Political

Good news on Lib Dem candidate selection rules

A welcome update to my post from earlier this week: the decision banning candidates from calling on members during the Merton & Wandsworth GLA selection has been reversed. Candidates may now call on members.

In the thread on the earlier post Matthew Green, one of the selection committee members, explained his reasoning:

Well, I was part of the selection committee that made the rule. There was a wide range of views expressed at the committee, from more liberal to more restrictive. We were mainly guided by precedent – the RO’s previous seat (Greenwich & Lewisham, I think) having very similar restrictions.

There are some things to remember. Quite a few members don’t like being harassed on selection contests. Doorstepping is very time-consuming, especially with the membership of 350 dispersed across 5 parliamentary constituencies. This advantages the time-rich. Restriction on mailing limits the cash-rich. The time available for campaigning is very limited. Personally I would rather candidates spent less of their time and money on primary contests and more on the real campaigning.

As I said in response in that thread:

Thanks for sharing your reasoning Matthew. I think there is a fallacy lurking in your final sentence, as putting candidates through their paces in a selection is not a distraction from public campaigning but rather a key step towards having more and better public campaigning. That is because putting people through their paces means candidates get better at campaigning by learning, members get better informed about who to vote for and members who feel more involved in a selection are more willing to help the winner.

Indeed, given that being a good campaigner is one of the key characteristics of good candidates, I’m not sure how party members can sensibly choose between candidates unless the candidates have a good chance to demonstrate their own campaigning strengths and weaknesses.

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With Parliamentary selections picking up across the country, especially given the possibility of an early general election, there's never been a better time to volunteer to be a Liberal Democrat Returning Officer. more

Anyone can write on a manifesto “I’m a great campaigner” after all. Moreover, unless people can demonstrate by doing, the system can end up very biased against new people – who don’t have a previous set of elections they have stood in to point to.

In fact, each time I’ve been impressed by the campaigning ability shown by a newcomer in an internal selection, subsequent events and experience has shown that to be fully justified by their ability.

We should be giving would-be Liberal Democrat candidates more scope to impress party members, not less.

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