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I'll mention Sheffield Hallam in 2017 again. The party has a duty at a national level to be involved in the long/shortlisting of local candidates. The sky "article" is mostly hyperbole about what might/could happen on the run up the last election, rather than what did. The national party system will have stopped some interesting and potentially worthy candidates from standing, for sure (I know some of them)... whether you see the filtering process that allows that to happen as necessary or a conspiracy will depend almost entirely on your feelings towards those that lead the party.
Anyway I’m sticking to my claim that the Green Party does not currently attract self-serving careerists
Wouldn’t make for much of a career really, would it?
and instead people who overwhelmingly have strong convictions and commitments.
Your inference being that other parties don’t attract those people? Which is, quite frankly, utter cobblers
You know what Ernesto? I actually feel a bit sorry for you and the rest of the little cabal of Marvin-the-Paranoid-Android style lefty doom-mongers we have on here. It can’t be much fun going through life in a constant cloud of endless gloomy, cynical miserablism?
Do you need a hug? 😀
Whilst we're being positive, here's an update from R Savage MP on her Private Members Bill (always gets a fner from me, but then I like mature debate). Anyway these PMBs rarely get parliamentary time unless they're stuff the government wants to do, given simple pressure of getting govt business through. But they do give MPs leeway to leverage which is what this one appears to be doing and Savage appears happy. Eee dear, a pragmatic lib dem
Sorry - here's the update https://www.southcotswoldlibdems.org.uk/rozsavage/an-update-on-the-climate-and-nature-bill
Your inference being that other parties don’t attract those people?
Yes that is exactly what I am saying here :
ignore the widely believed claim that “all politicians are in it for themselves” at your peril. It might not be 100% true but to deny there is even a problem is likely to have significant electoral consequences in 2029.
Stop your disingenuous nonsense. And btw I always find your patronising schoolyard insults reassuring, as I do your need to post pictures, it is a reminder that you don't do grown-up discussions because frankly you can't. 🙂
The idea that the people objecting to a very very poor Labour 'in name only' -government that has sucked up every bit of goodwill and made a mess of everything they touch - is being a doom monger...
Wonder what the growth sucking free-loading hopeless front bench have got in store next?
Probably something BlackRock or some deregulation - you know the kind of stuff centrists screamed about for years at the Tory party.
That sort of thing.
Wonder what the growth sucking free-loading hopeless front bench have got in store next?
Stop being so pessimistic rone everything is just fine, the UK economy is starting to turn round. I know that for fact because Keir Starmer said so today :
"We’re going to strip away regulation, strip away the inhibition of planning, use AI to take us forward"
Only lefty doom-mongers such as the Confederation of British Industry can't see that :
"This pessimism was widespread across the private sector."
Typical lefties eh? I think they are part of the "anti-growth coalition" which Liz Truss in her wisdom warned us about.
made a mess of everything they touch
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/01/24/what-the-government-has-been-doing/
Support for families with babies in neonatal care.
Support to reduce the homelessness crisis
Support for schemes to reduce women in custody
Increasing legal aid fees for immigration and housing cases
Legislation against synthetic opioids
Education freedom of speech
Protections for renters and leaseholders.......
and several others.
dismissed as
A list of stuff the majority of people couldn’t care less about.
and
sounds pretty good to me on the surface… but that doesn’t get headlines and clicks
Away from the headlines I still see competence in abundance. But you don't want to hear about that, so I'll leave that for you to pull apart.
Away from the headlines I still see competence in abundance.
The UK Prime Minister writes his own headlines, as he did today :
Keir Starmer Says UK Economy Is Starting to Turn Around
And yet this is the situation today :
When researchers from Find Out Now asked 2,380 British adults how they would vote if a general election was called tomorrow, the far-right group lead by Clacton MP Nigel Farage was narrowly ahead on 26%.
The populists were followed by the Conservatives, who were on 23%.
