(1) Ordinary members lose their decisive say on MEP candidate selection;
(2) Incumbent MEPs - many of them unsupportive of David Cameron's pledge to leave the EPP - will be kept at the top of regional lists if a committee of party appointees and Association Chairmen agree;
(3) All retiring MEPs can only be replaced by women;
(4) Lower slots on the regional lists will be decided by all members.
The first three recommendations are all horribly anti-democratic and that they are being tabled should in itself be an embarassment to the party.
The three elected members of the party board towards whom party members who believe in democracy should be making representations are Charles Barwell (on the left of the picture), Emma Pidding (centre right) and Jeremy Middleton (on the right). Mail addresses are jeremy@middletonenterprises.com, emma.pidding@richardsoneyres.co.uk and mail@charlesbarwell.com.
I have to say that I don't know much of Emma or Jeremy. Charles Barwell is a fellow Brummie and Villa fan and I regularly check out his blog. On his home page he lists maintaining a united party as his number one area of focus. Like the other members of the Board he has an opportunity on Monday to prevent a resolution that would cause serious disunity in the party.
If the party leadership is looking for a clause four moment, this could be their chance. However, supporting these anti-democratic measures is indefensible and would be a terrible horse for them to back.
4 comments:
I've already made my views known to these good folk, PT, and had a reasonably encouraging response from Jeremy Middleton. (Nothing, as yet, from the other two.)
What a delicious irony that the meeting is scheduled for St. George's Day.
I was browsing about Jeremy Middleton and was somewhat encouraged. Somebody else tells me that Emma put an out-of-office on this morning saying that she won't be back at her desk until 24th April. I managed to mail her before she put that message up.
N3 is iniquitous.
the other one in the pic is Richard Robinson.
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