I've always believed that the people's representatives should look like the people they represent. That is one of the reasons I stood as a young man in last year's local elections and support measures to increase the numbers of BME and female representatives, like Labour's all women shortlists for winnable seats. It is a shame the Tories and LiB Dems are not so interested.
For Dave's Tories, his famed A-List of candidates has struggled to make the changes to how they look that were originally vaunted. The Lib Dems don't look like they've even tried if a look at their candidates for next year's GLA elections is anything to go by.
Indeed, this has caused quite some controversy within the party, including Islington Mildmay councillor Meral Ece and local blogger Suzanne Lamido. This also got a short piece in the Islington Gazette. For me this shows that while many political tourists see the Lib Dems as to the left of Labour, this is another example of what they really stand for - as Meral says, a "white" party. It certainly isn't the behaviour of a party committed to equality.
1 comment:
Absolutely. If you're dressed as a monkey maybe you'd get elected mayor of Durham, but a little south of Northampton and the English treat politics more seriously. As even public relations folks will tell you, you have to be a 'people's man' or you'll like like an outsider.
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