Labour, who have had a very tumultous first six months in government, lagged behind both on 22%
If there are so many reasons to be cheerful with the current Labour government, and yet almost half of all voters who would now vote Tory or Reform and less than a quarter who would vote Labour, then rather than an abundance of competence this must surely represent catastrophic failure....... how the hell are Labour going to win the next general election if they can't make voters understand how lucky they are??
Is it time for Keir Starmer to sack Morgan McSweeney and get someone else on the case? I am of course assuming that none of this is Keir Starmer's fault.
We selected our local candidate by the members of the local party having a meeting to listen to their pitches, then voting for which of the candidates we felt should represent the constituency. They were all people who were known as they had worked in such glamorous roles as local councillors etc
It's great to hear how one of Labour's 631 candidates was selected.
That’s the selection process. Some don’t get through to the voting stage, but those that do have to face local members and set out their stall. Members get to vote after they’ve heard all the shortlisted candidates. The same happened in my seat. I was there. Where have you heard that the process was different? Where there is sitting Labour MP it can happen differently, but this was the process for hundreds of contested seats up and down the UK.
I thought I'd heard the doom and gloom zinger before.
Boris Johnson declares war on 'gloomsters and doomsters' - 'Will prove them wrong again!'
Also - Let's deregulate to boost growth! Trump all over that one Starmer.
That’s the selection process
Except where it isn't, as you subsequently admitted. Plenty of examples here, for various reasons, where candidates were imposed by the NEC.
Poll finds that people fed a stream of negative stories conclude that things are negative.
How do you think things would differ if the papers ran 4 weeks of positive headlines like those above and then repolled?
Here's another
https://www.independent.co.uk/business/uk-business-investing-companies-rachel-reeves-b2683338.html
All that lovely inward flow creating jobs and growth. Fantastic news.
Reform will probably get a few extra points from this https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05l9y56773o
ONS forecast on net migration pushing the population up over the next few years
It’s great to hear how one of Labour’s 631 candidates was selected.
The same as every other constituency. That's just the way it works, because that’s the way it works. If you go for facts. Them’s the rules, because there are rules. In every constituency. They don’t just make it up as they go along. It’s a democratic organisation.
But I suppose that instead you could just believe some speculative, sensationalist, made-up bullshit instead, delivered by a ‘news’ source you wouldn’t believe on any other subject, but that just suits your present narrative?
Funny how a couple of us are here saying we were involved in the process, witnessed how it works and then there’s the tinfoil helmet, conspiracy-theory brigade who haven’t actually been involved or witnessed anything but are asserting their views as facts
Who needs facts, eh? get that tinfoil helmet on and carry on….
But I suppose that instead you could just believe some speculative, sensationalist, made-up bullshit instead, delivered by a ‘news’ source you wouldn’t believe on any other subject, but that just suits your present narrative?
Yes that ^^ is exactly what it is, no candidate is ever imposed by the NEC on a local party.
If you say it often enough it becomes true.
delivered by a ‘news’ source
I love that, it has the Donald Trump "fake news" tactic written all over it. You can learn a thing or two from Donald Trump eh binners? 🙂
If you want to be a candidate to become a Labour MP then the only way you can do that is for the members of the local constituency party to vote for you to be so.
Thats just a fact
You can rail against that fact all you like, because you don’t like the outcome, but it won’t change the fact that it is a fact
You mean that they have the right to vote for every Starmer approved candidate?
It is a shame that so many Labour Party members don't have the same faith as you do that the selection process doesn't favour self-serving careerists and leadership sycophants
Labour accused of 'control-freakery' over candidate selections
Members say longlists made by NEC in case of snap election are skewed and undemocratic
Claims 'London clique' selecting Labour general election candidates
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64595772
Nine members of Labour's 13 strong Bolton North East executive say they "lack confidence in the integrity" of the party's selection process.
