The Wardman Wire

Mike Rouse reports on the implosion of the local Labour party in Northampton South among recriminations, backstabbing, covert plots and all the usual shenanigans of such situations.

I’m not going to attempt to navigate the controversy, except to note that various long standing members - including the local MP for eight years - we’re thrown out of the Party, and the dead hand of the Regional and National Parties were involved in wielding various seemingly random knives in various seemingly random and unconstitutional directions.

Needless to say - and according those on the receiving end - the unconstitutional actions were only corrected where it was convenient.

• Here is Mike’s post.
• Here is the 117 comment thread on Labour home that was “vanished” from the site, then magically restored. Persevere - the bottom half is more interesting.
• Here is the comment thread on Mike’s site as a PDF.
• Here is the article in the local paper.

The upshot is that we now have “Northampton Independent Voice” standing in the South of the Town.

I’ve posted before that I support placing community loyalty over party machinations.

So - go Northampton Independent Voice.

(Is there really a ward called “Lumbertups” - wonderful!).

Wrapping-Up

The other glaring lesson for both Labour and the Conservatives from this fiasco is pretty obvious: get a private forum for members. Now.

See how the Lib Dems operate in this respect.

Tags: northampton independent voice, labour home, mike rouse, northampton, tony clarke[tags]northampton independent voice, labour home, mike rouse, northampton, tony clarke[/tags]