Tuesday 4 August 2009

Open primaries

So the Tories have selected a parliamentary candidate using a open primary system.
Cool. I'm all for this, it sounds like a cracking idea. Get the people involved to get involved.

4 comments:

Julian Ware-Lane said...

I do not like the idea of open primaries. Two reasons: one is that part of the reason for joining a party is to have a say in who gets selected for seats - why bother if everyone can have a say.

Second: an open primary means anyone has a say in who our candidate is. I do not want our candidates to be chosen by members of the BNP or Tories.

Bearded Socialist said...

In this case anyway, the short list was drawn up by the party before being put to the vote, so the party people locally did have a good say in who was selected.

I think that too often people look within narrow spheres for political candidates and hopefully opening it up would allow some greater involvement in the process, and allow the people selected to engage more with the people who will vote for them.

For me, being in the Labour party means I represent them in everything I do. I will still be out knocking on doors and posting leaflets, campaigning and doing my thing so I don't personally think that the selection process is the be-all-and-end-all

Julian Ware-Lane said...

There is an element of training that comes with being an activist. I was a member for quite a few years helping other people in their campaigns before I decided to put myself forward. I am not sure that the 'man in the street' has much idea what actually goes into being a candidate.

I hope I do not come across as a stick in the mud on this, but there are good reasons why parties have evolved to their current position.

Bearded Socialist said...

You're a top man Julian, because it's good to have someone to stand up against the tide. Everyone is getting swept up in how great the open primaries are, and no-one has yet suffered something horrible as a result of them.
While I'm cautiously in favour, I like to have a good debate on the matter and if somethings come up to change my mind, then so much the better.

Most people don't know what goes on in the work of politics, and not the things that go into the selection process, i'd certainly agree with that.
While i agree that things evolve for a reason, that reason is not always a good one