Life's Little Ironies

Life is full of little ironies, so I'm told.

Yet I had this confirmed to me at the weekend as I read the papers at the weekend - in particular the article from David Miliband and Dave Prentis in the Guardian - declaring their great support for the 'Living Wage'

Because David Miliband is the Labour MP for South Shields of course - the former Foreign Secretary who won the support of a majority of individual Labour members (and Labour MPs) in the party's last leadership election - which took place in 2010.

While Dave Prentis is the general secretary of Unison - whose trade union votes (along with those of GMB and Unite) ensured the Labour leadership crown went not to David Miliband - but to his younger brother, Ed.

And the rest is history - except for the fact that people should understand history and how the Labour Party got itself into a position where the ordinary members voted for one person as their Leader - yet ended up with a rather different outcome.

All is explained in the following posts from the blog site archive in September 2010.

6% = 70% = 90% (26 September 2010)

The Labour party's electoral college makes about as much sense - as one of the Mad Hatter's tea parties.

But to be fair it has done what it was designed to do - which is to give union leaders undue influence over key party decisions - by galvanising a small handful of union activists to vote in a particular way or, as in this case, for a particular candidate.

Democracy it ain't - instead it's all about machine-like, Tammany Hall politics - also known as vested interests and raw power.

Consider for a moment the voting figures which decided who would be the next Labour leader - and potentially, at least, the country's next Prime Minister.

199,671 trade unions votes were cast in the trade union section of the electoral college - 80,266 for David Miliband and 119,405 for Ed Miliband.

Before the ballot took place the unions were boasting that around 3,500,000 trade unions members would be invited to vote - in a veritable orgy of union democracy.

Yet the turnout of around 6% means that ordinary union members voted with their feet - apart from a tiny number of union activists - who have no claim to represent the views of the wider membership.

The voting figures also confirm that Labour's electoral college is to democracy - what Alice in Wonderland is to quantum mechanics.

Because the Miliband of brothers received the votes of 122,806 individual Labour party members - 66,814 for David Miliband and 55,992 votes for Ed Miliband.

Before the ballot - Labour claimed 170,000 members would be entitled to vote - so the turnout of party members is respectable - at just over 70%.

MPs voted in even greater numbers, as you would expect, and cast 262 votes in total - David Miliband receiving 140 and his brother Ed receiving 122 - so the turnout amongst MPs was well over 90%.

Yet all three sections of the electoral college get the same weighted vote - i.e. 1/3rd, 1/3rd and 1/3rd.

So the end result is that some votes are much more equal than others.

In Labour's electoral college reality is turned on its head - much like Alice in Wonderland - with the incredible effect that somehow or other - 6% = 70% = 90%.

Whatever this is it's not democracy - more trade union members voted (199,671) than the entire Labour party membership (122,806) - which just about says it all.

Maybe these people were Tory, Lib Dem or SNP supporters - seeking to influence the outcome - who knows?

But what we do know is that the new Labour leader was not elected by his own party members - which is a sad day and a bad day - for anyone with a passing interest in democracy.

Unions Pick Labour Leader (25 September 2010)

Hot off the press comes the latest news from Manchester - the trade unions have effectively picked the new Labour leader, Ed Miliband.

Ed won the contest by 50.65% to 49.35% of the total votes cast in the electoral college - a close result as predicted.

But he won only by significantly out-polling his brother David in the trade union section - where most of the voters are not even Labour party members.

David Miliband received the most votes in the MPs section - and also amongst individual party members.

But his undoing came about because union bosses ran a concerted campaign against him - the big public sector unions - GMB, Unite and Unison - working in concert to deliver for their man.

So Labour's worst nightmare has indeed come true - see previous post dated 22 September 2010.

A close run contest is one thing - but the differential turn out in different sections of the electoral college - means that the trade unions have overturned the will of MPs and individual party members.

In effect, democracy has lost out - and will continue to do so until Labour's electoral college is replaced - by one member one vote.