5 Comments

• Philip Young 1st Oct '09 - 11:32pm

  I was recently asked to give a reference to someone who has been a member for many years, is an elected councillor, and has worked at the coal-face having been fought several local elections. Watching his struggle has been illuminating.

  Anyone applying to be a Liberal Democrat candidate should note that its perfectly probable you wont get an acknowledgement of your application; you wont be offered a date for interview until you chase several times, and when you finally do get offered a date, you might find you cant attend – but, horror of horrors, there wont be another opportunity of being assessed until January…and if you offer to go to other regions, who might have an assessment day sooner, you will be on the reserve list…and emails on your frustration will go unanswered. In the South East region, there are 14 vacancies, with six PPCs having resigned, and those who are approved, and on the candidates list, are not being hassled and hustled into finding out if they are applying, what seats they are chasing, so, nobody knows if they have quietly given up and wont actually be fighting a seat next time.

  Systemic failure here, perhaps?

• Philip Young 2nd Oct '09 - 7:26am

  Soon after writing the above, the phone rang, and someone I’ve not spoken to in many years had tracked me down to express concern. “I certainly didn’t realise the situation was quite so grim… But, instead of writing the negatives, why not put up some suggestions of what should be done. After all…It’s a man-management problem, the solutions are surely pretty obvious.”

  So, here are some ideas, given that anyone who applies now will clearly not be interviewed at an assessment day till January, and, we could maybe be facing a snap election, given that the polls are narrowing, and, there are still some constituencies eager to get going and get a candidate in place as soon as possible – not waiting months.

  1) The candidates lists should be made available to constituency chairmen – that way, the constituency party can write direct to those who are Approved to find out who is actually still willing to fight next time, and those who, for various reasons, such as having failed at a past selection, or, who are unwilling to take on a seat which are only offering the prospect of coming third, but require a lot of graft with either no workers, or, no money in the kitty, or, both; or… whose personal life has changed somewhat and now don’t want to fight the next election even though they remain on the Approved List.

  2) Ross Scott should use her president’s position to give dozy regional parties a bit of a handbagging – pehaps she could call up the Regional organisers to crack on and write to all on their Approved List to say “are you in – or are you off the case” – otherwise, if this is not done, how else does anyone really know how dire the situation is? Ross needs to be a lot more proactive, instead of appearing on Despatches TV programmes exposing those MPs and Lords who take jet-setting swans off to far-flug fact-finding missions to some South Sea island, why can’t our president do something about problems like candidates who cant get interviewed, and local constituency parties eager to find a candidate?

  3) Ross also needs to ignore whatever “constitution barriers” there are, and not listen to those who say “but you can’t do that”….and set up a President’s Panel at Cowley Street. This will be in addition to the regional interviews, as clearly the process at regional level is now unable to work fast enough and process those applicants who are a) keen to get in place, and b) help those constituencies find a candidate.

  In the old days, this process used to be all centralised. Fine, devolution to the regions might be ideal, as someone in one local region put it, “we have moved a long way since the days of interviews at the National Liberal Club” – er, really? C’mon, what’s needed here is someone to realise that what is needed, surely, is to make sure the prospective candidate is not going to embarrass the Party, that’s all… and so this probelm is addressed by knocking things into shape in double-quick time. Perhaps what’s needed is for the regional parties to carry on with their process, IN ADDITION to the President’s Panels set up at Cowley Street.

  Otherwise, yet more time will be wasted – and perhaps some good people might just say to themselves “if this is what it’s all about – why am I bothering?.” The current complacency is just not good enough, but, alarmingly, nobody seems to express the slightest bit of concern, with no plans like the above to do the slightest thing about it.

• Anders 2nd Oct '09 - 10:00am

  The candidates lists should be made available to constituency chairmen

  My understanding is that it is, and it has already had those people who genuinely aren’t planning to stand for one reason or another removed from it.

  As much as I like Ros, I am not entirely convinced that putting one individual (who is already very busy) in charge of organising the approval of candidates is a good idea. It not only opens her up to charges of favouritism when certain people do or don’t get approved, but everyone should be treated equally and in a more dispassionate manner. It isn’t quite as simple as saying we need to “make sure the prospective candidate is not going to embarrass the Party”

  I don’t understand why this has been such a problem for your friend though, as I know people who have gone through the process quite quickly. Maybe it’s just that your particular region isn’t very organised.

• Steve Travis 2nd Oct '09 - 10:07am

  Readers might also like to know that Rushcliffe advertised recently and although now closed would look at any late submissions.

• Philip Young 2nd Oct '09 - 6:28pm

  If the list is available, then why do constituencies advertise in Liberal Democrat News? Not all those Approved candidates see Liberal Democrat News, presumably, so it wont reach all….

  Anyone know why the South East, with 14 vacancies, wont be organising any further interview-days after October till January?

  Are any other regions holding interview-days, if so, where and when, as our councillor-friend will travel anywhere to jump through this hoop, but shouldnt have to wait till January.

  ….thanks.

  py