Friday, June 02, 2006
EXCLUSIVE: Ex LBC Chief to be Labour's Candidate in Bromley?
Labour seem to be taking the Bromley by-election rather seriously, despite the fact that their vote is likely to collapse. Apparently there was quite a bit of interest in the seat. Local councillor Jon Getwood is in contention and I’m told that one of the five shortlisted candidates to be paraded before Bromley & Chislehurst Labour Party (membership: 32) on Sunday include former LBC Radio Managing Director Mark Flanagan. A savvy media performer, he’s currently an adviser to the Downing Street and the Labour Party on new media (that's the Interweb to you and me). He’d certainly go down well on the doorstep and would be able to defend the government eloquently on the media. But he must have some kind of psychological flaw (copyright Alastair Campbell 1998). Why on earth would anyone willing want to stand for Labour in the current climate? Pass the straight-jacket…
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8 comments:
He is probably doing it on the road to greater things. Doing a bit of "service for the party" by standing in an unwinnable seat might go down well if he then moves on to find a safe/marginial seat.
Is that not where most top MPs start out...in the hopeless seats?...ooppps...we cannot talk about the A list!
You know, just like...Margaret Thatcher. In fact, I think she wore the straight jacket twice!
Err - I stood for Labour less than a month ago....
Maybe people stand for Labour because they genuinely believe that the Labour Party offers the best solution to the problems that people experience?
That's why I ran again last month.
A certain Anthony Charles Lynton Blair stood in a totally unwinnable by-election in Beaconsfield in 1982, when the Tories were enjoying the Falklands factor, lost his deposit (although it was then higher than the current 5% threshold).
The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2005 shows more and more MPs in both parties walking into safe seats without having had to have fought an unwinnable one, but a large number of politicians need to (or feel the need to) blood themselves in an unwinnable one.
We certainly need such a spirit in local government, when so many council seats aren't contested, or frequently parties field just one or two candidates in three-member wards. Even the old Eastern bloc had elections for council seats (it's just that, apart from not being free or fair, they were from the one-party).
there's a rumour that Luke Akehurst - hackney councillor and former PPC at Castle Point - is in the running for Bromley too. Alhtough why he'd want to stand again in a hopeless seat I don't know...
This is the same Mark Flanagan who is married to BBC political correspondent Jo Coburn, who provides him with insider stuff to help with his new job
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