Wednesday 29 September 2010

Entitlement

I've just been listening to an interview with Ed Miliband. He was explaining, in a very brotherly way, that the choice of whether or not to be in the Shadow Cabinet was up to his brother, David (the one with the knife-handle sticking out of his back).

I don't understand much about Labour electoral practice. I know that electing the Labour leader is the only electoral process that rivals the elections to Church of England General Synod for Byzantine complexity and anomaly. But I'm still pretty sure that the way it works is not, that people called "Miliband" get to decide whether or not they are in the Shadow Cabinet. I'm pretty sure that the party has some kind of say in it. Or am I missing something?

4 comments :

  1. And by what transparently democratic process does one become an archdruid?

    :-)

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  2. I think that Labour in the interests of being seen as democratic has burdened itself with modern (sic) electoral systems, which means that even the toilet cleaner at Labour HQ has to be elected.

    Now, if you were considering how to make some money out of this mess, perhaps you could offer your self as a highly paid consultant to them - the example of the Beaker Folk, with its historic legacy of imagined democracy seems to me to be just what they need.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is a Milliband times another Milliband a Billiband or a Trilliband? I think we should be told.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Ermintrude
    - I believe the term is "my gaff my rules". Love the new avatar, by the way.

    ReplyDelete

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