Ealing Southall: a bequest - no comments

A number (set to grow) of bloggers have circulated Ann Black's report from the NEC meeting of 24th June. It's good that she performs this service, though I did find one section rather odd:

Finally some members suggested reopening our decision that Ealing Southall should select its next parliamentary candidate from an all-women shortlist [AWS], following the sad death of sitting MP Piara Khabra. Traditionally, by-election candidates are chosen from open lists, a process which has overwhelmingly favoured men. However in this case, with the normal selection procedure imminent, and Piara Khabra’s own expressed wish that he should be succeeded by an ethnic minority woman, I hope that the NEC will keep its nerve or that we will at least have a chance to discuss any change.

We discussed AWS back here. A popular idea that nobody came close to convincing me of, was that if selected candidates were 'overwhelmingly' male (in aggregate, not specifically in individual seats), the approach most likely to reflect society (if you agree that this is a priority) was to institute AWS, rather than to maintain open lists but investigate the selection process to determine if discrimination was actually taking place.

I don't have evidence wither way, but if the local CLP had indeed got itself into the kind of state where this was happening, or likely to happen, or else its officers came from patriarchal backgrounds and were unable to adhere to their party's commitment to equal-treatment, then this would surely have to be tackled. Better that discrimination be rooted-out than it be allowed to persist, whatever the eventual candidate looks like.

I'd be happy to see an ethnic minority woman selected if she was the best candidate going. Either way, it must be from a free and open process, not some kind of 'gift' bestowed upon one section of the electorate in honour of a much-missed local MP.