Tuesday, March 16, 2010

War breaks out in Airdrie and Shotts as Labour Chairman resigns as 'worst' candidate is picked to fight Westminster election




















Dear All

The Labour Party infighting never seems to end does it!

The latest explosion of discontent was the forcing on the local Airdrie and Shotts branch of a controversial all-women shortlist.

In other words discrimination by the Labour Party based on sex but dressed up as equality.

This has prompted the Labour constituency chairman, Brian Brady to resign his chairmanship as Dr John Reid’s 25-year-old parliamentary researcher Pamela Nash.

Brady said;

“The constituency Labour Party selected their candidate for Airdrie and Shotts and following that I resigned my position as chair because the voting pattern showed that this had not represented the view of the majority of the CLP”.

The Labour Party when it wants to ensure their handpicked candidate gets in goes the route of postal votes, except in the case of Labour MP Anne Moffat were they want to ensure she doesn’t win.

The Labour Party in selecting Airdrie and Shotts as a constituency forced to have an all-woman shortlist has wrecked the ambitions of the likes of local councillor Jim Logue who has worked in the area.

It seems that meritocracy yet again doesn’t exist in the Labour Party.

Of the three candidates selected Pamela Nash was judged on the night of the vote to be the least competent.

A senior local party figure said;

“One, Joanne Milligan, was obviously the most professional; one, Cathy Dick, was obviously the most passionate and the real local candidate. The third, Pamela Nash, was obviously the most inexperienced and did not perform at all well. Perhaps she got some kind of charity vote”.

Bad news for Labour as this increases the chances of the SNP and other parties gaining ground.

The party figure then dropped the nuclear bomb;

“The difficulty now is that we have to motivate people to get out and campaign for her.”

The SNP candidate for the Airdrie constituency is Sophia Coyle at the Holyrood election three years ago she slashed Labour’s majority from almost 9,000 to less than 1,500.

This is another added boost to her campaign which might propel her over the winning line, well known and having a recognisable presence from previously standing.

The bottom line is that if the local activists are treated with contempt then they won’t come for the candidate and that’s a problem.

The people who stand for election need others to go out on the doorstep to sell the party message, highlight what they will do for them when elected and remind people what their record is.

It seems that the infighting in Airdrie and Shotts is set to continue within a fractured Labour branch.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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