by Les May
YESTERDAY under the headline 'Disgraced Labour MP Danczuk
should do Rochdale a favour and resign NOW', The Sun journalist Jane Moore drew attention
to the sheer complexity of the events leading up to Simon Danczuk's present
predicament. Blink and you'll miss the next installment.A couple of days ago I was one of a group of people who gathered outside Danczuk's constituency offices to make known our disquiet at his antics. In such circumstances surrounded by a lot of like- minded people it's easy to think that everyone shares your view.
Whilst Danczuk himself was not in evidence, he'd been to the office earlier to make sure there were no pictures of him being confronted by us, his aides had been doing the rounds of the shopping centre trying to drum up a bit of support.
Whilst I doubt their efforts would meet the requirements of a representative sample the Manchester Evening News asked 100 people in Rochdale town centre whether he should should go or stay. Sixty percent said he should resign.
So it seems clear cut. But if you look for a reason a piece by Jennifer Williams entitled, 'Seven reasons Rochdale deserves better than the Simon Danczuk soap opera', in the same paper illustrates Labour's dilemma.
I have no hesitation in placing the blame for the poisonous nature of Labour politics in Rochdale at Danczuk's door. Ever since he came to the town he has been divisive. Those who opposed him have been got rid of, smeared or placed in a position where they felt they had to resign.
Even though the papers that once supported him are saying it's time for him to go, he's showing no sign of doing so. Second ex-wife Karen is doing the rounds of the media being economical with the truth to put the best possible gloss on the so called 'sexting' incident. Post Karen girlfriend Claire Hamilton is reported by the Sunday Mirror as saying he had vowed to stand as an independent if his career was threatened, adding:
'He said he would stand as an independent but not do any campaigning. He said he wanted to make sure Labour lost the seat he won for them.'
I've voted Labour all my life and I'd like there to be viable party to vote for in the future. I've no doubt that in the long run both the town of Rochdale and the Labour party would be much better off without Danczuk. But as a Labour supporter I find myself asking if a forced resignation or an expulsion from Labour really be the best thing for the party.
Even he must know that Independents who stand against their old party don't do too well in elections, so his threats can probably be discounted. The real problem is that his immediate resignation would have to be followed by an election. That would mean finding a new candidate in a hurry. The possibility of the national or regional party 'parachuting in' a candidate cannot be dismissed. One of the complaints against Danczuk is that he has seemed to have Labour's North West Region on his side. Indeed some would say they protected him from the fallout of the incident in Spain with then girlfriend Karen.
If what happened in the adjacent constituency of Heywood and Middleton after Jim Dobbin's death is anything to go by, the national party would want to take charge of the bye-election and the local party would be side-lined.
So what's to be done? My preferred solution would be for Danczuk to announce he's not going to put himself forward as a prospective Labour candidate at the 2020 election. That way the quest for a suitable candidate could start now. It would be possible run proper background checks to make sure a disaster like Danczuk did not happen again. Last but not least it would give the wounds within the local party a chance to heal before the next election.
Of course if the police decide that Danczuk has a case to answer over the allegations of rape I don't think he'll have any alternative to but to go immediately.
What I've written may lead to me being accused of cynically putting the interests of the Labour party above those of the people of Rochdale. But the fact is that the people of Rochdale have been happy to put up with him for six years, largely without complaint, whilst I've seen him as someone more interested in promoting himself and boosting his earnings by any means possible, and I've been prepared to say so. The writing has been on the wall for a long time. Up to now no-one has bothered to read it.
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1 comment:
Great but please don't quote the Sun , it's a anti T U and racist paper
We don't buy or read it in Merseyside.
Peace and solidarity
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