Georgina Gould
Common sense has prevailed in the safe labour constituency of Erith and Thamesmead in south-east London.
The attempt by the 22 year old daughter of Tony Blair's polling guru Philip Gould, ended in defeat yesterday after she came a poor third in a better and brutal fight that has been filled with charges of nepotism and marred by a vote-rigging scandal and charges of dirty tricks.
Party members chose Teresa Pearce, a 54 year old former Labour councillor and tax expert with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Second was the former Labour minister Melanie Johnson, with Ms Gould in a distant third place.
It was a ludicrous idea to think a 22 year old would make a competent member of parliament in the first place. Do hope labour HQ take this result seriously.
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16 comments:
Twenty two? I've got T shirts older than that!
"It was a ludicrous idea to think a 22 year old would make a competent member of parliament in the first place"
.....
Hoi hoi cool it, we need some youth in westminster, okay not her but some young blood is needed,
BTW i plan to stand for First Minister by the time im 25. I shall appoint you the post of minister for youth relations.
I was amazed at the brass neck involved in this revolting example of nepotism and vote rigging gone wrong. Let’s hope that common sense has finally prevailed here. Alas it is sadly lacking in the ocean of “mistakes”, “errors” and “lapses of judgement” trotted out by so many of our “honourable” MPs of late.
Hear hear! I seriously failed to ever comprehend how the little pip-squeak was deemed suitable in the first place. Yet another case of Labour laughing in the face of decency and trying to push the boundaries of acceptability to the limit. Thank God they failed!
Spook you can't be serious about a 22 year old being sensible enough to be an MP. I've yet to meet one. I know of one lad who graduated with a first class honours in Engineering, did a year at Sandhurst and was fighting in Kosovo by your age and I still wouldn't say he'd be experienced enough in life to be an MP.
The salary structures of MPs out to be graded like all public servants. Let them start on around £30-35,000 and get increments through service and efficiency.
30 ought to be the minimum age for an MP or MSP although I could see there may be a few exceptions.
It'll continue though Monty, no doubt. I think the grass roots have had enough and spoken in this case and long may they do so and not give up.
I've got shoes and handbags far older than that Rab!
Rosa, you might be interested in this
http://wrinkledweasel.blogspot.com/2009/05/im-as-straight-as-they-come-shahid.html
There is a YouTube video in which Malik says
"In 1997 we got our first Muslim MP. In 2001 we had two Muslim MPs. In 2005 we had four Muslim MPs. In ša Allah, in 2009 (or) 2010 we'll have eight or ten Muslim MPs. In 2014 we'll have 16 Muslim MPs. At this rate the whole parliament will be Muslim."
and:
"I am confident, as Britain's first Muslim minister, that, in ša Allah, in the next thirty years or so, we'll see a prime minister who happens to share my faith."
I'd forgotten I'd seen that quite some time ago now WW, thanks for reminding me. What he says wouldn't surprise me in the least though because we're walking straight into the trap.
OK ..you guys have a lot of problems to solve, the biggest one being about agreeing on anything...you're as good as than the Mexicans...lol. Subrosa...you should run for office
I don't think Spook should wait till he's 25.... go for it now.... LOL
Nope, seriously, I agree that before you are an MP you should have some experience of other things. One of the problems with the lot we got in at the moment is they have never really lived in the world outside of politics.
Actually, it wouldn't be a bad idea for politicians, who really only have a part time job anyway (seeing as they have time to do all manner of other jobs), to take say 6 weeks out of their summer recess to work in industry or farming, or on a fishing boat or in a shop, for no extra money, just so they could see what it was like for "ordinary" people.
I rather like the slap in the face to the New Labour establishment, her out and out rejection was.
Subrosa, you've obviously forgotten the example of SNP MSP Duncan Hamilton, who was in his mid-twenties when eleceted, and was SO much better than the average (particularly the women) that he didn't stand next time round.
Or, at least, that seemed to be what HE thought ;0)
Stuart, he's part of the reason I think the minimum age should be 30 ;)
Baron, I couldn't toe any party line so I would have had to stand as an independent and now I couldn't be bothered.
Oh God thats too young :)
Just shows how Westminster politics is a selfish setup GB. No 22 year old has anything like enough experience of life.
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