Starmer’s Disdain for Democracy Is Dangerous
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/06/starmers-disdain-for-democracy2-is-dangerous
This week, six members of Labour’s ruling NEC parachuted themselves into safe seats after conducting a purge of left-wing candidates.
Row as Labour imposes general election candidate with no Welsh connection
https://nation.cymru/news/row-as-labour-imposes-general-election-candidate-with-no-welsh-connection/
A row has erupted after the chief executive of a London-based think tank was made the general election candidate for a safe Labour seat in Wales.
All ^^ fake news no doubt ?
The same as every other constituency.
Do give it up ffs. You know perfectly well that in some cases, candidates have been imposed.
If you go for facts.
If you ignore the inconvenient ones.
We had a local popular Labour candidate black listed for being a bit left wing and some random toady parachuted in.
With the unsurprising result that the tories held on by a narrow margin.
Which seat was that?
We had a local popular Labour candidate black listed for being a bit left wing and some random toady parachuted in.
That can't be true, because the Internet nobody above says so, and he might even recycle more pictures if you don't fall into line.
Can’t really be debated without knowing who was “blacklisted”, and why, and who ended up the candidate to be the MP, and when, and how.
There absolutely were people kept of shortlists, including very good people. The review process was toughened up, and needed to be. Good people fell foul of that for sure. And there were a handful of seats where last minute replacements were not voted on… but that was out of hundreds. The vast majority of seats either had a sitting MP being reselected, or local members voted.
And there were a handful seats where last minute replacements were not voted on
Well this is terribly confusing, because our resident meme bore said:
If you want to be a candidate to become a Labour MP then the only way you can do that is for the members of the local constituency party to vote for you to be so.
Thats just a fact
That’s the case is NEARLY EVERY SEAT. The pedantry is pointless. As is this thread, again.
That’s the case is NEARLY EVERY SEAT. The pendatry is pointless. As is this thread, again.
How many cases are acceptable, btw?
The alternative is seats not having a Labour candidate on the ballot paper because time ran out. Which still happened in a few seats.
The alternative is seats not having a Labour candidate on the ballet paper because time ran out.
We're talking about the NEC choosing preferred shortlists, imposing candidates with no connection to the area, and completely coincidentally NEC members being chosen to stand. Binners is busy pretending it didn't happen, and you seem to be perfectly content with these grubby backroom deals.
The NEC are elected by party members, making them a good source of candidates where a quick selection is needed before the deadline. I don’t see it as a coincidence at all.
I’ll mention Hallum 2017 again… and the lessons learned. While it would be lovely and cosy to not have rigorous procedures,… when people vote for a possible MP wearing a party rosette, they expect that the party has done its job in vetting that candidate… not just to be suitable to be an MP, but to represent that party as well as their constituents.
Meanwhile
And we're getting close to the SR when we'll see what the true plans and outlook are (reminder on that in link, I'm still very positive at the grown-up approach even if we might not get all we've personally asked for)
Lots to be positive about, and I'm not reading a lot into polls driven by a media obsession with finding fault rather than balance.
Anyway I’m sticking to my claim that the Green Party does not currently attract self-serving careerists, and instead people who overwhelmingly have strong convictions and commitments.
Once the greens get in power as they have in Scotland that changes. Still i guess conviction based but totally lost sight of their core principles chasing gender issues instead. Regardless of how you see the scors GRA its clear the party was used as a vehicle for folk chasing this rather than using their political clout and capital on their core mission.
I’ll mention Hallum 2017 again… and the lessons learned. While it would be lovely and cosy to not have rigorous procedures,…
Oh, I agree that procedures for selecting candidates are rigorous.
The alternative is seats not having a Labour candidate on the ballet paper because time ran out.
The alternative is yet more years of Tory government, which our resident sixth formers would be more than happy with as it allows them to continue in their ideologically pure comfort zone and let’s face it, that’s all that really matters
In a grown up world you could actually do something about it and maybe engage in the democratic process on a more involved level than just constantly whining on the interweb, but where’s the fun in that?
