SIR – How times change. Ten years ago,I went before a regional Labour party tribunal appealing against my de-selection by Worcester Labour party as a city council candidate for Claines ward.
My ‘crime’ was to complain publicly in these pages against the Blair government’s attacks on the public sector and the transfer of its workers on inferior terms to the private sector.
Appearing at the tribunal representing Worcester Labour party were Joy Squires, now a councillor and Labour’s parliamentary candidate, and Marc Bayliss, now also a councillor who has since defected to the Conservatives.
The report by Tom Edwards ‘Council boss is forced to write anti-tax letter’ (Worcester News, March 28) sees these two now fighting like ferrets in a sack over the bedroom tax which Coun Squires officially opposes but Coun Bayliss defends as stoutly as he would no doubt have condemned it had he still been in the Labour party.
The tribunal, which included Tom Watson MP, found against me for “indicating splits in the party”.
Four years later, Mr Watson circulated a round-robin in Parliament calling for Tony Blair to resign as Prime Minister. The episode ruined my standing in Worcester Labour party, but not,I am content to say, in my own eyes.
PETER NIELSEN
Worcester
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