A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The plot thickens

I'm grateful to Peter Kenyon for explaining a bit more about how the Grassroots Alliance slate of left candidates for Labour's NEC is picked.

Seems I was a bit premature in my post below about assuming Peter was part of it, particularly as the rather snippy exchange in the comments on his post suggest he is not getting on particularly well with everyone in the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD).

So the new info in Peter's post is in summary:

  • He hasn't been selected by Save The Labour Party (STLP) yet. There's a ballot between him and Garry Heather (Islington North CLP Chair). Which is strange as I thought Garry had already run and lost in the ballot at the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) AGM.
  • Winning the ballot in STLP or LRC doesn't guarantee you get on the final Grassroots Alliance slate. Which begs the question how is this negotiated or agreed on and by whom?
  • The CLPD doesn't hold a membership ballot for its nominees.
  • Peter implies Compass Youth are part of the Grassroots Alliance but that Compass proper isn't.
  • He also implies "Progressives for London" are involved, which is strange as this is a broad alliance of people opposed to Boris and keen on getting Ken Livingstone back in as Mayor, and goes beyond Labour ranks to include Greens and others. I almost joined Progressives for London. If I had would that make me eligible for the Grassroots Alliance slate?
  • He alludes to a mysterious meeting between Neal Lawson of Compass and Ken Livingstone of Progressives for London, presumably about Ken running with Compass support, or Compass separately getting a place on the Grassroots Alliance slate ... or is there going to be a separate Compass slate that backs Ken and Ann Black but not the other Grassroots Alliance candidates.

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