How do political parties choose their candidates in ENGLAND?
I used to be an active Labour party member until I opened my eyes. This is how it worked in my constituency in Kent. The local party is run by a clique of buddies and drinking pals. Everyone else is excluded from the ‘inner circle’; we the ‘workers’ had the job of canvassing etc (beneath the upper clique) and doing all the mundane work that a local party needs doing (leafleting etc). Some time before an election the Party headquarters sent a list of three people they had chosen and the local party had to select one. In my area we were very marginal and so I argued for the more ‘right wing’ candidate as the one that most people would vote for (ie Labour supporters and floating voters). The inner circle chose another candidate (very left wing) because he was a friend of someone whose influence would help the inner circle clique. We lost the election because many supporters didn’t like the candidate and floating voters voted Tory. The whole sytem is about people who want to be elected ***
