Too Close For Comfort
I was struck by the following comments from two well-known journalists who suggest that there's more than meets the eye - to this Falkirk vote rigging scandal.
As I read what they're saying it's not just politics at play here - but personal relations as well - with Polly Toynbee's reference to shoehorning "girlfriends and mates' girlfriends into safe seats and top union jobs" and Adam Boulton's comment about the girlfriend of Tom Watson (46) securing the nomination in another Labour seat.
All sounds a bit seedy and too close to home, if you ask me - yet this has nothing to do with getting more working class people into Parliament, of course.
Instead this is about selecting more Labour MPs who share Len McCluskey's old-fashioned political views - views that are not supported by the vast majority of Unite members .
Instead this is about selecting more Labour MPs who share Len McCluskey's old-fashioned political views - views that are not supported by the vast majority of Unite members .
Which is an odd way for a trade union to behave because a trade union is supposed to reflect and represent the views of its members - and not just the views of the union leadership.
Polly Toynbee in the Guardian
After Len McCluskey's abrasive Sunday Mirror article, the Unite leader deserves a withering rebuff from the Labour leader. In the Guardian he now sounds more emollient. But lectures on democracy from a leader re-elected by just 9.7% of his members ring pretty hollow. Only 35%-40% of Unite members vote Labour, so McCluskey's attempt to shift Labour further left than looks electable is hardly representative of his membership. The suspicion that he shoehorned girlfriends and mates' girlfriends into safe seats and top union jobs doesn't look good. As he says, Labour needs candidates more representative of the ordinary working world, but his favoured candidate for Falkirk was herself a Westminster special adviser. Both Labour's right and left used the now rescinded rule that let new members be signed up by others and paid for with a single cheque – but signing up people unknowingly was a step too far. Old Labour hands are not easily shocked, but Falkirk struck a raw nerve.
Adam Boulton in the Sunday Times
With the associated toxins of Blairism v Brownism, new Labour or One Nation Labour, the poison of baleful union influence has now felled one of its own: Watson, who has stood down as general election campaign manager, and the two suspended members of the Falkirk constituency Labour party. One of them, Karie Murphy, was Unite's favoured parliamentary candidate. She is employed as Tom Watson's office manager and was a "close friend" of Len McCluskey according to one of Ed Miliband's aides.
With Unite's backing, Watson's 25 year old girlfriend has already secured the nomination in another Labour seat.
After Len McCluskey's abrasive Sunday Mirror article, the Unite leader deserves a withering rebuff from the Labour leader. In the Guardian he now sounds more emollient. But lectures on democracy from a leader re-elected by just 9.7% of his members ring pretty hollow. Only 35%-40% of Unite members vote Labour, so McCluskey's attempt to shift Labour further left than looks electable is hardly representative of his membership. The suspicion that he shoehorned girlfriends and mates' girlfriends into safe seats and top union jobs doesn't look good. As he says, Labour needs candidates more representative of the ordinary working world, but his favoured candidate for Falkirk was herself a Westminster special adviser. Both Labour's right and left used the now rescinded rule that let new members be signed up by others and paid for with a single cheque – but signing up people unknowingly was a step too far. Old Labour hands are not easily shocked, but Falkirk struck a raw nerve.
Adam Boulton in the Sunday Times
With the associated toxins of Blairism v Brownism, new Labour or One Nation Labour, the poison of baleful union influence has now felled one of its own: Watson, who has stood down as general election campaign manager, and the two suspended members of the Falkirk constituency Labour party. One of them, Karie Murphy, was Unite's favoured parliamentary candidate. She is employed as Tom Watson's office manager and was a "close friend" of Len McCluskey according to one of Ed Miliband's aides.
With Unite's backing, Watson's 25 year old girlfriend has already secured the nomination in another Labour seat.
