Clare Short to stand down and back Lib Dems in delivering PR?

By the founding editor | 12th September 2006 - 12:23 pm

A blog thus far unknown to me, The Daily, claims Short will not run again, and will use her new found independence to urge a coalition government with the aim of delivering Proportional Representation.

I haven’t seen this picked up by any of the conventional media, and it strikes me she’s not the sort to announce her retirement quietly, but still – food for thought.

With friends like Clare Short…

UPDATE 14/09/06: Short confirms she is stepping down

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10 Comments

Colin Ross 12th Sep '06 - 1:20pm

I also saw this earlier today and like you have never heard of the website. Ladywoodshould be an interesting seat – the Liberal Democrats had a 20% swing to us in 2005, also I suspect the all-women shortlist mentioned in the article will be a mistake in this constituency, the retirement of Short and her ability to attack Labour should make it an intersting election.

Colin
leon 12th Sep '06 - 1:34pm

Recess Monkey has picked it up so I guess it must have something to it. No doubt Guido or Iain will be on it and then the mainstream press will bother to cover it…

http://www.recessmonkey.com/2006/09/12/clare-short-to-retire/
peter 12th Sep '06 - 3:21pm

This reminded me of an interview from several months ago where or clare made a point of speaking warmly of Ming

http://www.liberalreview.com/blogs/apollo/clare_4_ming
Andrea 13th Sep '06 - 12:40am

It’s in Indy now too (the Pandora column)
Oxonian 13th Sep '06 - 9:33am

Gawd – let’s hope she doesn’t try and defect to us

Interesting that this is juxtaposed with the story about Peter Hain’s priorities/manifesto for the Lab Deputy Leadership. Apparently one of his priorities is PR … though commentators seem to think he’s talking about AV rather than a proportional system.

For some strange reason Labour people seem to think AV would help them, whereas in reality I reckon it’s just more likely to exaggerate prevailing tactical voting trends (which are fluid).
willhowells 13th Sep '06 - 10:16am

I think you’re right. It might have given them bigger wins in 1997 and 2001, but could make them fall even further the next time they lose power.
Eddie 13th Sep '06 - 10:43am

Peter Hain has a long standing support for AV. Unfortunately, AV is no more proportional than FPTP. However, I doubt such nuances will be picked up by our moronic media, and they will say “Hain supports PR like the big wusses in the EU!”
Joe Otten 14th Sep '06 - 5:40pm

According to the quote here http://letsbesensible.blogspot.com/2006/09/odd-campaign.html Short seems to be pretending that we don’t exist.
leon 14th Sep '06 - 5:48pm

So, Clare decides to jump ship after realising that the swing of votes away from Labour may actually be a boon? She then implies she might run as an indy while hoping for a hung parliament and PR. Sounds very calculated to me, you sure you LibDemers want her in your party!?
Will 14th Sep '06 - 9:16pm

I’m not sure we do…