THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF CPSA
FIGHTING ON IN OUR 45th YEAR BUT A BIT RETIRED NOW
FREEDOM! UNITY! SOCIALISM!
ONE CIVIL SERVICE UNION,
ONE GLORIOUS DESTINY!
REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY!
ROUND AND ABOUT
By Judas Iscariot - Early February 2002
Though the Pathfinder battle is still rumbling on and other disputes are on the horizon the faction bosses are concentrating on what they consider the most important part of their lives - fixing elections. LUNITY has published its slate and now the Moderates have shown their hand in what is arguably "Leader" Currie's biggest blunder in his short career as MODERATI supremo.
PAULINE ABRAMS has been dropped as Presidential candidate in favour of MOIRA CAMPBELL in a list stacked in favour of the JOCKOCRACY and what's left of their organisation in the DWP. CAMPBELL is in DWP, and yes, you've guessed it, she's Scottish. BUNTER is clearly bidding for the SCAB vote and the Moderati are going all out for control of the new Department to appease BLAIR and the rest of the Millbank toadies. We're left with a Presidential contest between two fat women from DWP and a beardie who isn't.
The UNDYMEN are rubbing their hands in glee. Dropping Abrams, they reckon, will cost the Mods the black vote - put at over 4,000 - and make PRIESTLEY the firm favourite to head off the GODRICH challenge from the left. And if PAULINE gets the blacklash (she's still on the Mod list with Currie for the Veeps), there's a very good chance of booting FATTIE off altogether.
The Moderati NEC list contains the usual crowd of nodders and crawlers including six old BL'84 turncoats - ex-Edinburgh ex-Councillor Willie Samuel, Donny McIntyre, Jim McKay (all Scots) along with Peter and Christine Galligan. DONNY, a key member of the Jockocracy has been promoted to EO so he now stands for the first time in the Executive & Allied Grades list. He is not expected to win. PHIL EASTON, who took the principled stand over the Pathfinder dispute on the NEC unsurprisingly does not feature on the Mod list and has yet to play his cards. Should he choose to run as an independant, the Pathfinder vote alone will see him safely back on the NEC.
BUNTER is working the RED SCARE for all that it's worth bleating on about the TROT THREAT to civilisation in a manner that would put even a RAMSBLADDER to shame. But he doesn't have the flair or the skill of his old master and one can see why BOYLE decided to sit this one out after all.
They have a lot to learn from ME FIRST. As usual, the Me Fisters are keeping their candidates secret apart from endorsing PRIESTLEY. This is partly because they regard lists as beneath them. But it's mainly because the tried and tested method of telephone calls and secret high-caste meetings - often under the cover of departmental business - has always paid off in the past. They too will play the "Red Scare" card when it comes to the MAD MONK - arguing that he is the only credible candidate to beat GODRICH. At the same time they will try to woo the non-Trot left by claiming to be left-of-centre, pointing to their continued backing for the Pathfinder strikers.
This may work. The FAT OWL's scheme won't. There isn't a "scab" vote in DWP worth counting on and the Mods will find it difficult to keep their share of the vote let alone increase it - whatever the final outcome of the dispute.
In the Pathfinder trenches far, far from Brighton; away from the bright lights of Clapham Junction, the slackers and wasters of Falconcrest and the booze that no-one here knows, the war goes on…
RESURRECTION NEWS
Meanwhile back at FALCONCREST Sir Woy d'Lewis drank himself silly at his wake listening to the compliments from all the people who hated him and had come along simply because he was in the chair. But not alas for the last time. The old git's had the last laugh just when we'd thought we'd seen the back of him.
Roy has been called up to serve on the National Standing Orders Committee - he was runner-up last election and the winner (PAUL BEECHCROFT, sacked from LUNITY after the HO GEC debacle) has handed in his towel - which means the OLD SNUFFER is going to haunt us at Conference in Brighton on the NSOC this year, 3 months after his "official" retirement in February (retirement do in Conference room, Steel House, Balham on 13th February, expected to cost much less than Sheldon's 20K bash).
And that's not all: he's worked out that Associate Membership is all that's required for him to continue in his other hidden role - he's on the National Appeals Committee (appeals against disciplinary action taken by PCS against members).
And you thought winkling out RAMSBUM was difficult.....