February 25, 2004

Bye Bye Baby

The election of 1997 saw a large number of women come into Parliament. The Blair-led Labour Party wanted to appeal to the more women, so they put up a lot of women candidates, particularly in seats with significant Tory majorities and little hope of success. In the landslide that followed, many of these women, dubbed "Blair Babes", joined the backbenches.

Jane Griffiths standing in Reading East was one of those Babes. She even increase her majority at the 2001 election. However, under Labour Party rules the activists in the local constituency have the option to deselect an MP for the next election and name another prospective candidate. That's what has happened in Reading East.

Ms Griffiths has not been accused of impropriety. She's just not the quality of candidate that her local Labour Party is looking for. She will be replaced as a candidate at the next election by Tony Page, who may have no record on the issues, but has a record of cottaging offenses.

Cottaging is the practice of having gay sex in public toilets. The Government has planned to make it legal, but had to abandon this while the legislation was in committee. Maybe Mr Page can work to change all of this.

Posted by david at February 25, 2004 12:13 AM | TrackBack
Comments

holy cow, that is disgusting.

I was a camp counselor last summer and one of the most disgusting experiences I had to discipline was a heterosexual girl who had wild, wild sex with her boyfriend in the community bathroom. The first two janitors we called wouldn't even go near the mess.

But hey, I guess every successful MP needs a little sex on his resume to spice things up with the constituents, eh? Better than sleeping with interns, I'll bet!

Posted by: Katherine at February 27, 2004 01:24 AM

Welcome to the world of British politics!

This doesn't preclude MPs sleeping with their staff, paid or unpaid. That sort of thing happens all the time.

Posted by: David Holford at February 27, 2004 04:26 PM