Saturday, January 10, 2009

Selecting a PPC for Brent North - meeting the Returning Officer

Brent North is not a constituency that has a long and noble tradition of Liberal success. Indeed, under the existing boundaries, it didn't have much of a Liberal Democrat presence, even though we hold 26 out of 63 council seats in what was a three-constituency borough.

However, the Boundary Commissioners have changed that, creating a new Brent North that is rather bigger, and contains nine wards. Three of them elected Liberal Democrats in 2006, five elected Conservatives and one Labour. I mentioned a few days ago that, despite that, it is a Labour-held constituency.

Despite the 'distractions' of target seat status for Brent Central and Hampstead & Kilburn, the Local Party were keen to select a PPC (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) and, accordingly, had approached Margaret Joachim, the Regional Candidates Chair, to seek the appointment of a Returning Officer. Unexpectedly, last week we were lucky enough to have one assigned.

It is indicative of the shortage of Returning Officers in London that our newly appointed RO is from Folkestone, Darren Briddock, but he very graciously attended our Executive Committee at short notice so that we could get a flying start.

After outlining the process, we were invited to appoint a Selection Committee that represents our diverse membership. And, quite naturally, I put myself forward and am now part of the team that will filter potential candidates. After all, I was the only other person in the room who really knows how it works

So, we have a Returning Officer, a Selection Committee and an outline timetable. Alright, we probably won't come out of this with a Barack Obama, but who knows, even the sainted Barack had to start somewhere...

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