This letter from Penny Wilkins (Regional Candidates Chair, East Midlands & Vice Chair English Candidates Committee) was submitted to LibDem News for publication, but for some strange
Sir, I took on the job of RCC (Regional Candidates Chair) for the East Midlands in September 2000, because no-one else was prepared to do it. I quickly found myself feeling 'at home' in the English Candidates Committee ethos of transparency and fairness in the Approval and Selection of Parliamentary Candidates. Over recent years I have become more and more concerned at the interference (and attempted interference) of the 'great and the good' and now to cap it all we are hearing stories that Steve Hitchins is, allegedly, offering local parties money as long as they pick the 'right' candidate. With my health failing I am unable to continue to fight against those who want to make our party less fair. I am finding it increasingly difficult to administer a system which is continually being interfered with by people who are prepared to compromise our Party's principles in a dash for power. For that reason I am going to stand down from active politics for the next year to see if our party comes back to its senses, values its principles and allows its members to select the most able person for the job without interference.
Yours, Penny Wilkins
Mr Hitchens and the LibDem Candidates Committee clearly have some explaining to do. However, what I am more interested in is the fact that of 69 seats which have selected candidates in the LibDems, only 15 of them are women - a miniscule 21.7%. Compare this with the Conservative equivalent of 38% and you can see which Party is doing better in selecting women candidates. I have no information as to how many ethnic minority candidates the LibDems have selected.
34 comments:
The ethnicity and gender of an individual should have no bearing upon their selection for a parliamentary candidacy whatever political party they represent.It is just plain wrong for the Tories and LibDems to be doing this, and Labour to have started it, and proves nothing except for a mindlessly slavish attitude to the oppressive poison of political correctness.It should be the best person for the job irrespective of any other consideration whatsoever.
The Lib Dems have a Muslim Asian male for Birmingham Hodge Hilll - a seat that they are unlikely to win given they couldn't even win it in the by-election.
Are we "in turmoil" or are you hyperventilating again Iain? If we are in turmoil then I hadn't noticed and I suspect a lot of fellow Lib Dems would agree.
I'll dig out the paper bag for you with a lovely Bird of Liberty logo and send it to 18 Doughty Street. In the meantime I suggest you have a lie down in a darkened room.
P.S. Your sums are wrong. It's about 33% women candidates by my calculations from the list published on LibDemVoice and my understanding is that that percentage is going to rise. The bag is in the post.
"my understanding is that that percentage is going to rise. "
because the "right" candidates will be selected?
Personally I think Labour, Lib-Dems and the Tories can be criticised on this front. Cameron has his priority A-list which parachutes candidates into seats and as I understand has quotas for women and ethnical minority candidates, Lib-Dems favour women and ethnic minority candidates with extra money and training and worst of all, Labour impose all-women shortlists on certain seats.
All this, I believe is discrimination. Political parties should ensure there are no barriers to prevent women and ethnic candidates applying to become candidates. However resorting to quotas etc is simply discrimination to other potential candidates.
Liberal Legend - how long has Ming got before the knives come out? How much more bad news can he take?
Iain, do my ears deceive me or have you just waved the improved female stats in the tory candidate list at the libdems?
Have you finally find a reason to applaud the A list?
I have been a recent convert to it after the repeated attacks the tories received over the last few years about not being truly representative of the electorate. Also thought it sad that after being the first party to elect a female leader we remained so sexist at selections
The fact that we are now beating the libdems in selecting female candidates is a delicious bonus to be savoured!
Ming has probably got as long as it takes Dave Cameron to come up with any substantial policies. So should be a while then;)
Chatterbox - why not go the whole hog and have all women shortlists if you are simply trying to beat the other political parties in terms of the percentage of women candidates they have. I see you don't mention Labour here. From the last General Election - 27% of Labour MPs, 9% of Tory MPs and 15% of Lib-Dem MPs were women.
Not only do all political parties have to attract more women and ethnic minority to stand as candidates but as a country, membership of political parties have been in decline over the last 50 years. We need to get more people involved im politics rather than jsut ourselves.
liberal legend
Maybe women do get a fair chance in the Lib Dem party, but judging by Chris Huhne's commnets it would seem that the Lib Dems are now targeting farmers and livestock as the culprits for global warming.
Fancy picking on poor defenceless animals. Have you no shame.
