It would have been nice if the Halifax Courier had actually contacted me before writing the story below which today appears on its website. As usual, they have just quoted from the blog without ringing for more information. Still, it's largely accurate.
Our Branch, the largest in the constituency, has lost many of its activists as a result of the de-selection of Janet Oosthuysen by the NEC and then the subsequent concerns over the selection of Steph Booth, which were ignored again by the NEC. It is, however, suggested that it is only " a handful" of malcontents who are unhappy at the way things have panned out. This is not so.
My Branch, by far the biggest in the constituency, overwhelmingly supported Janet as our best candidate and later endorsed me and I'm grateful to have had the support of the clear majority of Branch members in the hustings.
As a consequence of what has happened our former Chair resigned from the Party with several others but by affiliating to the LRC, our Branch will be hoping to re-build and recruit new members so that we will continue to have a wide support base in our immediate locality, which will be needed in the period ahead if we are to survive as a campaigning Party.
Let's be clear. This constituency has lost many of its foot soldiers with many more disillusioned , disengaged and disaffected because of bad calls by the NEC. And also because of the "handful" of Party members who did not accept the fact a left PPC won fairly and squarely in the first place. And then launched a personal vendetta which, unfortunately, succeeded.
http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/We39re-hanging-on-by-our.5472373.jp
Monday, 20 July 2009
WHY WE'RE FIGHTING BACK
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2 comments:
And no doubt you will get the blame when the voters give Booth less than 20% of the votes in the next election.
I have no idea how the result will pan out at the General Election and I'm sure many Party members will be out there doing their best but there is absolutely no doubt that the debacle, and injustice, of Janet's de-selection has damaged Labour's chances.Most badly in this part of the Valley. With a 1500 majority, it was always going to be tight.
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