"Too many people are fed up and disillusioned with politics. I hope that doing things differently will fire the public's imagination and get them talking and thinking about politics again. Somewhere in London, there's a Mayor in the making. If its you, please consider applying today.... The Mayor's decisions have a huge impact on the lives of everyone who lives in the city, so it makes sense to give everybody the opportunity to have a say in choosing who they think is best suited to the task."London deserves better than Ken Livingstone, and now we have a chance to pick the very best person to take him on and represent the true voice of London.
Monday, June 12, 2006
The best way to choose anyone but Ken
In an interview for the Evening Standard it has been revealed by David Cameron that the Conservative Party plans to let all registered voters in London choose the Tory Mayoral candidate to challenge Livingstone in 2008. Not only will the race be open but anyone can apply to be the candidate and face the selection panels which lead to the Open Primary.
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6 comments:
I suspect that the London-wide poll will be exploited by some anti-Tories hoping to elect the most unlikely, or perhaps the most right-wing, of candidates, in order to reduce the party's (quite slim) chances of winning in 2008. Also, if the Conservatives advocate using technology, such as phones, in this poll, why don't they propose it for general elections?
Hmm, while there probably will be a fair few Trotskyites etc attempting to do what Guido attempted with the Lib Dem leadership vote, I suspect that 'civilian' Londoners will show up only in very limited numbers. Which would be unfortunate, as the idea is not a bad one.
Any ideas as to likely runners and riders?
The party won't put up anyone in the final open primary that it wouldn't be happy with as the candidate, so the exploitation won't really matter that much.
I rather like Shagger Norris, but I imagine he's had enough, hasn't he?
NOT Portillo. Please.
Also, if the Conservatives advocate using technology, such as phones, in this poll, why don't they propose it for general elections?
The candidates will be preselected to ensure that they are all acceptable. So even if there is fraud, the consequences will be minimal.
Conversely in a general election, all but one candidate in each race is beyond the pale, so the repercussions of fraud could be huge.
I'm an old traditionalist and actively enjoy the time honoured manner of voting. No matter what safeguards are put in for voting by phone / text, there is a greater capacity for fraud than by voting in person, quite apart from the ritual of voting being hugely important.
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