Livingstone challenging Blair's theft of London Mayor Nomination

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sun Feb 20 16:02:49 PST 2000


At 11:12 20/02/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Left-leaning Ken Livingstone, racking up impressive majorities in ballots by
>union and other Labour membership groups, is protesting a stacked nominating
>system that has officially delivered the London mayor party nomination to a
>Blair-picked candidate. Having watched Maggie Thatcher abolish the London
>Council out from under him, he has now seen Blair try to steal a mayor
>nomination from him against the wishes of a majority of London party
>members.
>
>Hopefully, this will make Livingstone a pole for real opposition to Blair in
>Britain. If the party doesn't reconsider the nomination, hopefully
>Livingstone will run independently. See the URL link for coverage on the
>race:
>
>http://uk.fc.yahoo.com/l/london_mayor.html
>
>Nathan Newman
>nathan.newman at yale.edu

Left wing groups have already been mobilising around this issue. It raises dilemmas about whether the radical road can be through the Labour Party.

One of the issues is the tension inherent in the constitutional devolution that the Labour Party has brought in. In Wales the nominee of Tony Blair has just had to resign in favour of Rhodri Morgan who is seen as more independent of Blair.

The opposition to Blair is now seen as coming from the left.

The new post of Mayor of London has raised problems for both Labour and the Conservatives of how to choose a popular candidate who is still under the control of the party, efficient, and electable.

The most specific issue is how the new Mayor would raise money for the refurbishment of the London Underground.

Dobson has just won a very narrow margin as Labour candidate for Mayor in an electoral college which is widely suspected of being set up to help him win. Livingstone has left himself open to calls to stand as an independent. Opinion polls may show in the next few days he could win against both Frank Dobson and the Conservative candidate.

Opinion polls are the new democracy, as they are in the US primary system.

Chris Burford

London



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