Been away
So, just to get this straight, the cabinet (shadow at the time) will debate Nick Griffin, but not Alistair Campbell?
And, as an excuse for this move, they have invented a rule that if the government sends a cabinet minister, then the opposition must not send someone "unelected"? As for example when Jack Straw debated Nick Griffin, and the Tories sent Baroness Warsi, whose only electoral achievement is to lose Dewsbury by 5000 in 2005? Or when she was on against Liam Byrne in March, or when Ben Bradshaw and Nigel Lawson appeared in January, or Shaun Woodward and unelected spook-wrangler Pauline Neville-Jones in November, or Harriet Harman and Michael Heseltine in September, or non-cabinet Minister Chris Bryant and since-elected-MP-but-unelected-at-the-time Margot James in July.
How scared can they be of him? If the Labour Party ennobles him, will they debate him then?
Edit: I had it somewhat wrong. According to the BBC, No. 10 demanded "a shadow cabinet member", not necessarily an elected politician. So Warsi was possibly OK, and Neville-Jones was at least a shadow minister, although not a cabinet minister. Nigel Lawson and Michael Heseltine are ex-cabinet ministers, and perhaps Number 10 would have accepted Beckett or Hattersley or similar. Margot James was an ex-local-councillor and soon-to-be-backbench-MP, so unacceptable under any interpretation of the new condition, but then Bryant was a non-cabinet minister.
Obviously the government is perfectly entitled to demand a shadow cabinet minister, or the removal of Alistair Campbell, or a basket of fruit in the dressing room, or anything else, before they'll appear on Question Time. I'm not sure it makes them look particularly magnanimous in victory that they chose to test their luck at removing Alistair Campbell, though.
And, as an excuse for this move, they have invented a rule that if the government sends a cabinet minister, then the opposition must not send someone "unelected"? As for example when Jack Straw debated Nick Griffin, and the Tories sent Baroness Warsi, whose only electoral achievement is to lose Dewsbury by 5000 in 2005? Or when she was on against Liam Byrne in March, or when Ben Bradshaw and Nigel Lawson appeared in January, or Shaun Woodward and unelected spook-wrangler Pauline Neville-Jones in November, or Harriet Harman and Michael Heseltine in September, or non-cabinet Minister Chris Bryant and since-elected-MP-but-unelected-at-the-time Margot James in July.
How scared can they be of him? If the Labour Party ennobles him, will they debate him then?
Edit: I had it somewhat wrong. According to the BBC, No. 10 demanded "a shadow cabinet member", not necessarily an elected politician. So Warsi was possibly OK, and Neville-Jones was at least a shadow minister, although not a cabinet minister. Nigel Lawson and Michael Heseltine are ex-cabinet ministers, and perhaps Number 10 would have accepted Beckett or Hattersley or similar. Margot James was an ex-local-councillor and soon-to-be-backbench-MP, so unacceptable under any interpretation of the new condition, but then Bryant was a non-cabinet minister.
Obviously the government is perfectly entitled to demand a shadow cabinet minister, or the removal of Alistair Campbell, or a basket of fruit in the dressing room, or anything else, before they'll appear on Question Time. I'm not sure it makes them look particularly magnanimous in victory that they chose to test their luck at removing Alistair Campbell, though.