Old tricks from British Labour
By Greg Harris
LONDON — Tony Blair's Labour Party is under fire for a particularly crude manipulation of the selection process for its London mayoral candidate. Candidate Ken Livingstone was defeated despite winning a majority in every popular preselection ballot.
While Blair has been determined to wipe out any tradition of radicalism within the party, the fight also reflects a major difference on the privatisation of London's underground railway system. Both the successful candidate, Frank Dobson, and a third candidate, Glenda Jackson, support the Blair government's latest attack on public transport.
This dispute comes at a time of mounting difficulties for Blair's "devolution" plans in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Blair's handpicked Welsh assembly leader Alun Michael resigned just hours before a vote of no confidence. Michael and Labour's Scottish leader Donald Dewar were selected by a top-heavy selection process similar to London's.
The extent of the rigging was extraordinary. Livingstone won a clear majority of London Labour Party members' votes, and a majority in all unions which gave their members a vote on the issue. Dobson, in contrast, had the support of only one major union, the engineering union, which denied its members a say. In addition, some pro-Livingstone unions were excluded from taking part.
Dobson's sole base of support was the huge number of local and European members of parliament who overwhelmingly followed Blair's voting instructions.
From the moment the result was announced, Labour went on the offensive to discredit Livingstone. It said Livingstone would be a liar if he chose to stand as an independent, as he had previously said he would not do so. It also proposed that mayoral candidates not be given access to a free mail-out to all voters, although this appears to have been defeated in the House of Lords.
Labour's vitriol against Livingstone appears to have left him with just two alternatives: to stand independently of Labour or disappear from public political life.