Thursday, March 15, 2007

Manchester Withington Selection FACTUAL ERRORS: Sincere Apologies



VENUE CHANGE

The LoL story HERE about the venue for the Manchester Withington Labour Selection, Final Hustings is not entirely correct. The venue for that meeting has been changed by popular demand so that it is not one of the candidates' old schools. However the initial hustings ahead of the round of nominations meetings was not at that same candidate's primary school.

By a combination of mishearing part of a speech and mischief afoot I got that wrong. And I'm very sorry. I have managed to filter out some of the wildest tales of mischief but sorry to say this one slipped through.

CWU NOMINATIONS

I have also realised that the fulsome apology to an anonymous comrade from the CWU which was made in both the comments section and on the face of the blog may not have been seen by some of those who aren't getting email notices of updates or checking in daily. It was taken down in a general purge of what had become a very scurrilous set of comments and much-amended story about nominations from affiliates.

Clearly I have not been able to refer to the minutes to which I was referred by someone calling themselves "I Was There" but having talked again with various close-to-the-candidates briefers I must say the information from them is confused, contradictory and certainly does not support the remarks I made myself or those by others in the comments.

I am also in possession of a short and heartfelt written apology which I had hoped to pass to one of the CWU Three at last night's City Party but this person seemed to be deep in conversation with someone from Regional Office. They had very serious looks on their faces so I didn't want to disturb them. It will be passed over in due course.

APOLOGIES OVER FOR NOW

There are plenty of actual shenanigans and actual questionable tactics and positions going on that there is absolutely no need for conspirators to make up any new ones. Please cease and desist. Gift horses story-wise will be scrupulously orally inspected in future by the LoL vetinarian.

Please don't think LoL are a soft touch for apologies. This is some bloke's blog it is not The Observer. But if you think you're owed an apology please do get in touch at idea at mcr1.poptel.org.uk and at very least your views can be registered.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you may have dropped a few bollox chris but if it hadn't been for this blog how would anyone know where some (one in particular) of the candidates stood on anything.

Anonymous said...

Bro
Don't worry. We independent journalists get used to being disliked by everyone. It is called doing your job properly.
My understanding of your CWU pieces is that there was not a casting vote as you suggested. Otherwise not much wrong.
With regard to the students I have had it from two sources that the chair of Labour students nationally has been ringing youngsters in Manchester telling them it is their duty to do what they can to get Lucy elected.
Supporting anyone else would mean they were marked for life careerwise.
Obviously vigorous campaigning is to be welcomed but one student I spoke to was visibly terrified about being rumbled as my source.
I was astonished that people so young were so worried about their careers.
I thought we were after a better world rather than a better job.
Your thousands of new readers should know that I am a friend of candidate Jenny Lennox and thus not necessarily a reliable witness.
Stick with it comrade.