European Parliament Selection: your chance to have a say in the Selection Rules

The advertisement seeking applications for candidacy for the European Parliament will be issued on 8 June. As part of the preparations, English Candidates Committee will meet on 2 June in London to finalise the Selection Rules prior to submission to English Council for ratification at its meeting on 30 June, also in London.

Rather than leave it to the last minute, and bearing in mind that I was elected to English Candidates Committee to represent you (yes you, you at the back, pay attention!), I thought that I might seek your thoughts, in particular pertaining to those sections of the Rules relating to the campaign phase.

For obvious reasons, I won’t post the proposals on this blog (they’re a bit long, and a bit dull to those non-candidates amongst you) but will post them later this evening on Lib Dem Voice in the members only section. You’ve got until next Friday to let me have your thoughts and I promise to respond as best I can.

You may wonder why I’m doing this, and the answer is purely self-interest. As the Returning Officer for South East England, the better drafted the Rules are, the easier my job will be. And besides, I’m taking a wider interest this year… (cue manic laughter…)