trigger ballot by a Lab activist based on North East. Then I saw it mentioned on the Daily Mail too...however after reading his official biography here (
http://www.frankcookmp.com/biography2.shtml ), I'm not surprised that he lost it. His relationship with his CLP seems very tense, especially after his previous reselection and "gardengate"...the regional secretary of Amicus (his union) asked him to stand down before 2005 but he refused. Because of the breakdown of the relationship between him and the CLP they weren't even able to leaflet the whole constituency in the run up of 2005 GE.....

"I was thinking about Jane Griffiths and a Hull MP, Stuart someone. "

Stuard Randall from Hull West? I didn't know he was deselected...I was too young at the time to be interested in politics!
IIRC there was an MP deselected in Bolton South East too in mid 90's too

Peter Reilly said...

I hope the selection committee bear in mind the following:

The John Dugard Report to the UN Human Rights Council, concluded that:
“ Israel is in violation of important norms of human rights and international humanitarian law…The root cause of the security threat (to Israel) is the continued occupation of a people that wishes to exercise its right of self-determination in an independent State…The need to bring this situation to an end is recognized by the international community…Unfortunately this goal seems to have been lost to view as the Quartet turns to punitive measures designed to compel Hamus to change its ideological stance, or to bring regime change…In any event diplomacy has given way to coercion.”

That coercion is by the very powerful pro- Israeli lobby, in the USA and UK. The Labour Friends of Israel plays an influential role in that lobby.

LFI has used its influence to intimidate British media into adopting an openly pro-Israel position.

Stephen Twigg, as a prominent member of Labour Friends of Israel, is committed to lobbying for the interest of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people.

Stephen Twigg voted very strongly in favour of war in Iraq and very strongly against investigating the Iraqi war.

Tony Blair pleaded to Bush that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies at the core of any hopes for wider peace in the Middle East, including Iraq.

Will favouring of Israeli at the expense of the Palestinians bring a just and lasting peace in the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict?

Louise Baldock said...

Stuart Randall, for that was his name indeed, was called to a full selection and resigned, as far as I can remember. I was working in Yorkshire and the Humber LP at the time which is why I recall it. It created a big stir. He went to the Lords according to Wikipedia. So he goes in your second category Andrea.
Not actually deselected but "pushed out" shall we say.

Anonymous said...

"Stuart Randall, for that was his name indeed, was called to a full selection and resigned, as far as I can remember. I was working in Yorkshire and the Humber LP at the time which is why I recall it. It created a big stir"

Thanks for the explantion.