Liberal Democrat ethnic minority candidates: those odds in full

This aftertoon Nick Clegg told the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference that he wants “to live in a country where prejudice, insularity and fear are conquered by the great British traditions of tolerance, pluralism and justice”. Unfortunately appeals to pluralism sit uneasy alongside the fact that the Lib Dems don’t have a single black or Asian MP or MEP.

In fairness, however, a blog on the lack of any BME candidates for the top-25 Liberal target seats sparked a pretty decent debate in the comments:

This is an issue; we should have done more, sooner. We didn’t. We didn’t because we had an internal row over what to do and ended up doing nothing. That’s not right, but it’s the kind of mess-up that democracies have from time to time – Lib Dem blogger Richard Gadsden

So there are four Asian PPCs in their top 100 target seats. It’s one thing staring at majorities but the nice traders at Ladbrokes who were very helpful in pricing up these constituencies especially for Scrapbook (remarkably short odds for Manchester Gorton given the majority):

Target #29: Leicester South – Parmjit Singh Gill – 11/10

Target #73: Manchester Gorton – Qassim Afzal – 6/4

Target #31: Harborough – Zuffar Haq – 8/1

Target #53: Pendle – Afzal Anwar – 40/1

Although Gill may break through in Leicester, this spread shows the Liberal Democrats have clearly failed to get serious on BME candidates. To make matters worse, they have now missed the selection boat and the issue will be hanging around their necks like a massive “kick me” sign until after next May. Scrapbook has already spoken to one Labour election agent whose draw dropped at the Liberal’s precarious position on this.

This is a gift horse for the other parties in tight Asian-heritage council seats.