I see the meme bore is ignoring the fact that he was spouting total crap about how Labour selects its candidates.
i must have been having an acid flashback when I witnessed it then, but that’s the gamble you take with doing a lot of class A’s in your younger years. On balance I still reckon it was worth it.
Anyway..:. I’m getting a t shirt printed with ‘Meme Bore’ on it. I’ll post a piccie of me with it on, with a Jeremy Corbyn hat and some gold sparkly hot pants.
Any other requests?
pedantry is pointless. As is this thread, again.
Well you can blame binners for that. A perfectly reasonable question was asked on this UK government thread......who would vote for if there was a general election now.
I said that I would support the Greens because firstly they are lefty social democrats and secondly because for obvious reasons they don't attract self-serving careerists.
My comment was with reference to all three main parties and it very much chimes with public perceptions.
Well that was enough to send binners into a rant and picture-posting frenzy. He clearly saw my comment as a slight against the Labour Party and in fact it turns out that there aren't any self-serving careerists in the Labour Party at all. it's all fake news, or sumfink.
I think we can safely say that millions of voters might beg to differ with binners but apparently if you don't agree with him then you are a "Marvin-the-Paranoid-Android style lefty doom-monger", whatever that is, and I am reliably informed that you should wear a tinfoil hat.
I’m getting a t shirt printed with ‘Meme Bore’ on it. I’ll post a piccie of me with it on, with a Jeremy Corbyn hat and some gold sparkly hot pants
See, you can manage a hint of originality. Well done you.
I said that I would support the Greens because firstly they are lefty social democrats and secondly because for obvious reasons they don’t attract self-serving careerists.
Same here. I no longer support the Labour party and have given up the right to vote in its elections. The Greens came second in my constituency and won the adjacent seat, so I guess plenty of others feel the same way.
May I just add that I am not necessarily a huge fan of the Green Party but I believe that politics is about comprise, being flexible, and being adaptable.
And right now Green candidates are often the best choice, depending on the constituency, to serve the needs of ordinary working people.
And right now Green candidates are often the best choice, depending on the constituency, to serve the needs of ordinary working people
What about the the ordinary working people who want to fly to Lanzarote for their hollybobs? Or quite fancy a Maccy D’s double cheeseburger instead of lentils?
We all got the memo. A sad day. There was a candlelight vigil
Only you haven't have you? Poll after poll shows that Labour support is now at the same level as support for the Tories was under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
And yet despite that not once have you commented on this huge lack of support for Labour. Which is in sharp contrast to when under the previous Labour leader you couldn't stop commenting on Labour's standing in the opinion polls.
I can only assume you are not aware that Labour has hemorrhaged the support of millions. Did you not get the memo?
Wakey wakey and smell the coffee :
Even under Magic Grandad support for Labour was higher than it is now.
It's the fact that Labour think they're on a mission being tough whilst destroying their base and taking the economy with them.
Tough on the vulnerable rather than wealth eh? Liz Kendall needs ejecting into space over her twisted vile household logic.
Just wait until they remove money out of the economy via NI come April. This will be a whole new level of ineptitude.
Also Starmer banking his growth on AI potholes and being a AI superpower has just got pushed under the carpet with Deepseek.
It's just one terrible reactionary idea after another instead of just fixing the stuff that needs fixing.
At the very least with the Tories we got money off our energy bill. This current party can't even begin to figure that out as part of something government could do to improve their standing.
What were Labour up to before the years before the General Election - cos it sure as hell it wasn't figuring a plan out.
Why on earth don't they concentrate on fundamentals instead of driving butchered economic policy from the Tories?
Growth really ain't hard if they want it to happen. Just do the opposite of the Tories. They sat on almost no growth for years.
And here we are. Fiscal rules wrecking the lives of many.
Big stimulus you absolute numpties.
Exactly what Biden was up during his pro-growth years. Have a bigger deficit and get the investment correct.