Brown Loses Whip who is a 'Titan' of Politics

In what is almost a daily announcement of the latest Future Retirement for Me from the Labour benches today it is the turn of Labour's longest standing whip, Tommy McAvoy the MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton. He has been a whip for the last 13 years of his 23 in the House of Commons. Gordon Brown himself has described McAvoy as a 'Titan' of politics.

At 66 it is the time that many people look forward to retirement, but in the run up to 2005 those who were retiring from Labour's benches for that reason left a longer built up for their replacement to be found and bedded in. The fact that so many this time are leaving it so late shows that in certain seats Labour are taking it for granted that you can put a red rosette on anyone and the seat will remain Labour's.

While some of the seats that are selecting last minute replacements will be selecting people who have campaigned locally others will be parachuting in people who the Labour party want in their team after the election. But the people are not going to have much change to get to know who some of these people are. Many of them have yet to be named and selected, I just hope none of them do turn out to end up sticking a rosette on a chimpanzee so that we prove that particular theory.

UPDATE: Iain Dale has written a post why he wonders if McAvoy leaving is because he is allegedly the whip that will be mentioned by Jim Devine in his defence in court over his expenses.

If true, and the coincidence of a long standing Scottish whip giving such advice to a new Scot seems highly probable. It gives added nuance to Jim Murphy's validictory to McAvoy:

"His job has been to steer laws through parliament to change people's lives. It is because of his work that Labour has been able to introduce so many changes which help so many people in different ways."

Could the last bit include MPs, their families and their constiruency parties?

Yet Another Labour MP Steps Aside

James Purnell a former aide to Tony Blair and a former Work and Pensions Secretary is the latest on the lengthening list of Labour MPs to step aside from Westminster. With the time getting shorter and shorter to a General Election it most be disturbing some Constituency Labour Parties if their MP is next to have a sudden change of heart.

It is somehow hard to work out how the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde can be tired of the Westminster machine, he is only 39 and only been an MP since 2001. Although as he says he has spent all his working life in and around Westminster which maybe does mean that career politicians from University to election are facing premature born out.

Although your Tam Dalyells, Tony Benns or Dennis Skinners all seem to have survived quite long and meaningful careers within politics even with a younger start than some of these young whipper snappers. Maybe the fact is that too many of those who are coming through the political career path see is a stepping stone for themselves and not as a means to help those in the constituency that they end up representing. Maybe that is the difference between those who want to work for a constituency and those that want merely to work for the party.