Defections in Derby
This story has been on rotation all day - Margaret Beckett is “rocked” by 37 Labour party members from her Derby South constituency defecting to the Lib Dems. The supposed reason is that they are furious with the government over its policy on the Israel-Hizbullah war.
I was glad to find that I wasn’t the only one to smell something fishy in this. After all, as Nicola points out, if when you’re still in the party after the invasion of Iraq, it doesn’t make sense that your last straw is the government not calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
Fair Deal Phil’s got the inside story, and it’s a similar reason to most defections - not politics, but personalities:
Last Wednesday, Mr Peeno was rejected by local members of Normanton Labour Party in his bid to become a Labour candidate at next May’s local elections in Derby. 24 hours earlier, local members of the Labour Party in Arboretum rejected Abdul Majeed, another of today’s defectors, in his bid to be Labour’s candidate in Arboretum ward.
Both attended recent meetings of Derby South Constituency Labour Party attended by their MP, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. Strangely, none of them raised the Lebanon question, the reason the broadcasters tell us is why they have joined the LibDems. [...] All they actually talked about wasn’t Lebanon at all, but issues on how they could secure the nomination to be Labour candidates.
thanks for the link Antonia.
unfortunately, the facts don’t fit the media agenda on the Derby Defectors story.
did you see my later post on this story re: the photo in the Derby Telegraph?
phil
Not politics but personalities?
Hmm, sounds like a certain Cowley Marsh Councillor…
Hi Ruth, hope you’re well and enjoying not being a councillor. Thought you lot would be quicker off the mark than five days to make that comment, to be honest. I’m sure you’re half right - it can’t have been nice being a member of a Lib Dem group fighting one another so hard they barely had time to fight us (not that I’m complaining, you understand!)
These 41 ex-Derby Labour Party members who defected to the Liberal Democrats had joined Labour. They had Labour membership numbers they had Labour membership cards. The General Secretary of the Labour Party has now written to them and invited them to rejoin Labour.
He would hardly have done that if they hadn’t been Labour party members.
Face reality Labour made itself unpopular over Iraq and the Lebanon. And locally in Derby Labour has made itself unpopular by going into an alliance with the Tories, and cutting a number of local services, sports centres home care services for the elderly and disabled etc.
That is why people are leaving Derby Labour Party in droves. Instead of pretending that people who were Labour Party members were never Labour Party members. It would be better to consider why so many people want to leave Derby Labour Party.