New Labour's last MP for Bristol East doesn't live here - will their hopeful replacement do so? (Bristol East Liberal Democrats)

Bristol East Liberal Democrats <info@bristoleastlibdems.org.uk>

New Labour's last MP for Bristol East doesn't live here - will their hopeful replacement do so?

February 18, 2005 12:00 AM
By Philip C James, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Bristol East

Philip C James, LD PPC for Bristol East with Easton Ward Cllr John Kiely and Focus Editor, Abdul Malik

Phil James, Easton Councillor John Kiely and Focus Editor Abdul Malik met recently to discuss some of the problems but also the pleasures of life in Bristol East

Sir, Mr Holland attempts to set a red herring running in his rebuttal of your editorial about New Labour's selection process in Bristol East (Letters, 17 February).

New Labour deserves criticism by the Post and others. Its National Executive has engineered a selection process that gives local Labour party members very little real influence over the choice of their General Election candidate. New Labour is fixated with command and control from the top, riding rough-shod over its local parties, as it does, in government, over the needs of local communities.

Mr Holland focuses on whether its selection candidates have been open about their origins, local or otherwise. May I suggest this is not the real issue? After all, if countries may benefit from an infusion of fresh ideas through immigration, does the same not also apply to constituencies? No, the real issue is whether a New Labour candidate, if elected as MP for Bristol East, would move house to the constituency during her first term in office.

I live in Bath, closer to Bristol East than any prospective candidate from the other major parties. Even so, if elected to serve my constituents as their Member of Parliament, I am committed to living amongst as well as working for the people I would represent.

The current New Labour MP does not live in her constituency, despite having been first elected in 1992. Can the electorate expect similar cavalier treatment by her New Labour successor, if she were elected?

[Text of letter sent for publication to the Bristol Evening Post]