NEC Elections

As a card-carrying member of the Labour Party, I get to vote in NEC elections (I'll also get to vote for the next leader and deputy leader).

The NEC, for those of you not in the know is Labour's main decision making body. It's made up of (and I quote):

• The leader (Blair)
• The deputy leader (Prescott for the time being...)
• Treasurer
• 12 TU members
• 6 constituency party members (the ones I get to vote for)
• 3 government ministers
• 3 MPs or MEPs
• 2 Councillors
• 1 Young Labour Representative
• 1 "representative of the socialist societies"
• The leader of the European Parliament Labour Party (I don't know who that is).

So who's running for the NEC. Notable names are:

• Lorna Fitzsimmons- former MP for Rochdale until the students there voted her out.
• Helen Jackson: Former MP for Sheffield Hillsborough.
• Walter Wolfgang- yes, that Walter Wolfgang. The one who got thrown out of the Labour Conference for heckling and got us accused of being fascists.

There seem to be two distinct blocs:

• The Grassroots Alliance (Wolfgang and his crew- noticeably anti-Iraq war)
• The leadership's preferred candidates. I voted for most of these.

You can vote until 31 July.