Iain sorry for the link back to my blog
Iain
Susanne has not been expelled from the party. She has had her membership revoked which is slightly different. She is free to apply again when she feels like. Whether she does is another issue entirely. There are rumours your party want her to join them.
The issue of SH is really only secondary. The key reason is because she reported to the London Regional officers and other key people via email about the mass mailing of two disgusting Muslim emails sent out by Haringay councillor Fiyaz Mughal in Sept to over 70 people.
In the light of day he claimed his email had been tampered with. Nobody really believes but it but the story is preferable to accepting he could have written such provocative hate mail rationalizing Muslim fundamentalism. She wanted him to prove there was any police investigation. He complained against her.
There is paranoia that the potentially explosive content will get out into the public Domain and bring down the party.
I have noticed several comments about this issue on your blog. Why don't you just ask her what happened and stop all the speculation
To be honest, I'm not convinced I can believe someone who suggests that the liberals:
1. have principles to abandon; and
2. are involved in a dash for power.
What Matt (11.50pm) and Gaffauk (12:45am) said.
In the same sense, Iain, if you were the Con. candidate for my constituency, I would vote for you (or not, as the case may be) on the grounds of your integrity and perceived ability to perform your job - issues such as your gender, ethnicity or your sexual orientation would not enter into it. As such, I see no need for any of the major political parties to draw up A-lists or shortlists based upon quotas, in order to appear "representative" of the electorate as a whole.
When will the big parties get this though their heads? - We know that politicians, just like the rest of us, are at least partially motivated by greed and self-interest. We KNOW this! We don't expect our elected representatives to be saints. (Well, I don't, anyway). I'm sick and tired of all these quotas and A-lists, I just want candidates who are sufficiently adept at doing their jobs, nothing more.
Dissagreements like this are heavily buried within the Lib Dems.
The truth is that Hitchens lost Islington Council because of his poor relationships with other female LD Councillors including a minority person. His "reward" for this massive failure was to get a special new job from Ming in charge of female and minority candidates!.
It beggars belief.
And up pops a male PPC, Toby, to defend him!
".... I am going to stand down from active politics for the next year to see if our party comes back to its senses, values its principles..."
And it's not just the LibDems.
Are there any Parties of principle left? - Other than Ukip of course.
It's a sexist and racist policy that should be illegal. These types of policies never survive scrutiny because legal action is eventually threatened.
Liberal Legend? Myth more like. Let's not kick the Libs too hard, we could be coalescing with them soon.
Why don't you have an all women and transgendered candidate list ?
I am sure it will get BBC coverage.
Meanwhile as voters can we have some issues discussed rather than this TV Talent Show most politicos seem obsessed with nowadays.
It may be that "Opportunity Knocks" for someone who has some attributes to please the show's producers...........but the aidience is getting tired of repetitive junk and wants substance.
Or as Wendy said "Where's The Beef ?"
When political parties say "we must change to better reflect the Britain we represent", why do they only talk about someone's sex, pigmentation of skin or what they do in the bedroom?
Surely if they are truly going to represent the country accurately then a large percentage of the party(and front bench) must be working class.
A certain percentage must have red hair.
A certain percentage must have beards.
A certain percentage must have green eyes.....
etc, etc, .....you see the list is endless.
There should be only one rule whether you are hiring at McDonald's or selecting an MP - ALWAYS CHOOSE THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!
Hardly exclusive, hardly turmoil, hardly news.
Its well known that many LibDems disagree with the way things are being done wrt diversity, and there will undoubtedly be problems- politicians are involved.
I doubt it was her criticism of Steve Hitchens which led to Susanne's expulsion either. I gather it was more to do with her assuming authority she didn't have and offending people. Also, I know the person who represented her and he would not have let mere criticism be allowed as a reason for her expulsion - he's far too principled for that.
I don't know Steve Hitchins, but putting my skeptic's hat on for a minute:
Isn't it just possible that "the right candidate" is the person who's willing to put the work in?
There's nothing in the letter to suggest this has anything to do with women or ethnic minority candidates... unless you know something you're not printing Iain?
From the Liberator mag Nov 2006
Some more insight into their selection woes.
"Hardly anyone agrees on what has caused the inordinate delay in selections. It is perhaps just as well that the idea of a snap general election appears to be a figment of party fundraisers’ imagination.
From the campaigns side, and from approved candidates, come complaints that the candidates committee sees the approval and selection bureaucracy as an end in itself.
