Sunday, September 20, 2009
Strangest story of the day
In what must be the strangest story of the day so far the Sunday Times reveals the exact extent of the break-down of comradeship within the Labour Party as they slide towards a decisive election defeat:
Labour party staff could be forced to undergo DNA tests in a bid to uncover who tampered with ballot boxes during a row over selection for a safe seat.
In a move that has been labelled “bonkers” by insiders, Ray Collins, Labour’s general secretary, wants to collect samples from all workers at the party’s Victoria Street headquarters who could have been involved in spoiling ballot papers in the bitter contest for the constituency of Erith and Thamesmead.
Among the candidates running for selection was Georgia Gould, 22, the daughter of Lord Gould, one of the architects of New Labour. The selection process was marred by claims that she was being “parachuted” into the safe seat by the Labour party machine and being given unfair help by powerful figures including Alastair Campbell and Tessa Jowell.
A hustings in April had to be called off after seals were broken on a ballot box containing postal votes at party headquarters.
And in a sign that perhaps money is short for the party of government they plan on using kits purchased on the internet to take the DNA samples, in the hope of finding a match with samples from the spoiled papers.
It seems that it is not just civil liberties that have been abandoned by Labour but natural justice too.
Labour party staff could be forced to undergo DNA tests in a bid to uncover who tampered with ballot boxes during a row over selection for a safe seat.
In a move that has been labelled “bonkers” by insiders, Ray Collins, Labour’s general secretary, wants to collect samples from all workers at the party’s Victoria Street headquarters who could have been involved in spoiling ballot papers in the bitter contest for the constituency of Erith and Thamesmead.
Among the candidates running for selection was Georgia Gould, 22, the daughter of Lord Gould, one of the architects of New Labour. The selection process was marred by claims that she was being “parachuted” into the safe seat by the Labour party machine and being given unfair help by powerful figures including Alastair Campbell and Tessa Jowell.
A hustings in April had to be called off after seals were broken on a ballot box containing postal votes at party headquarters.
And in a sign that perhaps money is short for the party of government they plan on using kits purchased on the internet to take the DNA samples, in the hope of finding a match with samples from the spoiled papers.
It seems that it is not just civil liberties that have been abandoned by Labour but natural justice too.
