Over the weekend I blogged:
In the London Mayor selection contest, Lewisham councillor Duwayne Brooks has just publicly thrown his hat in the ring. More information on his Facebook page.
The other declared candidate so far is Lembit Opik, who also has his own Facebook page. The number of fans for that latter page has been growing slowly but now there is a direct competitor to judge it against. So far, Lembit is ahead though Duwayne’s page has only very recently appeared.
Matters have moved on quickly since then, with Lembit’s Mayor page continuing to grow slowly (now up to 216 fans) but Duwayne has already overtaken him with 243 fans.
Online indicators like this need to be taken with several pinches of salt, especially as most of them in the last party leadership contest more heavily favoured Nick Clegg than the actual result. However, the fact that Lembit’s many years of high profile in the party have not turned into a large early lead for him shows how his profile is a double-edged sword.
Note: a shortlist has yet to be published. Lembit and Duwayne are the only two people to have publicly announced their desire to stand so far.
12 Comments
Wow
No doubt Mr Brooks would be doing even better if his name wasn’t so hard to spell.
Quite simply, I initially supported Lembit because I liked him. When Duwayne announced he was standing however, I quickly reached the conclusion that he was the better candidate – for all that I like Lembit I think that Duwayne would be much better for London not to mention more electable.
The thing that strikes me right away is Duwayne Brooks lack of experience, hes been a councllor for 18 months. It just seems too soon in his career to go for one of the most powerful & high profile jobs in British Politics.
> It just seems too soon in his career to go for one of the most powerful & high profile jobs in British Politics.
Whereas with Lembit it’s way too late in his career since sadly we (and the voters) know all too well what we would be getting in the unlikely event that he won the position….
“No doubt Mr Brooks would be doing even better if his name wasn’t so hard to spell.”
Yeah – cos that’s always been an issue Lembit hasn’t struggled with! (“a losing scrabble hand” as one wag put it when he first ran for internal party election)
I think that’s nonsense about Duwayne supposedly being inexperienced. If you count experience only by how long someone has served as a councillor, Nick Clegg didn’t have enough experience to become an MEP (or indeed an MP, or indeed party leader). We need to get out of the rut of assuming that there is only one route to political office that involves having ‘done your time’ as a councillor.
Duwayne has many positive strengths and skills to recommend him – and more than a lifetime’s worth of experience in some areas, as I’m sure people will know. I think his experience of real life in London will contrast rather favourably with the cosy backgrounds of Messrs Johnson & Livingstone, and he’ll be a very positive ambassador for the party. Good luck to him!
If you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
“No doubt Mr Brooks would be doing even better if his name wasn’t so hard to spell.”
Yeah – cos that’s always been an issue Lembit hasn’t struggled with! (“a losing scrabble hand” as one wag put it when he first ran for internal party election)
My comment was actually made in response to the name being spelled “Duywane” in the title of the thread, which has since been corrected.
But as you say, there’s more irony there than I intended …
“if his name wasn’t so hard to spell”
WTF? You find Duwayne a hard name to spell?
blanco
You could save youself so much time if you’d only read what’s previously been said before rushing to comment yourself …
A quick reminder that our moderation policy on personal abuse still applies in threads about the merits or otherwise of candidates in selections.