Primary Labour

David Miliband, acting curiously:

He adds: "We say we want to listen to our voters, why not a system of registered voters as in the US to create the basis for primaries?"

Now, I'm all for a primary to choose Labour (and Tory) candidates. I think it would be deeply funny to try to foist completely unsuitable candidates on the main parties. I also think that it would help to broaden the candidates who go up for election to Parliament. At the moment, the main way to become a candidate for Parliament, especially in a safe seat, is to spend ages toadying up to your local party machine. This creates generic candidates who are party animals through and through. The election of individuals or radicals is neutered in many constituencies by the need to cover the backside of the local party with kisses. 

However, I do think that this idea is going to be an interesting choice for all parties, and in particular Labour. After all, the US primaries - even when they are open only to party members - are often deeply divisive affairs that tear political parties apart just before they have to fight in an election. Just look at Obama and Clinton spending millions to tear strips off each other in 2008. And that was one of the nicer primary battles. Look at the Democratic primary process in 1972 - a primary season that allowed for all the most capable candidates to be picked off one by one and meaning that Nixon was going up against perhaps the easiest candidate to trounce. Or the Democrat primaries in 1980, when Ted Kennedy - showing all of the loyalty of a randy praying mantis - hobbled the re-election chances of Jimmy Carter. And in doing so handed the White House to Ronald Reagan. 

Primaries can be fun for the media, and fun for the voters. However, I predict that a lot of them - if implemented in this country - are going to be deeply corrosive toward party loyalty and are also going to be very embarrassing. The current system - whatever flaws it may have - at least allows the Labour party et al to choose their candidates in relative privacy. A primary will not allow for that...