I promise I’m almost through with General Synod elections but I want to thank various people for emails and other messages about ways to make the process simpler, more informative and transparent. There’s a way to go, but a few simple steps with the right technology would go a long way to help, but not till next time round.
I just want to share finally, however something I would find it hard to believe if several people whose judgment I trust had not told me it was so. Apparently an elector at an election meeting asked candidates to state to which relevant organisations they belong. All but one candidate did the obvious and said, but one who shall be nameless simply refused to answer the question. Only having a tiny number of electors present makes this kind of sheer arrogance possible.
It also takes those of us a certain age straight back to the eighties, and the Old Labour Militant Tendency. Their whole entrist technique was to cover their tracks by issue-based campaigning astroturf organisations, whilst refusing to state their Trotskyism. Voters thought they were voting Labour, whilst they were actually putting in Trotskyists who wouldn’t say, because they knew perfectly well they would never have been elected if the voters had known.
I have no idea what campaign groups this particular candidate belongs to, nor, as this amounts to negative comment about a particular candidate will I out him.However one essential reform in the process must surely be a requirement on all candidates to disclose to voters their membership of relevant campaigning groups. Without that, the whole process, inevitably, is reduced to a Magical Mystery...
