Phew!

[poliphilo]

Since I wrote my stirring call to class warfare a few days back I've discovered that they've been fiddling with the parliamentary boundaries, and my Labour candidate is no longer party grandee Michael Meacher- whom I respect, but New Labour trusty Phil Woolas- whom I don't.
 
I checked out the Lib Dem alternative. His name is Elwyn Watkins, he has one of those fat, chipmunkey faces that you only see on politicians,  he works as a financial advisor to Saudi billionaire Sheikh Abdullah Alhamrani and he used to be a Councillor in Rochdale, where his record for attending meetings is poor.

Phew.  That's a relief. I want Labour to win the election, but voting for Woolas is a stretch and if the Lib Dems had been putting a white knight up against him I'd have been tempted to defect. But they haven't, so I'm not.
 

Comments

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

*Anything* is better than the wretched racist opportunist Woolas, whom I know from his days in student politics, and who is the Labour MP I'd most like to see lose. Michael Meacher is not perfect but he's a million times the man that Woolas will ever be.

That said, what *is* up with Oldham Lib Dems; is it that they've become ultra-cautious since the Little & Sad by-election when Chris Davies won, and went on to come out with a series of statements that left me cheering and resulted in the Orange Bookers having kittens? Last time out they put up some very iffy property developer in Oldham East, whom Woolas beat with some ease. Why wasn't Howard Sykes selected?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've no idea why they've gone for this Watkins guy. I suppose he must be some sort of financial whizz if a Saudi Sheikh has him on the payroll. He's being marketed- a little implausibly- as a down-to-earth northern "lad".

Funny old business, democracy...