- Let’s be honest. There’s a clear link with Islam (£) by David Aaronovitch, The Times
- Intellectual property is an innovation killer by Joshua Lachkovic , KernalMag
- Dumb Idea Hall of Fame by Aaron David Miller, Foreign Policy
- Nadine Dorries threatens Cameron's Party Leadership by Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail
- Boris set for party leadership? by Traci Watson, USAToday
- Anti-Israel students deface Star of David at student conference by Jonny Paul, Jerusalem Post
- Jihadist Videos on University Facebook by Rupert Sutton, Huffington Post UK
- Skintland: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose by Alex Massie, Spectator UK
- Green tax on conservatories by James Slack and Tamara Cohen, Daily Mail
- Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country by Staff writers, BBC
What happened to open primaries?
The death of the Labour Member of Parliament Alan Keen has prompted a by-election in London. Why are the Tories not leaving it up to the people to decide?
You must remember. The fanfare, the fist pumping, the feeling that ‘things can only get better’. No, this wasn’t 1997, this was 2009.
Gordon Brown had bottled a General Election and the Tories were riding the crest of a wave. Women supported them, youngsters supported them and environmental activists were thinking of ‘voting blue and going green’.
One other flagship policy from the Tories, designed to win over the direct democrats and libertarians, was that of open primaries, a system commonly used in the United States whereby the local residents, not just party members, get to choose their candidates for their constituencies, rather than having party pole-climbers parachuted in.
“Great!” We thought. We can fully support this: a system that delivers talented representatives and in some cases, whistle-blowers for bad behavior. The opposition ostensibly followed suit.
Alas now in government, the Tories seem to have put all this democracy nonsense behind them. Well, unless you’re Libyan.
In May this year, Michael Crick reported that the Prime Minister was so infuriated by one of his primary candidate successes rebelling against the government that he said it was the last time the Tories would conduct that experiment. Like toys out of a pram.
Now, in the Feltham and Heston by-election, Cameron is taking no chances. Recently having been embarrassed on a massive scale by his backbenchers, Cameron obviously doesn’t want another ‘rogue’ (or what you and I might call an actual conservative) on his hands.
Mark Bowen, a man who all but gave up in advance of the General Election 2010 has been selected by the party hierarchy to challenge the seat. Aspiring candidates were not only given no explanation, but told to fall in line or face the consequences (not in those words exactly, but you get the drift). Critics will argue 'there's not enough time for a primary'. But with Labour set to announce their candidate on Sunday, there is no reason the Tories couldn't have placed ads in local papers to announce a Saturday or Sunday open primary to be held at a local venue.
Even more embarrassing for the Tories is that the UKIP candidate, highly likely to steal more than the 992 conservative votes that Jerry Shadbolt took in 2010, is none other than former Tory candidate for Edmonton, Andrew Charalambous.
The businessman and barrister is also the founder of ‘Surya’, the world’s first eco-nightclub which hosted the official ‘Conservative Future’ party in November 2010. Activists may be confused as to whether to campaign for Cameron, who delivered them government, or for Charalambous, who delivered them… booze.
One may wonder if the young party activists who championed the notion of open primaries going into the General Election would have something to say about this.
If the e-mail from Conservative Campaign HQ is anything to go by, I’d say probably not. After all, Conservative Future hardly has the best history of elections. The turnout at the last CF nationals was an humiliating 0.86%. Not really a mandate… just like Dave.
Raheem Kassam is the Executive Editor of The Commentator and served on the Conservative Future National Executive in 2009. He tweets at @RaheemJKassam.
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And Liebour put forward....a disgraced token female, done for expenses and has worked with Red Ken!
Just a normal liebour candidate then!
Open primaries are subject to abuse. The enemy can bus in enough fake voters to gerrymander the election.
"..a system commonly used in the United States.."
Only 20 out of the 50 states use open primaries.
"Open primaries," as the term is understood, is a practice wherein the voters of an area get to choose the candidate who will stand at the actual election. It allows the members of other parties to vote for someone they believe will be the easiest to defeat. This particular practice is not as widespread in the USA as you seem to imply. A more common practice is a "Modified Open Primary" in which registered voters of a particular party and of no affiliation vote, but not members of an opposing party, unless provision is made for what is called "cross-the-aisle balloting." The MOP allows for only one vote for one candidate of one party, as the ballot one receives contains only that party. Thus, at the polling station, you choose one person alone, you do not get to choose who that person's opponent should be, as would be the case in a completely "Open Primary." That said, many states still require that only those voters registered to a party be permitted to vote on Primary Election Day, thus disfranchising unaffiliated voters in the choice of candidates for the General Election. This is important to remember when American pundits natter on about a candidate's appeal to the "base"(a term I've always thought to be an ironic pun, to be honest!).
And as of ytareedsy we know the Tories want to charge top-up fees for nurseries. For NURSERIES. Making free nursery places available is one of the most important changes of the past decade, making a real difference to the lives of ordinary working people AND THE TORIES WANT TO TAKE IT AWAY.
Yup that cast iron Cameron for you. he can promise you anything he likes, but he's my little puppet and I tell him what he can do. Open primaries? In the EU? Why would the all knowing elite let the unwashed decide anything?