Lilian Greenwood, Christine Shawcroft and Katrina Bull have so far shown their hand by sending members material in the post. Katrina may have only sent stuff to members in the Radford and the Park ward that she represents on the council.

Lilian and Katrina's submissions are very New Labour in tone. Christine is the only one to use the 'S' word. Older readers may remember when Labour people used the word 'socialist' to describe themselves. Christine sets out clear positions that she supports, the other two are more cautious in their wording. There's nothing much to disagree with in Lilian and Katrina's work, but then there's nothing that could inspire either. Christine's will inspire the left but her clear policy positions may put off other wings of the party. Doubtless there will be many more candidates in due course, but for now they are choosing to keep their powder dry.

The process is a bit awry in my opinion and I would be interested to learn if other regions or other seats in the East Midlands have had the same process.

The day on which members finally select the candidate is 13 March 2008. Shortlisting by the GC will be on 21 February. My problem is with the Freeze Date. This has been decided by RO as being 28 February 2007, the date of Alan's letter announcing that he did not intend to seek reselection. To participate in the process one has to have been a member six months prior to the Freeze date, i.e. 28 August 2006. So to vote at the final selection meeting requires 18 months membership of the party. When we're trying to get members engaged and participating in the party this strikes me as plain daft. You only needed six months membership to vote in the Deputy Leadership election, but 18 months to vote for selection of a PPC. I know of at least one GC delegate who will not be able to participate in the process as a consequence of this timetable. The reason why this has taken so long is that RO were so appallingly slow in taking action to start the process once Alan had made his intentions clear. Have other CLPs had a similarly long qualifying period?