A long time ago back in the 90's when we were choosing a candidate to be our PPC we had both Eagle sisters, Angela and Maria who applied to represent Pendle CLP. I think we started with about 20 applicants. I think Angela got as far as the hustings but we chose Gordon to be our PPC and then got him elected. Angela and Maria were successful elsewhere.
Those were the days when individual constituency parties got to run their own selections. It's more centralised now and any hopefuls have to get on the national long list first and are then centrally selected for areas. We may get the opportunity of a short list of three but will have had no involvement in their selection. We have had a couple of hopefuls who have come to our branch meetings and have been generally making themselves know around the CLP, going on local canvassing sessions and events etc. There is no guarantee that either will get on the long list let alone appear on our allocated short list.
This is a case of the central party thinking they know better than the local branches that do the work. We should have a PPC in place already but we don't. If push comes to shove in a snap election we will get an imposed candidate.
No way to run a raffle.
