For the 2010 General Election called on Tuesday, Labour have banned men from standing as their candidates in 59 58 seats (full list below) by using all-women shortlists. This site is apolitical but no man should vote Labour in any of these seats because they have been sexually discriminated against.
If you believe in equality of opportunity then you cannot support all women-shortlists and as argued extensively before (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) on this site, the use of these by Labour for their candidate selection has disenfranchised men from the political process.
It is against the British Constitution (albeit these shortlists are legal), stops people (Labour males) from being allowed to take part equally as women in the democratic political process and furthermore means those women selected in this way will only ever be seen as second class candidates (or MP's if they win) because they did not win their nomination fairly.
It is even worse if you are a Labour man who has served your local community (as a councillor etc) but cannot even be considered by them to represent your community in Parliament.
All women-shortlists fall foul of politically correct victim politics, where people do not have individual identities because their identity is solely governed by the 'group' category they fall in. So men are banned no matter how good or what talent or commitment they have in representing people in their community in Parliament.
How can Labour go into the election claiming they want a create a fair society when they ban half the population from being their candidates solely because of their gender?
The seats where Labour have selected their candidates from all women-shortlists (please tell the site if there are any missed) and banned men from being a Labour candidate are:-
- Airdrie
- Ashfield
- Birmingham Ladywood
- Blackpool North & Cleveleys
- Brighton Pavilion
- Bolton West
- Burnley
- Burton
- Bury North
- Camborne & Redruth
- Cardiff Central
- Clywd South
- Colne Valley
- Dudley South
- Durham North West
- Ealing Southall
- East Dunbartonshire
- East Lothian
- Edinburgh East
- Erewash
- Erith & Thamesmead
- Glasgow East
- Gravesham
- Hackney South
- Halesowen & Rowley Regis
- Hemel Hempstead
- High Peak
- Hornsey & Wood Green
- Houghton & Sunderland South
- Ilford North
- Keighley
- Kenilworth & Southam
- KIlmarnock & Loudoun
- Leeds North West
- Leeds West
- Makerfield
- Manchester Withington
- Newcastle Central
- Nottingham South
- North Tyneside
- Nuneaton
- Reading East
- Rochester & Strood
- Scarborough & Whitby
- Selby & Ainsty
- Stretford & Urmston
- Sunderland Central
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Walsall South
- Walthamstow
- Warrington South
- Washington & Sunderland West
- Wavertree
- Wellingborough
- West Ham
- Wigan
- Wirral West
- Wolverhampton South East
- The Wrekin
No man voting in any of these seats should vote Labour - you have been discriminated against because of your gender, you are a non-person to them.
CORRECTION - As pointed out correctly by the Wirral Herald (thank you Wirral Herald for correcting this) Wirral West has a male candidate. Apologies but the local Labour Party did want an all-women shortlist but were over-ruled!
Really good post, providing incredibly useful information in a concise form enabling people to make informed choices at the election. It's a shame no one in the media helps voters in this way.
On criticism would be that you should surely list ALL candidates elected by non democratic means rather than just the latest ones- i.e. any AWS candidates elected in either 1997 or 2005. In fact the 1997 lot are the worst of the bunch as their selection was illegal!
Also, given the the party as a whole tend to support such sexism, surely that rules out every single Labour candidate (other than perhaps ones explicitly speaking out and campaigning for democracy to be restored).
Posted by: John Kimble | Thursday, 08 April 2010 at 00:25
Yes.Funny how Harperson's hubby got selected. Seems the rules are rather elastic. Sad to catch a glimse of Dave and his dollies in a re run of the Blaire's babes pic. The really sad bit is there are many women who would be great MPs. Trouble is they will be considered as quota women not the equal of their male peers. The equality bill will strengthen such a quota approach to jobs in the public sector.
Posted by: Groan | Thursday, 08 April 2010 at 21:28
As the Labour Candidate in Wirral West is Cllr Phillip Davies,it doesn't seem have happened there
Posted by: Wirral Herald | Thursday, 08 April 2010 at 23:37
No _person_ should vote for any candidate from a single sex shortlist because such candidates are clearly no better than second best. If the candidate's own constituency party wouldn't have selected her if they had a free choice, why on Earth should we vote for her? I want candidates who, at the very least, have the support of their own constituency party.
As for the former chairman of the constituency Labour party in Wirral, Cllr Brian Kenny, saying: “We have decided as the constituency Labour party we want a women-only shortlist", is he completely brain dead? Why would they want a "woman only shortlist"? If the party wants a woman candidate, they can select one regardless of whether men apply too. The fact is, they know there are better male potential candidates, one of whom would be selected if the constituency party members had a free choice. A vote for a candidate from a single sex shortlist is a vote for an incompetent.
Posted by: Jenny | Friday, 09 April 2010 at 02:49