All-women shortlists stupid idea

It is decisions like these that make me wonder about David Cameron. Wonder especially at whether he truly believes what he says, or whether he is merely saying it in order to try to make himself appear more electable.

Conservative Home have an excellent editorial on this, but I must stick my own two cents (or pence) in. This is another example of CHQ trying to further centralise candidate selection. And this does not work well. Labour has discovered with all-female shortlists that spurned men will pop up as independent candidates (and in some cases have won!), and if local members feel that a candidate has been forced upon them they will be less likely to go out and campaign for them. And Labour has a far more centralised candidate selection than the Conservative Party!

The Conservatives discovered in the Bedford Mayoralty election (where a candidate was forced on the local association) the negative effects of not having local associations onside (the mayoralty was won by the Liberal Democrats with 54% of the vote). One local activist in Bedford claimed "I have never known such anger and disillusionment in the party in all my years. Local members have been kicked in the teeth."

This is only a taste of the disillusionment that some Conservative candidates could find if they are imposed on local associations and then discover no-one particularly wants to go out and campaign for them.

Leaving aside the implications for local associations, all-women shortlists are simply a bad idea. The way to make Parliament better is not to force more less able women into seats they couldn't win themselves. The way to make Parliament better is to have more people of any sex, race or creed who are up to the job. More often than not the best people to decide this are local associations, rather than a central office that will be looking to fill quotas for the number of women or minority candidates. Margaret Thatcher did not need an all-women shortlist to become an MP (let alone leader). Barack Obama did not need an all-black shortlist to become Senator of Illinois (or President of the United States). While Conservatives need to guard against racism and sexism in local associations that would prevent a minority or woman candidate who is the best candidate from winning, the solution is not a shortlist that imposes a candidate on those associations.

Finally, there is no reason to think that imposing a woman candidate on a constituency will help the Conservatives with women voters. For that they must concentrate on policy issues, rather than throwing lesser candidates at the electorate as a sop to political correctness.