Well – what to make of the results of the party’s selection of our GLA (London Assembly) list candidates for next year?
This time round I wasn’t standing (I finished third and top in the selections for 2000 and 2004, but stood down from the GLA when I became an MP), so it’s been interesting to see the process from the outside.
I’m glad that the overall list is so well balanced in terms of men and women – good progress there – and with a good mix of people used to taking on not just the Tories but also Labour! It is also clear that those who (like myself previously!) started their selection campaigns well in advance of the process officially starting generally did well – Jeremy Ambache and Caroline Pidgeon particularly. Good to see hard work and campaigning bringing benefits.
Is it all good news then? Well with nine out of the eleven being white, there’s bound to be some talk about the ethnic make-up of the list. There was a good range of candidates to choose from, so I hope those who weren’t successful at getting on this list this time treat the result as a stepping stone to the future rather than as a permanent rebuff.
Finally, congrats to Monica for getting on the list, and best of luck to Wayne and Ajmal – the other two candidates from Haringey – for other selections.
Lynne Featherstone 
Lynne,Nine, not ten… Shas Sheehan and Merlene Emerson being the relevant candidates…
My typo – now fixed. Thanks!
“I’m glad that the overall list is so well balanced in terms of men and women – good progress there”The rules have a gender balance provision, but they have to my knowledge never been invoked. i.e. the list has always been gender balanced.
In terms of female representation, it is actually REgress. In 2000, 3 out of the top 4 were women. I suppose we’ve thus made progress for ‘balance’, but that was in 2004.
Hi Lynne, I hope know how that system works, can someone let me know whether Ajmal was selected to sit on the GLA for Lib Dems. I think Ajmal would be the best candidate. Ajmal is a positive advocate for British Muslims’ and passionately speaks up on issues affecting Muslims in Britain today. Lib Dems’ are under-represented from BME communities within Parliament and GLA- so it would be good to have a greater representation of people from BME communities. Mash
James,It is indeed progress in terms of balance. A 50/50 split is more balanced than a 75/25 split.The more important point, surely, is that the GLA selection results have consistently shown that there is no inherent bias against women in either the process or the voting.Neil.