Local candidates only need apply

Once again the Labour Party has tied itself in knots over the selection of a candidate for a safe seat.

The good people of Erith and Thamesmead are the latest to have an approved candidate thrust upon them.

Georgia Gould, 22-year-old daughter of Philip Gould, one of the architects of New Labour, is competing with a Brownite candidate in the seat which has a comfortable 11,500 majority.

Sitting MP John Austin is retiring before the next election and will be chosen from an eight-strong all-women shortlist

Put aside the wrongness of an all-woman shortlist - we have had this madness before - do we really want to elect a 22-year-old to parliament?

A large part of the malaise affecting modern politics is that it is seen by many as a career choice and not a chance to put something back into society after having actually done something with their life. It affects both sides and while politicians continue to be drawn from the ranks of schoolteachers, failed lawyers and polytechnic lecturers, we will have more of the same.

The American Constitution specifically forbids anuone becoming president until they are 35, lived in the US for 14 years and were born in America. For senators these are the requirements:

• A US senator must be at least 30-years-old
• a citizen of the US for the past nine years
• and a resident of the state which elects him

In a bid to stop candidates being foisted on local parties, would the adoption of these rules not help?

To misquote C.L.R. James, "What do they know of politics, who only politics know?"

Once again the government should keep its nose out...

Today the Daily Mail has a headline:

Secret middle-class drinkers exposed: Professional women far more likely to drink at home, claims government

Can anyone tell me what business it is of the government who drinks and how much?

Gordon, if you want to keep your job - get us out of Europe

Labour crash to another by-election defeat - in supposedly impregnable Glasgow. Another disaster for Gordon Brown. He has the Midas touch in reverse.

Brown said, "We've got to listen and hear people's concerns and that's exactly what we are doing.

"I'm getting on with the job. My task is getting on with the job. It's exactly what people want me to do."

Who are these "people" that Brown constantly refers to who supposedly want him to get "on with the job"? Most people want him to get out of his job.

To be fair to the useless weirdo, many of the problems he faces are not of his own making. However, he can do something about many of them - by simply withdrawing from the European Union.