Candidate selection reform - coming to English Council soon?

When a working group was set up to look at the Selection Rules by which we choose Prospective Parliamentary candidates, I was abuzz with ideas, many gleaned from the experiences I had had, and the comments that my previous writings on the subject had attracted. However, I wasn't exactly confident that much would change, especially given how conservative English Candidates Committee can be.

That all changed on Monday night, as the working group met to agree its proposals to be discussed at ECC's next meeting on 7 March. We've decided that we want to move to a new set of rules based on some key principles:

• a two-tier system whereby weaker seats have a stripped down timetable
• opt-up for Local Parties who are ambitious
• greater involvement of stakeholders
• Returning Officers as disciplinarians rather as police
• freedom for candidates to campaign in new and innovative ways

We believe that this will make the Returning Officer's job easier and less bureaucratic, enable candidates to demonstrate the skills that need to be tested, reduce the burden on weaker Local Parties and connect up the work of the Campaigns Department and the English Candidates Committee in a way not achieved previously.

If approved by ECC, we'll then look to draft some new Rules and place them before English Council for approval. With luck, they'll be in place by the General Election...