Unite, the Tories tell us, has installed 59 of its members as Labour parliamentary candidates, and a new Left conspiracy is now emerging headed by Charlie Whelan.   It just shows what unadulterated rubbish the media can sometimes serve up, regurgitating Tory propaganda, when the truth is the opposite.   Whelan for a start is an unabashed Right-wing bruiser and fixer.  

The great majority of Unite’s claimed 59 PPCs aren’t Left-wing at all, certainly not the likes of Jack Dromey or Peter Wheeler whom Mandelson is now complaining about.   And the idea that Tom Watson, another Brownite fixer, is scrupulously ensuring that talented candidates from across the party get on to NEC shortlists, as has been claimed, is a joke.   Virtually no Centre-left candidates have been allowed on to these shortlists at all.

The truth is very different from Tory pretence (and a bit rich coming from them since Tory HQ has been fixing selections for all it’s worth to make the new Tory parliamentary party far more Right-wing even than the present one).   The Leadership of both parties have their preferred candidates, ease their path where they can (e.g. by giving them earlier access to membership lists of the voters), use regional or local party officials (illicitly) to promote them, draw up short-lists to enhance their chances, and employ postal votes on a substantial scale (just in case).   Like the Tories, New Labour has become a franchising operation for the Leadership clique who control the machine.   This is not a way to run a democracy.

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