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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Jared O’Mara is what happens if your candidate is chosen by the party without a proper selection process
Yorkshire's missing MP: In Tomorrow's The Yorkshire Post our Features & Comment section demands answers on behalf of Sheffield Hallam residents – particularly the 21,000 people who put Jared O'Mara in his £74,000-a-year job. pic.twitter.com/T21Jhvm7am
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It's a problem for Labour, and it's also a problem for democracy. I thought Stuart Bell's behaviour was reprehensible; O'Mara's taking it to a new level.
The Labour council’s tree cutting policies alone will win it for the Lib Dems.
Plus the Lib Dem candidate has been very active.
Many MPs have second and third jobs and aren't therefore full focused on the job.
Somehow, I think not......
There's plenty wrong with a professionalised political class made up almost exclusively of well-spoken middle-class university-educated candidates so committed to a parliamentary career that they'll put in thousands of hours and tens of thousands of pounds to supporting themselves in that role but parties demand that for the simple reason that it's what the public responds to - or, put another way, it minimises the risks of behaviours that the public responds badly to.
As Corbyn and his allies transition Labour from a professional party to an activists' movement, expect more of these O'Mara-type candidates.
The Sheffield Star is what counts, they aren’t impressed by O’Mara.
Those MPs with second and third jobs still contribute in Parliament.
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/184324/Recall-Act-Factsheet.pdf
Recall systems could be used to remove O Mara but could equally be used to remove MPs acting on personal principle on an issue which a sizeable section of their electorate disapprove of.
Party position on Brexit clear (net):
Con: -10
Lab: -26
LibD: -22
https://leftfootforward.org/2018/01/exclusive-main-parties-positions-on-brexit-unclear-say-voters/
58% of current Lib Dems believe their position is clear, to 31% who disagree, while 26% responded ‘Don’t Know’ when asked about the Lib Dems’ stance – higher than Labour and the Conservatives’ 18%.
Even if Labour loses in 2022, Corbyn's legacy could last many years longer. On average, you could expect 30-40 safe seats to be available each election through retirements and while Momentum's been pretty useless at getting candidates from its wing selected so far, that could change now the left (if not Momentum as such) has both the leadership and the NEC.
https://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/features/star-interview-cancer-won-t-keep-me-from-my-work-in-politics-says-sheffield-mp-clive-betts-1-8955795
A recall by election might also see a much lower turnout than a general election - you could see MPs voted out on a 20 per cent turnout when they were elected on a 70 per cent one.
https://youtu.be/VBvMQPiDZ3k
1) This is an object lesson in how little the individual candidate matters. Jared O'Mara beat the former deputy Prime Minister - whatever else you think of Nick Clegg, he was a serious figure. He was beaten by a cipher.
2) Following on from this thought, I wonder whether Labour is making a mistake selecting candidates in key seats so early. CCHQ has much more time to get its teeth into these candidates, find out their past indiscretions and turn those into campaign materials.
I suspect for the Labour Centre Right, the next year is Last Chance Saloon. They have to act now (or not at all). Remain gives them a rallying cry, as Wes Streeting seems to realise. It is the only significant cause in which Jeremy is out of step with most of his supporters.
But, once we have left, the Rallying Cry will have gone.
For any hope of another referendum, you need the Labour leadership onside. Why won't that happen?
An example ... there are two parliamentary constituencies in St Helens.
At the last GE, St Helens South had a Labour majority of 24,000, St Helens North had a Labour majority of 18,000. This is Labour heartland.
The St Helens constituency in the referendum voted 58% Leave, and I know many Tories who voted Remain.
Pick someone at random and they're probably Labour Leave. An about-face by Labour would represent a snub to the North and an embrace of London values. I don't say it couldn't happen, but ...
2) The Conservatives are looking to select for target seats this year too. In both cases it looks like an over-reaction to being caught out in 2017, though there is certainly some merit in doing so where there is a good local candidate and/or not much by way of institutional opposition to the MP (e.g. council control, or a plausible council opposition).
Massive cash transfers from Re-mania to Leaverstan should do the trick. If you are resident in Islington (Re-mania), you pay 2p extra income tax in the pound, and that money is transferred to St Helens (Leaverstan).
Many people make a lot of money out of the EU (lawyers, universities, etc). Remain lost because those people don't want to share their gains with the people who actually lost out.
Me thinks you have been watching the tube scene in the Darkest hour. I know the district line is slow - but more than 10 minutes to go one stop?!
