Thanks to Iain Dale for Making this a Daley Dozen Post
I am delighted – ecstatic almost – to hear that Boyd Black, of the Labour Party here, has appealed to Lady Hermon about potentially standing as a Labour candidate in North Down.
Boyd and I were both active in the Campaign for Equal Citizenship over 2 decades ago. I had the pleasure to catch up with him a few months back. We had a long chat over several coffees and Lady Sylvia’s Labour-leaning tendencies were discussed.
According to the News Letter, Boyd has appealed to Lady Hermon to stand as the Labour candidate in the North Down constituency. If that were to happen we would face the enthralling prospect of a head to head Labour v Conservative fight. Now that would be wonderful. OK North Down is a crazy constituency but a media feeding frenzy would descend upon it – and that would help make clear that Northern Ireland can do proper UK politics as well as anywhere else. It would be the most fascinating electoral fight for decades.
Lady Hermon has never taken a blind bit of notice of anything I have ever said (even when I have been in the same room as her, never mind appealing to her via the blogosphere) but I would urge her to run for Labour.
She may not get official endorsement from the Party in London, but if she were to make clear that she would take the Labour whip, and she were to run against Ian Parsley as the Conservative candidate, she will be taking a significant step towards introducing real democracy to this place.
For too long the Labour Party has hidden behind its Unity by Consent dogma as an excuse to ignore this part of the United Kingdom and to evade its responsibilities to seek a mandate to govern every part of the United Kingdom.
This is a master-stroke by Boyd Black and I wish him every success. Over to you Sylvia…
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