There is a truth universally acknowledged that if you want to go through the motions of consulting people, but you don’t really want to encourage them to respond to you, you slip out a consultation, say, in the second week in December when nobody is really thinking about the issue in hand and close it on 3rd January.
I’m minded of the consultation process for the destruction of earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass as outlined by the brilliant Douglas Adams in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
So this is a roundabout way of saying that the Federal Board has slipped out a consultation on the party’s Internal Election Regulations in the second week of December that closes on 3rd January.
By doing so, they give off vibes that they are going through the motions of consultation. They want to know whether we think a larger threshold of nominations is needed. They haven’t set a figure, but will look at the result of the consultation and bring a proposal to Spring Conference. That would mean the changes would be in place for the next elections in Autumn next year.
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The Highland cows of Much Wenlock
Reform civil war?
Tinderbox
Hywel 
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Toby Keynes 
Peter Martin 