Recalls could be used to remove bad MPs but also principled ones who held unpopular positions which later were proved to be right. We need more long term thinking and planning - not more short termism where politicians do the popular thing not the right thng.
"The Air Ministry memorandum of February 1936 reflected a real change of policy. In the words of this document, the Air Ministry had ‘pressed on with the development and production of new types‘ and was now able to formulate ‘a much more effective programme‘ which it hoped could be realised by 1939. Moreover, what was now to be expanded was not the political or the propaganda effect of the Air Force but its real combat power.
The new programme, henceforth to be known as Expansion Scheme F, was sanctioned by the Cabinet in February 1936 and was to remain in force for two years. It marked a complete departure from the purely demonstrative principles of the previous Scheme A and introduced the first real measure of expansion. Under its provisions the Air Force was to acquire more than 8,000 new aircraft over three years compared with the 3,800 over two years under the preceding programme."
http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/from-peace-to-war-royal-air-force-rearmament-programme-1934-1940.html/3
Put bluntly, if we had fought the Battle of Britain at the time of Munich we would have lost. And this occurred under Chamberlain.
Remember Carillion’s former chief executive is still currently entitled to a £660,000 salary, apparently.
I’ve not actually seen whether it’s stated that he’s been paid January’s instalment yet, although presumably Decembers has gone through. Which is more than can be said for bills of smaller suppliers and sub-contactors.
17:55 Labour’s Stephen Kinnock says Carillion is a ‘sorry tale of the privatisation of profit and the nationalisation of risk’.
"Isn’t the case for a windfall tax on these companies now unanswerable?"
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2018/jan/15/carillion-crisis-liquidation-last-ditch-talks-fail-business-live?page=with:block-5a5cee4ce4b003d428b08e22#liveblog-navigation
Actually that is not correct. The site is confusing. Last dividend March 2017.
Conservative governments in particular get castigated for every cut they make but at the end of the five years stand again on an overall record and get judged for if they're competent or not. If there's a too-easy recall system then any unpopular cuts can be an issue immediately rather than being judged as part of an overall package.
That is not good for sensible long-term thinking or for MPs who stand up for what they actually believe in.
Think it through for a moment. The company has been providing goods and services to us taxpayers. The government has been paying for them. There has been a loss. That is, the costs of providing those goods and services were higher than the revenues received for having provided them. We taxpayers have been paying less than the value of what we’ve been paying for – that’s a profit to us.
https://capx.co/carillions-losses-were-the-taxpayers-gains/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxdjQM2MUl4
I am pretty sure that we are still paying (Sir) Fred's enormous pension. I am pretty sure that we will still be paying Carillon's management their huge pensions.
Whoever is in power in the UK -- Labour or Tory -- serious fraudsters never seem to end up in prison.
Local councils have a system whereby you are forced to stand down if you don't attend meetings and vote for six months. That would address the issue of non attendance and lack of representation re O Mara - with exemptions for those who have severe illnesses.
You say no MP would be recalled on a matter of principle - where their views differed from a vocal minority of electors. But they could be. And that is the problem! And recall elections with lower turnouts than a general election could be driven by a vocal minority.
My view of democracy is voters have a vote - and the people they elect should be given time to do what they were sent to do and see the results through. I don't agree with holding elections and referendums every five minutes because of changes in opinion polls or because you are unhappy with your local MP at one moment in time. That is the road to short termism - you get MPs who will always do what is popular at the time and never do what is right.
We need more signposts and fewer weathercocks. Recall systems would risk more of the latter - why take an unpopular stand against the prevailing mood? Not worth the risk.
I hope he's OK - obviously political opponents are within their rights to run on this but don't forget there's an actual human in the middle of it.
Labour needs to do the same in Sheffield Hallam to show it takes its MP's duties seriously.
As for Jared,he needs support and understanding so he can end this living nightmare for him and he can get back to his DJ work and getting pissed every Thursday.
When I delivered consultancy to SG, I had to sub to Logica as there was no methodology or process for the civil service to hire me as a one man band. On the other hand, they very decently insisted that Logica pay my invoices within 14 days and held them to it.
Taking the point about perceived safety, I'd add that it is the reduced governance and management costs which are attractive to public sector bodies, though this may very well be a local optimisation that doesn't encompass some of the externalities of having a supplier base comprising large, unwieldy, low-margin businesses.
http://www.pensionprotectionfund.org.uk/Pages/Compensation.aspx