Tenuous connections of chosen few

Date: 05/11/1998

The British Labour Party is attracting considerable flak for its practice of drawing up a list of regional lists of potential MEPs for next year's Euro elections.

Critics argue that candidates who find favour with the top echelons of New Labour are getting to the top of the lists regardless of their links with the regions which they would represent if elected.

This, they claim, is pushing out the faithful local servants who might not have such glowing Blairite credentials. One such example is Michael Cashman the gay rights activist and former star of popular British television soap opera Eastenders, who is high up on the list in the English West Midlands - despite being a Londoner.

Asked what his connection with the West Midlands is, the actor's agent is rumoured to have responded that he had played in the Rocky Horror Show at a local Birmingham theatre.