European Selection: we're on the road to nowhere (with apologies to the Oxford massive)

I'm on my way to Oxford for the first of four Regional hustings, to be held in a school somewhere near Blackbirds Ley (or so I'm told). In typical Valladares style, I think that I'm late but you can never really tell until you are, I suppose. Fingers crossed, anyway...

As someone who has been more intimately involved with European selections than anyone other than applicants, I've tended to observe them with a degree of perplexed fondness, and this year is no exception. So I thought I might review the campaign thus far...

We got off to a pretty good start last year, agreeing a perfectly sound timetable, establishing the Selection Rules (I know, you don't like them but at least they were available in good time!) and, in the case of South East, appointing a Returning Officer in good time (marvellous chap, sound under fire, sense of humour, not one of those appalling pen pushers...).

From then on, in terms of process, things have gone well. The problem is that enthusiasm to run has been, to put it mildly, slight. And it leads me to a heretical thought, i.e. are we so hung up on democracy that we've sacrificed efficiency, merit and diversity to achieve a mirage of fairness?

Many activists will lament, if given any opportunity to do so, that they didn't vote for Ming, but that the armchair members opted for a safe pair of hands and gravitas. In regional list selections, they tend to support incumbents, making it difficult for fresh, new talents to break through, and discriminating against the emerging BME/young applicants.

My gut feeling is that this is linked to all member postal ballots. So, if the desire to include everybody is so strong, why don't we have them for PPC selections, where the armchair member is, ironically, far more likely to be an informed participant?

So why not have a series of local 'meet the applicants' events where ballot papers can be cast, and thus limit the franchise to those who have actually taken the trouble to inform themselves as to the merits of the candidates? You could even use Regional Conferences!

Candidates selected on merit by an informed electorate? I'm beginning to worry that I'm turning into a heretic in my old age...