There are also complaints that, on top of the long-standing and tortuous complications involved, rules aimed at securing diversity have served only to ensure that no-one, of any colour or gender, has been selected for most seats.
Tales abound of constituencies that have received only one application but have been barred from adopting the candidate concerned, of regions with too few returning officers having to borrow them from elsewhere in a beggar-my-neighbour process, and of too few selection committee members having completed the obligatory training because there is no-one to train them.
....
The Parliamentary Candidates Association, which represents approved candidates... chair Gary Lawson wrote in July to Menzies Campbell to say that only 18 English PPCs had at that point been
selected (a number which has since presumably risen) and that the average selection was taking 88 days."
I guess that I am well behind current thinking here but why is it necessary to have a certain number of female candidates, ethnic minorities, etc.?
It seems to me that proportional representation would be a fairer representation of the voters wishes, and hang what colour or sex the candidates are.
Finally, which MP has achieved anything extra for their constituents or country by being female?
I keep looking in on this blog in the hope of finding a reason to go back to voting Conservative. I haven't found it yet.
Attempts at social engineering are doomed to failure and are morally reprehensible, from Hitlerian eugenics to opening council estates in posh areas of towns. They are all the product of ill-conceived notions of a utopia that will never be.
All women shortlists, all munchkin shortlists and shortlists favouring minorities are all wrong.
This hysterical and glib attempt at gerrymandering poor performers into parliamentary seats is a disgrace, a crime against democracy and at worst, a cynical attempt to pander to the ignorant unwashed sheep who believe all this PC hogwash.
The poor Libdems are so confused by the contradictions of their redundant creed now that the reality of it; that is the fact that political correctness is no more than a tussle for the top of the pile, has produced conflicting factions - muslims against gays, for example which cannot be resolved within their philosophical framework, which is broadly speaking, relativism.
As I have said before, at the core of relativism is the pyramid of rights. Various groups vie for these rights appealing for hegemony at the expense of others in a state of flux - an amoral soup - struggling for a place at the top of the pyramid.
Its not big and its not clever. It's just tawdry and depressing and will lead to a lot of second-raters running the country. (CF NuLab)
This hardly seems to be an exclusive Iain. It was on Suzanne Lamido's blog on 31st December.
Wrinkled Weasel wrote: "It's just tawdry and depressing and will lead to a lot of second-raters running the country."
Plus ca change (comme Guido might have ecrired).
people are missing the point and getting hung up on the process, rather than the fact that a self-appointed expert (with what qualifications in the subject matter exactly) was appointed to a powerful role, with no advertisement and consultation or even reference to the appropriate governing bodies.
The second point is that the selection process has been examined independently by many many experts - legal, employment etc, - and whilst it is long, and some feel too long, it has always been deemed to be fair if applied according to the rules. Penny is absolutely right - and we do disagree on many aspects of the process - to suggest that a fair result may not be forthcoming if a financial bribe is added into the equation. Utterly illiberal and anti-democratic.
Read
http://susannelamido.blogspot.com/2006/12/penny-wilkins.html
There is also the link for the current LibDem PPC's
"I am more interested in is the fact that of 69 seats which have selected candidates in the LibDems, only 15 of them are women - a miniscule 21.7%."
I was going to say that this shows that the Lib Dems are not complete tossers but then I saw this:
"Liberal Legend said...
It's about 33% women candidates ... and my understanding is that that percentage is going to rise."
Bunch of tossers.
http://www.libdemvoice.org/ppcs-selected-to-fight-the-next-westminster-general-election/
My calc is 25 from 71 (35%). So it is rising!
Still OBSESSED withthe Lib Dems Iain ? Let it go, let it go.
Again Iain, you don't udnerstand the Lib Dems. "Turmoil", "Crisis", are all words that you use. yet if you check out Lib Dem blogs, no discussion. Why ? Because there is no "turmoil" of "crisis".
Sorry, but the real news is "no news here"
Dear Norfolk blogger
No discussion and no turmoil??? No - it's because the Liberal democrats who dare to challenge and ask even discreetly are threatened. you may never have experienced this - and good for you if not. But believe me the sight of some of the large personalities informing you that they can ruin you, and that principles are not worth - 'that the party always wins' - and I assume by party they mean particular individuals within it - well it's not very nice. So no you won't find much discussion - those who dare challenge are blacklisted.
To Tristan said...
She has marked him down on her blog as Best Buddie
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